30 Facts About Yours Truly - November Blogathon

It's finally here! Welcome November and welcome Blogathon...

I've been thinking about this post all day. Mostly because I have no idea which 30 facts I'm going to share. Then I started listing ridiculous things: I'm right handed - yawn... I have brown hair - obvious. So bear with me. Hopefully this list will be more fruitful and exciting than the aforementioned snoozeville facts.

HERE WE GO...

1. I was born with cleft lip and palate
2. I used to be obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer between 5th grade - Sophomore in high school. Super embarrassing! 
3. I have a hippie dream of owning a summer camp. I love the camaraderie between the campers and the counselors. Camp was always a magical place for me. 
4. On that note, I used to go to craniofacial camp. It was a camp where all the campers had craniofacial deformities. Such a great feeling to be "normal" and around people that were just like me for a few days. 
5. I have a fear of Gary Sinise. It's not logical but it's a real deep down fear.... Blegh
6. I have the strange talent of being able to tell what mixes most dogs are. I have yet to discover where this talent comes in handy in my life. Although, it has impressed my husband from time to time.
7. I miss reading! Having a one year old does not leave me much time to sit and crack open a book. At least, a book that's author isn't Dr. Seuss. 
8. I have a guilty pleasure of reality TV. Bravo is my secret drug... 
9. My husband and I celebrate the day we met as our "friend-iversary".
10. I always wanted to move to NYC. I got as close as Syracuse.... Brrrrr...
11. I have my bachelor's degree in Psychology
12. I changed my major 3 times: Public Relations, Aesthetics Specialist, and Business ... I'm still not sure I made the right choice.
13. I love being a mother more than I ever thought I would. I thought I would miss going into an office, wearing heels, and sending emails... Turns out I don't but benefits talk.
14. Thank God for Pinterest because my family would be so sick of the only 2 meals I could make - spaghetti and breaded chicken cutlet.
15. I love a parade. Especially if there's a marching band in it. 
16. I want to be a snow bird when I grow up... Mountains in the summer and beach in the winter... Sign me up, please!!!
17. I want to be a tough girl when I'm out on the farm but the quick movement of a bug, animal, piece of grass and I will jump out of my skin because I'm obviously being attacked.
18. I think I only want one child. Not sure if this is a fact considering I'm not sure how I feel about it yet but I'm putting it out there. 
19. I make fake trips on Expedia so I can have a number in my head of how much I need to save for - if I ever got the chance to travel to Europe. Then something in the house breaks and my Europe money turns into A/C money. 
20. I used to be a really good singer. I performed in school, church, and summer camp.
21. I have to wear special earplugs on an airplane because I can't regulate the air pressure changes
22. I really enjoy cleaning my ears with a q-tip. 
23. I'm a cryer. It's my reaction to anything in life. Happy - cry. Sad - cry. Scared - cry. Excited - cry. Nervous - nausea and probably cry. 
24. I can play the spoons. Thank you Dollywood and our family vacation circa 1996.
25. I really want to find a church that I feel at home in. I grew up in church and I haven't found one that I've been comfortable in since I left Syracuse 2 years ago. 
26. I'm a matching freak. I think it hinders my fashion daring-ness
27. When I was a bartender, I could blow fire. 
28. I used to be a bartender... Is this one cheating?? 
29. I'm my parents' only child but I have 4 siblings from my dad's other marriages. 
30. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, moved to Florida when I was 3 years old, and I still consider myself a New Yorker. 

There you have it! I did it... Phew! My husband even popped his head into the room to offer some facts. None of which I used - thanks anyway, babe. 

Until tomorrow my friends... #NovemberBlogathon

November Blogathon

With October drawing to a close and my blog at a stand still, I'm looking forward to being part of a November blogathon. One of my new favorite blogs The Mrs and The Momma is hosting this event and little did she know it was prayer answering. This will give me the chance to blog every day and really get into the groove of things. Also, with holidays fast approaching it will be nice to sit and reflect on the year past and the year to come. #novemberblogathon

But since October isn't over just yet..... Bring on the Pumpkin Patch photos!!

Welcome to Limbo...

    Recently, I've been feeling as if I'm in a strange place. A type of limbo, if you will, where I've got my toe in so many pools but I have yet to jump into just one. I'm part of this late-twenties-married-stay-at-home-mom-working-part-time-who-am-I-now? type of limbo. How can it possibly be that I was more self-confident at 19 than I am at 28?? I've known myself 10 years longer! Part of me wants to turn the music up! While the other part of me wants to turn the music down because the baby is sleeping. A limbo where my unmarried friends still invite me to bars on a random Tuesday night. (Yes, Taco Tuesdays, I still remember you and no I can't go). 

      I lost several "friends" - I use the word loosely- when I got pregnant and decided to get married (in that order). Then I joined a Mommy and Me group once Dean was born and I made a new set of mommy friends. Now that I've started working and I can't attend as many mommy meet ups as I used to, I feel as though I'm starting to pull away from those new friends. I admit, I don't try as hard to be a good friend. I don't reach out daily. I don't keep tabs of the goings-on in my friends' lives. I  use Facebook as a crutch... I worry that I can't give them as much attention that a good friend deserves. Also, I'm tired and usually up to my eyeballs in toys and chasing around a toddler.

     So, like many other Limbo drifters, I'm turning to a blog to help me re-find myself. To help me realize that I can have my toe in as many pools as I please and it doesn't make me any less of a person because I can't commit to just one thing. To help me get out of this rut... Let's start with a haircut....(rhyme not intend but appreciated)

I hope you'll join me on this journey out of Limbo. I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences about being a new parent, new spouse, new coworker, new friend....      

Week 21-22

Get out your baseball gloves and everything blue because we are having a boy!! For the last several weeks we've been trying to be super patient and wait for the anatomy sonogram. A number of friends and family members shelled out extra money to know the sex of their baby early but we figured it be beneficial to wait. My mom got to come with us and experience a sonogram for the first time. When she was pregnant with me her doctor didn't believe in sonograms! (Oh, the 80's).... The doctor told us that everything looks amazing. No cleft lip or palate and all of his organs are on the inside of his body...

Here he is... Bean

On Saturday of that week one of Keagan's closest friends was married at her childhood home out in the country. And when I say country I mean COUNTRY... During the prayer cows kept mooing in the background.

 

 

Earlier that day, we started refinishing a cabinet we found. We wanted to use it in the baby's nook as a changing table. My mom and I found it at an estate sale for $12!! You can't beat that with a baseball bat...

 

 

A couple coats of paint and new knobs from Home Depot

Happy Easter!! Thank you Jesus for rising from the dead today to save our sins... And in honor of that we dyed Easter Eggs with our friend, Allie. WARNING to everyone out there... Do not text and dye eggs. I wasn't paying attention and I almost drank out of a cup with an egg dying in it. Thank goodness the egg hit the side of the cup before anything got into my mouth. LOL

Bean is kicking like crazy. We call them dance parties because he's so wild. This makes me nervous for when he's actually out in the world and I have to wrangle him.

TheBump.com says:

your baby's the size of a papaya!

During month five, the average fetus measures about 10.5 to 11.8 inches and weighs about 12.7 to 20.8 ounces.

your baby at 22 weeks

• Now that he's got more developed eyes and lips, he's looking even more like a newborn.
• He's sleeping in cycles -- about 12 to 14 hours per day (hint: they're probably those times you're not feeling any kicks!).

Week 19-20

March Madness is appropriate for the March we have coming up...

 

 

The annual Strawberry Festival was this week in Plant City, FL and if you can't tell by the strawberries we're holding the festival really delivered!

 

 

The Twins turned 3 this week! I'm really going to need them to stop growing up. I don't like it, they're too cute, and too smart. My mom, Keagan, and I brought them to Gatorland and while they were skeptical at first the minute we got through the gates they enjoyed themselves!

This belly is getting out of control!!!!!

The Bump.com says:

She's got working taste buds.

Now, she's gulping down several ounces of amniotic fluid each day -- that's significantly more than before.

Week 17-18

I'm officially 27 years old! Happy birthday to me!! My friends and I went to a Solar Bear hockey game and then went out for sushi afterward. Don't worry! I stayed away from the fish... Gotta keep my little nuggest safe in there.

Also this week we had a photoshoot at work and I really got to see how big my bump is getting. It no longer looks like a beer belly but a real baby belly! The pictures came out great and I'm hoping they'll use them in the magazine.

Maybe we'll have a little hockey player one day!

Mmmmm...sushi

 

 

 

 

The Bump.com says:

 

Can you believe she's yawning, hiccuping, sucking and swallowing?

And she's twisting, rolling, punching and kicking, too -- and she's big enough that you might be able to feel her doing it!

  (That's a sweet potato... scary looking!)



Week 15-16

Husband (hehe) and I went on a mini-honeymoon this weekend to the Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Studios. It was an absolutely gorgeous hotel and the room did not disappoint either. We took the water taxi from the hotel into City Walk and had dinner at Jimmy Buffet's.

My baby belly is really starting to show... Make Way for Baby....

 

 

The Bump.com says:

 

She's listening to your voice, thanks to tiny bones forming in her ears.

She's growing hair, lashes and eyebrows.

And she's forming taste buds.