All in good time.

Wow, I can't believe a year has passed since I last posted here. It's amazing how time can get away from a person! Well, since my last post, my son was born and will be one on Monday, my hubby and I eloped February 2011 and are planning to do a big vow renewal since we didn't get to do our big wedding, moved twice, and have been super busy. I have a blog going all about my life as a mom at http://latoasahm.blogspot.com as well!

So, vow renewal planning is going slowly. We won't be doing it for a few years, so I have plenty of time to get things ready. I'll be wearing the dress that my mom got me and I wore when we eloped and may get a second, short dress to wear to the after party. Rather than doing roses and calla lillies, we'll probably do sunflowers and wild flowers in mason jars. We haven't figured out how were going to do drinks, picked a Dj, or decided if we want to still do it at hubby's grandma's house, or somewhere else. Still so much to do, but this time we have plenty of time to plan!

A fabulous giveaway! Bright Starts Having a Ball™ Cluck & Learn Barn

The How to Mommy is doing a fabulous giveaway for the Bright Starts Having a Ball Cluck & Learn Barn!


The Cluck and Learn Barn is an extremely cute new toy from Bright Starts, little ones can drop a ball into a chicken, setting off barnyard sounds and watching to see which of the barn doors the ball will pop out! There are also buttons where the little ones can learn about different animals!


How to Mommy's Review:
Having a Ball™ Cluck & Learn Barn™ Review

As my girls are 9 months and 31 months, I was curious if it would actually be a toy both of them would enjoy.

Within minutes of taking the Barn out of its packaging both girls were all over it!  As a sometimes unprepared mom, I was also glad to see that two AA batteries are included so we could play with it immediately.

Little Miss R loved putting the balls in the top of the chicken, while Baby O liked the lights and sounds.  I swear, after the toy said that a sheep says “Baa” she made a noise very similar!  The Barn entertained them both for quite awhile, and they even played together!

Here’s Baby O, enjoying her new toy.

As you can see, she loved it!

If this looks like the giveaway you want to enter, check out The How To Mommy's blog (Link Below!)
http://www.thehowtomommy.com/?p=1867

Ethan James

Life has been so crazy since I last posted that I've been neglecting my blog.. and I really shouldn't have been. 

So, since I haven't written anything since February, I need to do a whole lot of updating. 

Well, not long after I made my last post, my (now hubby) and I found out we were unexpectedly expecting. It was quite the shock at first, as we weren't planning to have kids for a few more years, but excitement soon set in. We found out that we were having a boy May 24, and we are anxiously waiting for Ethan's arrival! He is due October 15, 2011. 

On February 28, 2011 Matt & I were married in a small civil ceremony with our immediate family and a few friends. We are planning on doing a large party with all our family and friends (we didn't get to have a reception after our ceremony as I was extremely sick) and having a "vow renewal" ceremony to share the whole experience with those who were not able to be with us for the civil ceremony. 

In June, Matt and I moved into our own apartment! We were extremely excited to have a place to ourselves, and while it has it's ups and downs, it's been really nice to have a few months as just the two of us. This winter (or early spring) we are hoping to move into a larger place.. either rent a house or a town home until we decide where to settle down and purchase a place of our own. 

Now, we are trying to buy and organize everything that we need for our active little Ethan before he arrives. October is coming very fast and I can't wait to meet my son and look into the face of the little guy who has been kicking and moving in my stomach for the first time.

I'm hoping to be able to come on more often and update about life as a first time mom, get back into photography (my camera had broken and I just got a new body a few months back). We'll see how well that all works out!

Tragedy

Today, tragedy struck in a small town very close to where I live when a janitor shot and killed the principle of the elementry school in which he worked. It's sad how people now adays take things to the extreme.

Here is a link to one of the stories if you are interested: http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-shooting-at-school-injures-one-20110202,0,287476.story

And that wasn't the only one this week (and it's only just now Thursday). On Tuesday, a third grade teacher was killed when the car she was riding in was flipped over.

http://folsomtelegraph.com/detail/170467.html?content_source=&category_id=2&search_filter=&user_id=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&event_ts_to=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=1&sub_type=&town_id=

In the midst of tragedy, I had a teacher come into my work today, well, technically yesterday and purchase 95 flowering bulbs for the students at Indian Creek Elementry School to plant in honor of the teacher who passed away and to help brighten their day after the murder of the Principal of Schnell School. I was in awe over her thinking, having the students plant bulbs as a memorial was an incredibly thought since bulbs continue to come back and the memorial will exist for years to come.

All of this death got me thinking about how I need to show more appreciation for those near and dear to me. I have gotten so caught up in my own little world that I really haven't taken the time to show them how much I care. And it honestly could happen to anyone, at any time. I'm sure neither the teacher, nor the pricipal woke up thinking that those were the days that they were going to die.

My challenge to all of my readers: make sure all of the people you care about know that you care about them. Whether it's a phone call a day, facebook comments, text message conversations, weekly or even monthly dinners, something to make sure they know, because you really have no idea how long you will have them for. Treasure each moment!

Making a come back.

Wow. I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged. It seems like so many things have happened in the last, almost 3 months that I haven't written about. And it's not that I haven't wanted to, it's more that I have gotten caught up in the fast paced world or working & enjoying life and haven't made the time (shame on me). So, I'm going to try really hard to get back into writing more often. Especially since it is a great stress reliever and helps me sleep sometimes.

So, things that have happened since November:
Matt and I changed the way we are working the wedding. Origionally, the whole shebang was going to happen this October with the 150 guests, and such. But after going back and forth about what we would really be happy with and what we could afford, we decided to break the wedding into two pieces. We knew that we needed to include certain people in the ceremony and there were others that we wanted to be there, so we decided against eloping on the coast. I believe we decided to have both parts in the original location, but the ceremony will be 30-40 people (not the planned 150) and will still be in October. The grand hazzah, aka the reception, we decided to move to June of 2012 so we don't have any weather issues and we have LOADS of time to save!

I've also gotten a lot of work done on wedding items. I have my gloves that I'm going to wear

Have put together some of the candles that are going to be on the tables (including 2 for the guest book table), and have some of the lights that we are going to hang up for when it starts getting dark.

I also got the shoes that I'm officially going to wear. They are a pair of white and black converse that I got on super sale from the converse outlet near my house.

I decided against my black, blue, and silver DC's when I realized that I needed a new pair of shoes for work, how much of a pain they would be to clean (the silver and blue on then was all stitching), and what girl doesn't love a new pair of shoes? I'm also planning on getting a pair of heels that I can wear for the reception (since I don't have to worry about mud or rain in June). When I get those I'll post pictures too!

I'm also getting a car.. at some point! My awesome uncle bought it for me in an auction since my Mustang was having a ton of problems, including bad transmission problems. He lives in the bay area, so I haven't seen the car in person yet, but he did text me a picture the day he bought it! I'm not sure how we are working out getting the car to me and getting my other uncle's van that I've been driving around to him.. Or even what we owe him for the car yet. It's all a big mystery! But I can't wait to have a car that is MINE again. I really miss having something that is registered in my name and completely belongs to me!

I got a second job recently... Actually, it's watching my adorable nephew 4 days a week while his mom works (and daddy sleeps). It technically starts this coming Monday, but the last 2 weeks I've had him 2 days anyway.. And I love it and him! He does remind me that I don't want kids for a while, but he is extremely fun to play with and it's incredible watching him grow (especially since I've known him since he was very tiny).

Speaking of jobs, I may get a promotion! Well, I guess thats what you would call it in my line of business. I work retail for a large home improvement corporation and if I get this "new job" with them, I'll still be at my store... which is awesome because I love the people I work with, but I'll be more on the boss/manager side of things than I currently am.. and I'll get a raise. Which would definatly be nice.

Matt also had testing with the CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) today. I'm so proud of him! It was only the written so far, and the physical is coming up soon as well, but I'm happy to see him going to something he wants to do. I have to admit that I'm a bit jealous, as my photography has been put on the back burner lately. I do play with my new(er) digital camera I got for Christmas.. nothing fancy, just a simple point and shoot, but still nice.. but I haven't used my film camera since it started causing draining the batterys everytime the flash tried to go off. It was a big dissapointment. I LOVE my film camera and with everything right now, I can't afford to go get a new one... It's a $200-300 camera.

Other than that, I'm reading World War Z by Max Brooks. It's really good, but really creepy and pretty gruesome. I watched The Time Traveler's Wife last night to help me sleep after! But I'm about 140 pages in and loving every minute of it! It's basically a guy writing a book about accounts from different people who survived the "zombie apocalypse" because he wants the human element, the stories to be remembered for the future so hopefully there isn't another zombie war. I also finished Nicholas Sparks's The Lucky One a few weeks ago. I wasn't sure if I wanted to try Sparks again since out of the books I had read by him, I only liked one enough to read it more than once, but it was a really good book.. in a completely different way than World War Z, obviously. It's about a U.S. Marine who finds a picture of a girl while in Iraq and it becomes his lucky charm, so after he gets out of the military and after some stuff happens (I don't want to give away a big part of the story), he decided to try to find the girl in the picture. He ends up meeting and eventually falling in love with her, but there are secrets that may end up tearing them apart. It's a good love story and one of my favorite Nicholas Sparks' books. Second only to The Guardian, which is another amazing book.

I think thats it for now!

It's a lonely world for a lonely girl

I have decided that I need to start really making friends up by where I am now if I ever want to "go out with the girls" again. A lot of my friends live back in my home town or in that general vicinity, so now that I have moved away (well, 40 mins, but still) I very rarely see anyone that I used to hang out with and still consider my friends. As with all friendships, we are all involved in different things, be it work, school, relationships, or multiple (usually multiple) of the above.

Now, with me also being involved in planning my later 2011 wedding, it seems like I have become even more distanced from those friends. The only time I see any of my home town friends is if I drive all the way back to my mom's house (aka the house I grew up in) and text everyone to make plans before I do so.

The problem is, I'm finally tired of it. I'm completely tired of anytime my friends want to make plans with me, I'm expected to drive, 80 minutes round trip, down to Elk Grove to hang out. And sometimes, I'm also expected to be the transportation to what ever fun plans are being discussed. I have to use my gas to do all of this, and gas money is occasionally offered, but it is not anything close to what I'll be spending between gas and the wear and tear on my vehicle.

The problem is trying to get people to meet me anywhere in between. If and when I can talk meeting somewhere other than Elk Grove, it's somewhere completely out of my way, or close to the same travel time as driving to EG. I do have some friends that will meet me close to where I am when we both have the free time in their schedules. To those friends I am thankful. This is to all of those friends who make it seem like they are going out of their way to meet me somewhere, yet they expect me to drive the whole way to their homes; those people who say they'll give me gas money because they need me to drive all the way to them despite what origional plans were, then don't want to actually give me gas to pay for all the driving that they have planned for me to do.

I AM TIRED OF IT!

So, after all of that ranting, I have decided that I really need to start making friends (other than Matt's friends) that live in the area so that I don't have to worry about all of the bs that I'm tired of.

It is a lonely world for a lonely girl

It's Official...

It's down to the year mark!
12 months to go til the wedding!!

I'm super excited, but also a but nervous.

There is a lot we need to do,

a lot of money still to be spent...

and I'm STILL looking for a full time job.

Things have been a little stressful to say the least.

And it really hasn't been helping our relationship at all.

Hopefully we both make it through this unscathed. lol

But now we get down to the details...

and maybe do some craft work tomorrow. lol

We'll see..

Anyway it goes,

Here goes nothing!