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...

Rambles and Thoughts that are swimming in my brain...

I have so much to do before the baby gets here and not enough money to do it. What else is new right? Ben and I are finally in the groove of our budget and tackling all the elements head on. I just wish my shower was closer so that I could "nest" the gifts and set up for Savannah and such. I find it really disheartening that my grandfather (Mauck) passed away yesterday and didn't get to see his great granddaughter. Especially since this is the only grandparent I currently talk to. He had lung cancer and said to my mother "I don't want to die, why can't they fix me?" right before he passed away.

I am in a statistics class, as I blogged about earlier and I really need to get cracking on the studying. I am ashamed to say I am skating by this class because of my lack of motivation to do said work. I find it tedious and boring. I like psychology because of all the theory involved. Statistics, even for social sciences, is still just a fancy name for math. I loathe math.

Scrabble has become a weeknight event in our home. I enjoy this quiet time with my husband very much and am so lucky to have someone that is truly a companion in my life.

I had to rip apart the bell bottom pants I was knitting for Sav because on Saturday I knit the wrong side and had to undo it and when I did that and then purled (pearled?) as I was supposed to I dropped THREE stitches and didn't notice until SEVEN rows later. Unable to be as awesome as my friend Meg and just fix the damn stitch I ripped it apart in hormonal anger and started all over again last night.

My belly is really starting to get in the way now. I can hardly bend over and going up the stairs is a pain in the ass. And riding in the car is almost torture, they really should make a bra for your belly when your pregnant so it is fully supported. lol. Bumps and such in the road really make for an uncomfortable ride. I can not believe she is going to be here in approximately ten and a half weeks!

On a trip to Lowes yesterday I finally decided on a paint color for the living room (which has become Mommy's room), it's called Chilled Wine and is this kind of merlot/wine/purpleish red color. Once I finish putting this damn living room in order I will be painting, hopefully tomorrow, and will take pictures to post once I'm done.

My mother and step dad offered me, Ben, Aidan and Savannah the time share in Florida next June for a week and we are SO EXCITED!!!! This means I will definitely be able to take Aidan to see Mickey Mouse next year! (not to mention shop for GIRLY things at Disney for our baby girl.)

I got to see my gorgeous niece today and she is such a riot. Grunting and laughing and baby talking to us, I just can not believe how big she has gotten since February. She holds her head up and you can see in her beautiful eyes that she is thinking about what she wants and she just can't quite get her body to do it yet.

Ben and I were chatting in the car today and realized that if I work and he works the way he is for one year and we just direct deposit my paycheck into a savings account that at the end of the year we could be in a house, a nice house, with land. Oh and I am really considering going to VT for a night or two with the hubby. Just have to find a time that is right for us. It will be hard now that we will have two kids. Gosh I can't believe it...I'm going to have kidS. Plural. As in more than one. I am so fucking lucky and blessed. It may not look perfect to anyone on the outside but I really do have the best life ever. I never thought I would be this happy. I didn't even think it was possible. See, Cinderella is not the only one who gets the happily ever after fairytale. ;)

Sav's face

I can't sleep. All I can think about is the ultrasound we had today. We saw the most amazing thing...our daughters face.

Can you see her nose and lips?

How about her face resting on her arm and squishing her face?

Technology is so awesome.

Happy Birthday baby

Pictures from birthday photos for Ben. I am 28 weeks pregnant with Savannah. Happy Birthday baby. I love you.

Tucker James

Born 6-8-09
11:23am
8lbs 3oz


I cried my eyes out. He is so precious I am so happy for Megan and Andrew. Can not wait for him to meet Savannah. I have had the little princess Rebekkah over here the past few days and today we made mini-cupcakes for her preschool class to celebrate Tucker's arrival.

Latest Knitting Project

I am determined to keep knitting my goal for my 101 list for Savannah Rose. This is the next project that I am starting tomorrow morning.

Professor Feedback from Social Psychology Final paper

I live for shit like this to pop up in my email box.

"I am pleased that you enjoyed the class and even more pleased that you learned much. You have presented a comprehensive review of the topic of attraction. You have summarized the material well. You have a good mastery of the subject matter. You exhibit a good understanding of the information. Your paper illustrates a good interpretation of the facts. Your paper is in perfect APA format. You have addressed the topic fully. You have supported your assertions with appropriate resources. Your writing is clear, concise and grammatically sound. No errors were noted. Great job!"

Now if only this damn statistics class would allow me to live up to my potential. Grrrr

Statistics is the current evil in my life

I took my first quiz for statistics tonight. I was going to wait for Ben to get home so he could sit with me while I took it in case I needed his help and then in a burst of self righteousness I decided that the whole point of a quiz is to test your knowledge of the subject so far. If Ben were to help me then technically I am not doing myself any service. I have never been a good math student. I get easily stressed out and overwhelmed and have the worst test anxiety ever. Ben has told me to reverse my thinking and so I did, I studied the chapter, reading it twice and practiced the problems throughout the chapter. I felt fully prepared to venture into my timed online quiz tonight without Ben's help. So I did....and this student, who in the last 4 classes has had a final average above 97 got a 75 on her statistics quiz.

I give up.

I am going to contact my old professor at BCC and see if he is available for tutoring this week before I fall farther behind.

@#$%!!! There goes the GPA!! I KNEW IT!!!

*Gag*

So my "Statistics for the Behavioral and Social Sciences" class started tonight. I already hate it. I have no interest in this, I hate math and I always have. I am determined to keep my GPA however so I have committed myself to extra studying and rereading of the chapters...no matter how painful this shit is.

I give you exhibit A;



I'm going to go throw up now.

Final paper I wrote for Social Psych.

The Psychology of Attraction, Love Relationships and Intimacy

By the ideas of modern psychology there are four main things that cause attraction between two people. These four things are more strongly associated with friendship and early stages of more intimate relationships (Morgan & Shaver, 1999). These four staples are proximity, physical attractiveness, similarity and familiarity. In the paper that follows this author will dive into the foundations of attraction, what love is, the evolving ideas involving intimacy and the lasting effects relationships can imprint on our psychological map.

Physical attractiveness is one of the first things that come to mind when a person is asked about the laws of attraction. Studies have led to the idea that that physical attractiveness draws people to one another. Although most psychologists agree that physical appearance affects the level of attraction between two people, they are in disagreement with deciding why this is such (Morgan & Shaver, 1999). Some suggest that people are attracted to a "better-looking" person because being associated with "handsome" or “beautiful” people enhance social standing and self-esteem. Others suggest that men are attracted to women for biological reasons. Meaning, men seek women who are physically attractive because those physical qualities seem to be associated with youth and fertility (Feldman, 2005). Alexander Todorov and his colleagues performed a study at Princeton University in 2005 in which students were shown photographs of the two major candidates in 95 US Senate races and 600 US House of Representative races that had taken place since 2000. Based on looks alone they were able to properly pick the winners of the elections based solely on looks. The cuter, more baby-faced candidates were the winners in 72% of the senate races and 67% of the House races (Myers, 2008).

Proximity, the geological nearness and functional distance, between two people can also be a very effective factor on whether the relationship will have attraction or repugnance (Myers, 2008). The Pew survey proves that people are 38% more likely to marry someone who lives in the same neighborhood attends the same school, church, social functions and gym or works in the same building or area (Myers, 2008). The closer two people live to each other the more likely it is for them to like one another. Research has shown that the best single predictor of whether two people are friends is how far apart they live (Morgan & Shaver, 1999). This idea leads into one of the other staples of attraction, familiarity.

One of the major reasons proximity creates liking and attraction is that it increases familiarity. Generally speaking, the more a person interacts with another person, the more attraction builds between them (Morgan & Shaver, 1999). Familiarity is one of the pillars that allow a person to trust another person more openly. Several studies have shown that facial attractiveness is positively correlated with familiarity, the more a person visually acknowledges another person the more likely they are to become attracted to each other (Peskin & Newell).

The fourth piece of the attraction puzzle is similarity; how alike two people are can better predict how they will get along. This idea does not say mean that doctor will marry a doctor. Instead, it makes states that those interested in medicine are attracted to those interested in medicine. Statistics show that people who become a couple or enter into a relationship do so according to similarities in race, age, religion, education, physical characteristics, and other general characteristics (Newcomb, 1963). Additonal findings suggest that similarity and attraction are multidimensional building blocks (Lydon, Jamieson & Zanna, 1988), in which people are attracted to others who are similar to them in demographics, physical appearance, attitudes, interpersonal style, social and cultural background, personality, interests and activities preferences, and communication and social skills. A study conducted by Theodore Newcomb (1963) on college dorm roommates suggested that individuals with shared background, majors, attitudes, values, and political views became friends.

Moving forward from attraction into the topic of love this writer found numerous theories on what love is, how it forms and how to keep it sustained. The following paragraphs will briefly describe what happens in that transition from attraction to relationship while dissecting the theories of compassionate and passionate love. According to psychologist Elaine Hatfield and her colleagues these best represent the two basic types of love (Morgan & Shaver, 1999).

Compassionate love is characterized by mutual respect, attachment, affection, and trust. Compassionate love usually develops out of feelings of mutual understanding and shared respect for each other. This writer feels that this type of love in particular is what married couples strive for and try not to let go of. Another psychologist states, “Companionate love, not compassionate love, is the affection a person feels for those with whom their lives are deeply intertwined (Meyers, 2008).

Passionate love is characterized by intense emotions, sexual attraction, anxiety, and affection. When these intense emotions are reciprocated, people feel elated and fulfilled. Unreciprocated love leads to feelings of despondence and despair. Hatfield suggests that passionate love is transitory, usually lasting between 6 and 30 months (Morgan & Shaver, 1999). According to Hatfield, passionate love arises when cultural expectations encourage falling in love when the person “meets your preconceived ideas of an ideal lover, and when you experience heightened physiological arousal in the presence of the other person” (Morgan & Shaver, 1999). Ideally passionate love then leads to compassionate love, which is far more enduring, rewarding and substantial. While most people desire relationships that combine the security and stability of compassionate with the intensity of passionate love, Hatfield states that this is rare as one usually gives in to the other over time.

Another factor in relationships is intimacy. This author believes Harriet Goldhor Lerner, Ph.D. sums it up best. She states that "for starters, intimacy means that we can be who we are in a relationship, and allow the other person to do the same. An intimate relationship is one in which neither party silences, sacrifices, or betrays the self and each party expresses strength and vulnerability, weakness and competence in a balanced way." There are as many different ways to describe what intimacy is as there are stars in the sky. It means something different to each individual person. To some it is purely sexual; to others is it a giving and sharing of their spirit or soul with another human being. No matter how one views intimacy many psychologists say a relationship will not survive without it. That with intimacy there is a level of commitment and trust onto another person that the bond between them becomes more permanent.

Genuine intimacy in human relationships requires dialogue, transparency, vulnerability and reciprocity (Morgan & Shaver, 1999). In human relationships, the meaning and level of intimacy varies within and between relationships. Therefore, one can not measure their level and gage of intimacy along side another persons idea of intimacy. It is all a matter of psychological perception. To sustain intimacy for any length of time requires well developed emotional and interpersonal awareness (Morgan & Shaver, 1999). Intimacy requires an ability to be both separate and together participants in an intimate relationship. This is called self-differentiation (Meyers, 2008). It results in a connection in which there is an emotional range involving both robust conflict, and intense loyalty. Lacking the ability to differentiate one self from the other is a form of symbiosis (symbiosis relationships are associations in which one organism lives on another), a state that is different from intimacy, even if feelings of closeness are similar (Morgan & Shaver, 1999).

After discussing the four ideas of attraction in modern psychology this writer was presented with a strong appreciation for what is associated with friendship, attraction and early stages of the more intimate relationship. Proximity, physical attractiveness, similarity and familiarity all prepare a person for a solid foundation in a relationship and could prove to add to the foreshadowing of love one might find down the relationship road. In the better understanding of what love is and its subcategories one can clearly see which direction they are likely to conclude in. Intertwining new concepts and evolving ideas involving intimacy into these dealing with love may ultimately have a lasting effect on one’s psychological map.

References

Feldman, Robert S. (2005). Understanding Psychology (7^th Ed). New York: McGraw-

Hill Companies Inc.

Lydon, J. E., Jamieson, D. W., & Zanna, M. P. (1988). Interpersonal similarity and the

social and intellectual dimensions of first impressions. Social Cognition, (pp 269-

286).

Morgan, H. J., & Shaver, P. R. (1999). Attachment processes and commitment to

romantic relationships. In J. M. Adams & W. H. Jones (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal commitment and relationship stability (pp. 109-124). New York: Plenum.

Myers, David. (2008). Social Psychology (9^th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies

Inc.

Newcomb, T. M. (1963). Stabilities underlying changes in interpersonal attraction.

Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (pp. 376-386.)

Peskin M, & Newell F N, 2004, "Familiarity breeds attraction: Effects of exposure on the

attractiveness of typical and distinctive faces" Perception. http://www.perceptionweb.com/abstract.cgi?id=p5028

Duh!!

It only took me 27 weeks to return to my original idea for Savannah's room. I am so excited and mad at myself for leaving this idea in the first place. YAY for FINALLY making a decision I can stick to! Savannah's baby room will be a version of Pixie Hollow in Neverland. (Meg is going to laugh cause I told her that's what I wanted to do before I was even 9 weeks pregnant lol).

Just an idea to run off of...

Just another day in paradise...

The kids screaming, phone ringing
Dog barking at the mailman bringing
That stack of bills - overdue
Good morning baby, how are you?
Got a half hour, quick shower
Take a drink of milk but the milk's gone sour
My funny face makes you laugh
Twist the top on and I put it back
There goes the washing machine
Baby, don't kick it.
I promise I'll fix it
Long about a million other things

Well, it's ok. It's so nice
It's just another day in paradise
Well, there's no place that
I'd rather be
Well, it's two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the Lord every night
For just another day in paradise

Friday, you're late
Guess we'll never make our dinner date
At the restaurant you start to cry
Baby, we'll just improvise
Well, plan B looks like
Dominoes' pizza in the candle light
Then we'll tippy toe to our room
Make a little love that's overdue
But somebody had a bad dream
Mama and daddy
Can me and my teddy
Come in to sleep in between?

Yeah it's ok. It's so nice.
It's just another day in paradise.
Well, there's no place that
I'd rather be
Well, it's two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the Lord every night
For just another day in paradise

Well, it's ok. It's so nice.
It's just another day in paradise.
Well, there's no place that
I'd rather be
Two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the Lord every night
For just another day in paradise

For just another day in paradise
Well, it's the kids screaming. The phone ringing
Just another day
Well, it's Friday. You're late
Oh yeah, it's just another day in paradise

By Paul Vasser