Happy Memorial Day!

We just got back from the Lake, so not much time to talk as I have to leave to watch Ali wear something yellow on The Bachelorette tonight. I'm sorry I'm not around for #ATFT, but watching with my IRL friends is fun too! And gives me some much needed girl time.

Anyway, Becks first time in the pool this year was a splashin' good time. Footage was shot at Nana & Papa M's pool earlier today. Hilarious. He was a little fish, and acted like he's been swimming forever! We were impressed. Anyway, here's our little jumper!

Why I love my husband...

...reason #435:

Yes, they're really asleep :)

Bye Bye Bunny...

Stop. The. World. You are not even going to believe it. Today is a monumental day in the Babbling Household. Today, my friends, I will watch The Hills and The City in realtime. Today, my husband will plug into Animal Planet. Today, we will retire the bunny years.

Yes, today, WE GOT CABLE.

Shocking, I know, but this frugal mama thought that $15 extra a month added on to our cable internet bill wasn't that big of a deal. It's kind of like a rite of passage, right? After 4 years of marriage (yup, 4 years this coming Friday!), we can now have people over to watch sports games and not be embarrassed when the wind blows and our reception goes with it :)

In other news, we also had a $300 plumbing fiasco. But when the plumber initially thought it was going to be $2500 jack-hammer job in the basement, $300 seemed like pennies. Being a home owner is superfun.

Lastly, to recap our weekend quickly, we went to a totally fab housewarming party at Dr. B's. And with the amount of stress I'm experiencing these days, a night with some of our fav couples was just what the doctor ordered. Let me just tell you, that dog's name is Cassius Clay (nickname: Clay) and 100 points goes to the person that can tell me why. It's clever.

My cousin and her family also were in this weekend and stayed with us. Becks and Paisley got along great and we can't wait to see them at the cabin in a few weeks!

Grad Class numero uno ends on Friday, so I'll have a little less on my plate for a week before my summer courses kick in. School's out in seven days! Yippee!!!!!

That's it for now!

Love it.

We are on Day Four of dreary, gloominess and I am determined to not let my mood match. Because lately it kind of has. But I have a lot to be thankful and happy for, so today I will catch up on Ten Things I Love, which Gina tagged me for ages ago. Without further ado...

1. I love that my husband is handy. He can fix things and do stuff that I cannot. Like, for instance, repair our bed that suddenly capsized two weekends ago. With us in it. And, nooooooooo we weren't doing that. Beckham was with us, in fact. And it more so has to do with the fact that IKEA failed to include a support piece in our bed kit (that they told us was included. liars.) and we rigged up the old support beam from our Hollywood bed frame. So, while my husband crafted a [cheap] solution to the problem, we slept in the middle of the living room floor overnight. And it was like a camp-out and I kind of loved it. Mostly because I could watch SNL in bed (no TV in our room). Furthermore, I am a camp-out kind of gal that likes camping out indoors with plumbing and AC, so this suited me just fine.

2. I love thrift shopping. Craigslist, yard sales, consignment stores, rummage sales, Goodwills, etc. I couldn't even tell you the last time I bought clothing retail. That is the truth. I would guess before Christmas. And I recently picked up some darling tables on Craigslist for $5 a pop that I want to refinish and put in our dining room. And also a $2 nightstand that I'm going to paint black for my little sis whose getting her *own* townhouse next year. (It's called: being a SeNiOr. )

3. I love Diet Coke. I love it. When I don't have any, I crave it and/or wind up with a massive migraine the entire afternoon. It calms my nerves and generally makes my days more bearable.

4. I love weekend mornings. We get to enjoy each other in our jammies, eat breakfast together, read the paper, drink coffee, and, on occasion, have donuts. It's the life. {Note Beck's breakfast plate - PB for a quarter at Goodwill!}

Yes, that would be the Toys R Us ad he's browsing through.

5. I love to learn. I'm a huge education nerd and am totally eating up my coursework. While it's driving me crazy to spend so much time typing papers and writing annotated bibliographies, I loooooove the literature and research that proves we NEED EDUCATIONAL REFORM. Desperately. I have had some great conversations with my colleagues this past week and can't wait to implement my knowledge next year. And be principal down the line. This is where I've been spending time the past week...

This room hasn't made the blog before unless you recognize it as Beck's former nursery when our bedroom was still upstairs. It was quite cute and served it's purpose for over a year (it's right off the upstairs bedroom), and has mostly been filled with junk since September. So, I cleaned it out, set up our curbside treasure desk, and am now waiting for time and motivation to make it a full-functioning office. The verdict is out when I will take this project on, but I'm guessing summertime.

6. I love the color yellow. Currently. I want to paint everything yellow and gray. I will not win this battle (ahem, husband), but I will add pops of yellow where I can. I might even paint the wall that the window is on in the future office a pale yellow. With gray stripes. Maybe. That sounds kind of risky. But it's a small wall, right. I digress. I just love yellow.

7. I love children named Beckham that walk around in blue plastic aprons. He hasn't been able to play outside much lately, so I brought out the kitchen, added water, and voila! instant entertainment. Also, quite wet. We went through 6 towels or something like that.

Beckham is awake, so this will be quick:

8. I love freshly pedicured tootsies.

9. I love shiny kitchen/bathroom sink fixtures. (Thanks, mom.) That's not to say that our's are always shiny, but I'm happier when they are :)

10. I love that there are only 11 days of this school year left! Wahoo!

Would you believe that cute guy on the right would give me any trouble?

Beckham slept in until 7:50am this morning. That is late for him. I got him up, assumed he was hungry and offered him some breakfast. The following conversation ensued:

Me: Do you want some milk?
Becks: No!

Me: Do you want some juice?

Becks: No! Water!

Me: Okay. Here you go. Here's some water.

Becks: No! Juice!

Me: Okay. Here you go. Here's some juice.

Becks: No! Milk!

Argh. The rest of breakfast went on like that until his tray was crowded with three sippy cups, a variety of fruit, and soggy Coco Crisps. By the time he got around to requesting yogurt, I'd had my fill of his tangent and asked him if he got up on the wrong side of the bed. Yeaaaah, he politely admitted. At least he's honest.

Anyway, I am on Day 4 of a 4-day-weekend that I desperately needed not only for my personal sanity, but for the ominous piles of unfolded clothes and bare cabinets that were complaining to be restocked. Or was that my husband complaining? I've lost track {and probably brain cells} over the past week, since my nose has been in a book or my eyes straining to read through education text over the internet. I actually think I burst a blood vessel in my eye. Not even kidding.

My stress level has been through the roof as I've tried to balance it all - wife, mother, student, housekeeper, shopper, temper-tantrum manager, etc. How many hats can I wear? Obviously, the blogger one fell off because I simply couldn't devote any more time to the computer than I already was. PowerPoint 2007 and I have gotten very close.

{Sidenote: my son is driving in his cozy coupe wearing a blue plastic apron that he insisted we tie on him. Kids are great.}

Fortunately, my next set of classes are spread out over seven weeks instead of three. But I'm taking two, so we'll see how that goes. At least I won't be teaching, and will have the majority of my time to focus on school, yard sale-ing, sunning, and vacationing.

Also, hopefully I will be able to share exciting news on the school front as of next Monday. I'm just waiting to sign a contract before I go blabbing about it. Let's just say I'm very excited and I think my class next year will be wonderful ;)

I hope all of you are well! I'm sorry I haven't commented, but I've still been visiting my fav BFFs!

Alive and Well.

Still here. Becks is still cute. I'll be back with more substance in the near future.

B to the izzy

I am officially in pursuit of my Master's Degree in Education. Thus, I am terribly busy. I am taking an intercession course that is an intense study of school leadership over the next 12 days. So, basically, in two weeks I will accomplish what normally takes an entire semester to do. On top of working and being a mom and wife and such. Plate = full. Blog = not a priority. My nose has been in a book (or two!) for the past 8 hours. The good news is that my entire program is online through the university where I received my B.A. in Education, but obviously involves a lot of self-motivation and discussion on Blackboard.

The last online course I took my senior year in college at UK and literally didn't finish any of my assignments until the week before the semester ended. Wouldn't recommend that. Fortunately, it was a course I was taking pass/fail so I managed to pass despite my minimal effort :)

Anyway, I promise pics of Beck and more substantial posts, but you'll just have to wait until I get the bulk of this class out of the way! I have some great furniture redos in the near future and room redos too (all this schooling is making a home office sound rather appealing).

I know this was boring, but that's what going on and why I'm MIA.

PS. Is anyone planning to tweet during The Bachelorette for #ATFT? If you're in, I'm in! Let me know!

The Little Guy that Makes Me a Momma

I haven't written a post in a long time specifically dedicated to my ever-growing son, and his many accomplishments in his almost two years. Yes, please note, I can officially say that I will have a two-year-old next month. I cannot even believe how fast two years has gone by.

Becks is getting big (size 24mo-3t depending) and rather independent. While mostly compliant, his verbal defense is often a very beligerent No! No! No! Timeouts are few and far between, but there are certainly days where I warn him that I'm sending him to the moon.

He is obsessed with tractors. Obsessed. He loves watching them out our front window and willingly went into the arms of a construction worker the other day so that he could sit with him in the driver's seat of an excavator. (No worries, while we don't know them by name, Becks has essentially grown up with them the past year and they're pretty good guys. I think they would have taken him for a spin around the block, but I had to put my foot down somewhere.) After hours, I often find my boys doing something like this:

On that note, he also adores anything his daddy does - whether it be working in the yard, playing the guitar, or sipping coffee on the weekends (milk - just in a coffee mug that B pretends to pour real coffee in). When B's home, Becks is his pint-sized shadow.

He also loves makin' sumpin' with me, and we bake together weekly, as I'm sure you're fully aware.

He still has a pacifier, his G, and all The Guys that he insists on naming and sleeping with every night. Potty training is on the horizon, but something he is totally not interested in right now. We'll give it a go this summer, but fortunately his preschool doesn't have this as a requirement to attend.

(The collection of Guys has grown to include a polar bear from IKEA, a stuffed puppy, and the crew from Sesame Street - Snuffy, Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Grover, and Big Bird. He likes them around his head and usually won't move after I've arranged them that way!)

He's a big fan of the park and loves everything there is to do there - particularly the big boys kicking around soccer balls. It must be in the name ;) It's kind of heartbreaking to tell him he's too little to play with them.


He loves to be read to. His current favorites are: Say Daddy, Click Clack Moo, K is for Kick, all of the Gertie and Gossie collection, and Knuffle Bunny. In fact, the other night, he opted to cozy up in the nook of my arm instead of sit on my lap. It made me sad to think that this little peanut used to fit snuggly comfy on my chest and now barely fits in my lap. And then, to top it off, he wanted me to read him The Giving Tree and I couldn't even get through it without sniffling back tears because of the irony of the whole situation. (If you haven't read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, go read it. A great story.)

{I should also add that this was the same night that Becks inaugurated me into the puked-on-mom club - an honor I'd been avoiding since baby spit up. Let's just say he followed up his pizza and fruit cup dinner with several gulps of bathwater that ultimately ended in vomit down my shirt, in my bra, in 3/4 of my hair and the demise of the rug in the bathroom. Blech.}

All in all, he's a cool little kid who brings infinite joy to our lives. And he's silly too.
I'm glad that this little boy gives me something to celebrate this weekend :)

48 more hours until my weekend begins!

Wednesdays are probably one of my favorite days of the week. I love that the work week is almost over, and, more importantly, that the lastest episodes of The Hills and The City will be on MTV.com for my viewing pleasure.

So, before I go further, let me say a quick couple of things about my guilty pleasures...

Just three things from The Hills today: Hs for Heidi, crystals, and "surgery hug." I really want to discuss how crazy H is for Heidi's husband is, but I'll refrain myself. I wouldn't want to send any negativity his way that those crystals couldn't ward off, you know?

And a couple more things from The City:

• Olivia kind of thinks she's a big deal (could she be any more self-important?)
• I looooooved the meeting where Erin gets to bat her lashes at Olivia, smiling sweetly over how pleased Joe Zee is with Whitney's collection - ha!!!!
• And I still love Kelly Cutrone and pretty much want to be BFFs with Whitney. True story.

I feel like I've been super lazy lately during Becks' naps, so I'm off to complete some chores around the house and try not to obsessively check my eBay listings or see if my financial aid has been posted to my account yet. Not that you would catch me refreshing either webpage on the half-hour to check for changes though...

Maybe more later!

Dear May, Rain is soooooo last month...

Despite the rain being a bit of a downer this past weekend, and the man-colds wreaking havoc on both boys sinuses, the weekend was perfect. The best part was that it was unscripted and uneventful - something we haven't been able to say for the past two months. We had banana pancakes for breakfast, rainy days spent inside, and, best of all, no agenda to dictate that any of us had anywhere to be. It was glorious. While socializing and activity are critical to my personal well-being, we really needed a full-out family rest as we gear up for a busy summer. A summer that will be in full swing before Memorial Day even materializes and won't wind down until mid-October. We have lots to look forward to over the next several months, with weddings and vacations being the major highlights.

I even clipped coupons yesterday- something I haven't been consistently doing since we refinished the hardwood floors in February and were hit with 2 feet of snow! Shh. Don't tell. I was suffering from coupon-clipper burnout. I've been feeling really bad about it.

Also, thanks for the recommendation on not using the bed as Becks' time out spot. We switched to the stairs and it's working out well for the time being. Initially, I think he thought it was a treat - a chance to stand up and flip the light switch on and wait for the timer to ding! However, that was short-lived when I made sure that he sat on his bottom the whole time, and put the timer up and out of reach. Listening to him cry for G and Baa can be pretty heart wrenching, though. (G=giraffe lovey; baa = pacifier; G baa = a combination of the two, often used during time-out to request they join him on the stairs; I don't oblige.)

Today it is gorgeous and sunshiney (figures, right?), so I really need to kick into gear and break out the running stroller when Becks wakes up. After observing my pasty, wintry body under the incandescent lights of a dressing room this weekend, I about died at how awful I am going to look in a bathing suit here soon. Need a tan and lypo, STAT.

I think I hear Beck upstairs saying apple juice right now, as a matter of fact. I'm almost positive I woke him up making an iced coffee in the blender again, but I really needed a 3pm pick-me-up.

Lastly, Day 1 of state testing is complete. And, there are less than 25 days remaining in this school year. Amen.

Too late to be making a list, but...

1. Does anyone else get a little sad when it's 10:56pm on Saturday night and most of your favorite blogs haven't been updated since Thursday and there's nothing new to read? Oh, that's just me? Hmm. I will neither confirm or deny that I frequently blogstalk on Saturday nights...
2. B's actually in bed already because he's fighting off a terrible man cold. I certainly have ample empathy for him, knowing that it's probably the worst cold in the history of all colds and I have probably never experienced the type of pain he is feeling as a result of battling this nasty bug. Ahem.
3. My horse, Super Saver, won the Derby tonight. We drew names at my parents' house and I won the $4.87 pot. Too bad I didn't have an extra $100,000 to bid on him. Also, how stinkin' cute is Calvin Borel?
4. Does anyone else hate changing their shower curtain liner? It has to be one of my least favorite chores, and needs to be done here soon. {That was completely random, I know.}
5. I didn't get to garage sale this morning as it was torrentially raining. I was bummed. I even mapped out all of our stops last night. Crossing fingers for next week.
6. I did go thrifting today with Chels to some Goodwills and consignment stores. Trip was ruined when bright white lights confirmed that I am pasty white and pudgy. Tanned fat always looks so much better than pale fat.
7. Grad school starts in t-minus 9 days.
8. I am still convinved that mice are patrolling our house unnoticed. We haven't caught anymore since The Great Mouse Hunt a couple weeks ago, but that doesn't prevent me from jumping everytime a sock falls out of the dryer or a feather from our bed floats to the floor. Or from having B rearrange an entire wall of boxes in the basement at 10pm after I've fully convinced him that mice are hiding in all of Becks old baby clothes (an unprecedented notion, as none were located).
9. Dear Mother Nature, It is now May. April Showers are a thing of the past. From this point forward, please save the rain for the weekdays and make our weekends beautiful. Thanks.
10. Saturday Night Live is on now. Starting out with an Obama impersonation.

I should really go to bed. G'night!