5 Things Friday - Pumpkin Overload

I love pumpkin stuff as much as the next person, but really, I think its gotten a little out of control this year! 

5 Random Things I have Seen with PUMPKIN

1.  Pumpkin Spice Milk
Milk... yeah.  I don't know.  MAYBE in coffee instead of creamer?  But if you are putting it in coffee, just use the creamer.  I don't like milk to begin with so I can't even fathom this.

2.  Pumpkin Yogurt
I'm pretty picky about yogurt.  I like vanilla, key lime and sometimes blueberry.  I'm not willing to even try pumpkin.  No thank you.

3.  Pumpkin Liquor
I'm not really in to drinking straight liquor.  So what are you going to mix this with?  Only thing I can think of is coffee like you do with Bailey's.  Can you see a trend here?  I like pumpkin in coffee... end of story!

4.  Pumpkin Marshmallows
Yeah......

5.  Cinderella Pumpkins
So Lyla and I are at Walmart and they have all of those big cardboard bins full of pumpkins.  One of them has Cinderella all over the side of it.  Lyla is all over it.  Look Mommy a PRINCESS!!!  I'm thinking, hmmm, wonder what's in that bin... go up and look.... its pumpkins.  These marketing people are genius!  How many parents are going to get wrangled in to buying these pumpkins just because Cinderella is on the outside of the bin???  I'm lucky Lyla is 2 and I could just walk away.

All I'm asking is can't we just keep the pumpkin to coffee, cookies and rolls?  Isn't that enough?  Those three things I LOVE!  (hint hint Em, I sure would love a pumpkin roll, no nuts, please & thank you) 

Let Me Blow Your Mind!

Ok... I will be first to admit I watch a lot of strange shows and that's the only reason this makes any sense to me.  But let me tell you, these two have to be the same person!

Exhibit A - Hank Baskett
He is married to Kendra Wilkerson (the girl who used to be Hugh Hefner's girlfriend).  On their reality show (yes I watch it, don't judge) Hank is trying to get in to the acting business.  He used to play football, but I guess he isn't that good, he doesn't have a job.

Exhibit B - Disney Jr Choo Choo Soul Train
Choo Choo Soul Train is this little 5 minute segment between shows on Disney Jr.  Hank Baskett is the DJ on the train.  Ok well they don't call him Hank.  But really, I think he found his acting gig!

Told you I would blow your mind!  :)  

Growing up is hard to do...

I feel like I am having a lot of transitions in my life right now.  And most of it has to do with my friendships.  Some of it I'm pretty excited about, some of it is bittersweet and some of it just makes me downright sad.  The thing is, when you are in your late 20's (remember I'm not 30 yet and I refuse to even say "30" until I am!), its really hard to even find time for friendships.  I work full time.  I have a 2 year old to chase around and take care of.  I have a wonderful husband who I try to spend time with.   A wonderful husband who is also working a second job at the moment, so that is cutting in to our social lives.  Bottom line, things are just getting complicated!

I feel lucky that I have a group of girls who I truly do think of as my "Best" friends.  I know that I can trust them no matter what.  I know that we all do all that we can for each other.  But we are all busy right now.  Two of my best friends are planning their weddings.  One is moving very far away (I can't even think/talk about it without getting upset).  One is busy raising two kids and working full time on top of other family commitments.  I guess its just that at this point in our lives, your priorities change a bit.  Not that we all love each other any less, but we just can't do things like we used to.

I'm not going to lie.  I'm bummed out right now.  I know a big factor is the change of the season.  I hate fall.  I try to like it every year.  I try to pump myself up about pumpkin coffee and wearing sweaters and watching football.  But I hate it.  I hate the darkness, I hate the cold.  I start to just feel very isolated.  And that's when I start to really miss my friends.

I am excited that I have made a new friend recently.  Her little girl and Lyla go to the same daycare.  We live really close to each other too.  So its been really fun getting to know someone new.  And we don't have to really entertain the girls when we are together because they just run off and do their own thing.  So that's been great and I'm really enjoying spending time with her.

So I guess this is growing up.  Long gone are the days of spending the entire weekend with a girlfriend just goofing off.  Long gone are the Saturday nights closing down the bar and sleeping in on Sunday.  Long gone are the 2 hour phone conversations every evening after work.   This whole being a grown up thing isn't all its cracked up to be...

We Haven't Left the House ALL DAY...

In case you were wondering, this is what happens to Lyla after we spend the entire Saturday at home just the two of us.  She goes a little nutso... lol

5 Things Friday - 5 Things that have changed since I became a Mom

5 Things that have changed since becoming a Mom:

1.  Poop
I bet nobody saw that one coming as number one (maybe I should have made it "Number 2" lol)!!  But seriously, it starts when you are pregnant and you can't poop.  Then when the baby starts having poop explosions.  Then when you get so excited for her to poop on the potty... or so mad when she poops in her underwear!  You don't ever get to poop alone anymore.  Poop and how much I talk about it in every day conversation changed A LOT when I became a mom!

2.  Sleep
I used to believe I could only function on 8 hours of sleep... no less.  I used to always go to bed and not wake up until the alarm went off.  Those nights are so long gone.  When I was pregnant and I had to start getting up to pee in the middle of the night, I think that's the last time I slept a straight night, all the way through!  Lyla hasn't ever been a really good sleeper.  Our routine now consists of putting her to bed in her toddler bed and sometime during the night she comes in our room and gets in our bed.  I just let it go.  At least I don't have to feed her and its fun to cuddle!  Some day she won't want to sleep with us anymore and I think that will be a sad day, so I'm just enjoying it now!  And those 8 hours I used to get... well I found out, I don't really need all 8 of them.  Some nights I get it, but not every night.  And I seem to be surviving!

3.  Pictures
Facebook is a funny reminder of this!  Especially if you flip through my Profile Pictures folder.  I used to take lots of pictures, trying to get the perfect angle of me and my adult beverage.  They looked something like this:

Then you get pregnant and you want the perfect angle of the "bump".  Which really, its so funny when you call it a bump... because looking back, it looks a lot bigger than a bump to me!  Bump just makes the pregnant girls feel less huge I think!

Then you need the perfect picture of the BABY!  You aren't even in the pictures anymore!

And the older they get the more fun it is!

And sometimes they let you get in the pictures too... sometimes.

4.  Showers
I shower at night now.  Its just so weird to me.  But here is the deal, most of the time if I don't shower when Lyla is asleep then she insists that she is going to shower with me.  Do you know how hard it is to shave your legs while sharing the shower with a toddler?  Try it some time!  And I hate drying my hair.  It goes back to the whole sleep thing too, if I shower at night, I can pretend to sleep in a couple extra minutes in the morning without panicking as much as I would if I still needed to get a shower before work.  Whatever, judge all you want, night showering is where its at these days!

5.  Mom Jeans
Now the clothes and shoes I pick and my general appearance since having Lyla is something I think about more now than I ever did before.  I don't EVER want to come across as the frumpy mom wearing the "mom jeans".  I put a lot of effort now in to trying to still look good or at least presentable.  I think I just don't want to fall in to the stereotype of "I'm a mom now so I don't have to care what I look like anymore".  So the result of that is that I care even more now instead of not caring at all!  Now I still wear my hoodies and my tenners, but not every day.  And I try to do my hair and some kind of make up before I leave my house to go somewhere (even Walmart on a Sunday morning at 7:00). 

Happy Friday Everyone!  AKA  PJ Party at Daycare Day!  They put a smile on my face!

Heard Around the House #16

Gary and I driving in to work this morning:

Gary:  Malkin might keep playing for Russia if they don't get the salary thing figured out.

Me:  I don't know what that means, so is he going to keep playing for West Virginia or go pro?

Gary:  blank stare

Me:  You have to start over again, I have no idea what you are talking about....

Gary:  Geno Malkin... you know, he plays for the Pens...

Me:  OOOOOOH... we are talking about Hockey, not Football...

I obviously can't have sports conversations before I drink my coffee! 

5 Things Friday - 5 Ways Gary is starting to act like my DAD

5 Things this week is all about Gary and my Dad and how they are morphing in to the same person right before my very eyes!  I can't decide if these things are just "dad" qualities and now that Gary has been a dad for over 2 years they are starting to kick in.... or maybe these are just qualities that I bring out in the men in my life.... or if maybe Gary and my Dad are just really more alike than I have ever noticed them to be in the past! 

Ok, here we go:  5 Ways that Gary is starting to act like my Dad!

1.  He wants to turn on the furnace... in SEPTEMBER!
The house got down to a whopping 69 degrees the other night and Gary started talking about turning on the furnace.  Hi honey, its September... you are crazy.  Side note, I am pretty sure my dad already turned his furnace on a couple weeks ago... possibly in August, but I don't know that for a fact.

2.  Gary tells Lyla that "can't" isn't a word.
My Dad used to do this to us all the time.  When he taught at Penn Commercial he even had signs that looked like this:

3.  Gary has started working a second job.
Gary has picked up a second job to try and help us get our debts paid off from when we were what I call "living on the edge" or "super poor" or "trying to make it"... Whatever you want to call it, he is working 60 hours a week now.  My Dad always worked as much overtime as he could to take care of my mom and me and Em. 

4.  Gary is beginning to show an interest in guns.
Growing up my Dad always went hunting, my uncle owns a gun shop, guns were always just a part of my life.  I knew how to shoot them, knew all the rules about them.  I meet Gary, and he has never even ever touched a gun in his life, let alone shoot one.  Now he tells my Dad that he thinks we should buy one to have at the house for protection... Who is he and what did he do with the guy I married?!?! hahaha

5.  Moonshine.
They both keep telling me stories about moonshine and doing shots of moonshine.  Gross.

So there you have it.  Gary is turning in to my Dad.  All I have to say is if he asks me to buy him long underwear this winter I might just lose it!  Love you both!