The forgotten goals

It dawned on me this morning that this year is fast approaching it's close.  Christmas is going to be here before you know it.  On a side note, I have already bought two of my nephew's Christmas gifts and a few things for Ms. Nola.  I'm excited to play Santa!  I remember how sad I was when I found out Santa wasn't real.  That's a different story for another day though. 

Back to what I was saying, this year is almost over.  I just remembered this morning that I made some goals.  Uh, funny thing about being pregnant and then having a baby, I don't even remember what they are.  I decided I better touch base with them.  Maybe in the next four months, I can salvage some of them. 

I already thought of another one that I want to add for next year, but I'll hold off on that for now, so to refresh my your memory, my goals for 2011:

Goal #1: Exercise at least two times a week. This is quite funny.  I did start walking toward the end of my pregnancy to try to go into labor and I have walked a few times recently, but it's so stinkin' hot out there.  I'm an outdoor kind of girl when it comes to exercise.  I also do better when I have a partner.  I'm going to start on this hardcore though because I've gained two pounds back.  I have no idea (sitting around breastfeeding all day, no real exercise, eating ice cream almost every day) how, but I was disgusted with myself.  I'm planning on trying to do a pilates video today, since our stroller is in Aaron's truck and he's at work and then off to school, so I won't see him until around 8:00 or 8:30.

Goal #2: Read at least 12 books this year.  I'm not sure what my total is right now, but I think I've read four books, most of which were baby books.  I did get out a book the other day, so I'm hoping to start reading it.  As much as I love to open a book, flip the pages, and the smell of it, I think a Kindle could come in real handy now with the whole breastfeeding thing.  I still have time to make this goal happen.

Goal #3: Work on punctuality.  Check!  I've actually done a lot better.  The baby set me back at first, until I realized you need to add a least an extra hour onto your get ready time.  We actually made it to my nephew's birthday last weekend before anyone else.  Word!  Aaron needs to work on this too to guarantee that we make it on time. 

Goal #4: Have regular date nights.  We have done this all year.  I love a good date night!  Of course, they are little spread out with Nola now, but we still try to work them in, especially when we really need them.  It's hard to believe that you can miss someone that you live with and see on a daily basis, but it happens when things like school, baby time, and life get in the way.  We had our last date night a few weeks ago.  I'm thinking we need another one soon!

Goal #5: Keep up with blogging or writing.  Sigh.  I'm trying to do better on this one, but to find the time has been hard.  My child in the last week has finally started taking naps that are longer than 30 minutes.  This has really helped me out with housework and blogging.  I'm planning on starting her journal too.  I hate that I'm just now starting it, but I have been working on her baby book, if that makes up for it any.

Goal #6: Take a vacation more than once.  I'm not sure if this one will happen.  We are going to Florida at the end of this month.  Yes, we are flying with a baby.  Fingers crossed she's in a good mood that day.  Also, we went to Gatlinburg last October (has it really been almost a year ago?!) and may go again this year (B, do you still want to go?), but I'm not sure I can leave Nola yet.  We'll have to see.

Goal #7: Be the best parent I can be and to accept when things don't go perfectly.  I had a hard time with this one at first, but I'm going with the flow now.  It's too stressful to put that much pressure on yourself.

Goal #8: Freeze at least 10 meals before the baby arrives. I think I had five or six meals frozen.  I didn't quite make it to ten, but having some meals frozen was great, especially after Aaron's mom left. She was our chef for three weeks.  I think I only cooked two or three times while she was here.

Goal #9: Finish all the unfinished projects in the house and start on the new ones (the nursery, new carpet, fence and kitchen remodel). Ha!  This requires my husband.  We haven't finished the nursery, but it's almost done.  Aaron promised me that we would work on it this weekend.  I told him that it has to be done before I go back to work.  As for the new carpet, fence, and kitchen remodel, we decided to hold off on that, even though we have the money in savings, due to the fact that I was not getting a pay check for most of my maternity leave.  I think that was actually a pretty wise choice.  Once I go back and start getting regularly paid, we'll start with the home improvement projects.

Goal #10: Live more in the moment.   I've learned that this one is hard.  I'm so worried about going to work that every time I think about it I remind myself that I'm not going back that day and to not think about it.  It's hard for the planner in me to just live in the moment.  I will say for the last week or so, I have enjoyed every bit of my time with Nola.  Some days, I sit all day on the couch with her or in the floor with her and talk to her and play with her.  I'm going to miss this when I go back.  She learns something new every day and it's so amazing to see!

Goal #11: Work on the outside of our house.   This one is a major fail.  Our poor plants look horrible and my herbs and the flowers I planted died.  Not to make more excuses, but having a baby at home was way harder than I had imagined and poor Aaron has had school three nights a week, not to mention working every day.  We actually got a letter from our home owner's association last month because our grass was insanely tall.  Whoops.  There is always next year for this one.

As you can see, I have pretty much failed, but with this little reminder, I have time for some redemption.  I plan to make as much happen as I can.

On the O table

I haven't done a menu entry in a while, so here's what's happening in the O kitchen this week, including what I've already made.  It's nice to finally want to cook again, even with a screaming baby for part of the time.

• Sunday -  Turkey burgers with blueberries and peaches & pasta salad
• Monday - Crockpot Italian Beef & pasta salad
• Tuesday - Leftovers
• Wednesday - Ground turkey and wild rice skillet
• Thursday - Fish tacos with lime-cilantro slaw & mexican rice
• Friday - Leftovers and/or out
• Saturday  - Grilled pork chops, quinoa pilaf, and brussel sprouts

A pair shorts and a love story

This morning, Nola decided to get up at 5:00 a.m. and the she had a massive amount of spit up all exocorist style.  Not cool, little girl, not cool.   It was so bad that we both had to change clothes and the burp cloth caught a lot of it.  Nothing says love like sharing massive amounts of bodily fluids before your brain even registers that you are awake. 

On a plus note, I've eaten breakfast, dinner is in the crock pot, and the kitchen is clean.  I guess getting up this early does have some advantages.  She's now passed out in her car seat on the kitchen table. Don't judge me people!  She actually likes her car seat better than her bouncy seat.  I know, such a weirdo.

What stirred me to write this morning?  A pair of shorts.  Yes, because when I sleepily walked over to my pajama drawer to change out of my newly-soiled clothes, I pulled out the first pair of shorts that I saw, which happened to be shorts that I bought a day before I went to Gatlinburg with Aaron in December 2000.  Yes, Walmart specials that were like $3.  Let me just say, they still are in perfect condition.  Take that name brand clothing!  I will also say they are the most unflattering things ever and look like they are part of school gym uniform.  Don't you love a good high wasted short?  It's a good thing I was like 10 pounds lighter then.

The shorts brought back a flood of great memories.  It reminded me of where we started out and how we got to where we are now.  I've almost gotten rid of the shorts a million times, but I just can't seem to do it.  Who knew I'd have emotional attachement to a $3 clearance item?

So, I figured I would write the story of where we began.  It may bore you to death, but I'll walk around in a love-induced haze all day in my 11 year old, unflattering shorts feeling like a million dollars! 

Who knew when my now sister-in-law was trying to fix me up with her brother that he would be the love of my life?  I sure as heck didn't.  I kept telling her that I wouldn't date her brother becuase if I didn't like him, then she would get mad and not talk to me anymore and I didn't want to lose her as a friend.  It might help if I told you that they were super close.  In fact, the day I meet him, he came to Dillard's, where we both worked, because the two of them were going to dinner and movie together. 

I refused to even meet him, so she sprang it on me like minutes before he came up to our department.  I tried to go hide in the luggage department.  Yes, I really did, but she marched him over to me anyways.  Later, Aaron told me that he was mad that she insisted on him coming in because he didn't want to meet me that day because he hadn't shaved or showered.  I'm grateful for her persistence, but we both wanted to kill her that day.

So, there we all stood next to the luggage.  I can't remember all of the conversation, but I remember talking about school and finding out that we were both Biology majors.   I also remember my dear sister-in-law saying, "Wow, do you feel the sparks?  There is definitely chemistry here."  My cheeks just got flushed thinking about that moment again.  She's very lucky that I didn't do bodily harm to her later for that comment.

Fast forward a day or two.  Aaron called up to Dillard's to ask me out.  I was awaiting his call because, Amara, the pesky friend and sister, told me he was calling to ask me on a date and told me that I would say yes.  The kicker is, that when he called, a customer answered the phone and pretended to be me.  I can not make this stuff up.  I was standing talking to a coworker, who said my name, and this couple did a walk of shame over to me.  The lady says, "Are you Renee?"  I said yes reluctantly because I had no clue who these people were.  She proceeded to say, "I did something bad" and told me that they were looking around in cookware when the phone rang, no one was around, so she answered it.  It was Aaron, who asked for me, and the lady said, "This is she," so Aaron asked her out, and she actually asked him to call her back, so that she could think about it.  Thanks a lot, lady!

My first thought was not, there goes the love of my life, but instead, Amara is going to kill me.  I never thought that he would call back, but luckily he did, and I explained the situation.  I could tell that he didn't really believe me, (really, who would believe that story) but he asked me out anyways.  It was Thursday, he asked me out for Friday.  I already had plans, but instead of telling him, for fear he would just say forget it, I asked him to come along with one of my friends and I to see a local band play.

What I didn't tell him was I went to every show that this band had because I had the biggest crush on the lead singer?  Can you say groupie?  I mean, not a little crush, like follow the band around for more than a year.  In my head, I thought one date to appease my friend and then on to dating that lead singer.

The date was interesting to say the least.  My friend got totally trashed, so I spent the night chasing her around and making sure she didn't get in trouble.  I don't know why fate didn't want us together, but she tried her best to mess everything up, including sending my crush over to hand deliver a flyer to me for the next show. 

Do you know what I remember the most of that first date?  It isn't the intentional-step-in-front-of-my- date-to-hand-me-a-flyer-to-the-next-show move that the crush made or the constantly looking for my drunken friend who managed to disappear on me all night like she was ninja.  It wasn't the the drive to the date where my friend was flipping through Aaron's cd case (Aaron had gone into a gas station, leaving the two of us in his truck), and looked at me and said, "This is never going to work," based on his musical taste. Nor was it, my own thoughts of him being cute, but not my type when he picked me up for the date.  What I remember the most about our date, was that after knowing him for a few hours, at one point in the date, I was leaning against him and his arms were around my waist and it was most comfortable feeling in the world, that I feel asleep with my head on his shoulder on the drive home, and that when the crush handed me the flyer, I remember thinking, "Okay, I got the flyer.  You can move on now" because he stood what seemed like forever with inches between us.  Not only these things, but I kissed him.  I never kissed anyone on the first date.  It was my thing.  I just didn't do it, but that night, I couldn't help myself.

I should have known with all these things that something big was happening.  If not these things, then the fact that our second date lasted from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.  We went Christmas shopping for his family, went to lunch, a movie, to dinner, and then I came back to his house, where he insisted I come in and meet his mother.   Did I mention we held hands almost the entire time?

So, where do the shorts tie in, you're wondering?   Our third date. On our third date, I met all of his friends at a Christmas party.  Little did I know, Aaron was planning on asking me to go to Gatlinburg with him and a handful of them, but before he could, his friends actually asked me to go with them (shout out to Lea and Terri!).  He was so mad that they asked me before he could. After they told him they had asked me to go, he actually drug me out of the apartment into the breezeway and asked me if I would like to go to Gatlinburg with him.  I said, "Yes, of course," and then he kissed me...and then his friends opened the door cheering because they had watched the whole thing through the peep hole in the door. 

Now, enter the shorts.  So being a poor college student, I had no money at all.  With what little money that I did have, I went to Wal-mart and picked up some new pajamas from the clearance racks, so at least, I would look good for him at night.  No, not lingerie, some high-waisted, ill-fitting gym shorts and another pair of plain gray cotton shorts.  It must have been love for him to stick around!

What followed after that trip was a whirlwind of dates and time spent together.  Some highlights:  A date to a now-closed cajun restaurant where we consumed a whole bottle of wine and had trouble walking out together (need I mention that I had never had wine before), many nights with him teaching me how to play pool and hanging out at a pool hall, him abruptly pulling over in an empty parking lot on the way home one night to ask me if I wanted to date exclusively, lying under a star-filled sky at a soccer field, time spent watching movies with his family, and talking to him on the phone until the wee hours of the morning, when he absolutely hated talking on the phone.

We moved in together after eight months, were engaged at a year, and got married 10 months after that.  The rest is history. 

I found my soulmate in a sea of millions.  I love him even more now than I did in the beginning or when I said, "I do," almost 9 years ago.  When he kisses me, I still get tingles from the top of head down to my toes.  So, I'm going to hold on to these horrible shorts because they remind me of how lucky I am that I've had almost 11 years to live this life with my best friend by my side. 

New in rotation

There's a new song on rotation at the O House, "Cranky Town."  It surpassed "Hungry Thighs" for the number one slot this week.  We might be dorks, but we can't hear your name calling over the fun times we are having over here.

These are the days of my life

Here are the reasons that my brain cells have committed suicide, since I've been on maternity leave:

.  Toddlers & Tiaras  .

.  America's Next Top Model  .

.  19 Kids & Counting  .

.  Grey's Anatomy  .

.  Cold Case Files  .

.  Chopped  .

.  The Game Show Network  .

.  House Hunters  .

.  My First Place  .

. Property Virgins  .

.  Food Truck Race  .

.  What Not to Wear  .

.  Mystery Diagnosis  .

.  Trauma: Life in the ER  .

.  Millionaire Matchmaker  .

I really need to pick up a book or something.  On the plus side, I have learned the following things:

• I know what a flipper is.  I am not proud of this.
• I'm pretty good at Lingo, Family Feud, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
• Home inspections are a must when shopping for a house.
• How to smile with my eyes.  Thanks, Tyra!
• How to kill someone and almost get a way with it.  
• Birth control is a good thing.
• When looking through your pantry, don't underestimate what your lack of groceries can make.  You can be a McGyver in your kitchen. 
• How not to do CPR, if you want someone to live.  Thank you, Grey's Anatomy! 
• First time home buyers think they can have the world on a limited budget.
• If I were a millionaire, I'd find my own damn date.
• Multiple diseases that I will probably never see, but I'll be prepared if I do!
• Stacey and Clinton are saving the world, one person at a time.

Speaking of really bad television, here's a conversation I had with my nephew, Hayden, recently:

Hayden (to Nola):  You better not get pregnant when you are sixteen.

Me to Nola:  Yeah, listen to your cousin. 

Me to Hayden:  Why in the world would you say that?

Hayden:  You know, like the show, Sixteen and Pregnant.

Me:  Oh. You watch that show? 

Hayden:  Sometimes.

Hayden:  Have you seen the one where they are pregnant in prison.  That one is pretty good too.

Me (in my head):  Must talk to my sister about this ASAP.

 



Hair club for women

I'm losing my hair by the hands full.  I didn't even realize my hair had gotten thicker when I was pregnant.  For those of you that have seen my hair, you know that I don't have any.  Seriously.  I may need to become a member of a club soon, if you know what I'm saying.  My head has a weird shape.  Don't think I can pull off the whole bald style.

Stags are for real

Remember this picture I posted of my stag bookend? 

Well, lookie what was on Secrets of a Stylist last week. 

{source Emily Henderson's blog}

Do you see them?  They are larger than my bookend, but it just shows how Emily Henderson should come and help me out with a room in my house.  It would be like I was the decorator only infinitely better because I never follow through, which is why most of  all of the rooms in my house are only partially done.  If only, the show wasn't only based out of California.  Boo.