So long, Farewell...

I am sure you have all noticed I have been sporadic, at best, with my blogging as of late.  I have made you all listen to me whine about this and that, but the bottom line was that my posts weren't of much substance.  I was spending most of my day reading blogs I love and writing my own posts.  That would be great if I was strictly a Trophy Wife, but my dear bloggy friends, I must wear SEVERAL other hats.  Mom and student were some of the HUGE things I was starting to neglect.  Being a part time student, full time mom and "Trophy Wife," and maintaining my household duties is a lot to do and then trying to fit in the blogging, well I was just losing my mind.  I tip my hat to those of you who balance all of this.  Especially those who have a huge following/giveaways, it is a lot of work.

To be completely honest it was giving my anxiety when I wouldn't schedule or type a post out in time or if I hadn't read everyone's blog and commented.  To the point where my house was becoming a mess, clothes were piling up, children were crying, and the straw that broke the camels back was that I had to submit a homework late (eeek to partial credit).  Yes I know silly that thats where my breaking point was, but it just showed me I needed to refocus myself.  This is what the old Shelby did, thats the Shelby that left me with a degree to finish up EIGHT years later.  Unfortunately the one thing that had to give was the one thing that was giving me the most anxiety, and that is blogging for right now.

I also have some friendships and friends on my mind right now.  I have a dear friend who I just realized is going through something so terrible its hard to even think about and I want to focus on the most important things in my life right now, this person being one of those things.

You have all made me open my eyes a bit wider and see the world beyond the safety net that has been my life.  I know this has been said by many a blogger before, but you have all helped me in some form or another and I haven't even meant most of you.  You've said the right words to heal me or even made me laugh on a day that I didn't think anything was funny.

So I say so long for now, but don't put me down for the count...I may just be back!

Busy being Versatile!

Thanks to the lovely Kate, @ Mommy Monologues, I was given the Versatile Blogger award.  Thank you, thank you very much!!

With this award your are supposed to give 7 random facts about your wonderful self and pass it on!

1.  We are starting rice cereal for Isabelle today.  AKA I have been putting it off as long as I can, bottling propping is just sooooo easy haha!

2.  Emma is OBSESSED with Caillou.  Literally the first and last thing she says before getting up and going to bed!  He is just a liiiitle bit whiney and annoying, but I guess I can't complain, considering she will sit watching it for a good hour in the morning and throughout the day for random times as well!

3.  We are getting reeeally close to finishing off that basement remodel of ours.  We bought a TV, an arm chair, a sofa and we still need a few more cabinets.  I am ready to have everything where it should be.  I still need to shop for things for the walls.

4.  I have been doing pretty fantastically in my classes, two 98s on exams in one class, but I have my first exam in the other class on Monday!  LOTS of studying to do this weekend.

5.  As some of you know, my parents dog (who is like was my brother) had to be put to sleep a few weeks ago and we were pretty devastated.  My mom had been saying she wanted to get another Boston, because they are so damn adorable, in the Spring.  Wellll she has been in contact with an AWESOME breeder and they are going to meet the mommies and daddy (they are paligamists(ps this word is not recognized on spell check) haha, not really but the daddy breeds with 2 mommies).  I am excited, but also sad that we might forget that adorable guy already.

6.  I went to the gym twice last week and I am about to go this week for the first time.  Hopefully I can squeeze in two more visits!  The BIL is kind enough to come and watch the babes while I go.

7.  So I tried a no name diaper, instead of pampers, and I am going back.  They filled up too quickly and had such a weird shape when they did fill up.  We are pampers people!

I pass this on to the Baa Tribe (SITS Girls forum group) ladies:

mother_in_progress
multiple mamas
Everyday *Mis*Adventures
A Little Bite of Life
The Mommy Chronicles
Leave it to Lynsey
Texas Beth
In the Mommy Trenches

Miscellany Monday

It's Monday and I haven't hopped on the Miscellany in awhile!

{1.}  So I have been a stinky blogger the past couple of weeks, I decided not to stress about it but I promise I will be better very soon!  I have had so many events the past few weeks, and events that involved planning and purchasing...but it is all behind me!  I also joined in on the SITS Girls tribe forum, so I was keeping up with that.

{2.}  Miss Isabelle also turned 4 months old about a week and a half ago and I have an adorable picture of my girlies...

{3.}  A friend of mine from high school who had been staying in MA while her husband was in Afghanistan (she had her baby boy while he was away) just left and is now back in NC.  I will report he made it back safe and sound!  Anywho, last week we took all of our kiddo's to an indoor play space and we had the 6 month old and 2 four month olds playing as well as the 4, 3, 2, and 1 year olds!

{Emma loves messing with the babies haha!}

{4.}  On Friday night we had a going away party for my brother Blaine at my parents house.  He went through OCS (Officer Candidate School) and now that he has graduated from college he is off to "The Basic School" as a Lieutenant in the Marine Corp.  It was quite an evening, the hubs didn't go to bed until 5 am and Blaine was apparently drunk the entire next day.  No chance I can party like that anymore!

{All the guys...pretty bad quality picture I know, not sure why though!}

{5.}  The next day, Saturday, we had a wedding to go to (my cousins).  Being the nice wifey that I am I let the hubby sleep in and my momma watched the babes while I went to get my hair done!!  Anyways, the wedding was SUPER fun and we were celebrating far later than was necessary.

{The happy Bride and Groom}

 {My cousin Kim and I, thanks to the hubs for the bunny ears...}

{Cousin Kim, friend of the family Renee, and I dancing the night away}

Emma's 2nd Birthday Party

Dora Dora Dora the Explorerrrrrr!!!  That was the theme to Little Miss's 2nd Birthday Bash!  This is the reason why I was basically nonexistent last week, the stress of a two years olds birthday party was enough to drive me nuts!  45 people (including children) was ridiculous and next year I am moving to an all chidlren party and then cake and ice cream with the family/friends on her actual birthday!

{This is my beautiful little family}

I'm currently at school reading as many blogs as I can and writing this post doing homework, so this will be short and sweet.  I did however want to give Jenn @ West Sac Honey a shoutout for these AMAZING shirts, headbands, and Emma's tutu.  She is so creative/artistic/crafty/just plain awesome!  Everyone loved the girls outfits and they looked so stinkin cute in them!  She has an etsy (LOL Designs) so holler over at her if you need anythign like this.

Cut me some slack?!?!

I am currently watching Tosh.0, no shock there as the husband (and his brother) is OBSESSED with web videos and thats what Mr. Daniel Tosh (Tosh.0 host) is alllll about!  I will say his is semi hilarious.

Any who, we just watched a video with a girl doing the wii fit game (in her underwear, hence tosh.0's interest) and it got me to thinking, what in the "H" am I doing lately.  I go to bed feeling like 100 pounds and wake up still feeling full (gross at the least).  I need to go back to the gym and on the weight watchers program or I will inevitably balloon out to a size I do NOT want to be at.  I was borderline depressed tonight, because I couldn't stop myself from eating all.day.long.  Then, the hubs came home and I poured several a few glasses of wine and got myself to feeling like a likable person.

"Luckily" for me my mother-in-law lives seconds from my house and is volunteering to watch the kiddos twice a week for the husband and I to work out together.  The other days I can bring the babes to the baby care while I work out.  I LOVE spinning and classes in general and I (within the year) want to run a half marathon with my wonderful husband so 4 times a week for now will help!

Sorry for being a stinky blogger as of late, but baby #2 has been a cry baby and baby #1 has been fresh, ending in both of them driving me CRAZY!  Also, my house looks like a bomb went off in it.  Some unfinished house work, painting and laundry have tripped me up a bit, cut me some slack pulease.

Miscellany Monday back at it again!

Aaaaand another Monday is upon us, although at this point it's almost Tuesday!  It's been a couple weeks since I've hit up the miscellany in Monday with Carissa, but here it is....

{1.}  This past weekend little Miss Isabelle had her christening at my husbands childhood church (and where we were married), Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church.  Isabelle's godparents are one of my best friends Leah and my brother Tommy!  She wore the dress I wore when I was christened and Emma too.

{So happy to be with her godparents!}

{2.}  I went shopping Friday evening for TWO hours straight and couldn't find ANYTHING.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  Definitely a confidence booster.  Due to this revelation I will be joining the gym with the hubs tomorrow night and fixing my eating habits ASAP!  Clearly Weight Watchers  didn't happen.

{3.}  I had to go to a wake Sunday evening for the patriarch of a HUGE family from my home town.  There were lines down the street of people waiting to pay their respects.  My mom and dad are good friends with one of the daughters (who was the hubs and my realtor and works in the school system) and her husband and I am friends with their kids and a few of the other families.  There was no doubt in my mind I would go and pay my respects but once I got there my body temperature rose about 100 degree and I instantly had no idea what to say!

{4.}  I have been so preoccupied with school, planning for the christening, Emma's birthday party planning, my brothers going away party, and wedding dress shopping that my house looks like a bomb went off inside it.  No beuno!  I came home from my moms (she babysits when I go to school) today and   the husband had cleaned up Emma's toys, the leftover stuff from the christening AND vacuumed.  LOOOOVE IT!

{5.}  Today my mom, the girls and I went to Target and bought all of the stuff for the goody bags for Emma's birthday party.  I am in LOVE with it all, so many goodies!  Lots of pictures after the party happens.

Hand Outs PLEASE!

I LOVE Ellen DeGeneres and I try to watch her show every day, but even though Emma likes Ellen when its time to dance, she reeeally likes Sprout, Nick Jr., and PBS as well.  My mom however watches her religiously every day.  My moms name is Ellen, she is hilarious, she is an animal lover, and a dancer so they would totes be RL friends if Ellen was, ya know, not famous!  Random fact...At every one of her jobs she has had a gay coworker whom she was super close with, they love her!

With what happened with our Dukey Sunday I thought to myself, what better person to cheer my mom up than Ellen.  So I did something I have never done before...I wrote to Ellen.  I am positive I won't hear back, but there is no chance if I don't try!  Bottom line my mom is a pretty awesome/amazing/inspirational woman in my life and she deserves anything and everything I and anyone else can give.  Anything from Ellen would be super cool.  If I was ever in LA I would TOTES try and get tickets to her show.

So...this is what I wrote...

"Dear Ellen,

My mom and I have watched your show religiously since the show started and I own one of your stand up DVDs.  My daughter also LOVES to dance, so what better show than the Ellen DeGeneres Show!

This past Sunday my parents had to put their 3 and a half year old puppy to sleep because he couldn't recovered from his inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis.  As I know you know animals, especially dogs, are not just your pets, they become apart of your families.  My parents are beside themselves, naturally, but more so because he was so young.  He was SO great with my two girls, especially because we were there so much.  Him and my oldest would play and wrestle together.  It’s so sad to see my daughter ask for him.  Unfortunately we had to tell her we wouldn’t see him anymore because he went up to heaven in the sky.  Her new thing to say is Duke Die (this is how she pronounces sky).  Lovely!

The reason I am boring you with our story is because my mom and dad do so much for everyone in our family and they spent months worrying, stressing, spending SO much money and only to have to put him to sleep.  They don't have to want for much in life, but for people who do so much for everyone I thought a little Ellen DeGeneres love would help them get to a place where they aren't crying over but celebrating Duke's life!

So anything you can think of would be great!  My mom is a HUGE fan, she is funny and her name is Ellen as well.

Love always,

Shelby"

Cross you finger for us!