Dreaming of Steve Madden

Ok Ok my husband got me a type of shoe of the month club. Shoedazzle.com for Christmas. This amazing act, and super thoughtful since I LOVE shoes and NEVER buy any, has woken the beast that lay dormant for so long. The shoe monster has infested my brain and I CAN NOT STOP THINKING/DREAMING of these shoes. Literally, I dreamed about them tonight.

I need to find a way to get these boots. I think I may try to sell some stuff on Ebay to come up with the funds...can you sell four year olds?

Then I have to figure out WHICH color to get cause I WANT THEM ALL!!!

Oh Steve Madden, why do you tease me so?

Happily Married

We don't have much.

But we have each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaMpkjLYh1M

A little of this and a little of that...

So lately things have been looking up even though it is dreary as all hell outside and I usually fall into a swirling black hole of depression this time of year I am trying to stay positive and look for the sunshine in everyday, (how cheesy is that?).

My husband and I are still making things harder on ourselves by having one car. We have only had one vehicle for over a year and although it was manageable before... his newest position as Manager in Training for Outback has placed him in freaking East Greenwich. The 40 minute drive to and from twice a day is a killer, I try as much as I can to not take the car but with him working till 9 or 10 every night and me needing to go to work there is no other alternative. Meg has been super helpful in providing rides and childcare for me but I think I am going to try to get June to push my lessons onto two days starting in the new year. I just can't keep running around like this, I want to be more involved with my kids and home life. Which is funny cause I'm home all day but I feel like I miss out on so much being at work every night even for only a few hours.

I've started watching another baby here on Mondays. His name is Cody and although he is four days younger than Savs he would give Tucker a run for his money on a football field! It is helping tremendously with the bills, just having that little bit of extra cash come in is going to allow us to pull off Christmas this year for Aidan. (Thank goodness Savannah has no idea what is going on yet).

Speaking of Santa we have employed Simon, our resident "elf on a shelf", in our home daily to keep an eye on Aidan and report back to Santa whether he should be on the naughty or nice list this year. It is truly hysterical to watch Aidan try to find him everyday.

My largest concern right now is not that our rent is passed due, or that we don't have more than $34 to our names, it's that my very first memory that I can recall with detail and complete certainty and without a doubt was when I was four years old. Same age as Aidan. Which theoretically means that THIS Christmas could prove to be THE memory he remembers, the first one. I so desperately want it to count. (I mean my first memory was of DisneyWorld and we all know what happened to me from there) ;)

Our landlord gave us a $40 Toys R Us card yesterday which I used to get two of the things on his list, and the poor boy didn't ask for anything extravagant either, bless him. I'll scan and post the copy of his Christmas letter to Santa (first ever) tomorrow. Right now I need to tend to my sick baby girl :(

Tomorrow makes one year....

I, Sara, take you, Benjamin, my best friend, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; in times of failure and in times of triumph, to care and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and stay with you, from this day forward until death do us part, into eternity, to infinity and beyond.

NEW MOON!

Me, Ben, Jessica and Dave went and saw New Moon at midnight tonight. I loved it. I knew I would. The chemistry seemed to be stronger between Jacob and Bella this time than between her and Edward. Weird. It's also weird that we were all drooling over a freaking 17 year old. Damn cougars we are!

I can not wait for Eclipse!

This leaves me breathless

DAMN IT SEX AND THE CITY!!!!!!!

Top 10 Baby names of 2008

Boys Names

1 Aiden
2 Jayden
3 Ethan
4 Jacob
5 Caden
6 Jackson
7 Noah
8 Jack
9 Logan
10 Matthew


Son of a bitch! I thought really hard about that name, I picked it before Sex and The City was so popular and their character Aiden even existed!!! I even referred to the original Irish spelling, A-i-d-A-n. Soooooooooooooooooooo pissed. After having the name Sara in the 80's, when it was in its prime, I was trying to give my son the chance to not be "Aidan (insert last initial here)" in his class. Stupid HBO and their hit series ruined my son's original name. Bastards.

Playing face games with Daddy...

Whom she TOTALLY adores.

Now THATS a workout!

This morning I took advantage of my baby-free Monday to go to a Zumba class at my gym.

It is an hour later and my body is already screaming. Such an AWESOME workout and its fun. I have to say, being a dance instructor, even after just having a baby I thought I would be better equipped for this class. I was sweating like I have NEVER sweat before. It was...intense, to say the least.

Can't wait to try it again on Friday.



Some info on ZUMBA;

The Class
Zumba classes generally last about an hour, and consist of a combination of Latin American dances, Hip-hop, belly dancing and other dance styles. Each instructor choreographs his or her own class routine, but the fundamentals of the exercise are designed to provide a strong cardio and muscular workout. The whole body moves in a Zumba class, helping to burn fat and build lean muscles.

Calories
Zumba workouts can vary in intensity, and calorie burn depends on an individual's weight, fitness level and muscle composition. On average, a 150-pound person can expect to burn 536 calories during an hour of Zumba. By comparison, the same person would burn 413 calories during an hour of moderate swimming, 477 for an hour of casual racquetball and 684 for an hour of running at a 10-minute-mile pace.

Sleeping and Smiling Beauty

Savannah slept through the night last night! Midnight to 7am! AND she is starting to grace us with her beautiful toothless smile this week on command. Here are a few pictures for the viewers at home. :)

Today I realized...

I love to say "my husband".

We've almost been married a year and I still love saying those words.

And I always will.

Dear Mom and Dad

Just wanted to tell you that I had one of the best moments of my life today and it wouldn't have been so significant if it were not for you two. Today Ben and I took Aidan and Savannah to The Big E. Walking through the gates and around the fair was definitely the most surreal thing I've ever experienced. I was instantly transported back to a hundred memories of us there as a family when I was a kid and let me tell you NOTHING has changed! We walked through the buildings of living infomercials and craft carts, took Aidan on a camel ride, fed animals at the petting zoo, went to the farm building and saw the chick hatchery and all the veggies that won awards this year, checked out the clydesdale horses, went to the Maine building for a baked potato (but the line was over 60 minutes long so we opted to go eat in the Sam Adams Tavern in the old village they have set up), we went to the Midway and rode some rides and I got all nostalgic over the machine gun game (the one you used to play Dad where you have to shoot out the red star on the paper), OH and I saw the 50 cent birthday game! (I took pictures I couldn't help myself.) Aidan had an absolute
blast and we can't wait to take them again next year, continuing my(our) own family tradition.

So I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for an amazing childhood memory that I get to share and pass down to my children.

I still can't believe I took MY KIDS to The Big E today. Wow.

Love Always,
Sara

Pictures!

The latest whirlwind of events

Savannah Rose is here!!! Born August 26, 2009 @ 2:56pm after 19 hours and 10 minutes of labor. She was 6lbs, 9oz of beautiful baby girl that had my love the second I laid eyes on her. Full head of brown hair and dark blue eyes, her little feet and hands were blue-ish for the first few hours but pinked up after that. I cried for the first week she was here, so happy to finally have the baby girl I always wanted, to be able to share that with the man of my dreams, and to finally be a complete family of four feels like a fairytale that I am not worthy of.

We politely requested that only grandparents, (and Megan of course) come to the hospital after her birth so that we could have a few private days to bond as a family before we brought her home. Everyone obliged respectively and we were able to have some really sincere, heartfelt moments alone with our new baby girl. I will treasure those moments forever. The nursing staff at Memorial was AMAZING I have all of their names and plan on doing something special for them soon.

Things I want to remember about my 19 hour labor;

Trisha the nurse from heaven moved us to the large private labor room the second her shift started, this is the same nurse that we had the Saturday before when we were in "early stage labor" and sent home.

I nearly passed out when my water broke, I had some kind of physiological reaction and literally lost my blood pressure for a few minutes. Very scary and the worst part of the entire thing.

Contractions started at 7:46pm on Tuesday the 25th. Ben kept track while he played video games until 1am.

Mum and Dad Norman were there most of the night and morning, being very supportive and trying to keep my spirits up as much as possible. I had a few moments of snapping at Mum, but I apologized the next day of course.

My midwife Michelle Palmer from East Bay was able to make it!! This was one of the best things I can say, she stuck to her word and even though she wasn't on call, she was there for me.

My husband, never left my side. Never, and actually refused food since I couldn't eat either. (we were able to talk him into eating something but the gesture was breathtakingly romantic in my 14th hour of labor.)

All in all we are adjusting nicely. Aidan is in big brother mode full swing and she is like clockwork with her sleep and feeding schedule. I barely have to look at a clock when she wakes up I already know what time it is. :)

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

I had to post pictures in my blog so I will always have them. Most of the things on and around the crib can not stay there because it is just not "baby-safe" but for a month or so she can have some pretty things to look at right?

A quote my sister found

"While I can run, I'll run; while I can walk, I'll walk; when I can only crawl, I'll crawl. But, I'll always be moving forward." ~*~Cavett Robert~*~

Wasting away again...

Ben and I took last Thursday night to have a much needed night out to ourselves and ended up eating at Jimmy Buffet's Margarittaville in Mohegan Sun Casino. Trying so hard to imagine we were back on our honeymoon in Orlando at the Jimmy Buffet's there. We had a great time despite the atrocious service we got and the money we lost. We don't get out "just us" very often at all so it is so wonderful to just have an evening when we don't have to worry about where Aidan is or what time we have to be home. Jennise, Ben's cousin, has been an AMAZING help to us over the past few months and I really don't know what I would do without her. She so nicely came over to spend the night and watch Aidan so we could go out with no worries.

Here are some of the pictures from that night. The first one pictured here is a slot machine Ben played for HOURS and was actually doing quite well at for a while. The rocks with the wolf on top is in front of the Wolf Den stage and the wolf moves, and looks real when he does I had to take a picture. Once an hour or so at Jimmy's a giant upside down volcano in the ceiling starts spinning out of control giving birth to a GIANT tequila bottle that spits margaritas into a HUGE pitcher, it was hard to get a clear nice shot but I did my best!

T-13 days

13 days till the due date. My back is killing me today and I am becoming increasingly cranky by the day. Today I actually feel sick, like I have a bug or something. Stuffy nose, achy all over, and completely and utterly exhausted. I have a final psych paper due tomorrow by midnight that I am TRYING to get done but just can't seem to get the steam to get the engine moving. Ben has the next two days off so I assume we will be able to completely finish the house (living room is all that's really left) and pack our hospital/labor bag and Aidan's overnight bag just in case he ends up staying over at Megan's. Although I am sure my mother will go snag him as soon as she can cause she is just like that. Which I guess is good because Meg has her own TWO kids to deal with now ;)

Megan, Laura, Jeanine (AKA the Mom Squad) and the kids all came over last Friday and we set up the bouncy house and sprinkler for the kids. I wish I was more hospitable that day as I spent most of the day complaining about being pregnant, crying to Megan or taking a nap. None-the-less they were able to get a few smiles and laughs out of me. I am so thankful for such a supportive circle of Mommy friends. I just wish that my gal pal Jessica and Jen (Megan's good friend) lived closer so we could all get together.

We started to build our "home"

As I mentioned in an earlier post Ben and I have been hitting IKEA lately with two main goals;

1. To get a king size bed as our anniversary present to each other (even though our anniversary isn't until November).

2. To FINALLY get the bookshelves I have been lusting after for over almost two years.

We accomplished BOTH last week and here are some of the pictures of our NEW furniture. New is a big thing for us, since pretty much 99% of the things we own are hand-me-downs or bought as second hand stores. The best part was we were able to score the bookshelves at the IKEA two hour once a year clearance sale, what would have cost us over $234 I was able to snag for a mere $20.23! The pictures are a bit blurry cause the camera I was using is an oldie.

Ikea, every bargain shoppers dream

I have a long post coming about the new bed Ben and I bought at IKEA on July 29th and another one about the AMAZING deal I got on my billy bookshelves I have been drooling over for over two years now but right now I need to get to bed. I just wanted to start a blog about it in case I forget to post the awesomeness that is IKEA.

Aidan's Birthday

So for Aidan's birthday this year we are going to dress up and go to King Richard's Faire. This is something I have actually wanted to do for YEARS now and just never got the opportunity, time or money to do so. Ben and I have been trying to find things to wear to the event online, searching google, ebay, etsy, and all kinds of other sites. Ben finally found a dress for me and I LOVE IT!



Ben's dress is the back up in case the same company can not locate me the size I need in THIS dress. Which I am TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH!

Sometimes you need to have a happy reminder...

So, I wanted to blog this so I never forget it.

After two years, three months, one week and four days of struggling to pay our bills. Ben and I were able to pay all of our July bills on time. ALL OF THEM.

Setting us up for a less stressful arrival for Savannah Rose. Knowing we have our finances under control and can truly focus on what will be one of the happiest moments of our lives together, her birth.

Just wanted to note this.

Happy thoughts, the truly happy ones, are hard to come by now-a-days.

Go Team Norman! I'm so proud of us.

Three year old wisdom

While shopping at Target yesterday we passed the garden section and Aidan pointed to the giant bags and asked;

"What are those Mommy?"
"Bags of soil", I replied.
"What is soil?"
"It is a type of dirt."
He then countered with, "Who would buy dirt in a bag when you can get it outside? That's silly Mommy".

And Mommy didn't have an answer because she was laughing too hard.

In honor of my daughter

I made the cake for my shower (and the favors as well). I don't care that it is 3am and I just finished putting the finishing touches on it. I love this cake so much I had to take pictures and post them right now.

The cake is a buttery yellow cake with strawberry filling and vanilla icing and white chocolate flowers on top (all made from scratch)!!!

I love you Savannah Rose and Mommy CAN NOT wait to meet you!! Here is to the first of all the very happy memories we will make together.

Obama is a Ninja

In case anyone else on the planet missed this my wonderful friends from Albany told me about this last night and I just have to share its awesomeness.

God I love our President.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rbUH_iVjYw

5 weeks to go

So my awesome midwife moved my due date up to August 23rd at my last appointment this past Thursday. I am so excited and at the same time completely panicked. Not because the baby will be here but because my house looks like a tornado hit it and I just can't clean fast enough and I know from my recovery from child birth with Aidan if I have another episiotomy I am going to be in even worse shape and now I have a loving in-law family as well as mine that will be visiting my dirty house.

I made a note that on the next not so sunny day I was going to gut the kitchen completely bleaching and washing everything and the floors, do all the laundry (including new baby clothes) and lysol/dust the rest of the house. I got the dusting done today and then couldn't breath. I feel like I am going to puke AGAIN today and I am having a really hard time breathing. Just like I was when they thought there was something wrong with my heart. Ben just came into the bathroom while I was attempting to lysol the toilet clean and scolded me to get up and not do that if I wasn't feeling good. I then had a mini breakdown of tears because I don't want my house messy when company comes to visit over the next few weeks between the shower and Savannah's arrival.

The worst part is it isn't even Aidan. It is just STUFF EVERYWHERE. And I am too pregnant for lack of a better word, to move it all.

So instead of getting the shit done I wanted to today I am going to my mom's to literally wade in her freezing pool and try not to pass out.

What a waste of a day.

My proudest scholastic moment to date....

93.6
That was my final grade in the evil statistics course.

It is such an inspiration to yourself when you completely struggle with something, you actually fear it, but try your hardest and manage to come out on top. I have a renewed faith in my determination, brain power and educational prowess.


93.6


Wow, can not believe I got an A.

Forbes Women Magazine

According to Forbes Women Magazine the number 12th highest paying job is....


No. 12 Psychiatrists

Average Annual Pay: $154,050

One-Year Change: +4.4%

Employees in Field: 22,140

Best-Paying State: Nevada

The Job: Diagnose, treat and help prevent disorders of the mind.



Yeah baby! SO EXCITED TO GET STARTED HELPING WITH PATIENTS IN THE FALL!!!

A week of updates...

So...last weekend was the 4th of July weekend spent entirely at the lake house. I'll post a few shots from our rare and beautifully sunny weekend. It looks like its back to rain again. It doesn't even feel like Summer. It rained 25 days in June and July is not looking to be all that promising either.

In other news Jennise and I FINALLY finished painting the living room yesterday. I am paying for it today as my back, feet, and shoulders are very very sore. I don't know if it is entirely from painting or if my tossing and turning all night is a factor. I'm one day away from 33 weeks now and I am finding it very hard to get comfortable. It doesn't matter if I'm standing, walking, sitting or laying down I just can't seem to find a comfortable position. I feel like the baby has "dropped" a little bit since there is a lot more pressure on my lower stomach than there was before but it still isn't helping with the breathing. On a trip to Home Depot with Ben yesterday I thought I was going to pass out for a minute when we were standing in the checkout line. Luckily as always, something sugary or caffeinated did the trick in getting my blood pressure up and going.

Last night Ben and I also had our first "baby class" as Ben calls it. We met another great couple named Chris and Tama who are due within five days of us with a baby boy. The highlight of the class for me was when we watched "the video" and I had Ben on the right of me and Chris to the left of me and they were making the same groans and facial expressions it was hysterical.

The dreaded Statistics class is over I am just awaiting my final grade and psychological research started Tuesday. I wish there was a mini-break between classes. I feel like I am constantly trying to read chapters and get work done. This program is intense but I a so happy that it allows me to finish my BA degree in one year instead of two.

OH!!! Butler Hospital contacted me yesterday and I have been preliminarily accepted into their internship program for the Fall!!! Not only do I get to work in a psychiatric hospital but I will be in the clinical department working with patients!

Now I have something else to look forward to after Savannah gets here. AND this will set me up nicely for a paid position once I am done in March and maybe Ben won't have to work like a crazy loon.

How far do you go for a neighbor?

My downstairs neighbor's dryer in the basement caught on "fire" almost two months ago. She never cleaned the lint trap or any other part of it and after 20 years it killed itself. She wasn't home at the time. Ben and I were and Ben was able to get everything under control barring a fire extinguisher and when she came home we explained to her and the landlord what had happened.

Instead of replacing the dryer she cleaned it off and kept using it.

Now about a month after that it has died again. She called someone to come look at it. They told her it was going to cost too much to replace and fix it and she should go buy a new dryer. That day she called upstairs and asked if she could put her clothes she had started before the dryer died in our dryer so they would be dry for tomorrow morning. We told her sure not a problem, and I ran downstairs and removed our clean clothes from the dryer.

Now, she is still using our dryer. Which normally I wouldn't care except it is hooked into our electric and our bill. Not to mention I feel like I am back at a laundromat again waiting or wondering when I get to use the dryer and when the other tenants will be done with it. Only its my dryer. My mother bought Ben and I a washer and dryer as our shower gift so that we would have to go to the laundromat when the new baby gets here. It's new, it's mine, and I want to use it.

Our downstairs neighbor is a single mother, with a child with special needs. So I feel bad asking her when the hell she is going to get her dryer since her "one time" has become a daily load of clothes or two.

What is the right thing to do here?

Calling all bullshit

*Moved to private blog*


Can be found in "No Comment"

Hello Kitty

I had a few cake jobs this weekend one of which was a Hello Kitty cake for a little girl's birthday party. "She wanted it to be pink inside but not strawberry." Here was the finished product. :)

Traveler's Notch

Oh and I got some new art today too!!!



Traveler's Notch by MukkekaWoman

http://artbymukkekawoman.com/

Anniversary Switch-a-roo

Ben and I were at IKEA today and we fell in love with a bed they had there. Only it is going to cost us around $1200 for the whole package and since this is actually what we said we were going to get as our wedding gifts for each other last November we made a brilliant decision today to scrap our NYC vow-renewal and to BUY OURSELVES OUR DREAM BED!! We still want to renew our vows every year and we want to renew them in every state so this year since we are switching to the new bed idea we are going to renew our vows in Rhode Island lol. We are also going to stick with our plans to send the children to Mom's for the weekend so that we can have our own private time. Which will most likely now be spent in our new KING size bed from heaven. :) I keep trying to find a picture that does the setup we picked justice but I just can't. Next time I go to IKEA I'll have to take a picture.

YAY for no more sleeping on a mattress on the floor! FANTASTIC ANNIVERSARY IDEA & GIFT!

LOVE YOU BABE!

...I am in complete shock.

Sadly this week Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. Farah passed away from cancer and Michael died from cardiac arrest today. I am at a loss for words.

Rest In Peace great entertainers of the world. We will never forget you.

67 days

Only 67 days left until Savannah's due date. My feet are sore and swollen on a daily basis now but happily I am still stretch mark free, just like I was for Aidan. So thankful for my good genes and elastic stomach. The new house still looks like we just moved in even though we have been here a month. Mainly due to my lack of mobility and because Ben's time out of work is so sensitive I try not to ask him to do anything other than take the garbage out or to carry the occasional load of laundry up or down the two flights of stairs for me. The highly intrusive waves of fatigue from the first trimester have re-emerged at literally the worst possible time. It is raining out, and has been for the past 23 days so my SAD is in full swing on top of having my hardest college class to date I am just as mentally drained as I am physically drained.

On a side note Graduation date has been set for me, May 8th is when I walk the stage to get my BA in Psychology. My classes are actually over the beginning of March so I have two months of job hunting open while I wait for the diploma. I am excited to see Iowa for the first time, not so excited that we may have to leave the kids behind for a smoother trip. There is a good chance we'll be driving though so who knows maybe they will tag along anyway. I'd love to look at them from the stage when I get my diploma, knowing my husband and children are my driving force behind my education it will be a nice moment for me.

Back to the real reason for this post, 67 days till baby! I really need to get cracking on setting up the mini nursery in our room that we are going to make for her. I have allotted the space and know where things are going to go it is just a matter of getting them. I already ordered the wall wording "Believe in Fairies" for over her crib. Really I can't do much until I have the fabric in for the bedding and the crib. Maybe I can start on that next week. She is so active now. Moving my entire belly when she moves and "hiding" in various spots in my stomach, which has actually led to a pretty neat new game Ben and I play with my belly called "where's the baby?" where we feel around and try to find her.

67 days.

I can not wait to meet her.

Where do I live again?

It has been raining for about 20 days now. So in hopes of my favorite season of Summer arriving today I checked the ten day forecast at Weather.com.

Ten day weather forecast;

Jun 21 Rain 64°/57°
Jun 22 Showers 63°/57°
Jun 23 Showers 64°/58°
Jun 24 Isolated T-Storms
Jun 25 Isolated T-Storms 80°/63°
Jun 26 Isolated T-Storms 83°/63°
Jun 27 Few Showers 83°/62°



If I wanted to live in a place where it rained a majority of the time I would move to Seattle. Even in Florida when it rains almost daily in the afternoon for a half hour or so it is SUNNY when it does so.

Seriously WTF I would like my Summer please. Maybe I'll write a strongly worded letter to Mother Nature...

The Cake Biz

I have two cake jobs set up for next weekend and I can not wait to make them!! Here are the templates of what I am doing for the two events...