February 17, 2015 by Stephanie

Mom Confessions

I think we always share our highlight reels on social media. I have been wanting to share the not so glamorous parts that most people won’t admit online. This confession link-up gave me the push to actually post it.

So here are some of my mom confessions.

George is the worst nap taker and refuses to take naps at home. And there is no transferring him from the car-seat or your arms without waking him up. So if he falls asleep in his car-seat while we are out, I will leave him in the car-seat until he wakes up. There have been some times where he stays in his car seat for more than 30 minutes once we get home.

When I am driving and can’t find his pacy because well I am driving, I have put my finger in his mouth to calm him down. You do what you have to do sometimes.

I unintentionally may have flashed my entire office a couple weeks ago while I was pumping. I have blinds on my window, and I was all hooked up with boobs out when I noticed I forgot to shut them. MORTIFIED. My office is the kind though that someone would have kindly sent me a message reminding me to shut them. So I don’t think anyone saw anything, but I am still embarrassed that someone may have. Seriously my heart is pounding just thinking about it even though it was a couple weeks ago.

Speaking of forgetting things, every single day I think I forget to shut the garage door. Almost daily I have to circle the neighborhood to make sure that I closed it. Not once have I actually forgotten, but every day I am terrified once I get out of my neighborhood that I did. Just this morning I had to circle; and even after checking the second time out of the neighborhood, I still thought I may have forgotten.

The only songs I know without music are “The Star Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful,” and “Amazing Grace.” These are the only songs I sing when I rock George to sleep. So yes my kid falls asleep to the national anthem every night.

I use baby wipes to clean upstairs when I am too lazy to bring the cleaning stuff upstairs. Ok, I may use baby wipes to clean everywhere.

This is George’s original Halloween outfit. It is a 0-3 month, he will be 6 months old next week. Yes I still made him wear it in February.

What are your confessions?

February 16, 2015 by Stephanie

Snow Day

This morning I woke up to every school in the area being closed in the area except mine. So I begrudgingly got up, fed George, and got in the shower. I took my time hoping that my school would get with the picture and call for a snow day and also accepting that if they didn’t I probably would be late.

You see snow days aren’t just fun for the kids. Adults get giddy too seeing their school scroll across the bottom of the TV.

Halfway through my shower, Tom gave me the news that I did indeed have a snow day. SNOW DAY! I shaved my legs in celebration. I seriously never have time do that.

This free day off was much need after the weekend we had. It is giving us the chance to breath before having to go back to the real world.

This will probably be the only snow day the three of us ever have together. Police Officers don’t really get snow days, but since Tom is in school he got one today. (He is already back in bed for the morning.)

So we are going to do this snow day right.

Here is what is on the agenda:

watch 3 hours of Pretty Little Liars
take a nap
exercise for more than 15 minutes
read a couple chapters in my new book
do some laundry that I didn’t have time for yesterday
take some pictures of George that I didn’t get to this weekend for my photo challenge
write a couple blog posts I haven’t had time to complete
watch the SNL 40th with Tom
eat lots of donuts and cookies
And lots of this. I may just wear him all day. I didn’t put him down most of the weekend dealing with Grandma stuff. He was such a comfort.

The nice thing about snow days is it is like a free weekend. It’s like a gift. We plan to enjoy every extra moment we get to have at home.

What do you do on your snow days? Did you get one today?

February 15, 2015 by Stephanie

Life.

One year ago, we were celebrating the news that we would be adding life to our family. Valentine’s Day we found out we were pregnant.

This year we celebrated life in a different way. We celebrated a life lost.

Such a big life.

Friday night my sweet sweet grandma passed away.

This is such a hard loss because of the huge place Grandma held in our lives. While we knew this was something that was going to happen, her passing is still very much a shock because of how she has always been there for us.

She was one of the sweetest and most selfless women I knew. It’s hard to sum up everything that she was and meant to us.

She is colored popcorn balls.

She is lunch dates to Andres.

She is our first trip to Silver Dollar City.

She is the blue suede jacket that was forever a staple in her closet.

She was a trip to the movies to see the latest kid blockbuster.

She is her insistence that she was always 5.8 and a size 8 shoe.

She is watching Curly Sue, Heidi, and Big Business with me on repeat.

She is the shrimp holiday meal.

She is the immaculate manicure and updo. (Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever did see her nails not done.)

She is trips to Japanese Steak House.

She is the Hallmark movies she would save.

She is the angel Christmas decorations that would flood her house in the winter.

She is the call to make sure I was ok on campus, and that I was carrying a flashlight.

She is the family she embraced (blood and not). She adopted anyone as hers.

She is the laugh that fills you up.

She is the way she talked about each of her grandchildren and great grandchildren with great pride and love.

She is the support she showed us at every band concert, play, sports event, etc.

She is the way her eyes lit up when you walked in the door to visit.

She is a role model as a wife and mother.

She is the sparkle you saw when she talked about the love of her life (Grandpa).

She is the way she said I love you.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Grandma was so much to all of us that there is definitely a void that is felt by all.

We spent so much time at her house growing up. It was a safe haven for us, and we knew a good time would be had with her. All of these moments, I will cherish.

She was a mom to three, grandma to eight, and great-grandma to thirteen. And she loved as all so fully. Goodness it is hard to explain the emotion and all that she gave to us.

She was one of those people who gave everything that she was and then just a little more. She was seriously the best.

This was just a start to remember all of it. There will never be anyone quite like her. She was one special lady. This is my attempt to put it into words, but it’s still tough to process this loss. I just can’t imagine going home to Kansas City without seeing her face or hearing her voice. So much beauty wrapped up in one person.

It is going to be tough, but she will live on through all that knew her.

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I will forever cherish this moment where she held George for the first time. This is the only picture of the two of them together.

I never realized how much I looked like her until my cousin posted this picture. Hopefully I can follow in her footsteps in more than just looks.

Grandma, here’s to you and your size 8 shoe, which I am sure you are wearing now to see Jesus.

February 13, 2015 by Stephanie

When Love Gets Comfortable

This is not going to be your typical sappy lovey dovey post which are abundant with Valentine’s Day this weekend.

This is going to talk about those personal boundaries that are crossed once you fall in love and get comfortable.

Maybe too comfortable.

Remember when you first start dating someone, you try to look perfect around them all the time. You are almost frantic about having the perfect hair, fresh breath, and making sure you never mention bodily functions. And you glistened, no sweating here.

Over time I think it is natural for you to become more comfortable with that person and not feel like you have to go to bed with all your make-up on.

We have been together for almost 8 years and have lived together for 4 years. Eventually you start peeling back layers and your perfect facade isn’t so important anymore. Obviously this is Tom and I, and we will admit that maybe we have gotten too comfortable over the years.

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So here are 5 lines we have crossed in our boundaries as a couple.

1. We eat off of each others plates.This happened really early on. While some call it stealing of food, I just call it mutual property. I feel like there is an unwritten rule that whatever Tom has ordered, essentially I have ordered it too.

2. We have used each others toothbrushes. We each have our own, but sometimes it just happens that we use the other. Like when we are traveling, and one has forgotten it. We also keep our toothbrushes in different locations (his in the shower and mine in the vanity drawer), so there is a convenience/laziness to get our own factor. I mean seriously, why is this gross? We make out, so we are already swapping saliva.

3. We fart in front of each other. With my lack of smell, this kind of has gotten out of control we admit. We believe gas is natural so we let it out. You really shouldn’t be trying to suppress them. Tom does sometimes get upset with me because I really have no gates up about this one, and he can smell. Sucks for all y’all who have working nostrils.

4. Speaking of noses, we pick ours in front of each other. (We don’t pick each other’s…FYI. That would be gross.) I know it is inappropriate to go digging around your nose in public, but you are lying if you say you don’t occasionally have to pick your nose in private. And if you don’t, then you must not have the booger problems that the Whiteners do. (and well this has just gotten embarrassing.) It’s just something that happens for us. I have some pretty bad allergies, and for the record, Tom has the worst boogers on the planet so this was something I had to get over quick. Seriously he has boogers that he has to go in with tweezers and practically do surgery to get them out…quarter size boogers I tell you. It’s as gross as it sounds.

5. We leave the door open when we go to the bathroom. I would say that we only recently crossed this line. I haven’t really cared for awhile, but Tom was pretty adamant about keeping that part of our anatomy in secret. But when you have a bad case of food poisoning and are pretty much helpless in all functioning, Tom had to realize that I do indeed poop. Also when you watch your wife give birth and help her shower/walk/sit on a toilet for a few days after, pretty much any boundary that wasn’t crossed is now non-existent. I think his stint in the Army also made it more acceptable in our house to leave doors open.

For the record, one line I hate that we have crossed is putting sunblock on each other. I think it is disgusting to lotion someone else up. This may seem backwards considering what I have witnessed from Tom and other boundaries we have crossed, but there is something about putting lotion on someone else that gives me the heebeejeebees.

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Anyway, there is very little mystery in our relationship. Open books. There are some times where we think why are we letting the other see this? We also want to talk to high schoolers and say love is when you are able to talk about your poop to each other.

They love you at your best, and also stick with that love at your worst (and stinkiest).

Are we alone in our over-sharing? What do you still keep as a mystery with your significant other?

February 10, 2015 by Stephanie

Vicks CoolMist Humidifier

I did receive this humidifier complimentary for the review from Influenster, and these thoughts are my own.

Tom and I have been talking about getting a humidifier for a long time. We were registered for one, but it was not one of the gifts we received. Nor did we think it was a priority in the summer when we did the big discounted trip to round out our registry.

Now that we have a moved to MO, where the winters are as dry as they come, we desperately needed one.

We got this humidifier thanks to Influenster right in time to sway off more sickness.

Tom and I both got sick, and we prayed that George would not get our crud. George is now at the stage where he can start catching bugs. (Although I am fairly certain mine was mastitis so I am not sure he can catch that.)

So we wanted to heed it off if we could. We have had this in his room for the last week. So far it has been great. He has had a runny noise, but nothing too major. And really we aren’t always sure it isn’t just a whole bunch of slobber that has pooled behind his pacy.

Anyway back to the humidifier.

This thing is super easy to use folks. And as a mom whose time is precious, that is a must. My only complaint about the use is that I haven’t figured out how to take the top off without some water spilling out. But compared to the one we had growing up, this one is much easier to put water in. I might just need to let it completely go through a whole tank before filling it up again, but we don’t always go through one before the next bedtime. Or I need to just flip it over and untwist the top…Bottom line, I am clumsy so I would probably spill water no matter what.

Since I leave it on the floor the switch is really easy to click on and off with my foot. You can either have it on low or vary the level as high as you need.

It is easy to carry and will fit pretty much anywhere. It also is a pretty sleek design that happens to match George’s room, so that was a bonus.

The other thing that is really important is that the mist that comes out is not hot. So if George or the dogs get to close, it wont affect them. All three like to explore without understanding the consequences all the time, so I am really happy it won’t hurt them.

I really recommend this if you live in a dry area like us. We have only been using it a week but I can tell a difference!

If you are interested in getting an Influenster box (you don’t have to be a blogger), just let me know, and I can send you an invite. They are a fun surprise! The community is also really easy to navigate. The more you interact, the more they will be able to find boxes that fit your style and needs. It is really versatile, and you can use it a lot or hardly at all. I have really enjoyed it so far!