The Paper Mama Photo Challenge: Yellow

Taken yesterday by my hubby Andrew York (with my help)

Saturday

I was determined to have a relaxing weekend as I have a problem with doing too much. And so far, it's been very relaxing. Here's my Saturday broken down in words and pictures.

I started off making breakfast for the family.

Roxanne telling me about her Friday night adventures while I cook.

After breakfast, my mom stopped by to get her "Carter fix."

Momma.

Later, Andy went to the movies with my parents while Carter and I ran errands. I had to pick up some essentials at CVS so I took Carter (while he napped) and I felt like a crazy coupon lady. I had a 25% off everything coupon good for the 30th only, and two $5 off coupons, I ended up buying $90 worth of stuff for $50! Yay! I'm usually bad about coupons, but that felt pretty good. I need to work on that!

We returned home and I put on a movie and made us some lunch. After Andy returned, I went upstairs and tried to nap, but it wasn't possible. I was really tired but only because I hadn't done much (already this was the laziest day I've had in months, and this would probably be considered a busy day to others!)

We wanted to do something fun for dinner, and Andy suggested we drive to Malibu.  It was a little late at that point so I rushed to get ready because I knew I wanted to get some pictures in before the sun went down. I think the sun is at its prettiest right before it goes down when it's low enough to get some gorgeous sun flare pictures. And it was.


My mom and Roxanne also came, and we ended up at the Sunset Restaurant overlooking the beach where Andy proposed to me. It was just lovely.

I'm really happy with how the pictures turned out. Andy took the pictures of Carter and I, I set the settings how I wanted, found the perfect spot, and handed my camera off to Andy. Love them!

We tried to get my mom to take one of the three of us.. this was the best one.

Oh well...

My mom did manage to get a good one of the two of us.

Dinner was good, yummy food, but the service was crappy (there's nothing worse than an arrogant waiter who is rude and argues with you).

But overall, it was another beautiful Saturday. I'm truly blessed.

My Week in iPhone Pics 07/23-07/29

Saturday: My friends son Waylon at the park, and some of the new goods I picked up recently.





Sunday breakfast with my boys





More Sunday: Carter playing, my dad cooking a Teppan style dinner, and celebrating Rox's bday.





Mon - Wed: My OPK's from the week, fortune cookie, my baby, and sparkley gold flats.





Wednesday & Thursday: Birthday cake Whoopie pies, Carter hanging in Rox's room, and Thursday night dinner with Amy for another celebration of Rox's birthday.





Thurs & Fri: New chalkboard fridge, new curtains, Friday morn outside our office, and a sleepy me arriving at work (the first one there and 2nd to last to leave!)
Want to link up your blog of your weekly phone pictures? Link up below!! And get the code for your blog over on A Good Life Blog.  Thanks for doing this!

Things I love Thursday

There are so many "things" that I find on a weekly basis that I just flat out love, and I want to start sharing them with you each week. I'll do my best to keep this up if I can. I hope you love these just as much as I do.

This week I love:

• This post on Look at the Birds: Good Mom, Bad Mom. She has two daughters, the oldest being the exact same age as Carter (to the day I think). She was able to articulate exactly how I feel about never judging another parent again (although I did see a father yelling and then spanking his two kids outside of a wine store at 11am this past Sunday, and I did judge him). So let me re-phrase that, it takes a lot for me to judge another parent. Thanks for writing this!

• These E Cards, found here.

• This photospiration, found here.

• This blog post from Kristen Duke Photography with pictures from the workshop I went to over the weekend. Here's a taste:

Can you see me? Bottom left corner. A lot of these women were bloggers too!

• 

This adorable Mickey birthday inspiration picture.

I can't find the source for this, so if you know, let me know and I'll give them credit!

• 

This article on why friends with kids don't have time.

 I'm not a stay at home mom, but I love this! Found here.

And my new favorite blog this week: Little Miss Momma. She is so flippin adorable,

and I've realized through reading her blog, she lives right down the street from where I work!

She also did a family photo session with Kristen Duke Photography last weekend when Kristen Duke was in town for her workshop. Small world!

Is there anything new this week that you've come across that you just LOVE?

I make TTC fun!

I've been doing an OPK project this cycle. It involves glue and cardstock, but only because I couldn't find tape and regular paper. So yea...Andy made fun of me and asked what kind of new art project I was doing. My friend Roxanne saw thjs and thought they were pregnancy tests so she asked if I had something to tell her. No, no I do not. I actually get excited to get off work to take my daily OPK and glue it to this:

 I'm a dork! 

I started testing at CD7 onward, and today is CD13. Which means tomorrow should be the big O day based on my previous cycles. Don't hate me but I usually have perfect 28 day cycles, and O on the same day each month..or so I thought, I'm not so sure anymore.

I have yet to get a positive OPK this month, which should be okay as long as I get one today. I could have gotten one already but missed it on the OPK because I'm taking these babies around 5:30pm everyday when they suggest that you take them late morning, or early afternoon. LH (Lutenizing Hormone) is secreted during the night, and wouldn't show up in your FMU so they suggest testing late morning. I could be missing my LH surge altogether by testing so late in the day, but it's doubtful.

By the way, if you want to know what all of these terms mean that you can google them, but then again you probably shouldn't be reading this if you don't know what they mean. Ha.

The recommended times don't exactly work for me since I work full-time, and there is no* way I'm going to be dragging a paper cup, and dipstick OPK into the work bathroom.

*And by no way, I mean that I probably will do this next month if this month doesn't work out for us.

I'm a bit scared though. What if I'm not ovulating? If I find that I'm not (through OPK's or temping), I might be ready for that Clomid after all.

Is it sad that I'm not even in the 2WW yet, but I'm already waiting? Right now I'm in the 2WW to O. I've been counting down those lovely days just to O! But if all goes according to plan, the earliest* I plan on testing will be Sunday, August 7th.

*And by earliest I mean the earliest I will tell you that I'm testing, because I'll most definitely test before this, but for sake of sounding like a crazy person, this is the earliest date I'm testing.

So that's about it! Nothing else new on the TTC front, except that everyone I know is pregnant. Ok, not really. But really.

Wanna chart stalk? My Ovulation Chart


I think it's purty. I'm kinda obsessed and keep looking at my chart just to start at it, as if I'll get some new magical fertility dust by looking at it long enough. Oh and I did end up getting a VIP membership (but only for three months). I hope I won't need to use it much longer, but it's fun so far.

Wordless(ish) Wednesday

On Sunday we did an impromptu birthday celebration for one of my best friends, Roxanne.

She LOVES strawberries, so strawberry cake is a sure winner with her.

The birthday girl!

Carter likes cake too.

Yum.

I only had a chance to edit the last two photos, please forgive the serious over-exposure in the two of Carter eating. I'm linking this up with The Paper Mama's Wordless(ish) Wednesday link-up. Join!