... and then there were three ...

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

1st Birthday Party!

We had Kimber's party the Sunday after her birthday. I was up until 2 am decorating my mom's house for the festivities! Call me crazy but I went all out for this. Hey, my first kiddo is only going to turn 1 once, ya know? We even went so far as to hire a professional photographer! Check her out at www.seelenphotography.com, she took all the below pictures:

www.seelenphotography.com

It was on this day that I learned what a ham my child is! When she started in on the cake and people would clap, she'd clap with a big smile on her face and wiggle up and down. It was all over after that, the entire time she was eating the cake she tried to get people to laugh at her. It was seriously hysterical!

The day went perfectly (other than the fact it took me 90 minutes to pick up the cupcakes b/c the hwy was closed! Thank goodness for my mom who got all the food ready for me!). I was amazed at how many people came and am totally grateful for everything. I know she had a fantastic time and it was everything I wanted it to be for her. She was surrounded by love on her first birthday, and you just can't beat that!

Some Favorite Presents:
- Set of balls Grandma and Grandpa got her.
- Wagon from Uncle Josh & Aunt Jenny, along with the Sesame Street ABC books.
- Books from Aunt Steph & Uncle Frankie.
- Leap Frog Birthday Cake from Karen.
- Activity walker from the Roeder's.
- And of course, I very much appreciated the clothes/gift cards!

Food:
-Hot pink, pink and white frosted chocolate & vanilla cupcakes.
- Puppy Chow
- Carmel Puppy Chow
- Buffalo Chicken Bites
- Cream Cheese Roll-ups
- Mini Pigs in a Blanket
- Fruit Tray
- Veggie Tray

Decor:
- Hot pink, pink and white tissue paper poms
- Vases with yarn poms
- Pictures of Kimber galore
- Birthday banner
- Monthly photo banner
- 2 Photo albums of her first year
- Card station where guests could write a note to Kimber
- Cupcake stand
- Yarn pom cupcake toppers

A Year In Pictures

Kimber turns ONE!!!!

I just cannot believe it's been a year already. I can't accept the fact that I no longer have a sweet little baby, but more like a little strong-willed TODDLER!!! It's just incrediable to me how much things change in a year. She started walking on 11/24/11, and now we no longer crawl. She is so independent, and strong willed that sometimes I cannot help but laugh at what a determined little being she's become.

Pat and I decided we wanted to take her somewhere special for her birthday, so we packed her up in the car and headed to Grant's Farm (about a 45 minute drive). We planned on grabbing something to eat there, but Kimber planned to start throwing a fit before we arrived. The last 15 minutes were horrible with her screaming in the backseat but we finally made it.... AND IT WAS CLOSED! Closed to the public for a private event! You've GOT to be kidding me!!!

We stopped so Pat could climb in the back seat to try to make her happy but she wasn't having it and was now livid! We finally found somewhere to eat, grabbed her some food and she just continued to hysterically cry, scream, thrash, and throw her fit. Great!

Somehow, someway, she finally calmed down and we decided to hit up a park that was on the way home. We pull in and.... Fall Festival.... Seriously?!?!? We decided we'd go ahead and park and just take her on the playground and carousel a couple times and call it a day. As we walked up to the park we noticed that the stupid Fall Festival had the whole playground blocked off and it cost $5 a person to get in! Almost in tears I mumbled that I was in no way paying $15 to play on a freakin playground and walked off.

Determined to have some fun on my only child's first birthday, we then headed to a park that was literally 10 minutes from our house. We should of just went there to begin with, but no, I had to waste an entire afternoon on trying to make a day my kid won't remember special. Thus, I dub this an epic mommy fail!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, BOOGERS!!!

Friday, October 7, 2011

FOO FIGHTERS BABY!

I have a confession... I am in LOVE with Dave Grohl, so when I heard Foos were coming to STL I was allll over it! Seriously, most epic concert of my life!

The opening bands aren't even worth wasting time to write about so I'll just jump right in to the main event. They played a few songs and then he stopped to talk. As I stared in total awe of being in the same room as Mr. Grohl he proceeded to ask if anyone had been to one of their shows before. Some cheered, but quite a few were silent. Then he asked how many Foo Fighter virgins were out there, and we all screamed. He was quiet for a bit and said, wow, that's a lot.... Where the f*** have you guys been the past SIXTEEN YEARS????? I mean, you couldn't even make it out to ONE show?!?! And with that hilarious sarcastic comment I knew right then that he became my all time favorite artist. Sarcasm is my middle name so obviously me and Dave are a match made in heaven!

So we rocked, and we rocked hard, and it came time for the show to end. They walked off stage where they had just given an epic performance and I couldn't believe it was over. For the last 2 hours I had turned into a giddy little girl, screaming and dancing with every song and I loved every minute of it! Every. single. second.

All of a sudden there was Dave, with a night vision camera, looking at the crowd from the big screen. He motioned that he couldn't quite hear his adoring fans screams, so we all screamed louder, not wanting the night to end. He held up one finger, and acted as if they were coming back out. We went crazy. Then there was the drummer, motioning they should do not one, but two songs! We screamed even louder. This charade went on until finally they got up to EIGHT! An 8 song encore? Unheard of, and completely amazing!

In total they played for three hours, best $100 I've ever spent on a concert and I will always see them when they are in town. Now, for some crappy camera pics:

The Friday before the concert was my last day in my old department, so they got me a card:

And when I flipped it over, I found this:

Mike made fun of me for liking FF and would always sing that song anytime he saw me. (Don't worry, I gave him trouble for his fav band being Radiohead!) So it was only appropriate that he write that on my card, and make my day :)

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Sticks and Stones

(Holy blog overload tonight, no?)

I have learned that you can never take back something you say. It's out there. Forever.

I learned this after my big brother found me. My bio-dad said some pretty hurtful things, along with a nice long nasty e-mail from my step-mother. They can never take what they said back, ever. I will always remember, not in a I'm-going-to-be-a-brat-and-not-talk-to-you-because-of-what-you-said kind of way, but more like a if-that-is-truly-how-you-feel-about-your-daughter-then-I'm-better-off-without-you kind of way.

I try to not say things to people that I would ever regret. I realized after going through what I did with my parents that words are more hurtful than some people could ever imagine. Words said out of anger are normally the worst, because I think most times they are meant to intentionally hurt the other person.

I had a little reminder the other day about how much words can hurt. Words were thrown out in anger to try to manipulate me, and it literally made me sick to my stomach. So I'm calling b.s. on the whole 'sticks and stone can break my bones, but words can never hurt me' phrase! While I don't let most anger fueled comments bother me, there are a select few of my close family and friends that I very much value their opinion and when they throw out some hurtful remarks I can't help but to be upset.

I know how words can get thrown around in the heat of the moment, and maybe it wasn't said on purpose but the fact remains, it was said and it can never be taken back. If I can learn anything from this, I hope it's that I am more mindful of the things I say when I'm in the heat of the moment.

And because I already did a post tonight sans picture, I feel I must include one here!

New Job!

I've been with my current employer for a little over two years now. I spent my first year working for their in house trustee and then my second year has been spent on their affidavit team. It's pretty hard to get out of your current department unless you know someone, or at the very least know someone who knows someone.

I love what I do now. I love my firms, and the state that I'm assigned to work. I love that I can come in, do my job, and leave and I know what I do forwards and backwards. That being said, when you don't even get so much as a 'Thank You', I feel like no one cares about the hard work I do, the fact that I have built up relationships with our attorneys and never fail audits. Things just kept getting worse, we were told we have to do 'x' amount of affidavits a day, on top of adding a ton of new processes that slow us down, but the real kicker is that we had an opening for a lead in our department and I realized that I would never get it because I don't feel like I should kiss butt to get it. I would want it based on my skill, and knowledge of the job, not because I'm buddies with the boss and that's when I decided I wanted to leave.

I applied for probably 15 jobs, interviewed for 2, got offered 1 and turned it down because they wouldn't give me a raise. Immediately following me turning down the job, I completely regretted my decision. Well regret no more people! The lady that offered me a job created a new position that I applied for, interviewed for, and got (with a raise!)! WOOHOO!

I'm totally petrified to start in a brand new position, knowing next to nothing about what the department does, however, I am excited at the thought of expanding my work experience and building my resume. I officially start on Monday and I'm over-the-moon excited!

MY FIRST FLOAT TRIP!!!

My brother and fantastic new sister-in-law invited Pat and I to go on a family float trip. I will admit, at first I was a little hesitant. I didn't want to leave Kimber ALL day, and originally the invited us to spend the night. After much deliberation I decided this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up, but I also couldn't be away from my kiddo for a long amount of time so we agreed to come down to float and then head home after the trip was over.

In my raft was my brother, sister-in-law, brother's dad, me and the hubs, oh and like 4 coolers :) I seriously had a blast, and even though this is going to make me sound like a super dork, I really liked being able to spend an entire day with my big bro. I mean, we hardly ever see each other so this was especially nice to kinda have some one on one time... mostly with us giving each other a hard time!

As the float trip came to an end, my sister-in-law's dad found out we weren't spending the night and started throwing phrases around like 'slashing tires' so we promised we'd spend the night next year. He started asking me about my kiddo and I proceeded to tell him her name is Kimber and the conversation went something like this:

Dan: So what's your daughter's name?
Me: Kimber.
Dan: What?!?!?!? Kimberly???
Me: Yep, Kimberly... without the 'ly'.
Dan: (confused look on his face) Why the hell would you give your daughter half a name??? I guess I should go around introducing myself as 'Duh', 'Hi, my name is Duh'.

Mass quantities of alcohol may or may not of been consumed prior to the above mentioned conversation :)