Friday Five {Link Up}

{Oh, Christmas Tree}
This holiday season has been *EXTRA* hectic.  The hubs finally put up our Christmas tree on Sunday.  Having a 2 year old and an almost 1 year old, I wasn't really motivated to even put ornaments on it, but he insisted. 

{Christmas Party Central} 
Going along with an extra hectic holiday season, we've been jumping from holiday party to holiday party this year.  What's on my menu? Blackberry sangria and bacon wrapped green beans, yum. 
{Whining kids {And Husbands}}
With us going, going, going, and parties all the time, our kids are exhausted!  That leads to whining.  HC put herself to bed at 7:30 tonight.  

{Christmas Shopping}
I'm not a big shopper, and I find shopping with a purpose to be very stressful.  This year, most of my gifts are coming from amazon.com and my prime membership.  It's awesome, and I love it.  HC and I did run out after school today to buy a few things to mail her grandma, whose not going to make it back for Christmas this year.  
{A House Divided}
I was raised on Florida State football, and the hubs was raised an Auburn fan.  The smack talk has started and things could get heated around here in the next couple of weeks!

Friday Five

First off all, let me just say TGIF.  This week's full moon has hit the geriatric population hard.  It's been a long week.

So Friday's Five

{country fried steak}. I punctured a package of round steak while digging in the freezer last weekend so Sunday morning, I breaded it and threw it in the crock pot for the day.  The exciting part?  I was able to make 3 meals out of it. We had country fried steak and veggies, open faced steak sandwiches with gravy and Philly cheese steak sandwiches.

{milestones} My little Emmalyn has become a growing machine.  This week she has started pulling up on furniture and going from crawling to sitting without assistance.  

{rehab week}. This week is rehab week.  Take a moment to thank any PT/OT/SLP peeps you might know.   They're awesome.  My boss had a luncheon for us today and it's always nice to be appreciated.

{pig tails} For the second time ever, H let me put her hair in pig tails.  It is definitely the cutest thing ever.  It also makes me happy.

{fall is coming}. Even here in lower Alabama, you can tell that the mornings are just a little bit cooler and the bugs are getting just a little bit easier to deal with.   While we do have big plans for the last official weekend of summer, it'll be nice to get a reprieve from the heat.

Zinio Magazine Subscription {Giveaway}

Let me start this post here and say...

Hi, my name is Lauren.  

I've become a terrible blogger. 

I am in a chronic state of exhaustion. 

I am a magazine junkie. 

I recycle.  

Those last two things usually mean, I have a pile of magazines somewhere in my house waiting to be hauled off to the recycle bin.  Enter, my two-year-old tornado and that translates to a half shredded, scattered pile of magazines all over my house.

Enter zinio.   

What is zinio? That thing that gets rid of unwanted hair on late-night tv? No.  It's a newsstand. With tons of magazines.  Ready and waiting for you.  On your iPad, or iPhone (and it's available for the few of you that use android or windows devices too.) (Once you go mac, you never go back.  True story.)

So then, I started researching.  Zinio.  Magazine subscriptions that I don't have to haul around with me, worth a try right? 

I was super excited when Zinio contacted me with the opportunity to give subscriptions to my readers!  They have the awesome zinio z-pass which allows you to read 3 new magazines for $5/month.  

This post was sponsered by zinio, but all words and opinions are my own.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Time Flies

My entire life people have said things to me like, "Time really flies by fast as you get older, " or "enjoy it while it lasts."

Lately, I've really started to understand what they mean by that.  I have an ALMOST TWO YEAR OLD.  She's a little person with her own ideas and preferences.  She's talking to me in sentences and she's so sweet.  She gives hugs and kisses and checks on her sister.   She visits with the animals and organizes her toys.  She sweeps and wipes the table down for me.

I mean, she's this completely amazing person that I'm having the privilege of getting to know a little bit better every day.

She's also her mother's child.  She's stubborn and set in her ways.   She throws serious temper tantrums that can last for hours.  She wants to be independent. And she's almost 2.   Some people may define this phase as "terrible."

And it is.

But it's also amazing.

It's a day by day.

And you never know what the day will bring.

And sometimes, I wish it was over.  I wish she could tell me exactly what she wanted or why she was crabby, and sometimes I want to hold her in this place and space forever.

Weekend Update

I'm not always the best juggler of things.  Sometimes, this poor old blog gets neglected for weeks and months on end.  Honestly, it's not just this blog that's gotten neglected, but my social media in general.

{Raising Kids}  

Emmalyn is 6 months old.  We just took her for her check up and everything was great.  The pediatrician was surprised she went 6 months without ear infections secondary to her cleft,  but she's a rock star.  She's 25th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.   She had some stomach issues last week and we ended up cutting out all of her milk based formula.  She now gets 100% soy formula with rice cereal added to it.  As far as development goes, she rolls from back to belly and belly to back. She tries very hard to crawl, and loves pushing herself backwards in her  walker. She makes a lot of noise, but makes very few consonant sounds.  She's started eating purees and LOVES them.  Overall, she's about the happiest baby I've ever seen.

Hadley is almost 22 months old.  She's developed a little bit of a diva attitude, and currently does not like taking no for an answer.  We've started mommy and me gymnastics which she loves, but getting her to leave has become a we bit of an issue.  Overall, she's happy and healthy, and she may be a little bit spoiled.

{Home Life}

Having two small kids has caused fast and serious havoc in my home.  It's hard to keep up cleaning up after them.    The hubs has been using his summer vacation to play catch up.  It's been nice to have someone else doing a little bit of the work, but I'm not sure we're ever truly going to catch up.  

{Work Life}

It's still there.  I'm still thankful to have a job that I love.  I've actually been working a little bit more.  

Swimming with the Fishes (Or the Frogs...)

My life is drastically different now than it was 2-3 years ago.  Since Emmalyn was born, I've noticed some very odd things about myself.  I've decided that I've turned crazy, but my dear husband thinks that I've always been crazy and I don't hide it as well as I used too.  

I'm not throwing the crazy term around loosely either, just so you guys know.  I mean I am starting to have serious anxiety/fears about (sometimes) stupid things....

Such as swimming with frogs....

Image Courtesy of a Handy Google Image Search

I've mentioned a few times that I run, and you see, that's really a lie.  I pretend to run.   I usually do more walking, and I hate it.  My preferred summer exercise is swimming.

It's perfect for me because I hate to sweat.  I hate being hot.  It's a period of time where no one can bother me.  It's amazingly peaceful under water.  I can't even listen to music.  I spend a lot of time in the water alone with my thoughts.  It's good for me.  It allows me to work through things in my head.

I swim in my dad's pool.  The location is good; the price is right.  My dad was out of town for a bit, so I was house-sitting.  One of the things involved in house sitting is fishing things out of this pool.

These items typically include leaves, bugs, and frogs.  One time, I even fished a swimsuit out of the pool.  That's a story for another day.  I've never been a big fan of frogs, but right now, they really skeeve me out.

During my first house sitting swim,  I did all my fishing prior to my swim.  A few leaves, a few bugs, and one ugly toad.  When I fished him out, I thought he was dead.  As soon as he hit that net,  he got back in that frog position.....

And I carried him in the net (attached to a 10 foot pole) to the edge of the woods and set him free.  

During my next swim,   I walked around the pool for a few minutes before hand with my trusty net (and the 10 foot pole, of course).  I fished out a few leaves and a few bugs.  I walked all around the pool looking carefully for frogs, and I saw none.

I started my laps, and just as I was about to hit my third turn, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

There....swimming next to me.....was a frog.  

I, a twenty something adult, with two small children, screamed under water.  I thrashed and hauled ass right out of that pool.  

After that, I calmly and rationally threw a small temper tantrum, retrieved my net and my 10 foot pole and fished the frog out of the pool.  

I finished my swim, but I never really felt relaxed.  The next day, I was needing that fix,  I headed out to the pool and carefully checked for frogs all around the pool.  

The frog was much nicer to me during that third swim.  He let me get 16 minutes, or about 22 laps in, before I caught that familiar movement out of the corner of my eye.  You'll be happy to know that I didn't scream under water this time, but the jerk swam up into the skimmer and teased me.  He sat right on the edge of the door to the swimmer, so I stood outside the pool and waited. 

and waited...

and waited...

And then I decided that I was being foolish.  I needed to finish this swim.   I got back in the pool and swam to laps with my head above water, you know, in case that old toad decided to attack.  

He finally came out and I removed him with my trusty net, and finished my swim.    I was so excited when my dad returned so I could relinquish frog fishing duty back to it's rightful person.  

This Life

Alternate Title: Why I don't blog like I want to.

Y'all, things around these parts have been a little insane lately.

It all started when my husband got man-sick, and all my spare time was sucked into listening to him whine and complain.  He also frequently referred to me as mean and without compassion.  Ok, I know you're sick, but unfortunately, life doesn't stop just because of illness.

And then, I got a new boss at work.  My job has been in constant change and chaos pretty much since I started, and my new boss is an old co-worker.  I have no issues with her as a boss, but she's the only other person that does my job, so it's put more work on my end. To be honest, I get paid by the hour, and I can use the money, so it's no big deal.

And then there's the greatest loves of my life, who seem to be more and more time consuming as they grow older and bigger.

And cooking and cleaning and laundry and dishes and bath time....

And this is just a crappy excuse post to say I'm still here, sit tight and I'll be back with more crazy, random blog posts and love for you guys!