Still Here

Sorry about the lack of updating this week. We've been busy working on some home improvement projects. I will post pictures when they are all finished!

Can you believe Brady will be a year old in just 10 short days!?! It doesn't seem real. Only 14 days till his party and I still have a lot to do!

Wonderful Sunday

Yesterday was a really great day. It started off with a trip to the Spot of Tea, my favorite brunch place, for a baby shower/birthday party for Carrie, a sweet friend of mine that I met at Kindermusik. She is due with her 2nd in November. I just met her a few months ago and she has been so kind to me. She invited me to join a playgroup with some other moms that she knew and I have enjoyed getting to know those girls as well. It was so nice to get away without Brady for some talking and laughing. I really needed that!

This cheesecake was so delicious. Another girl, Kim, made it from scratch. She said she got the recipe off of Martha Stewart's website. I will definitely be making this in the near future.

We all chipped in and got Carrie a double stroller and a gift card to Posh Salon. She was so grateful. It was adorable.

Another lady gave her a pink cammo dress and embroidered bib for sweet Violet. She made them herself - I was so impressed. I wish I had the skills and proper sewing machine to make stuff like this!

Some of the guests

More of the guests.

Thank you so much BRITNI for babysitting Brady for me so I could attend!!! You are a wonderful babysitter and an even better friend!

Later that day Brady and I were playing in his room. Actually he was playing and I was reading in his glider. He kept pulling up on my knees and laying his head in my lap like he wanted to climb up there with me. So I scooped him up and started rocking him. Probably no one knows this but when I rock him to sleep or put him down for naps I like to sing church hymns to him. My voice is horrible, but the songs are usually nice and slow and it seems to calm him down. So I was singing and rocking away and he fell asleep with his head on my chest. There were a million and one things I needed to get done. But I just couldn't put him down. Tears started welling up in my eyes as I was thinking about how I'm not going to be able to rock him for much longer. So I sat there, with my arm falling asleep, and let him nap in my arms while I sang to him and prayed for him for over an hour. I love little moments like those.

Birth Stories & More

For the past year the doula that I used when I gave birth to Brady has been sending me emails and inviting me to different get togethers, meetings, etc. In the beginning I didn't go because Brady was either constantly nursing, sleeping, or screaming his lungs out because he wanted to be nursing or sleeping. As he got older I never went to any of the functions because I was kind of scared of the people that might attend them. I wholeheartedly believe that an unmedicated natural birth should be a primary goal of a mother and that breastfeeding is the absolute superior choice. Some of my friends also enjoy picking on me and calling me "crunchy" or a "hippie". But my beliefs pale in comparison to many others in the natural birthing/attachment parenting community. To be honest I was nervous about going to any of these meeting because I was scared I'd be surrounded by a bunch of Birkenstock wearing, granola eating, breastfeeding their 10 year old children, women and I wouldn't fit in with any of them. You know, the REAL hippies.

But I got a text message from my doula on Wednesday evening telling me about a meeting of the Birth Stories & More group that was meeting at the library the next morning. I didn't have any plans that day and I figured it would be nice to go and see Colleen (my doula). After all I better keep in touch with her if Rob & I do have another baby while we live down here. So I went, a little apprehensive. But let me tell you...I FREAKIN' LOVED IT! I met some really great women there and I was so excited that most of the other ladies there shared my view about natural birth and wanting to expand the options for this in our area. At the meeting there was a guest speaker who spoke about doulas, what they do, the need for more of them, and training to become a doula. And there may have been a few ladies there that "seemed" a little crunchier than myself, but everyone was so friendly and I enjoyed meeting so many new & like-minded people. And no one was breastfeeding their 10 year old. Score! I am definitely looking forward to going back next month.

Oh and in case your interested, Rob & I finally made it to Butch Cassidy's on Wednesday and they accepted the restaurant.com gift certificate! We got $10 worth of food for only $.80!!! What a deal! Our waitress did say that some local places had stopped accepting them though, so if you're thinking about ordering some (either in Mobile or where you live) you might want to call the restaurant before you buy the gift certificates to confirm that they accept them.

No Butch Burgers For Us.....

instead we did this!

poor Rob got a Kidney stone last night as we were driving to Butch Cassidy's. Half way there he started complaining of his side hurting. Three minutes later he was nearly in tears and pulled the car over so I could drive. I turned the car around to take him to the Urgent Care clinic by our house, but it was rush hour and traffic was horrible. I was horrified watching him wretch in pain in the passenger seat. He then decided he wanted to go to the Emergency Room instead (I think halfway because it was closer and halfway because he was scared it was something more serious). Anyway we got there and they got him to a bed and with pain medicine relatively quickly (about a 1/2 hour). I left and took Brady over to Justin & Britni's so he wouldn't be there with all the nasty swine flu victims. THANK YOU SO MUCH BRITNI! Ya'll are wonderful friends and I don't know what we'd do without you!!!

They did a CT scan and saw that it really was a kidney stone like Rob had suspected and they also delivered the news that there are a few more in his kidney's just waiting for their turn! YAY - more fun to look forward to!!! Anyway they sent him home with some heavy duty pain meds and we were able to make it home & be in bed by 10:00. Thankfully we weren't there all night! He felt great this morning, like nothing had ever happened. He just left a couple hours ago to work a 14 hour shift - lucky him. I think we'll try again for Butch Cassidy's on Wed. or Thurs.

Now for my Walgreen's treasures that I promissed...................

I got all of this for $12.13!

It would have been a little less except that I had to split it into 3 transactions to get all the Register Rewards and on the second transaction Rob forgot to hit the employee discount button so I missed the 15% discount on those items.

Here's what I got:

3 Oral-B Advantage toothbrushes

4 bags of candy corn

1 Vaseline Sheer Fusion Lotion

3 (3 pack) Ivory Soap - yes, this is really the kind we use, it's great soap.

2 Morton Salts

1 Dental Floss

1 (100ct) coffee filters

1 (2pk) Emergen-C

3 Venus Razors

2 Fusion Razors (one is manual the other is powered)

The total cost of all this before coupons, register rewards & discounts would have been $80.43, that means I saved 85%!!!! Awesome! I know most of you probably think this is a bunch of junk, but it is all stuff that we use. It might not get used this week, but it WILL get used at some point.

Saving Money!!!

I love a bargain and I'm a self-professed Cheap-O with a capital C. In our local Sunday paper yesterday there was an article on a local mom that saves hundreds of dollars every month on groceries by couponing and shopping local sales. I immediately checked out her blog and am so inspired. I've heard of this type of stuff before using the Grocery Game, but didn't shop at the stores they had "lists" for in our area. But this lady actually lives here in Mobile and on my side of town. You would not believe the amount of money she saves. The downfall is that she does most of her grocery shopping at the new Publix across the bay which is a good 45-60min drive for me. But like I said, she lives on my side of town and she makes this drive weekly and saves a TON of money so I think it might just be worth the gas $$ and my time to give it a try. Plus I love any excuse to take a little trip over there :)

She also buys most of her toiletry items from drug stores like Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid. I've heard of people making out like bandits at these stores, but have never given it a try......and the hubby works for Walgreens so I can use his employee discount on top of the savings. I bought 3 copies of the Sunday paper yesterday to get extra coupons and I've scoured the Walgreens ad and made my list. Brady is napping right now, but when he wakes up we're heading out to stock up and visit daddy at work. If everything works out like I've planned we'll do very well on our trip.

This lady (her name is Shannon by the way) also posted today about Restaurant.com with a coupon code (CHEF) to save 80% off of their already reduced gift card prices. She said she has used the website before and it really is legit. So of course I hopped on over there and lo and behold Butch Cassidy's (our favorite burger joint) is one of the participants. So I ordered 4 $10 gift certificates (which you print right then & there) for a whopping $3.20. There are some conditions - valid Mon-Thurs. for dinner only & you must spend at least $15, plus they add 20% gratuity - but HELLO we have no problem with any of these! I think we'll be dining out this evening :) I'll let you know if there are any issues using the certificates. Britni - I don't remember if you & Justin like BC or not, but there are other local restaurants listed as well!

See What I Mean???

This is my "craft room"

Somehow I have to serve dinner on this table tonight, then drag all this junk back out and repeat the process again tomorrow and maybe again the next day. Do you see why I don't sew or "craft" very often?

I might as well show you what I've been working on....new covers for the throw pillows on our couch. I found this fabric on the remnant table at my favorite fabric store here in Mobile, Five Gold Monkeys. I must admit, it's not the prettiest fabric in the world, but it matched our color scheme and it was marked down to $5/yd when the original price was $26.95/yd. Can't beat that! I've never made these covers before so I figured it would be a good practice fabric.

I've been wanting to make new covers for a while, since we've had our others for quite a while. I normally buy covers from Pottery Barn, but they are EXPENSIVE! Usually anywhere from $30-$50 per cover and I need at least 6 of them for our couch. The total for this one was about $6. Also I always want to buy "seasonal" covers for Christmas/Fall/Spring/Summer to change the feel of the room. But, HELLO, we're not rich! Now I can make as many as I want. They are very easy to make also. The hardest part is measuring and cutting out the fabric. You can find the tutorial I used here.

I was so proud of myself for not screwing up the velcro! Now I can remove them to be washed or just change them up whenever.

I only made this one last night, because I started pretty late. I'm going to try and finish two more tonight. Then I'll start shopping for some prettier fabric ~ maybe something Christmasy!

Getting Inspired

Last night as I was lost in internet land I came across a few crafty blogs that I fell in love with. I adore fresh, brightly colored, funky fabric projects and desperately wish I was a better seamstress. The few projects I have made always turn out crooked and with uneven seams. I don't know if that has anything to do with my lower than the lowest end sewing machine (which was a gift from my mama and I am VERY appreciative for) or if it has something to do with user error. I'm pretty sure it's the latter. Regardless, I don't have a lot of time for sewing projects anyway. But I was certainly inspired after seeing LifeinGrace's new craft room! Oh how I wish I had space for one of my own - maybe I would be a little more crafty if I didn't have to lug the sewing machine out to the kitchen table and put it away every time I wanted to make something!

Here are my new loves....

V and Co.

Pleasant Home

PortabelloPixie

and of course my two all time favorites....

Anna Maria Horner

Heather Bailey