Monthly Archives: April 2013

Life As I Know It

There is no excuse for the number of poopy diapers and blows outs that I had to change and clean up before lunch. I mean, I hadn’t even finished my coffee before the first one. It’s completely unacceptable but more importantly what has his mom been feeding him?

I have to fill out some paperwork for my resignation so my manager emailed it to me. None of it has been filled out, so I wrote back asking what’s supposed to go in the blanks on the form and I’m told to think back to my roles and responsibilities and fill it out. Um…. That may work if I went to work last week and I’m quitting this week. But hello the last time that I was working was HALLOWEEN. Since then I’ve had a baby, moved across the country, and changed just about everything in my life. Roles and responsibilities? Feed a 12 pound human, make sure he gets the appropriate number of naps, feed my husband, and generally make sure the house doesn’t fall into the Earth. Unless I’m told otherwise that’s what I’m filling in the blanks with because I genuinely don’t remember what I spent 6 years of my life doing.

In other news, I’ve finally gotten around to taking pictures of the house, but only the upstairs so you’re going to have to stay tuned for the rest. In the mean time, here’s my upstairs:

Craft room

Master

Nursery

Guest room (this is where you would all be staying)

Lucas’ bathroom (aka guest bath)

I’ll get around to taking the rest eventually. Maybe I’ll get inspired as soon as we get our family room furniture delivered. Ugh! It’s taking FOREVER. Seriously. I’m over sitting on the floor and now that it’s pretending like it’s going to be nice weather I would love to sit on the sofa, watch Lucas play with his toys and enjoy a nice breeze. Looks like it’s going to be another few weeks before I get to live that dream.

And not because of the weather. For once, it’s 70 outside and sunny. I opened up the windows and enjoyed airing out the house

Molly was a little bit confused about the fresh air. I don’t blame her though because I was too.

My adorable Lucas woke me up at 7am and then decided that he wasn’t interested in going back to sleep. He was doing that this weekend but I was hoping it was just a phase. It’s looking like it’s actually not. So that’s….. great. Who doesn’t enjoy being woken up at 7 am EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. by a human alarm clock with a broken snooze button? So I started my day at 7 but doing laundry, picking up, washing laundry, all of the good stuff while my adorable child played with his toes, blew out his diapers, and then fell asleep for an early nap. Kid, you’re lucky that you’re cute because I would like to return you to the store by lunch time.

I crafted a wreath for the front door. I’ve been meaning to since we moved in but haven’t gotten around to it. So last week I went and got the materials for it and while talking about crafting to my sister, she sent me a photo of the wreath that I was planning on making but hers had different flowers that I totally liked better. So this weekend I went and exchanged my flowers and made my wreath while Lucas was busy crawling backwards:

The “R” is gold glitter

So there you have it. What a busy day. (5k Nike Fuel Points and it’s only 5)

Once A Sun Devil…

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I’m not sure if I posted it yet or not, but Angel and I finally got our Michigan license plates in the mail.

A little background- my adorable husband ordered a custom license plate in Arizona saying “GO B1UE” to represent the University of Michigan. So when we moved here, I jokingly told him that if he gets a UofM license plate in Arizona, than I get an ASU plate in Michigan. So that’s exactly what happened. I have to represent the University that gave me both a BS and an MBA so that I can stay home and sew and talk to my baby about his poopy diapers. You know those stories about people with a Masters degree who don’t use it? Yep. Living the dream.

Domestic Goddess- Now With An Etsy Shop!

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I had a busy afternoon while Lucas was down for a long nap that I’m no doubt going to be paying for at 5am tomorrow.

First, I hung all of the photos and art that I’ve been stacking up in the Living Room:

Do your best to ignore the empty frames. I ordered prints the other day and they should hopefully be here soon.

Next, I made this awesome craft as inspired from Pinterest:

When I was done, I was so proud of myself, that I added it to the art/photo wall on the stairs that I started earlier:

And when I was done with that, i made dinner complete with fresh bread from the bread machine. Susie Homemaker? I believe so, today!

I posted a picture on Facebook of my Arizona artwork and so many people told me to open an Etsy shop between my crafts, baby shoes, embroidery, and diaper cakes… so I did! You can find it at: http://www.Etsy.com/shop/RavishingRivas

I mostly just decided to sell things so that I can continue to afford all of my crafts and sewing and am not planning on selling enough that I’m busy making things for other people instead of making them for my adorable baby boy.

The Rivi (Plural) In The Windy City

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So as promised, I have about 30 minutes to tell you all about our weekend in Chicago before Lucas melts down and it’s bedtime.

We had a BLAST, though! We stayed on Michigan Avenue at the Marriott. The highway was flooded going into the city thanks to all of the crazy weather that we’ve been getting, so we had to detour though the awesome parts of Chicago on the south side that you hear about on the news. Luckily, we did that with everyone else traveling on I-94 so it only took us 3 hours to go 4 miles through the ghetto.

When we got to the hotel, we had a few minutes before we had to get ready for dinner. Everyone was tired, but Angel and I and his aunt, who all bundled up Lucas and put him in a stroller and went wondering around Michigan Avenue. We made it to the Disney store before we picked up a cute onesie and pajamas and “Wreck it Ralph” picture book and then we called it a night and went to get ready for dinner.

With the time change, our 8:30 reservation at a super nice restaurant meant a 9:30 bedtime for Lucas, and wa-lah! We had a peaceful dinner and completely forgot that the baby was sleeping next to us. Lesson learned for the future! But it’s really good that he slept because this isn’t the kind of establishment that caters to families, children, or anyone not in a tie.

On Saturday we walked all. over. the. city. A total of 6 miles we calculated. We walked to Millennium Park and took many of the photos that I posted earlier, and then we walked to Buckingham Fountain (which sadly was empty for construction), and then we walked to the Field Museum and through the exhibits there. Then we walked back to Michigan Avenue and went to lunch before we decided that our feet were tired and we hitched a ride back to the shopping that was a little bit closer to the hotel. A few rounds through a pair of our favorite stores (Nordstrom Rack and Nike) we went to the hotel to change for dinner.

Another 8:30 reservation, another quiet dinner at the City Grille which was another not-meant-for-children establishment. Luckily, we have the World’s Best Baby who was a trooper and probably fared the poor service the best out of our table. I’ve had poor service before, but I’ve never had a steak knife dropped down my back before, so that was new and probably sums up the service.

Because the place was so poor and because we ran out of time to tour the observatory at the top of the Hancock building that we were staying next to, we had Sunday Brunch on the 95th floor at the Signature Room viewing out over Lake Michigan and the city. It was beautiful! But when we were done it was time to get in the car and make the drive home.

Vacations are always too short.

Those are the Cliff’s Notes version of the weekend because I have an early melt down on my hands and need to run.

Have a great week, everyone!

Tears

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This commercial seriously makes me cry every time I see it. The marketing people must test their commercials on a room full of first-time, sleep deprived, moms and as soon as we cry go: "Yep, nailed it."

The week

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I don’t feel like writing all about my weekend in Chicago yet (plus, I don’t have time), so here are photos of the trip and I’ll write about it tonight after I unleash a teething baby on daddy.

An Open Letter To Huggies Diapers

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Dear Huggies Diaper creator,

If the American Association of Pediatrics still recommends feeding your child more than once a day, then kindly send me the cost of my last load of laundry, the carpet cleaner that I just used, and the bleach wipes that are necessary to clean up what your diapers fail to catch. Every time.

Kindly (and by that I mean “shove your diapers”),

Christina

Let My Mind Rest Now, Please

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I’ve been running around all day, and now it’s 11 o’clock and everyone in my house is asleep except me.

Naturally.

I have a “To Do” list that’s so long I’m not even sure how to calm my mind down enough to write about what I’ve been doing. So today I finally got around to taking my car in for it’s first oil change. my car, much like my baby, are both growing up 😦 Lucas started sitting up on his own. Granted it’s only for about 5 seconds before he leans to the side and falls over, but he doesn’t even cry when he falls over he just rolls around and giggles. He giggles and smiles constantly, he can grab onto our fingers and pull himself up to stand, he jumps, he grabs toys that are in front of him, he coos…. My baby is just so smart. Last night when he was laying in bed with us cooing I teared up a bit at the thought of how smart he is and how proud of my little dude that I am.

When I was getting my oil changed this afternoon there was an older lady sitting in the waiting area waiting for her car as well. Lucas was going crazy with the yells and coos, and noises while he was rolling all over the place and sticking toys in his mouth. I politely told the old lady that if his noises bother her to please let me know and I can take him for a walk. She laughed and said “Honey, those are the best noises in the world!” and spent the rest of the time I was there eating him up at how cute he was. She made the comment to me about an hour into my waiting adventure that you can tell that he is a very well cared for baby who is happy. I smiled and told her that I hope so and in my mind I was doing back flips because I certainly have the days where I feel like I didn’t play with him enough, cuddle with him enough, or you name it enough. Especially with the move and an entire house to unpack I feel like he gets set on the ground to be on his own for far too long. No real damage done, I suppose.

And then I ran errands, cleaned my kitchen, washed all of the laundry, picked up the house, and finished unpacking the last real room that I had left. I started putting the little nick-knacks away and hanging pictures and everything up. It made it feel about 5% more like home but at this point I would take 0.5% because this place just doesn’t feel like home.

Because I’m still 110% homesick for Arizona, I booked my flights tonight to go home May 16-24. First, I should probably stop calling Arizona “home” by instinct, and second, I AM SO EXCITED! I just want to be in the sun. I want to spend time with my friends and my brother and I just want to be in an environment where I feel comfortable because I still feel like a fish out of water here.

Speaking of the tundra that I now live in, it snowed on Saturday. Which really sucked, but the silver lining is that Lucas can now attend college with the money I owe his swear jar. The weather has been so beautiful, that here’s a photo of the grocery store parking lot at noon with the FREAKING STREET LIGHTS ON because it’s so dark. It’s also pouring rain which adds a whole new challenge to not waking up a baby and still get him out of the car and into the store. Again, with the swear jar.

Lucas has entered the foot stage. He grabs them, plays with them, tries to put them in his mouth. in fact, I don’t think I have many photos of him this week where he isn’t grabbing his toes.

Except this one, which is quickly becoming a Lucas favorite. This pretty much sums up how my days are spent and what a playful little hairball I’m raising:

I guess now that I have my house unpacked I should take a few pictures. Maybe I’ll get on that this week. Let me just add it to my loooooong list of crap that I need to do but probably will forget all about as soon as I turn my computer off.

Oh hey, guess what? I finally found out who would buy a large bathing suit top and a small bottom: Someone who is nursing a growing boy. Not that I don’t appreciate my boobs out to here, but I don’t appreciate them and wouldn’t be one who complains if the life gets sucked out of them as soon as I’m done nursing.

Molly got a bath today.

This really isn’t one of my most polished and organized posts, but that probably just goes to show you how scattered my mind really is at the moment.

And lastly, there was something funny and witty that I was planning on saying but now for the life of me I can’t even remember what it was about. So with that, I bid you all a good night. And I also apologize for the boring and confusing post. Except I’m not sorry. So there.

Crafting, and Crafting, and Crafting- Oh, My!

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I am a domestic goddess.

The last two days I’ve finally broken into the embroidery machine that Angel got for me while we were living in our crap castle. Remember that place? Yeah, unfortunately so do I. So anyway, I spent a long evening trying to figure out how to use it, and from my first masterpiece, I was hooked!

Not bad for the first try

A few burp cloths later….

… And I was running out of things to embroider and colors of thread. So I ordered more thread from my beloved Amazon and moved on to another sewing project: more baby TOMS!!!

Seriously, I love these things! The bottom photo is the toddler version that has Velcro instead of elastic and are slightly larger than my fingernail so they are easier to sew. And the black ones I assembly lined and about 20 minutes into it I felt a little bit like I was working in a Nike sweat shop.

And then because I was running out of things to sew or people to sew them for, I moved back to my embroidery machine to make more designs for when my thread arrives tomorrow.

When I was done with that, I set myself loose on my house with my P-touch label maker.

When everything in the house was either embroidered or labeled, my brain told me that I should go for a run but then my ass was all like “dude, chill, this couch is really comfy.” So I sat down with my baby and his custom burp cloths and watched trashy TV until it was dinner time and I realized that there wasn’t anything to make because the food in the fridge had expired. So I just did my go-to of spaghetti and patted myself on the back for leaving the craft room long enough to make food. You go, me!

Aaaaaand then I unjammed the vacuum from all of the hair that it’s been sucking up. Maybe it’s the prenatal vitamins that I started taking again, or maybe it’s the 5 inches of hair that I cut off, or maybe it’s just that I stopped showering so my hair never comes out of a pony tail long enough for me to recognize that it’s still falling out, but I’m not shedding at a chemo patient pace anymore. Seeing that it cut waaaaaay back the second that I got home from my haircut, I’m just going to chalk it all up as my long, old, color damaged, hair telling me that it was totally time to pop a vitamin and cut it off.

I’m going to go embroider a pair of Angel’s underwear now (just because I can) so I’m done with the blog. But before I go, allow me to plaster my webpage with photos of my child.