A Week of "Keeping It Real"

So, my girlfriend and I were having a conversation about how blogging and how perfect everyone's life seems. Of course most people are going to post the positives, but it definitely seems like some go above and beyond to make their lives look pretty darn awesome... which just makes the rest of us feel like losers.
Well, I doubt my blog makes me look like the best mom on the planet, but JUST IN CASE, I'm 'keepin' it real' for a week around here. Should be interesting. Or not.
Last night, Eddie's company hosted their winter/holiday party. It was actually a fun night, he works for a small company and everyone is friendly and knows each other. He works with some really fun people that remind us of the days of Old Anthem. ;) It was nice to be without the kids (Keeping It Real). Oh, and in the interest of K.I.R, as we were leaving them at my parents, Jack hit Neily and she was crying for Daddy (screaming actually) and it annoyed me so much that I yelled at both of them, told them to knock it off and then left. Yup. Then I felt guilty so I called back and told her I was sorry... but that she really did need to knock it off a little. LOL!
Eddie and I on our way to the par-tay! Can't show you a picture of my fabulous red shoes because... the dog ate the fabulous red shoes. K.I.R.

The dog, surrounded by bits and pieces of the fabulous red shoes. All those little pieces on the floor? Hard to see but that's the shoes.

And the K.I.R finale for the day, this is what I woke up to find in my kitchen. The trash on the counter so the dog won't have a heyday in it. Dirty dishes. Cups of dinosaurs and mermaids growing for the kids. A game that we haven't played in years? And instead of cleaning it up... I'm going to go and watch American Idol and hope that my parents don't try to bring the kids back home until at least 4 o'clock.
How's THAT for Keeping' It Real?

Family "Fun"

We went to the gym this morning like good little boys and girls, and we took the kids to play on the soccer field when we were finished. Normally that would have been about it for a Sunday around here, but I had spent about 45 minutes on the elliptical without my iPod, and the local news kept running the same tickers about local happenings. After I saw "Kids skate free on Fountain Square" for about the 10,000th time, I thought, "We should do that!" Neily had actually seen it on the news last night and gotten all excited, and we kind of dismissed her, so I thought she'd get a kick out of it.
I asked Eddie if he wanted to go, and being a good sport, he said okay. He would never say, "Yeah, they'd love that, it would be fun!" I think it's because he's grumpy, but maybe it's because he's just smarter than me.
Ice skating, downtown on Fountain Square, awwww... we'll file this under "Things That Should Be Fun But Aren't." I am no pro skater, so there was no way I was taking my camera down there on the ice, but I knew I would want pics, so we took Neily's camera. It's some kind of Kodak from 1876, so please excuse the quality. ;)
In the end, it WAS actually fun. Sort of. The first thirty seconds on the ice were filled with, "WHY in the hell did I think we should do this?!" but it got better. And then it got worse. And then it got better again, and it was fun.

All ready to go:

We saw a LOT of this:
*Don't think badly of me for not helping him! I actually hit the button when he was standing and smiling, and the camera from 1876 has about a 3 minute shutter delay, so this is what I got! I wouldn't leave him laying on the ice on purpose. Well, I might, but this time I didn't!*


Neily was ready to give up after about a minute, but then she started to figure it out and really got the hang of it!

By the end of our time, she was actually skating for about 6 or 8 feet on her own before reaching for the wall, and she has asked to go back already!


Jack seems to have forgotten that he was mostly miserable and decided he wants to go back too. They're open until the end of February... we'll see! Maybe Daddy and Neily can go together!

So, I managed to stay home every day this week until Friday. That is a major accomplishment and to say that I enjoyed it is even bigger! But it's true, we had a great week- I even cooked dinner- real dinner!- every night. But, I woke up this morning and knew I needed to get out. However, I really, truly wasn't in the mood to spend money (what's happened to me?) but I was kind of the mood to create something, so I knew it was a thrift store kind of day.
First, Jack and I hit Hobby Lobby, where as Jack will tell you, "Hobby Lobby has everything we need!" Poor kid. As I was getting him out of the car, I remembered I had a gift card from Christmas for Hobby Lobby! I was almost giddy. I ended up with a good haul of stuff. I had this old headboard in the basement that I walk by every day and think, "I'm going to recover that one day!" Well, today was the day. An hour and $12.43 later, I have me a new headboard, folks! We got home at 11, and by the time Neily got off the bus at 11:40, the project was done. It was THAT easy. I was actually eyeing a leather headboard but this turned out to be much better suited for the room, so yay!
*Excuse the lumpy bed, Henry jumped off right before I snapped the photo!*

A little closer look at the fabric, if you care. Just wait until you see what I have in mind for the remnant of this fabric!

THEN, we hit my favorite thrift store, where I spent all of $18 to get all of these beautiful items. I thought Eddie was going to vomit when he saw them, it was like an 80s living room had exploded but it's going to be fabulous! The best find was hands down the chandelier. I am not very good at waiting and searching, but I knew if I was patient (so! hard!) I would eventually find the right one. I wasn't worried about painting it the correct color, but my biggest requirement was that the lights point UP so I could put shades on them. Everything I found over the last few months went down, how annoying! Thanks to sweet Jack who spied this one for me, "Mommy, the lights go UP!" I spray painted it black and can't wait to see the final product. As for the rest of it... you'll just have to wait and see!

Festival of Lights!

This holiday season, we FINALLY made good on our goal to go down to Festival of Lights at the zoo. When we had a pass, we somehow managed not to get down there, and last year because of our busy summer and the kids schedules, we didn't renew. Mamaw and Grandpa Doug had passes for us, so we headed down. It was FREEZING the night we chose to go, but we had a great time. This was the first time we made this type of trip (mall, zoo, amusement park) without a stroller, it was so weird! Jack is just so much easier in a stroller and he doesn't fight it, so whenever we go somewhere like this, we've just always taken it. We felt like we had forgotten something all night! It was nice, not having to figure out where to park it, not running people over... but there was also nowhere to stow your crap and certainly quite a few extra "Jack, please watch where you're going"s that night.
Just a few from that night- I find pretty much no enjoyment in being fancy at picture taking in the dark and I hate my flash, so I didn't even use it much.

Love this one!

Neily riding the carousel!

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a happy new year. We had a fun week here and I am truly sad to see the holiday season come to an end. The kids head back to school tomorrow- I am sad to see our little family vacation come to and end but I'm craving normalcy and schedule again. Surprising, huh? We had a really great time over the last two weeks. We rang in the new year with our friends and neighbors the Robinsons. We ate way too much and let the kids run wild. We laughed that only the truest of friends could have partied like we did- all of us laying on the couches like bums making fun of the latest pop stars and reminiscing about Dick Clark. My kind of night out! ;) On New Years Day, both Penn State and UC played in bowls, so we had planned a party. It was a full house and way too much food to cheer on Joe Pa! The kids looked super cute decked out in their Mini Nittany Lion t-shirts but all the roses and navy blue we had in the house were not enough to make it through. We had high hopes for UC later in the night but I'm not sure exactly who that was on the field that night? Certainly not UC. *Choke, choke* Luckily, we had awesome friends to soften the blow for us. The house sounded empty for a good day after everyone left. Haha!

Now that we're back in the swing of things, I have some goals for the new year! I'm not a New Years Resolutions kind of girl, but this year I had some definite changes I was ready to make. Over the last year, we got quite a bit accomplished in the house- I tossed clutter and crap left and right, we paired down and nearly every room got a makeover. Over the last year, this really became a space I love... save the fact that I want to expand every room by about 4 feet! I realized that it may not be perfect, and it certainly isn't big, but every single room is one that I love and reflects us as a family. So, that led to goals for the new year! I'm putting them here because putting it in writing will keep me accountable. ;)
They are... in no particular order:
1. Continue to 'finish' projects around the house

2. Look my best ever on my 30th birthday- I have seven months!

3. Stay HOME and enjoy it! I would say after this last two weeks, I'm well on my way. Yoga pants are my friends.

4. Spend more thoughtfully- go for quality and things I really love and want, not mindless spending. This is hands down going to be my toughest goal, a direct combination with #3!

5. Grow my business and learn new skills.

6. Spend quality time with Neily and Jack every day.

7. Keep our master bathroom vanity clean. Every single day. Oy.

8. Organize my time more efficiently.

9. Continue to grow friendships that are important to me.

10. Be really, really happy with the way things ARE.

So that's it, that is my list! Those are the things I think I need to work on the most and we'll see if a year is enough time. Hahahahahahaha!

Christmas Day!

We hosted Christmas Day at our house again this year, and this is a tradition that we LOVE. Staying home has allowed us to adopt some very special family traditions that I never want to give up! I think Santa was very good to Neily and Jack this year, as well as Mommy and Daddy. Santa dropped off our presents early, though- a camera upgrade for Mommy in November and a new tv for Daddy about two weeks before Christmas (Santa would have brought that but Mommy couldn't unload it from the car alone and I figured he would notice it in the van...).

Every Christmas Eve, we still have to put up a babygate because we don't trust that our kid wouldn't start without us a la Christmas Story.

Happy Jack with his Bendaroos... don't even get me started on these damn things. I can tell you where every Walgreens in a fifty mile radius is!


Neily and Tini Puppini- the dog that Santa brought EVEN THOUGH he really thinks it is disgusting and ugly.
Santa is really, really nice.


Every Christmas morning, we have a special breakfast of french breakfast puffs. The sole reason for making this a holiday tradition is because these puffs are so bad for you, it should be illegal to eat them at any other time. Only on Christmas when you can pretend it doesn't matter!
Jack testing out the Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
Emmy and Icky setting up Martian Matter with Jack. Another Santa score! ;)

Packaging! UGH! Why? WHY?

Icky playing Santa


Neily kicking butt on the Wii:

Jack doing what he does best:

Neily and Jack all cleaned up for Christmas!


Good night!!!!!

We had an amazing day. It was so much fun to have the house packed to the walls with the people we love. We didn't get Nana on the Wii, but we'll keep working on her. :)

Christmas Eve with the Coles

It was a Merry Christmas with the Cole family, as always. :) We headed to Larry and Donna's this year, which was such a treat! I am going to hire Larry one of these days to wave his magic wand over my house because I love what they have done to theirs! Just the basement alone, I have such jealousy! It is always fun to see everyone, and the White Elephant game was definitely the highlight for us!Doug looks like he wants to have his picture taken, eh?
Don't let Grumpa fool you... I saw him smile when no one was looking. ;)


Sweet Emma!


Santa arrived! We had told our kids in advance that Santa would be there and that this wasn't actually Santa- for a few reasons. One, Neily has been mighty suspicious this year and asked a lot of questions, sniff sniff. Two, this Santa brought presents from Grandpa and we wanted them to say thank you to him. Three, we have a strict policy that Santa only comes to our home. Mostly because we are selfish and one day want them to know how hard we worked, lol!
HOWEVER- I'm not sure that either kid believed that this was not in fact Santa. They were completely taken with him! Check out Jack's face in this one!
Neily was pretty excited for what was in that bag!


The best gift that Jack could ever have received! This snowman sings "Deck the Halls" in a rock style, and every morning since Christmas, we've awoken to the sound of Jack literally rocking out KISS style in his room with the snowman!

Liz's first White Elephant pick! Very useful for a 13 year old, no? Of course it was a hot steal though.


Jessie's gift
Eddie coming away with the most coveted win of all- a dinner of Grandma's famous spaghetti and meatballs that only Beth has been able to perfect!

Merry Christmas Cole family! We always have fun with this crazy group. :)