To Do

I have this never ending "To Do" list that revolves in my head. I need to buckle down and knock these babies out one by one. I'm so tired of complaining about what I WANT to do and what I'm not doing. Today I'm making my list, and then I'm making a plan of execution. Maybe you can all help cheer me on? I'm going to seperate them into categories; Home, Self, and Work. And a mini Carter to-do list. :) I can always be better.

Home:

Goal : To re-decorate each room of the house and begin our home improvements we've been talking about since we moved in.

1. Buy new couch and matching slipcover for arm chair
2. Re-decorate living room - need curtains, possible rug, new desk, new bookshelf, new dining table, and art.
3. Sell all of the old above furniture via garage sale or Craigslist.
4. Paint Living room
5. Kitchen - buy some new art, possible re-tile (maybe my friend Amy can show me how when she's finished doing hers)
6. Organize closet under stairs and don't get killed in the process.
7. Organize kitchen drawers and cabinets, buy new dishes
8. Organize garage
9. Make Andy organize garage
10. Buy new bedding for our bed and new dresser's for me (yes plural). Organize closet, and buy new artwork for above our bed.
11. Go through Carter's things to give away
12. Buy prints of our favorite pictures and hang more / change out Frames
13. Organize upstairs Bathroom cabinets (both bathrooms)
14. "Toddler-fy" Carter's room with a toddler bed and toy chest / Paint
15. Take my car to the dealer for some minor work
16. Look into car and home re-finance
17. Buy Andy new car
18. Hire gardner to help spruce up our mini front lawn and plant grass.*already looked into
19. Paint bedroom
20. Install hardwood floors downstairs and possible new tile in bathrooms

Self:

Goal: To take better care of myself to make sure I am being the best possible version of myself that I can.

1. Lose Weight, goal 50 lbs. weight loss.
2. Do more weekly meal planning and cut our grocery budget down to $100 a week (right now we're over $200 A WEEK).
3. Pack a lunch to work every day (allow one day a week out for lunch - hey, that's realistic for me)
4. Go to the dentist. Stop putting it off!
5. Look into possible invisalign and teeth whitening. Not happy with one or two crooked teeth. I had braces when I was young but was horrible about wearing my retainer. Regrets.
6. Go to the dermatologist and have my skin checked out.
7. Go to a therapist. At least for one month to talk about miscarriage and other issues.
8. Save more money / spend less.

Work

Goal: to better my work performance and job environment.

1. Get new desk.
2. Organize and clean out work desk.
3. Re-decorate office with new art, fake flowers, etc.
4. Come in at 7:30am each day, and leave at 4:30pm.
5. Make sure to be caught-up by Saturday of each week, and work weekends if not.
6. Work on a 48 hour mandatory turn-around time on quoting.
7. Improve my monthly sales by $2,000. Aim higher each month, not just to meet my draw.
8. Improve relationships with everyone.
9. Be #1 at all times

Carter

1. Make dentist appointment
2. Practice counting & ABC's more often
3. Read to him more often
4. Ween off nighttime bottles
5. Start potty training
6. Introduce more fruits and veggies (not just the ones I know he likes)

So that's about it. I know I'll be adding more as they come in. It seems a bit overwhelming all written out, but not doing anything is just making it worse. I can accomplish one of these a week, right?!

That'll be my goal. One thing a week. Done. This week my goal will be to organize my kitchen drawers and look into some curtains for the living room.  I totally can do. I'll keep you posted!

And if anyone has any awesome DIY tips on installing hardwood floors or tile yourself, please let me know!

Father's Day Fun

I hope everyone had a nice Father's Day! I like having a reason to buy presents, go out to a nice lunch, BBQ with my family. Ah hell, it sounds like a typical Sunday to me! We started the day out by getting ready and then giving Andy his Daddy Day presents. I gave him two shirts from Target - one of which he is wearing today, the other didn't seem to impress him. Ha. I also gave him a Darth Vader USB plug, which also didn't seem to impress him. Man, we're hard on each other in the gift giving department.

But my favorite part was the custom card I had made for him on Tinyprints.com (and I got it for FREE, like 100% free, no shipping costs, nuthin). They were having a promo for 1 day only with a certain promo code so it was all FREE. My favorite. Neeaat. Carter and I also painted a tree complete with Carter's hand prints as the leaves. That took a lot of work dude!

Carter crying because Roxanne was taking the picture and he wanted her to play with him.

Here she was trying to make him laugh and it worked (despite his tears).

My card. Isn't is cuuute?

And our lovely artwork. I especially love the tree I painted. Haha.

On the beach in Malibu for some lunchedy lunch.

Carter had too much fun in the sand. At one point he put his face down and started to eat the sand. That's when my Dad stepped in and said Carter isn't smart enough to play in the sand yet. Haha.

I love this little scrunchy face thing he's been doing.

Daddddddddd.

This picture makes me sad because it's shocking how much my little baby is resembling a little boy. He is a mini person now! OMG.

The Dad's BBQing for us on Father's Day. Thanks guys!

My mom got him all dolled up for dinner. I thought it was adorable, until my sister started calling him "Carlton" a la Fresh Prince of Bel Air. And then it wasn't so cute.

Andy and I also went and saw Super 8! I totally loved it, but probably would have loved it even more if I was a 13 year-old boy. My favorite character was the kid from 7th Heaven who played this stoner who works at the camera shop. I liked.

I hope everyone had a loverly day! I wish everyday was a Sunday, but preferably the Sunday that is Mother's Day on repeat. Yes, that would be nice.

Oooh, and just for fun, here is a family picture of us on Father's Day last year. I love looking back at where I was one year-ago. I wonder where we'll be one year from now? Hmm.

Father's Day 2010

This made me lose it.

I'm a big fan of Danielle's blog over at Sometimes Sweet. Her blog post today had me in tears (and I'm at work, eeek!).

Check it out: What are you waiting for?

She's right. What are we waiting for? What I am waiting for?

I've re-connected with some old friends in the past year and it feels great. Life is too short to waste time holding on to grudges and pain and I totally GET that.

But there is one conversation with one specific person I've been meaning to have. Lots of anger, resentment, hurt, and sorrow still bubble at the surface. I used to be the person to confront those I had issue's with and deal with them immediately. I wouldn't tuck them away, only to let them seep out at the worst possible time. I wouldn't carry around this pain and hurt and pretend all was well. I wouldn't hold on this hurt.
I'm tired of conflict. I'm tired of the hurt. And I'm tired of being sad. These are the reasons why I want to have this conversation, and these are also the reasons I don't.

I'm going to make it happen, and I'm going to make it happen soon.

My Momma's Birthday!

This weekend we celebrated my mom's birthday with a night out with the ladies on Saturday (minus some drama let's forget about), and a nice family picnic in the park Sunday.

Carter had so much fun at the park Sunday, I thought he might burst of excitement. We went to the dog park, the playground and then another part of the part called the "Splash Zone," I think. I can't wait to take him back there soon! He started out a little aprehensive about the water and would just barely step foot in there and within 30 minutes he was down to his diaper and SOAKED. Too bad my camera died before I could get those pictures.

Happy little clam.

The "Splash Zone" with Grammie.

A beautiful day at the park. (Carter, Papa & Andy in the background)

My momma and her limo.

The bestest.

Carter and his Uncle Alex.

As far as sleeping goes, he is still happily in his crib and we are the happiest parents EVER. Around 8pm every night I tell him it's "Nuh-night time," and he heads for the stairs. The other night he actually cried to get into his crib at 7pm!! We all need a little down time to ourselves each day, including our little ones. I think he truly enjoys his end of the day alone time in his crib (with his 3 stuffed animal friends of course, Doggie 1, Doggie 2 and Ewok).

I have a lot to look forward to the next few weeks. I'm heading out to the Britney Spears concert (woo woo) on June 24th, and then we're off to Mass. for a week of family time. I love having events to look forward to, I always need something new to focus on.


Xoxo,

M

Who's your Momma?

That would be ME. I'm Carter's Momma. I didn't even need to tell you that, right? Well maybe someone should tell him that...

Carter's 1st Thanksgiving 11/2009

A while back Carter was in this very clingy mommy phase. He always wanted his mommy. I couldn't go to work, or leave the room, or eat, or pee without a massive amount of waterworks. I would try and hand him off to Daddy or Roxanne so I could cook dinner each night, and he would always come running back to me and hug my legs and cry. I can't pretend I didn't absolutely love that.

Recently, (in the past few weeks), I've noticed Carter become more clingy to Roxanne. Roxanne is Carter's Godmother and one of my best friends so I thought it was adorable. And then I noticed he started calling her "Momma." Hmm, not so adorable so we corrected him "Oh no Carter, I'M your momma, this is ROC, remember, ha ha, ha, ha ...." (Note: we thought Roc would be easier to say than Roxanne). And then he called her momma again, and then again, and then it wasn't so funny anymore. He can repeat most words we say easily so why couldn't he call her "Roc?!" It just made my title not as significant. I carried you in my belly for 9 months! I nursed you! I'M THE MOMMA.We've only been repeating her name to him since he was born. Why is he calling her momma? Am I not enough mother for him?

Rox and Carter in their Lakers gear.

And then I noticed Carter call MY mom, momma. My mom is a big presence in his life, but again, I worked hard at being his mom, so I deserve to be the only one called momma. I didn't understand why he wouldn't call her grammie? It's not like I don't say "Do you want to go to grammie's house" on a daily basis. My mom absolutely loves it when he calls her momma and she encourages it! She also doesn't correct people in public when they assume Carter's her son. Thanks Mom! I do all the dirty work and then get to lose my identity as a mother. Great.

Carter and his Grammie on Mother's Day 2011

I started to think he picked this up at daycare (because let's face it, I blame everything on day care. Blame daycare!). I figured he saw the other mom's come pick up their kid's and then he'd hear the kid's call their mom, momma. Carter was just assuming that all women were momma's! Makes sense, right? We all just have the same name! I believed this until the day Carter called my dad, momma. This threw my theory out the window. How could you call MY DAD, momma? He's a dude, dude. When Carter wants something at my parents house, he'll run up to my dad and make grabby hands and say "mommmma." While it's super adorable, it's just plain weird. Carter can say "oh no, it broke," or "why did you do that?" but he can't call my dad Papa?

Carter and my dad "Captain" Dave, Mother's Day 2011

I think what it really comes down to is that Carter associates any loving adult figure in his life as momma. We all play important roles to him. When I really think about it, I'm happy that he has so many loving people who care for him in his life, who cares if he calls them all momma? I know someday he'll understand who I am and what role I play. I think it's his way of telling someone that he loves them and trusts them, just like he does his momma. And that's a beautiful thing. It really does take a village to raise a child (or lots of family and friends), and that's ok.

Love your only one,

Carter's Momma

Wordless Wednesday

I guess I'll jump on the blogger bandwagon and do Wordless Wednesday, and instead of Picture Thursday do a "Glimpse Into the Life Thursday" where I document an average night in our household. I don't think I'll be able to do it every week. Tomorrow I'm taking a CSI work-out class (Cardio, Strength, Interval) and I have both my grandma's in town from Massachusetts as well as my mom's sister (Auntie Susan) and my cousin's son Angel. So I've got a busy two weeks ahead of me. I'm so looking forward to Thanksgiving. My dad and I are splitting cooking duties. Can't wait! Ok, so this isn't a very Wordless Wednesday so I'll stop now.

Xoxo.