Merry Christmas to ME!

Every year for Christmas my grandmother gives me money to do with what I please! As it has become tradition, I use my money to get my hair done. Today I went to see Danielle, the World's Greatest Hairstylist, in my opinion anyways, and she gave me this wonderful new look.

It's copied from Adrinanna from the new 90210 episodes, and I love it! THANK YOU DANIELLE! She put in some blended highlights that gives it a more dimensional look and makes it kind of fun and flirty! What do you guys think?

Santa came to town...

Well I finally downloaded some pictures so I could share all that Santa brought us for Christmas. It was a good year for both Austin and I. We both asked for vacuum cleaners, and Santa brought us both one...

Austin's:

Mine:

Nice, huh? I never in my life thought my 5 year old and I would both ask for the same thing for Christmas. Hahahaha!

Let's see...what else...

Well Santa didn't bring me this, but the World's Best Boyfriend did!

My very own Kathy Van Zeeland Zebra Handbag! I saw it at Stein Mart and showed it to him, but I never-EVER thought he would go back and get it. Isn't he the best?!

And then there is my parents...

The school I attended (but did not graduate from) is going to be here in AZ in the Fiesta Bowl on January 4th. Yep, you guessed it. I get to go see TCU kick some Boise State tail (AGAIN) here in Glendale, AZ and I am taking my wonderful man with me! We got VIP section tix and pre-game party passes. And to top things off, I get to see old friends who are coming here for the game! I am so pumped!

Here is the perfect shirt for an AZ girl going to see her Frogs play in the Fiesta Bowl!

I would have to say it was a wonderful Christmas! I am super excited about the game and lovin' my new purse and how soft my carpets are with the new vacuum sucking up up all the yuck the other one left behind! So far it has been wonderful to have my man close by while we celebrate the the holidays and enjoying the time together. I also have the addition of Jarrod's puppy (Tabitha the pug...he got it for a Christmas gift for his kids) and I am spoiling the heck out of her...hee hee hee!

2010 is around the corner...

As I sit here getting caught up on the blogs I used to follow religiously, I ran across a book club on Simple Mom. I am not usually interested in this kind of thing, but the first book is one I would love to read. 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families. I have liked all of the others Steven Covey, so I thought, why not! I added the badge for the post on left side of the blog if you are intereested and you want to get involved as well.

This has me thinking of the fact that 2010 is quickly approaching and I feellike it was just New Years Day 2009. Alot has happened this year and it would be close to impossible to rehash all that has happened but if 2010 keeps pace with 2009, it should be an interesting roller coaster ride, but I will tell you that there is alot to look forward too as well. I have a beautiful little boy, a wonderful man, and alot to be thankful for. My life has been turned upside down for the better in the past few months and I just know that 2010 will be one of my best years yet...

I'M THINKIN' POSTITIVE!!!

It's Complicated!

Last night we went to see "It's Complicated" and there seems to be some mixed emotions on how I felt about it, mostly because it was hilarious, but the subject matter was a little...well I guess uncomfortable would be the word. We are so used to seeing the perfect family and the perfect situation and the writer/producer of this movie took a more "real" approach to late in life divorces. I guess overall, I enjoyed it but I am not sure I will own it...

The day AFTER Christmas...

Well it's been a slow one, but still quite eventful...

Today, the boyfriend and I, (yes I said boyfriend, but we will get to that in a minute) woke up to the lovely chore of trying to dry out his Blackberry which he unceremonously decided to let fall into the toilet at 4 am. At 7 am he decided it was time to wake me to help him to take it apart and get it dried out to see if it still worked. And I gotta tell you, he got a CHRISTMAS Miracle! It works...PERFECTLY!

After that (well, 2 and a half hours later), we decided to get out of the house and get some lunch and hit Old Navy, where I scored come Sweetheart Cords for $12 each and a couple of cute T's for $4 each, then we hit the bank, Sprouts and Wal-Mart to get some food in the house for the week ahead. Along the way, we went by Mom and Dad's and my mom being the superwoman that she is, said she'd hem my new bargin-buy pants for me! SCORE--Thanks Mom!

We came home and I made dinner, One Pot Creamy Chicken Pasta, and Frizzle (Italian Antipasta salad with dried out bread). The OPCCP is a Pampered Chef recipe and really really easy and yummy! The honey really enjoyed it!

We were planning to go see "It's Complicated" at 9:25, but the boy just decided to wake up, so we may not make it to that one and are trying to decide if the 10:20 movie still sounds as good! But I did wake the boy up and the puppy is now crying (oh yeah, another story) because he put her back in her bed...I'll let you know the outcome!

Moving on to the boyfriend story...

Well, Jarrod and I have been dating now for over 3 months and I have to say, he as close to perfect as I could ever dream of getting. He is kind, loving, thoughful, a great father and an all-around wonderful person. He has a heart of gold and would do anything for just about anyone! He has met the parents, and the grandmother (all of which who think he's pretty neat, just like me) and we got the opportunity to spend not only all day Christmas Evetogether, which he helped me in hosting 13 people for dinner in my tiny little house, but he also got to experience a Hadges Family Christmas at Mom and Dad's. I am happy to report, he SURVIVED, and a little birdie told me the patriarch of the family was wispering to the others that he liked him...YIPEE!! FINALLY...they approve! I would say, so far, this guys has the seal of approval from all the right people!

Now, if I can just figure out what exactly he has up his sleeve for V-Day! All I know so far is that I had to take off work on the 12th, find a sitter for Austin for the weekend, I will be enduring a 6 hour drive which will leave me in a destination in AZ, but I may travel into another state along the way! SEE? It's a toughie! Any thoughts?

It's been awhile!

I know it's been forever and I honestly not even sure anyone reads this thing, but it feels good to get thoughts down and its kinda fun to get to use my creative side, which has been dorment for some time.

Today, I decided after reading a couple of blogs that it was time to drag out this old thing and update things a bit.

So where to begin? Well it's August (can believe it is August already?) and I have offically walked the graduation stage at ASU. Finally I have my degree in Human Communications. I loved the last few years of classes, with exception of the dreaded spanish classes. And I am sorry to admit, I kinda miss those COM classes that were interesting and inspiring. If I could have just taken those classes, I would have suck around forever. Sad, but true.

Austin had officially made it through his first 2 weeks as I big boy in Kindergarten, with a only a few hurdles. I will say I was surprised when I got a call from the Dean of Students telling me that he had been in her office for biting another child. I had thought we were over that. I received a call shortly after that from his teacher, and was less than thrilled when she asked to speak with me after school. It's no surprise that my son is the youngest in his class and that boys mature more slowly than girls, but it was a tough pill to swallow wen the teacher says, "I just want you to know your options." We talked through it and I discovered that my son was well-liked but a little behind. I kinda knew this might come up with his age, and I was a bit discouraged, but I promised/vowed to his teacher that we would work with him and help him stay up with the rest of the class. And guess what? He had a wonderful weekend filled with scholatic, yet fun activities where we worked on writing his name, fine motor skills activities, cutting and counting.

And another thing....
He did it! He wrote his name. His FULL name tonight in almost perfect kindergartener fashion. He struggles with the "s" and the "n", but tonight he did it all on the first attempt. I actually let out a scream when he did the "s". I was so proud of him! We worked so hard on it this weekend, because I knew this coming week's letter would be, you guessed it, "S". I saw how proud he was and it filled my heart with pride and hope that we just might make it through this year. It made me want to scrapbook about it, and I porbably will in his kindergarten scrapbook, but it will have to wait.

Since I have graduated, I have begun doing two things with my time. One I love and the other I thought I would hate, but so far, I am really diggin it! I have resumed practicing my love for cooking. I cook most nights now and therefore I am able to take my lunch to work each day. I am collecting new recipes and trying new things (thank you Stephanne).

The other thing I have just begun to enjoy (again, this is the thing I never thought I would) is going to the gym. Afterall, I have always claimed to be "allergic to exerceise." After months and months of Stephanne trying to convince me that I would feel so much better if I could squeeze in a workout, I did it. 2 weeks ago, I went to my very first organized class at my gym. I decided it needed to be something that wasn't too difficult or needed to much endurance (as I am badly out of shape). So I went to the Mat Pilates class. The instructor is great and she is patient and demonstrates different levels from beginner to advanced. I did however discover that I am even more out of shape than I thought I was. Pilates is a focus of the "core" of your body. Well my core is full of Jello and in serious need of an overhaul. I am getting just that! Did you kno your ab muscles extend all the way up to your TaTa's? I have learned that...

PILATES IS NOT FOR SISSIES!!

And I am loving every minute of it. I had a chance to skip it last Wednesday, but I actually said I didn't want to. Monday I was planning to go to the gym for some cardio and upperbody training, but Austin's trip to the office kinda put a damper on that, but I went Tuesday after my meeting with the teacher, then Wednesday for my class again. I had also planned for a Friday afternoon workout, but it too was postponed due to my car battery playing tricks on me. Let's just say I had a few choice words for the Buick when I pulled into Checker Auto Parts to have a nice young man tell me my battery was doing JUST FINE!! I didn't make it to the gym this weekend but my bag is still packed and ready to go for a workout tomorrow after work...and surprise, surprise...I am really looking forward to it!

Well, I think that's it for tonight. Hopefully soon I will get to share some of the more recent recipes I have been trying and enjoying. I hate to admit this but I tried one today for lower calorie, crustless mushroom sausage mini quiche, that did not turn out as planned. I might try it agian tomorrow night when I make dinner or even look for a new recipe, because it sounded delish. It's the first one to fail since I started cooking again! Hope you all have a wonderful night, if there is anyone reading my rambling!

Parental Moral Dilemma

So I have been battling my son for about 2 weeks now on getting his room cleaned up. Now, he is 4 and he is not fully aware of the concept of keeping his room clean. I have tried about a million different ways to get him to at least start cleaning his room on his own, with little success.

Last night was my breaking point. We got home and I was working on laundry and he was supposed to be cleaning his room. When I went in, not only was nothing even touched he had decided to sprinkle buttery popcorn ALL OVER his room and the hallway. He was, however, very focused on cleaning up that mess but not the mess of his room.

This morning when I woke him up to get ready to go, and I am still wondering how he slept at all, he was curled up in a ball on the smallest littlest clean spot on his bed. The rest of his bed was COVERED in cars, books, and any other kind of imaginable toy ever made.

Let me give you a little bit of background into my child’s bedtime behavior. Since we moved into this house 2 years ago, Austin goes to bed at eight, only he doesn’t go to bed. HE PLAYS. And plays, and plays. Sometimes he plays for as long as 2 hours after his actual bedtime. 2 HOURS! Well you can only imagine all the toys a 4 year old can drag out in 2 hours. I usually walk into a room that looks like a cyclone hit it the night before.

Well over time this mess grows and grows and grows. Now, typically I would have him clean it each night before bed, but given that I have class three nights a week (only 7 more weeks) and he gets to bed later on those nights than I would like, it’s hard to make him clean this all up at 10 in the evening.

So back to today…

I knew there was a possibility of my mom coming over today to let the plumber in to fix Austin’s toilet and rework mine as well, but since she never really mentioned whether it was confirmed or not, I simply de-cluttered some last night and made sure things were somewhat tidy just in case…

Well, I should know better. Not only did my mom come over, she cleaned up my bathroom, the laundry room, the front closet, vacuumed, and yes, cleaned Austin’s room till it was close to spotless! Here is where my dilemma comes in. What did Austin learn from this sweet gesture from my mom?

“Hey, let it get messy enough and Mimi will come over and clean it!”

Well I will say mom gave Austin an earful about keeping his room clean, which I hope he gets, but we will see.

In the meantime, my friend, Stephanne, from work had a BRILLIANT suggestion! Now when you hear this, you are going to think she is a mother (which she isn’t…yet) or that she is a teacher (nope, not that either). Her suggestion was to have Austin pick 5 toys and put them in a bucket. These 5 toys are the ONLY ones he can play with before bed. If he gets any other toys out, he has consequences. These for him are that I take away one toy for the night. If it happens again, I take another one. For each night he follows the Rule of 5 (Like that? Just thought of it!) he will get a toy back. If he has 5 toys, he can keep all 5. He can exchange out his toys before bed but once I tuck him in, those are his five toys.

BRILLANT, huh? THANKS STEPH!