Don't poop on your own parade!

Yes..... I said this to my sister.

She had gotten some really great news and was super excited bbbuuuttttt she was about to tell someone that no matter how well meaning was going to bring her down from a well deserved high.  I told her " L, Don't poop on your own parade!"

We all need those happy days. The days when it seems like everything is going right and nothing can stop you now.  (Cue hokey soundtrack now.)There are so many days that are not exciting, joyful,all about hope and happiness that when you have one...for god sakes..... don't tell anyone who is going to poop all over  it!

So maybe keep it to yourself until the awesome high is fading, then brace yourself, and tell that person. Knowing full well , they are not going to share your joy.  Just smile and hold that happiness inside while they try to strip it away ( not knowing, of course)

However, that negative voice can even be yourself. I read somewhere once that if we though of that mean voice as an actual person, we wouldn't let them talk to us like that.  I try to remember that when I get down on myself but  life happens and sometimes that negative voice wins.

Either way ladies....Just don't poop on your own parade!! 

This has been another Entirely Emily P.S.A.

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY Show Off
DIY Shop - Lines Across My Face -I should be mopping the Floor
Great Fun 4 Kids

Tuesday
How to Nest For Less - Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime - Debbie Does Creations - Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
 Thrifty Home - Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
- Junk in Their Trunk  - Southern Lovely  -SNAP

Thursday
 Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
Loving this Crazy Life - The Shabby Cottage
The Taylor House- House of Hepworths 
Two In Diapers-Mommy Brain Mixer


Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty -  My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now
Here Comes the Sun

Saturday

Six Sister's Stuff

Cheerios and Lattes
Natasha in Oz -Say G'Day

What I probably won't do now that I'm a mom

I was at my book club a while back , talking with another mom. One who has kids much older than mine ( college age, high school and elementary). On a side note...this woman doesn't look a day over 35.  I can't hate her though because she's so nice, funny and likable. Sigh..

Any who.... we were talking about how when you are younger  ( teens, twenties, pre-kids) you are so much more adventurous and want to do all of these crazy things.  You really don't think a thing of it....until... you have kids.  You don't mind risking your own life but then you think , I want to see my kids  go to school, graduate, get married, have kids, etc. The list can go on and on.  She said her thing was skydiving.  Another woman in the group ( her mom )  said that she learned to fly a plane ONLY when all of kids were grown and out of the house.

So I started thinking... what did I think was no big deal or that I wanted to do that I won't probably ever do now  or until I'm much older.

Here's my list of things I may never do again or when my kids are much older:

• Skydiving
   Don't want to go splat
• Getting really really really drunk
   I want to be aware if my kids need me and don't want to do anything we all would regret some day.
• Leaving the country without them
  This I may do later when they are older
• Shooting guns
   So much can go wrong there
• Riding or Driving in a fast car/boat/ small plane/ATV
   Really do I need to explain that one?
•  Jumping Horses
   I used to jump but I fell off/been thrown off numerous times.  I don't know if I want to take that chance. But I may change my mind when they get older.
•  Going to bars late at night in really bad parts of town
   Why did I ever do that in the first place?
• Eating exotic foods that are alive
   eewwww and gross and food-poision-y

I'm sure there are more I could think of and will. If I do , I'll add them in later. Remember these are just my issues. I'm sure there is at least one thing you won't do now that you are a mom... what is it?

Please...talk to a quiet person today

I'd be the one on the left.........hello?..over here..

Introverts Unite!  I would start a support group but that would involve getting together and  talking... and that would be one quiet meeting. {giggle}

I've always been the quiet one. The only that would sit on the edge of any gathering and just listen. But really I wanted  to talk, wanted to be part of the conversation. I still do. I do have alot to say (durr...I blog now). I know a lot of stuff.   I've tried to make myself more outgoing as I've gotten older....watching other people and trying to be like them. Having kids pretty much forces you to be more outgoing because you have to talk to other mommies to set up play dates and things for the kids to do.  It's still a work in progress for me.

Yes, my idea of a good time is:
- to sit at home and blog
- read
-go for a walk
-organize something
-go have a cup of coffee
- just come to your house, talk  and have a drink.
- crafting something
-hanging out with a small group of people (4-10) at some one's house

I went out a lot in my 20s, again, pushing my introvert envelope but having kids and being a SAHM has put me comfortably where I belong.  I'm probably not going to go back to my drinking/going out every Friday night/hungover story kinda life. 

It's funny how as a quiet introverted  person I always feel  this pressure of  having to be more extroverted as if being who I am  isn't a good thing or not looked at in a good way.  I don't think there's anything wrong with  YOU  if  YOU want to go out every week and have tons of events and tons of friends.  Go. Have a ball , just don't judge me for not wanting to do the same.

There are a lot of times that I don't want to go to certain events or with certain people because  I don't like how I feel  there.  There is always the loud, outgoing person who talks the WHOLE time usually about themselves or  to the one person they're trying to suck up to. The only thing I ever get asked is " How are the girls doing?" Really,  that's all you think I have to talk about?  I try and make conversation with the outgoing ones and it ends up being all about them.  And that's not much fun for me.  Why would it be?

Others have told me, oh just jump in, you have to interrupt us. I don't feel comfortable butting into the conversion (sorry..that's just not me). When I do try that , I feel like everyone is looking at me with the"who does she think she is?" look.  Again, trying to make me like you isn't going to work.

I wonder what my two girls are going to be like:  me or more outgoing.  I feel like K is the awesome outgoing one now and S is the quiet one with the awesome personality that no one gets to see.  No matter who they turn out to be, I want them to be happy like all moms do. I want people to like them for who they are not who they " could " be.


I just want the loud, talkative people of the world to look around sometimes...see the quiet people standing around..come up and talk to us.  You won't believe what we have to say. You might meet someone really cool , learn something really cool or make a really great friend.

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY How Off
DIY Shop - Lines Across My Face -I should be mopping the Floor
Great Fun 4 Kids

Tuesday
How to Nest For Less - Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime - Debbie Does Creations - Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
The Winthrop Chronicles


Wednesday
Oopsey Daisy - Thrifty Home - Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
- Junk in Their Trunk  - Southern Lovely


Thursday
My rePurposed Life - Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
Loving this Crazy Life - Fireflies and Jellybeans - The Shabby Cottage
 The Taylor House
House of Hepworths

Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty -  My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now
Here Comes the Sun

Saturday
Six Sister's Stuff
Be Different Act Normal
Cheerios and Lattes
Natasha in Oz -Say G'Day

Sunday
Nifty Thrifty Things

My Stop-Spending- Stupid- Money Plan ( or 10 things that can save you money if you stop doing them)

Stupid Money (n): The money that you should have been able to save or never spent in the first place but you were lazy, just plain forgot or made a bad choice.

It's the middle of the year and I am tired of spending stupid money on things I shouldn't.  Are you still confused on the concept of " stupid" money? Here  are some examples of "stupid" money  issues:

-Library book fines

I don't want to even know how much I have paid the library this year. Based in how much we love the library, it was a bunch.  It should be a free resource but when you forget to turn in 8 kids DVDs for a week. Ka-ching!

-NOT returning stuff
You look at the receipt and say, oh  I've got a month to return that or 60 days or even 90. And then you look at the recipe again and missed your chance. There's $60 of stuff you can't use sitting in your room


-Not sending in rebates
 Seriously so annoying.  You buy something and it comes with an awesome rebate. You have every intention of sending it in and then before you know it, it's passed and you didn't save the $5- $20 bucks. dang it.

-Forgetting coupons

 I'm not the best coupon user and I buy lots of things that never or hardly have coupons. So when i do see a coupon  for something I actually use, I get all excited , cut it out, put it in the organizer and then forget the organizer whenever I go to the store. And as I'm checking out I remember that I had a coupon for that. grrrr..

-Forgetting Gift cards/Groupons

 You get a gift card for a birthday or Christmas or baby shower or wedding shower... you think you are going to wait and use it on something good or wait until you have coupon to use with the girt card.  And a year or so goes by and it starts losing value or it's been swimming around your purse so long that you just lose it. There goes  $20-$100 . bye bye.

-Mystery Charges on bills you don't check
I'm not the best at reviewing my monthly bills or bank statements on time. I have caught, too late, some mystery charges or late fees or over drafts  that had I caught sooner. I could have gotten removed or reduced  but I didn't so they got me   $5-$40 at a time.

- Traffic Tickets
In the past few years, the red light cameras have gotten us ( whatever) and J got a speeding ticket going from building to building at work. There was $200 a pop right there to get them fixed. Just think what we could have done with that money.

-Throwing away food
we don't do this alot but  there are some times that because we by alot of  food at a big box store ( i know, not the best)  that we throw away a bunch of apples or a half a bag of lettuce or some other kind of food that went bad before we could eat it. Even though we saved money buying the food there,  we are throwing money away by not eating it/

- Reoccurring monthly charges
I'm talking about stuff like Blockbuster online (we didn't use for 4 months because we were too busy), Netflix( always forget to use ), consumer reports...stuff like that.  Apparently, we had been paying $20 a year for Consumer reports for 7 years. So it's not a ton of money, but we weren't even using it and had completely forgotten that we were paying for it.

And my all time DUH stupid money spender....

- Not bringing your lunch to work or out somewhere you could like an outdoor concert or touristy place ( like the Zoo)

 J leaves in such a hurry in the morning that he usually doesn't have time to make his lunch. If he did it would be a  deli sandwich with some yogurt and fruit maybe. Healthy , right? But when he forgets  what does he buy at work? A deli sandwich , chips, and some fruit.  Ahhhh.. So that's $8 bucks a pop almost five days a week on top of what we spend on groceries.

If we can cut back on this kind of stuff maybe we can afford that trip to Disney World next year. Yipee!

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY How Off
DIY Shop - Lines Across My Face -I should be mopping the Floor
Great Fun 4 Kids

Tuesday
How to Nest For Less - Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime - Chronic Christian Crafter - Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
The Winthrop Chronicles


Wednesday
Oopsey Daisy - Thrifty Home - Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
- Junk in Their Trunk  - Southern Lovely


Thursday
My rePurposed Life - Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
Loving this Crazy Life -Scrappy Crafty Happy - Fireflies and Jellybeans - The Shabby Cottage
Quality Cheap Home  - The Taylor House
House of Hepworths

Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty -  My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now
Family Ever After 
Here Comes the Sun

Saturday


Six Sister's Stuff
Be Different Act Normal


Sunday
Nifty Thrifty Things

Me + Vacation = Pneumonia

Hello all my bloggy friends. Man, I missed you guys.

Like the title....nice huh?  Yep....that's how I roll unfortunately. I went on my much anticipated vacation last week and wound up sick the whole time. I didn't find out until an ER trip on Thursday that I had  Pneumonia.  I used all of my energy every day to play with my girls on the beach or the pool. Then I went back to the condo every afternoon/evening and just crashed.

I didn't even look at a computer.

I didn't even send out my almost done posts  I had all done up the week before.

I feel so out of the loop.

I'm still not totally well even with the antibiotics (Can you say crazy side effects? Yikes!)

I'm slowly going to join the bloggy world again.  Let me know what I missed ...ok?

Becoming Stronger

Yep...that's my Rosie the riveter.  That's my ticket to the gun show right there.

I feel a shift happening in my life.

I was raised to be a good, kind, polite, whatever-you -want  kind of person. And for the most part those are all good things. Until you lose yourself somewhere in between.

I have always wanted people to say " Oh that Emily. She is such a nice person." So I did everything I could  so that no one could ever come back and say anything otherwise.

But I have noticed as  I get older and especially since I had kids.......... I'm tired of it. I'm tired of always not saying something or doing something  solely for the benefit of someone else.  I kinda feel like I've been censoring myself my whole life.

I'm not going to go all out and take the filter completely off ( because I know some of those people  and I don't like them either). But  I've been finding out that  I need to stand up for myself and especially my kids.

There are a few people in our lives that think they can do whatever they want, say whatever they want to me or my family. And normally, I would be very uncomfortable with it but just stand there and smile because I didn't want to be a B. And my hubby hates, with a capital H, confrontation so he will never say anything to anyone to avoid a fight.  So I feel like now, it's up to me. I'm not a doormat anymore and that, my friends, is going to ruffle a lot of feathers.

You know what?  .... Dang it.... I'm stronger than this. This is my life and my family. And to  H with anyone who's in my way now!


( Kelly Clarkson's " Stronger" is now my new official internal theme song..BTW)

What I Wore Wednesday: Wedding Edition

In my blog travels yesterday,  I found this great site, Absolute Mommy ,and she had a  link up called WIW: Wedding.

In blogging,What I Wore is a cool blog post that just shows off what you were wearing on any particular day.  Normally for me...it's not that exciting or at all stylish....jeans,short sleeve shirt of some kind, and flip flops.   Megan, because it was her anniversary, decided to do her wedding day and invited any and all  to do the same.

I can't remember the name of the maker of my dress only that I finally found it after looking at  6 different dress shops. I drove my family and friends crazy with all of the looking. It was around $800. I had to have lace and I wanted something flow-ey but classic and  I had to have a train.

I had to have my pictures taken with my Charlie before the ceremony. And not be left out, Louie was there too.

Isn't he cute too?

There we are... all married and stuff. Will you look at all of the cameras to the left? Craziness. We were married at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in the Japanese Garden. Very Pretty and someplace we can visit anytime we want. Bonus.

You can see the lace better on this shot. There were also tiny beads for a hint of sparkle. I loved these flowers. So awesome.

The veil was made by my mom. It was full length and awesome-ly simple,attached by just a simple clip.

I wish I still looked this good everyday after taking care of two kids.

A co-worker of mine at the time, Bridget, made the jewelry for me from Swarovski crystals and pearls. She had gotten married a few months before me and I loved what she was wearing. I just wanted something simple but sparkly.( do you see a theme here?)

I even dressed up the clay people that I made for the top of the cake.

Writing this post really makes me want to get my dress out and wear it around the house. I've never felt more pretty than I did that day. It is a shame that we don't get to wear it again. And I still really like my dress. I don't think it looks dated ....yet and maybe I never will. Maybe one of my girls will want to wear it or tweak it a little and then wear it. Even if they don't.... it will always be special to me.

What's in my purse?

S was going through my purse today as she does any time it gets near her tiny hands and I thought ..hmm... I wonder if everyone else has such random stuff in their purses.

So here is what is in my purse today:

-Sunglasses
-Carmex Vanilla lip balm (smells good)
-pen ( stolen from somewhere)
-pictures of my kids in plastic sleeves and some that should be
-Bath and Body  sanitizer, Sagittarius. It was from back last year.
-Car keys with school door pass attached. It's high level security over there. it's a good thing.
-Receipts from Trader Joes, Well Body,  and Target
-Gift cards from : Bath and Body, Toys r Us, Crate and Barrel, and Kohls
-Cell Phone ( I wish it was an IPhone)
-Small point and shoot Canon in it's case for those quick shots
-a scratch off ticket...... that didn't win.
-a Powerball ticket...... that didn't win
-STL ZOO membership card... a lifesaver
-STL county Library card and mini card ( why do I have both in there?)
-SAMS club card
-WellBody Business cards
-Victoria Secret measuring tape ( it comes in really handy everywhere. You'd be surprised)
-Two free passes to the Museum of Transportation
- How to plant a raised bed garden brochure from Home Depot.( It's a goal of mine this summer)
- Change
- two barrettes
-pieces of gum and goldfish crackers ( eewww)

I challenge my other bloggy friends to do the same and share what's in your bag?

What Would You Grab in a Fire?

I'm sure you've seen this somewhere before but if there was a fire/tornado/flood/ huge natural disaster what 5 things would you grab? And say you had 10-30 minutes. I hope none of us ever have to think of this but  I found this website : http://theburninghouse.com/ . And it made me think.

We would all say family, so should I even count that?  I'll count them all as one thing. That's including the dog.

So the other four things....

-Hard drive with every photo/video in our family history
-2 photo albums that aren't digital ( count as 1)
-All of our baby books ( all the same thing. count as 1)
-Important document Ziploc..yes I said Ziploc

( do you like how I justify all my multiples?)

All of them except the bag are in the same room, so it would make that grabbing fast and easy.


 And if timed allowed this is everything in the house I would want:

-K's stuffed Mickey mouse ( her favorite in these shirt four years)
-S's stuffed puppy ( her favorite in these short two years)
-Charlie's stuff ( old toys,dog tags, paw print)
-Camera Bag
-Wedding Dress
-Christening gowns
-jewelry (good stuff from parents and grandparents)
-Christmas ornaments( yes...I love them)
-K's Baby Box
-S's Baby Box

Everything else is the house is just stuff.  It really is just...... stuff. It really makes you think about all  of it and why we buy so much. And how we don't need it.

Man-Dates

Have you ever been out and seen a guy or talked to a guy at the store and thought to yourself...."Man.. he would really get along with my husband/boyfriend. They have alot in common."

You haven't? I have.

My husband has great friends. Friends that would do anything for him anytime. Friends he has known since high school and friends he has met at work. But who doesn't want new friends and to meet new people that you have stuff in common with? It makes life fun and keep things from getting boring.

I think my husband would love to find more friends that would live within walking distance of our house. A guy with kids our kids' ages who is about our age.Who doesn't want a bud to go walk down and drink some "Buds" with in his driveway?  But what guy really wants to be introduced by his wife/girlfriend  to some stranger or neighbor he's never met before? If  they both didn't know it was happening...mmm....they might.