Happy Birthday

You don't look a day over 30.

my 29-ness loves you, in all your 31-ness.

Hope you have a great day! And the Krispy Kreme bread pudding will be waiting on you!

Dear Ikea

Dear Ikea,
I am looking for a pair of inexpensive, yet stylish and sturdy, bookcases for my daughter's big girl room.  As I perused your website, I found this.

It is perfect.  However, your shipping charges make it prohibitively expensive (not to mention ridiculous since the shipping is more than the bookcase itself).  So, Aunt Cece and I are planning a trip to our nearest store (Atlanta) to pick up 2.  Fortunately, your website allows us to check how many pieces are in stock. Unfortunately, there are only 3 pieces in stock right now.  Despite my borderline harassing phone calls, you will not hold them, nor let me pay for them over the phone before we start to drive.  I am therefore relegated to "taking my chances" as we make the trip to Hotlanta.  Could you PUH-LEASE have two for me when we get there?  The Emminator thanks you.

As extra incentive, I also plan to pick up a few other items.  Like this, this, and this.  Who doesn't like these prices?

Sincerely,
Abigail Avery, appreciative yet frustrated customer.

Let it Snow

Like the rest of the southern bloggers I know, I need to post about the snow that keeps falling around these parts lately. It comes and goes, but last Friday afternoon, it was indeed enough to construct this lovely guy outside our house. But first, we had to "dress" the Emminator properly. It took a little while. So long in fact, she thought we weren't really going to let her outside to play in it.

Ahhh, but we made it, despite the anxious expression shown above.  She loved the snow man, and pretty much everything related to the snow.

***THANK YOU for all your great comments, emails and suggestions about the "big girl bed vs. the crib" delimma.  Thanks to you, I think I've gotten up the courage to forgo getting another crib, and got straight to the big girl bed. My new goal is to have her in the new room the first week of March. More on that later, I'm sure.***

Be Mine...and to Bed or Crib, that is the question...

Oh to be back in preschool.  Today was Emma's Valentine's party at school. After searching for "age appropriate" Valentine's, I decided to go the homemade route.  Unwilling to let 2 year old Emma near glue or glitter in my recently vacuumed house, we came up with these.

She came home with her own Valentine's bag, full of other Valentines from her sweet classmates. I immediately flashed back to Mrs. Pringle's first grade class where everyone taped their bags to the chalk board railing and you put Valentine's in MOST everyone else's bags (I'm sure today there is some school requirement that you have a bring a Valentine for each child in the class.  I'm all for including everyone, but that just wasn't the way it was back in '87).  I'm not a huge Valentine's day fan , but I really enjoyed remembering the fun traditions in school, and watching the kids have fun.  If only it wasn't an overly commercialized, manufactured excuse for a holiday, things would be complete.


Now--Calling all MOMS!  I need HELP please!!! I mentioned previously we are getting ready to move Emma to her big girl room. (She is almost 25 mos. now and the baby is due May 19).  I need advice about whether to go ahead and move her to a "big girl" bed, or whether we should keep her in a crib. If we move her, will I be up 45 times a night with a newborn and a 2 year old who doesn't stay in her bed?  Or do I have enough time to threaten her with her life train her to stay in the bed until I get her out before No. 2 arrives?  And will I have the patience/stamina to threaten train her when I'm 30+ weeks pregnant and already slightly cranky uncomfortable?  PUH-LEASE leave me a comment or email me with any advice or suggestions!!!  THANKS! :)

Happy February

I guess that pitiful picture of Emma has been up for too long now, huh? I am happy to report that we have all recovered.  Jason and I both came down with the nasty bug, but thanks to our families and lots of drugs, we're back on track.  So here's a whirlwind update.

We're still here in the Southeast, but the Northwest weather has been...well...dreary.  Ladybugs and Valentine's seem to bring lots of color back though!

To maximize time indoors, I've been working on putting together Emma's big girl room.  Whew, it is a task.  The first item of business was paint.  What used to be brown, is now....green.

After painting,  it was time to clean out the armoire--aka, my sewing closet.   Wow--it was a lot of material waiting to be stitched, but first organized and relocated. Next up, the bed and a chest of drawers have to find their way to new homes (storage or family).  Then, maybe then, we can start pulling things together...FINALLY.

And more indoor activities...couponing.  Below is what $44 will buy you at Publix this week! (with a savings of $38!)

That about sums it up for now.  Be back soon with more goings on and undoubted crazy pregnant lady stories (they grow more numerous every day).