Christmas Fa-reakout

Aren't they the cutest tree-trimmers you ever saw?? I'm pretty obsessed. If only all of December were this lovely.


Every year around December 23, I have a Christmas freakout. No, a Christmas FA-reakout. It's inevitable. Jed and I normally have 9-5 jobs (this year mine is from 9-9--as in it never stops, a thank you very much), I have to shop for all the family (this includes 27 people this year), we have Christmas party after Christmas party, we HAVE to put up a tree and decorate, we have to take a Christmas card pic and send out a million, and on and on and on (you get the picture). Don't get me wrong. It's the most wonderful time of the year and all that, and I have fond memories and feelings associated with Christmastime, but around December 23, I fa-reak out.

Usually this is the scenario: Jed comes home from work, I have dinner cooking and a drink poured for him, I am wearing a cute winter dress and apron, and then I sweetly tell him that I'm a bit stressed.

NOT!!!!!!!!

Real scenario: Jed comes home from work, I am looking a hot mess, he can hardly get to the kitchen because of all the wrapping utensils and gifts on the floor, I have no thought of dinner because our house is not stocked with drink OR any type of food that could go together for a "meal," and then I say, "I NEED YOUR HELP! I STILL DON'T HAVE GIFTS FOR 9 PEOPLE AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'LL GET THEM AND THE TRAFFIC IS SO HORRID IT WILL TAKE 8 HOURS TO SHOP FOR EACH OF THEM INDIVIDUALLY WHICH LEAVES US WITH NO TIME FOR ALL THE ENJOYING EACH OTHER I WANTED TO DO".

And then my face starts to scrunch up and do the pre-cry thing and I say, "I J-J-JUST W-W-ANTED CHRISTMAS TO B-B-BE GOOD THIS YEAR, AND I C-C-CAN'T STOP FREAKING OUT IN MY H-H-HEAD BECAUSE I DON' T HAVE THOSE GIFTS YET, AND NOW I'M A BAD WIFE B-B-BECAUSE WE HAVE NO FOOD OR COCKTAILS, AND OUR HOUSE IS A WR-WR-WRECK AND HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO ENJOY WAKING UP ON CHRISTMAS EVE LIKE THIS?"

And then I start baaaaaawling, "HOW CAN YOU STILL LOVE ME? I'M CRAZY. WOULD YOU HAVE MARRIED ME IF YOU KNEW THEN I WAS CRAZY? OH, AND I HAVEN'T DONE ANY LAUNDRY BECAUSE OF ALL THE CHRISTMAS PARTIES WE WENT TO THIS WEEK, SO WE'LL HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR FOR CHRISTMAS, AND YOUR MOM CALLED AND WE NEED TO BRING A CASSEROLE TO THEIR HOUSE TONIGHT, AND WE NEED TO TAKE HOMEMADE BISCUITS TO MY PARENT'S HOUSE IN THE MORNING. AND I HAVE TO BE AT THE CHURCH LATER TONIGHT TO PRACTICE SINGING FOR TOMORROW'S CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE AND I'LL HAVE TO BE REALLY EARLY TO THE SERVICE TOMORROW AND WILL THAT FRUSTRATE ANYONE??? I TOLD YOU I'M CRAZY. WHY AM I CRYING? I LOVE CHRISTMAS! (desperately) WHY AM I CRYING!!!????"

So this year I'll add, "AND BRADEN WON'T STOP CRYING AND HE BARFED ALL OVER HIS CHRISTMAS OUTFIT, AND HE HAS POOP UP HIS BACK, AND HE NEEDS DINNER EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE TO WALK OUT THE DOOR IN 5 MINUTES, AND HE HAS NO CLEAN CLOTHES EITHER, AND I'M OUT OF DIAPERS, AND I NEED YOU TO RUN TO THE STORES FOR THOSE, AND I FORGOT STOCKING STUFF FOR HIM!"

So my Christmas resolution is to NOT have quite as big of a break down this year. I think eliminating it would be nice, but let's be realistic! I think I'd like to have the gifts already bought, food in the fridge (oven pizza?), and maybe not be outta diapers.

Merry Christmas Home-home-homeboy!

Oh, and thanks, babe, for putting up with me. :)

Christmas Cards

A few years ago, Jed and I sent out our first Christmas card. We were so darlin' in our cute little nicely prepared outfits. THEN we took a few years off, and I was too lazy or busy to actually order Christmas cards. Now we have a baby, and you know what that means....we HAVE to send out a card. It's like the innate Christmas rule. People are supposed to disown people who are in their family, have children, and don't send out a Christmas card.

I have a few friends who are obsessed with Shutterfly. They love their prints, the gifts they create are sa-weet, and it is all pretty inexpensive. And now I am so excited about the new promotion that Shutterfly is running. In exchange for a blog post, I get 50 free Christmas cards. The best part? The Christmas cards are some of the cutest I've ever seen. Seriously, I have no idea how I'll decide!

I love the idea of having our family picture PLUS little pics of Braden.

Buuuuuut I also love the more funky square ones.


Oooooor I could go with the classic family shot on gorgeous card??

I dunno. Honestly, I still haven't even looked at half of the options because the first half was so overwhelming!

And speaking of Christmas, Shutterfly also has some amazing options for cool Christmas presents:

1. Thank you cards
2. Calendars
3. Photo Wall Art

OK...so maybe I'm a little excited. But what can I say?? It's all really cute. And since we just had a baby, all of our family members want photo gifts for Christmas. And can you blame them? Just look at him!

Welp. Merry Christmas!! Now off to actually TAKE a picture to put on this card!!

My #2 Man

I love you fiercely, B.

Fail

I think I have a new idea for this bloggaroo. But not yet....I have A LOT of updating to do.

Because this is my first blog back, I have a point to make:

My whole life has been filled with moments where I've thought, "I swore I'd never do this and now I am." Newest moment like this? I seriously text my husband or gmail chat him sometimes to tell him things like Braden finally pooped and it went up his back (this excites me) or Braden smiled and looked at me simultaneously or Braden misses you or Braden's tummy hurts and he needs to poop or I want to take Braden camping for the first time this fall.

I could definitely say more interesting things that pertain to my big-girl-job like how the air and water pollution statistics in Memphis are shocking or how I just learned how people get food stamps or even that I am learning horrific statistics about infant mortality rates in Memphis. I could, but nope. I frequently choose to tell him about our son's gastrointestinal issues and the fact that he is getting so chubby I am counting extra rolls.

I guess moms don't tell their husbands that stuff because they're bored, huh? I think it's because maybe we were designed us to care more about the minute details of our child's life than almost anything else. Weird. And sounds totally familiar....

And by the way. Jed actually likes most of the updates.

Voila!

First thing is first. Who knows how to add an accent mark to the a at the end of Voila?

Second, no one ever told me that putting a nursery together on a budget was SUCH a challenge. Geez! Thanks, mankind.

The story--Last weekend, Jed and I attacked the cute little buffet that Minnie, my maternal grandmother (bc it is very important for you to know that little fact), gave us. It has been in her family for quite sometime and in the first picture, you can see what she did to it over 40 years ago. Our goal was to turn the sucker into something that matched our nursery and that we could use as a changing table. This is what we did:

1. Moved this from Minnie's garage to our back porch. Woot.
2. Removed the awesome 60's hardware.

3. Borrowed an electric sander. Lesson for #3--electric sanders are SO much fun! Christi, a friend of mine, is a pro with hers, and she let me borrow it so that I could sand this sucker down. it took FOREVER, but it was fun.
4. Wiped the whole thing down REALLY good and then painted it the green that we are using in our nursery.
5. Painted a thin coat of white paint and then sanded away. My super hott hubby entered mad artist mode and went to town with a sheet of finer sandpaper while I used the sexy electric sander with fine paper as well.

Oh, and then we added cute glass knobs that I got on MAJOR sale (as in, regularly $4.99 and I paid $.99 apiece) at Target.....now I get to say the word.....

VOILA! (minus the accent on the A)



Now we just hafta get one of those contoured changing pads for the top of it. I registered for one, so I'm waiting to purchase it.

Tata!

The Tree Of Lauren

One of my incredi-friends, Lauren, painted this tree on a friend's nursery wall. I am going to have her paint the same one on our wall except no birds, we are going to have an owl. Jed loves it too, and I'm so excited!
And guess what! Downtown Presbyterian Church begins tomorrow night. We are so excited for the services to finally begin and cannot wait to get started....

The Hoodlum's Room

Jed has been in Bulgaria and Slovenia with Blake and his dad for the last week and so he has not seen this. But he returns tonight and I'm sure he'll be ecstatic (note extreme sarcasm) about all that we get to do together this weekend-approve nursery fabric, register at Target, sign up for a birthing class, etc. I asked if I could plan a Saturday date for us soon (meaning an actual date, NOT doing baby/house stuff) and he wanted to know what we'd be doing. I told him it was a surprise and asked him why he HAD to know, and his response was that my idea of a fun date was doing chores. Ha!

SO I think Mom and I decided on these 2 fabrics. The first will be used for a skirt for the crib, the 2nd for curtains, and we will use brown minky dots for the bumper pads. I am still going to have Lauren paint the tree mural and will show you the one that she just finished for her good friend in the next blog. Yay for choosing!

Holler!

Okay, I know I haven't been on in forever. And, I don't know if this will be the start of my actual blogging again, but I wanted to give a short update and get some opinions (which might take awhile since I probably lost all 3 readers that I even had in the first place).

1. I'm pregnant with a boy and due May 27th. We are beyond excited. Sometime I'll share about that...it's a real long story.
2. My parents are back in their house following the fire, total gutting, and rebuilding of their house. It is BEAUTIFUL! My parents worked their hinies off all day every day for 6 months and it really is remarkable. Sometime I'll have to show before and afters.

SO-I am in the process of figuring out what to do for the nursery. I don't want to go crazy but my mom said she's make some curtains and bumper pads (she's amazing if you haven't figured that out) if I found fabric. I really LOVE owls but couldn't find pre-made bedding with owls I liked and that was affordable (yes, I've seen Dwell Studios $360 set). SO-what do you think of this??

The last picture is my FAVORITE. I also have an amazing friend who could paint some of this on the wall.

OK-that's all the blogging I can take for now, but hopefully I'll come back soon.