Needing Some Vitamin D

Winter in Yankeeland comes with a certain expectation of cold weather and snow. Growing up in the south we didn’t have a whole lot of snow, so I have come to enjoy actually getting some around here. I get that feeling when December hits, like a kid excited for it to be the month of Christmas, knowing it’s coming soon. Fresh white powder covering all the tress, houses and yards are the only times I find the winter landscape to be beautiful. Otherwise, it’s all just brown and gloomy. The February hits and I always find myself Over.It. You start to get those “nice days” which really just means that it actually makes it above freezing and out of the 30’s, then it turns freezing again. It’s like someone giving you a taste of Cold Stone’s Ice Cream and then saying you can’t have any more for a few months. Who does that? My Winter Blues was accelerated this year by our trip to Vegas. Nothing ruins you quite like walking around in the warm, dry 70 degree sun in flip flops and t-shirts, only to have to return to the cold, windy, flurries of the northeast a few days later. Don’t get me wrong, the trip was well worth it, I just wish I would have had some room in my suitcase to bring back some warmer weather. Thought it might put me over my 50lbs limit if I tried though.

As many people already know, Doug and I are in the planning process of trying to move back south. Planning, as in, we keep saying we are but I am not sure it’s really going to happen. So add my Winter Blues to that big ball of stress, along with a few other things going on and you got my life summed up! Okay, life is actually really good, but thinking about trying to sell a house is not my idea of a fun time. Trying to sell a house with a toddler on a schedule…..even more exciting! The “To-Do” list of things that need to happen before we put it on the market is adding up quick. Then there is the fear/hope that it sells before we are ready to move. Then what? I mean best case scenario (cause they always happens) is that it would sale right when we are looking to move. Fingers crossed. However, the likely story is that it will either sell way early and then we have to move to an apartment for a while or even MORE LIKELY, it will still be on the market after we leave. Who doesn’t love paying for a house no one is living in! Of course, this is all if we even make it to the putting it on the market part. As of yet, there is no job to go to and nothing on the horizon. It's funny how it seemed so much simpler when we moved here, but the moving back seems like it's impossible. For months I have forced myself to not think about it, but now the time seems to be flying by so quickly and nothing is getting done. It's just one of those situation that I find frustrating and feels so far out of my control.

So Winter Blues it's time for you to go, this girl needs some good old, warm, natural Vitamin D. Come on Spring, I swear that groundhog said you were coming early this year!

UPDATE 1- Purge, Paint, Peer Pressure

So we're back!  After almost a week of no blog, fear not, we're shamelessly, pointlessly rambling again.  Les was in Vegas for a week (yes, I'm still jealous and angry with her) and I was busy getting ready for my Dad's surprise 70th birthday, mourning the season end of Downton, pouting about not being in Vegas AND most importantly working away at that purge, paint, peer pressure list! 

I'm actually pretty excited with the progress and I seem to have inspired the hubs!  We successfully finished painting the kitchen.  Hubs also took the initiative to repair the back splash in the kitchen and we are onto painting the ceiling.  I am in love with the color (Winter in Paris) and a fresh coat of white on the ceiling will really make it pop.  I am busy hunting down new drapes and some other goodies to dress the new color up!  I almost died about 7 times, as my kitchen counter/step ladder balancing skills are amateur at best, but it was so worth and getting to check it off of our list was almost as good as a brownie, wrapped in bacon, dipped in a margarita.

There's been some purging going on to, as the hubs decided to let me clean out his dresser.  Sweet mother of all things holy, I have dreamed about this day.  No really, I've dreamed about it.  I've dreamed of tossing pit stains, tossing shirts that are so worn you can see nipple action through them and tossing shirts with stupid quotes on them that even make a college kid look like a jackass!  I even got to throw away a few navy blue shirts, which when your husband wears navy blue uniforms, likes the Yankees and Penn State, shedding any navy blue is a small victor.

So that's where we are.  Next on the list, purging some of my clothing, redoing the bakers rack in our kitchen and if I am feeling frisky it might play with a little wood.....mind out of the gutter!  I'm talking a Pinterest inspired wood working project!  What projects have you guys tackled recently?

Warm Up Wednesday- TJ Wilder

It is ^&#%$&#@% COLD in PA right now and this is coming from the Yankee Princess, so I am more than happy to be writing this weeks "Warm Up Wednesday" and spend a little time thinking about TJ Wilder!  TJ is the third and oldest Wilder brother feature in Jill Shalvis's Instant Temptation.  Anybody else wishing for a long lost Wilder brother?  Yeah I'm sad this is the last in the Wilder series too!

The story focuses on TJ and Harley, two characters we have met in the previous two books.  TJ is the typical big brother and is the Wilder that takes the long (week- month long) excursions for Wilder Adventures.  TJ is an extremely skilled outdoorsy mountain man, just like his brothers.  These lengthy excursions satisfy TJ's need to stay unattached and escape life and painful memories.  Those painful memories mostly revolve around the loss of Sam, his girlfriend who was killed in a tragic accident on the river kayaking.  Sam while experienced and skilled herself, often took unnecessary risks, and her death prompted TJ to become a very careful and prepared outdoor kind of guy and also a guy unwilling to open his heart.  Harley, is a local girl who grew up with the Wilder boys, closer in age to Stone and Cam, she's like the little sister they never had.  Harley is finishing up her degree in biology while moonlighting as a tow truck/mechanic at a local garage, all while vying for a position with a wild life conservation project in Colorado.  TJ and Harley have a strange relationship full of confusion, sexual tension and Harley's seemingly incessant need to shoot snide comments and dirty looks TJ's way.  When Harley sets off on a trip into the wild in any effort to land the conservation job, her least favorite Wilder (or so she says) tags along as her guide and what follows will more than warm you up on the coldest of winter days!  Along the way, we get plenty of other Wilder quirkiness, discover why TJ is the Wilder Harley loves to hate, and a thing or two about packing a survival backpack! 

I'd say Instant Temptation was my second favorite Wilder adventure (Cam and Katie's story reigns steamy supreme), and its a very close story.  I loved that TJ and Harley had a history and that once again the wild boy is tamed by the hometown girl next tour type...though growing up I don't recall the likes of any Wilder brother in my childhood neighborhood!  Sigh.... And it wouldn't be a Warm Up Wednesday without a visual, this is MY TJ Wilder...Somebody sign me up for an excursion!

Can we make this is more difficult?

We don't travel often, but we tried to make it as easy as it one can. You know the shoes that slide on, no belts, nothing in our pockets, all the things that slow down security in the airport.  Well seems we had an epic fail at traveling.

And this is how it really went:

~Security Guy didn't like that my passport has been amended, so you have to look at the back page to see my married name (yes, I will just use my licenses on the way back)

~Security Woman was not happy that I misunderstood her (apparently she said "zip my bag" not "unzip my bag", they get so touchy!

~Security Woman Number 2 decided a pat-down was a great idea (I think she just wanted to touch my booty)

~Got swabbed for explosives

So we finally get on the plane and all was well! Got to Vegas, got our bags easy, found the shuttle,easy as pie. We had to wait to check in until 11, so we went and checked Doug in at the conference and then grabbed some lunch. I can't count the number of people who said the food in Vegas was cheap so that people would spend money on gambling. Not.True. Food is NOT cheap! That or my idea of cheap and everyone else's is clearly not the same thing. So we grabbed a pizza, then went to check in. Of course the line is crazy long, so we decide to make sure our room is ready before we get or bags from the "Baggage Storage". Well they give you this awesome little ticket that you just bring back to them and they get your bags. Except some how we LOST ours!!! Great! 

We still had the slips from the airport that matched the tags on our luggage, so I was hoping it would not be a big deal. Of course I was freaking out on the inside!!! Big time!!! If you know me, you know I am a major STRESSER!!!! Fortunately, these people are awesome. The desk lady had one of the guys come out to get me and then we went on a search in their backroom. Luckily, my photographic memory prevailed. I had noticed the guy write "52" on the ticket. Not knowing if it would be helpful or not, I asked him if 52 would mean anything. He was extremely happy that it in fact meant that was the unit it was in and he would not have to search the entire place. I don't know if you have every made it to the storage rooms where they put this luggage, but they aren't small!!! 

So finally on the way to the room, should be easy right? Nope! They have these crazy elevators that go to floors 22-30 only. You have to put your door key in to get past floor 22, we are 25. You would think they would tell you this at check in or put a bigger sign, but nope. So we make it to 22, confused why we stopped, we hit 25 and ended up back at the bottom. So we went up again. This time noticing that you have to put your card key in. Well we stop at 22 again, dang it. We get off, because we don't want to go down again and hit the up button. Elevator arrives and we get on and end up on 29! For the love of Pete people, we just want to go to our room (apparently someone wanted on at 29). Well we make it back to 22. So we get off again! This time we have a game plan. When the elevator comes, we will hold the "door open" button until we figure this out! Luckily no one was on this car! We put the key in, get a green light, then finally make it to floor 25! Thank you sweet baby Jesus! I was really beginning to think that we were not going to make it, I am not even kidding!

Thankfully, everything has gone smoothly since then! I blame it on being up at 4 am two days in a row!

I must be a "man" when it comes to Valentine's Day

Coworker “A” comes in this morning and asked us “Did you get any special surprises for Valentine’s Day?” Coworker “B” responds that she got a dozen roses from her husband and I reply that we don’t observe Valentine’s Day. So Coworker “A” (who has a daughter just a few years younger than me) starts telling us about her surprise….“I was having a bad day yesterday, so when I got home I just went and laid on the couch. I heard my husband come in a while later and go straight up stairs. When he didn’t come down, I went to see what he was doing.” In a very excited voice she continued “he got me one of those 4 1/2 ft teddy bears and had it sitting on our bed!!!! It is so ADORABLE”. Now at this point I am trying really hard to be supportive, but those things are creepy and why does an adult need a giant teddy bear or a small one for that matter! So she keeps on and finally asks me “Don’t you think they are so cute?” Decision time, do I lie or say what I really think about them? Well, Thank You red face and stuttering mouth, you gave me away. I tried to politely; if that’s even possible, say that I think they are a little creepy. Thank God she started laughing, apparently the joke was on me! She had overheard me talking to coworker “B” the other day about these bears and thought it would be funny to use against me! I mean have you seen the Vermont Bear Commercial, it’s ridiculous. And PS Vermont Bears, no woman is going to throw out chocolate like that!

I tell you that story, to say this; what is it about Valentine’s Day that really makes you feel special? Now, before you get offended by anything I am about to say, know this. I support love, I support happiness, and all things that make you feel good about your relationship.

Dougo and I choose not to observe the “hallmark holiday” as we call it. We have been together for 10 years now and will celebrate our 9^th anniversary this coming May. There was a time in my life when Valentine’s Day meant something to me. A time when I wanted the candy, teddy bears and flowers, then I met my husband. Don’t get me wrong, we have our bad days, but we have a love to last a life time. Maybe it’s a product of getting older, maybe it’s that I am not a “girlie” girl, or maybe it’s just that I am too practical, but overpriced flowers and candy that are the expected social norm don’t scream special to me. I just can’t buy into something that society says “if your man doesn’t do this, this and this, he doesn’t love you enough”. I mean that is the message right. And “we” buy in to it. How many times have you heard a woman complain because she didn’t get the thing she wanted or the right flowers, jewelry, etc.? How many times have “we” set the guy up for failure or just been disappointed when maybe we aren’t with our loved one at some romantic restaurant because work gets in the way? I am not a total Scrooge, I did buy Aida Valentine’s for her school mates and as she gets older I will probably do something for her like my mom did for us. I just feel that there is no material possession that my husband could ever buy that would make me feel more love than just hearing “I love you” any day of the year. Buying me flowers doesn’t show me how much you love me, it just says that you watched a tv commercial. The stuffed animals, what is that? I am an adult. I don’t need a stuffed animal. Okay, you got me on the chocolate, I wouldn’t turn chocolate down if my life depended on it (but you better make it Hershey’s)!!! Again, if this is the day that makes you feel like you are on cloud nine with your love then I support you, everyone should feel that love. For me, Valentine’s Day just makes me feel like just another number, I would be just another person that got flowers, no different from any of the rest. Of course we don’t buy each other Christmas presents either, maybe I just have a thing against organized “give your spouse a gift day”! J

In case you have never seen it, here is the "awesome" Vermont Bears Commercial

 

Warm Up Wednesday....Save Me!

We're in between books right now, but didn't want to leave you without any heat on Warm Up Wednesdays!  So the question we're posing is...who would you rather be saved (among other things) by?

BATMAN/Bruce Wayne

OR

SUPERMAN/Clark Kent

I'm partial to Batman myself.  I dig a hot vigilante! Comment and tell us who you want saved by!

AM Adventures

Sometimes you just have to look at your life and laugh a little.

Within two hours this morning, I was standing at a fork in the road; A) I could let everything that had somehow happened in such a small amount of time ruin my day or B) just smile, shake my head a little and think to myself “how did I get so lucky”!

***Tangent: I have heard people complained that some folks have it “all”, that things just come so easily for them. I don’t think this is it at all. I think it’s all about the attitude you take on. If you chose to be positive, you find the good in situations, you enjoy things more which in turn means you don’t mind working for a goal and you don’t miss opportunities because you are wallowing in self-pity. If you take on a negative attitude toward life, you will only see the bad in people/things; never enjoy the moments life gives you and miss out on all the good things that pass you by. It’s simple really! Not to say we don’t all have a bad day here and there, but with a positive attitude they are few and far between. ***

So back to my story! I woke to the sound of the Bovine Hunter’s emergency line going off. This is never a good sign for my morning. Being the responsible adult I occasionally decide to be, I told myself to get out of bed and get dressed, there was no more sleeping to be had. The other half of me, no way more than half, more like 99.9% of me said we should just go back to sleep anyway (might have something to do with staying up till 1 am reading, damn you Jill Shalvis and your Wilder boys). If you know anything about me, then you know I am not a morning person. This proven by the fact that one of my friends in high school used to come make sure I was awake for school every morning (thank you Angel)! So I am up, dressed, hair looking like a hot mess, get the dog outside (before any accidents, success) and now that I have a little time before I have to get the bean up, I decided “hey, why not unload the dishwasher”.

Now, if you have ever been at my house when I clean up after dinner, then you are probably among the many people that have made fun of me and my dishwasher loading. Food on dishes grosses me out! While I am eating it, it is okay, but I can’t handle it sitting there getting all stuck to the plate. I don’t even like the plate to sit in front of me at the table once I am finished, I always slide it away. I also can’t handle the thought that gross leftover food from one plate is now being slung all over the inside of the dishwasher and supposedly comes out clean. So I scrub everything before it goes in to the dishwasher. Yes, at this point, the plate is probably clean enough to eat off of again, but I look at the dishwasher as more of a sterilizer I suppose. So here I am, halfway through unloading it, when I come across a plate that wasn’t scrubbed first. Ah ha, this proves my point that the dishwasher can’t clean the stuck on stuff better than my scrubber. About halfway through my inter-monologue victory dance, I realize that it’s not the lack of the dishwasher’s ability, but the lack of it ever being started. Yep, I have just put half the dirty dishes back in the cabinets. So after putting back everything I can remember back in the dishwasher, thank goodness for having a photographic memory, it’s now time to get the kiddo up.

Now, any day starting with “S”, you can’t get her to sleep in. Today, however, she was just not getting up. (I am sure there will be daily stories about her not getting up when she reaches middle school). We managed, we are up, diaper changed, and dressed for the day. We had just sat down to have some yogurt when Daddy walks back in, just in time to see our precious daughter (who is sitting on my lap facing me) sneeze with a mouth FULL of yogurt All. Over. Me!!! (still wearing the smudges to prove it!) One of the benefits to being a mother of a small child, you can totally wear clothes with stains on it. Even if it’s not from the kiddo people will let you get away with it, because “bless your heart” it must be tough trying to get out the door with the little one. To humor myself in this now sticky situation (have you ever realized how sticky yogurt is when you just took a shower in it?), I tried to get her to lick the glob of yogurt off my wrist, but she didn’t find this as funny as I did. What? I was trying to salvage some, yogurt isn’t cheap!

After we get clean, finish the yogurt, got our coats on, we head out the door. Well I made it about two steps until my heel caught on the step and down I go, with her in my arms. You know how in the movies the character’s life will flash before their eyes? Well it’s amazing the speed at which your brain can actually process and make decisions, when it needs to! Ask me to decide on dinner and it takes 30 minutes to process….realize I am about to crush my poor child and it takes 0.5 seconds. Admittedly, with the image I have in my head, if I were my neighbor I would be totally laughing behind closed doors. Who knows, they probably were! We both are fine, minus a few scratches I have and a bruised ego.  I think we did scare the bajeezes out of Dougo in the meantime; of course I had an audience! Getting myself up and dusting off, I began to wonder how I had become so talented this morning.

I could have let all these things, that made me late for work on top of everything, ruin my day. I could have decided to be a grump now and just complain how horrible the morning had gone, but was it really worth it? Sure we all need a little complaining in our lives, but when you stop and think about it, what’s not hilarious about getting yogurt sneezed on you? So you are a little sticky, it wipes off. And maybe I missed a few dishes going back in the dishwasher; hey at least I scrub them beforehand anyway.  As for the fall, we weren’t hurt, so no harm done. You just can’t take life so seriously, sometimes you just have to laugh.

Did you have any embarrassing moments today?

The Supportive Husband

Fair warning, you may find this to be a “TMI” blog!

Nothing makes a girl happier than a supportive husband! Right?

Had lunch with the Bovine Hunter today, which we try to do as often as possible. I was good and picked the salad over my usual Monday Cheesesteak and Fries. This choice got a “thumbs up” from the hubs and reminded me of a conversation I had had with my boss this morning. So I start telling him about this new “eating plan” that she was reading about (doesn’t that sound so much better than “diet”). Now, I am not a good “eating plan” candidate, but it was interesting so I was telling him about it. Of course, he was totally interested in this as he stared at ESPN on the tv across the restaurant.

First off, he was very kind by sincerely asking why my boss needed an “eating plan”. He is a big fan of my boss and always makes “man” comments that I am to pass along to her. I won’t repeat them since they both might read this, but I always make sure to pass along the message. I think she gets a kick out of it! My boss looks great, but I was telling him how after adjusting her Thyroid medication she just wanted to make sure that she didn’t gain a bunch of unwanted weight. That previously her clothes had been falling off……ahhhh haa….and there sparked an interest! Immediately he was totally in to this conversation about “clothes falling off”! So I kept on with my conversation…..

Me: “I wish I had a hyper Thyroid so my clothes would fall off, mine just fall off because they are busting at the seams”

Bovine Hunter: “well, as long as they are falling off…….”

Well, if I wanted support, I sure had it then. True to most men, love you honey, he was all about supporting anything that resulted in a conversation about clothes coming off. Hey, what can I say, a girl has to be happy with that support! And it provided with a good laugh!

Project Purge, Paint, Peer Pressure...

Last week Les let you all in on her quest to get rid of parts that are getting jiggy with it (Les, you're hot, jiggy or not!).  Well I too am on a quest to purge some excess baggage if you will, not pounds but things!  Our house is full of crap and unfinished projects and I am hoping that a little peer pressure and judging from Internet strangers may get my butt into gear exercising my pack rat demons. 

When we bought our house 4.5 years ago I had lots of plans for how I was going to organize and decorate.  I quickly lost steam partially due to busy life and partly knowing in the back of my head that this isn't our forever house.  We have dreams of building one day, so I guess I've become lazy when it comes to this joint.  Closets have left the realm of storage and entered the phase a dangerously booby trapped depositories of crap we don't want guests to see.  Our basement is a mine field of toys Gavin has outgrown, Rubbermaid tubs, card board boxes and old furniture.  The living room houses furniture I have hated for 3 years and not the new furniture I have picked out multiple times over the past two years and not brought myself to buy.  Rooms need painted, decorated, organized, you name it.  I am officially over my disease of house project putoffedness (WebMD does not recognize this as a disease yet, but it's real people).  My to do list has been penned, and I am on the move!  So it is up to you, our committed readers, to bug me, pressure me and maybe judge a little if I start to slack!  I will keep you posted on my progress and offer some before and after shots! 

The To Do List (The Top 10)
1. Clean out kitchen pantries
2. Paint kitchen walls and touch up trim
3. Clean out air vents
4. Clean out EVERY closet in the house
5. Organize basement
6. Paint half bathroom
7. Buy living room furniture
8. Make "ruler" for upstairs to track the growth of our little people
9. Shampoo all carpets
10. Make stairwell into gallery wall

This month I am focusing on our kitchen/dinning area.  There are two pantry/closets that need cleaned out and organized, trim needs touched up and a fresh coat of paint is needed.  The current paint color is like the color of a light minty tooth paste (previous owners pick).  So today I drug the two men in my life to Lowe's and while they terrorized the other unsuspecting shoppers I perused paint.  I fell for Valspar's Winter In Paris (Displayed below, thanks to myperfectcolor.com)

Now normally at this point, my project putoffedness would flare up, and I'd leave Lowes with just the color sample and I'd hold it up in my kitchen for two weeks, only to not paint and be back to square one in a few weeks.  Today, the hubs forced my hand and I am happy to say the painting has started.  I'm not 100% sure on the color.  I like it, but the old color next to the new is playing with my eyes.  So I am committed to finishing a wall and then deciding.  I'll share pictures when it's done!

Regardless, I'm making decisions, doing projects and getting this house in shape.  It's ours for now, so I need to make it a place I love AND we're inching one step closer with each organizing, fixing up project to a sell worthy house right? 

Next week, I'm hitting those pantries (wow, the typo nightmare that could have happened with that sentence).  If you don't hear from me in two weeks, some overly expired canned good came to life and ate me!  Anybody else tackling big house projects?  Any good paint color nightmares?

P.S. It should be said too that I've put several projects on the hubs to do list.  He's not as motivated, but I hoping to inspire him with my project getting jiggy with itness....oh and I brought it ALLLL full circle! 

Wrecking Ball

I have this saying that 85% of life is confidence and the other 15% is knowing your stuff. I believe in this, whit confidence, you can figure out the rest. I have been a very confident person for a long time now and it always gets me where I need to be in life. Well a trip to the mall hit my confidence like a wrecking ball.

It's not that I haven't been a little over weight for a while. I saw it as a combination of having a baby and just getting older. You can't stay the size you were at 16 forever! I mean, if I were still that small people would think I had an eating disorder. So we get older and we pack on a few pounds. More to love, right? Maybe I could have stood to lose a few pounds, but hey I still felt sexy, so all was good!

I don't do scales, I just don't think they are healthy. What, you pick some arbitrary number that's supposed to represent "perfect" and just stress yourself trying to get that magic number to appear on the digital scale. Then, if and when you actually get there, you can't enjoy any food, because the diet you picked won't let you have anything but some horrible smelling "smoothie". Or lets say you don't make it, then that lovely scale of yours just starts flashing "loser" or "fat ass" at you instead of your goal weight (I swear that's what mine does). Yeah, it's totally healthy. The thing about being healthy is that it's half mental. If you are miserable worrying yourself about some number and pureed veggie drink or counting every calorie that goes in your mouth, well you are just setting yourself up for failure. You will convince yourself that you "can't" do it or that you "failed" yourself because that illusive number won't appear on the scale. Personally, I think my scale just doesn't know that number, programming problem I am sure. Really, who wants that self torture. I say throw out the scale, eat what you consider healthy and do what you need to have the body you want. Some people want bulk, so hit the gym. If you just want to feel good about being "normal" then do what you need to be your idea of normal.

Clearly, not a health freak or workoutaholic here, but here's what I think. If you can feel confident and feel sexy then that's the weight you need to be at. If your size 14 jeans make you feel like you have moves like Jagger, then rock it! Forget all that number BS and be what makes you feel beautiful. I would totally take Jennifer Aniston's body, if it came free with no effort involved, but we can't all be her. What we can all be is happy and feeling sexy and beautiful.

With all that being said, this is not where I am in life. I would love to say that I look great and feel sexy, but I just don't. Lately there is just a little too much shake with my fries! Partly left over from the baby, which didn't seem to bother me the first 17 months (go figure), but more likely it's the chocoholic problem I seem to have developed (thank you third trimester for making me like chocolate and then not taking it away with the baby). And so my exercise adventure begins! I was feeling all Jane Fonda when I started last night, right up until about, let's say sit up number......10 and then I realized exactly why I am "fat" and don't exercise. IT SUCKS!!! But onward I push, because by time I reach 30 (in 2.5 months YIKES) I want to feel my sexy self again. Maybe it will take a little longer, but that's my starting goal.

Guess that means I should stop blogging and do some exercises!

Warm Up With The Wilders, Part 2

We continued our stay at Wilder Adventures this week in “Instant Gratification” by Jill Shalvis, to spend some time with yet another charming Wilder brother, Stone Wilder. While Cam (Stone’s baby brother) and Katie (Cam’s girlfriend) are off touring the world looking for adventures of their own, Stone and TJ are left to run Wilder Adventures located in the majestic Sierras Mountains.

Dr. Emma Sinclair is used to the extreme fast pace of her New York City Emergency Room. As she flips the sign from “closed” to “open” on her father’s Urgent Care, nestled in the quiet town of Wishful, CA, she braces herself for the onslaught of boredom in “Mayberry USA”. After learning of her father’s heart attack, Emma flew 3000 miles across the country to run Doc’s clinic while he recovers. What she got in return was to treat bee stings, stomach flus, the occasional pet cat and payment in the form of casseroles. While managing to get nothing out of her father about his condition, Emma is itching to get back to New York until she get the most interesting case of her career.

Stone sat on the exam table, covered in blood, mud and a whole lot of what looked like road rash. Emma gave the mountain bum a once over, grabbed some supplies and was ready to get to work. There were two things she had not anticipated; a) the large order of “Tall, Dark and Hansom” sitting in front of her was deathly afraid of the needle in her hand, looking at her like she was coming at him with a butcher knife and b) although he was bloody and covered in mud, just the sight of him had her wanting to break every Doctor-Patient rule known to man.

Convinced Emma belongs back in Wishful, where she was born, Stone begins the hardest trek of his life; teaching Emma there is more to life than work. After losing a few bets and sending out accidental distress calls that had TJ (Stone’s old brother) interrupting an “almost” skinny dipping swim in a hidden lake, Emma begins to learn the truth about Stone. This man is much more than the “mountain bum” she had proclaimed him to be. Learning Stone is the glue that holds his family together, a mentor to at risk boys, volunteer for Search & Rescue, and most of all the man solely responsible for saving her father’s life, Emma’s carefully placed wall around her heart begins to crack and fall away. Always guarded by the hurt in her life, Emma also learns some hard truths about both her parents; a mother, God rest her soul, who was not the woman she thought and a father who was there for her more than she ever knew. Flooded with guilt and worry, Emma finds out that her father’s condition is much worse than he had let on and there is no way he can return to work full time. With no other choice but to sale, Emma helps Doc pick out a respective buyer for the clinic so that she can finally return to NY.

If you want to spend some time daydreaming about beautiful mountain bike rides through the mountains and gorgeous men, topped with one of the world’s most frustrating women, I highly recommend “Instant Gratification”. Captivated by her love stories and semi-smut novels, I am a fan of all her series thus far.

The Moon Never Looked So Good...

So I have been working on two upcoming blogs that I promised Les I’d have up yesterday…it didn’t happen and it’s not happening today either!  Something to look forward to right?  I’ll give you the teaser that they involve prom dresses, intertubes, girls just wanting to have fun and monsters in the closet…admit it you’re intrigued? 

Now that I have you attention, tonight’s blog is an update on the great binkie extrication of ’13.  We decided from the beginning that cold turkey wasn’t the way to go.  We made the commitment, that when he woke up in the morning, we would take it and set it on his dresser until bed time.  Weekends, we’d allow it at nap time.  The first two days were rough.  It was a half hour of pitiful whimpering saying “dinkie”, and then he cried all the way to daycare, until feeding some hermit crabs (class pet) distracted him from his dark binkie loss.  Once we got through those first two days he didn’t ask for it much.  When night time came though and we pulled it out, it was like a scene from the movies, a look of pure elation, a slow motion run (if binkies could run), a touch embrace and an unspoken commitment of a forever kind of love…we’ll call it a Binkie to Remember or maybe My Fair Binkie?  Binkie and the Beast? 

He has settled well into this routine and even goes down for a nap at daycare with out it!  We tried no binkie at nap time at home, but after 45 minutes of crocodile tears and toddler sobs that made me certain I was the worst mother EVER…he got the binkie and peacefully napped. 

Perhaps the best part about this challenging time in our house, is that Gavin has become a pleasant little chatter box.  For months I have been worried that he doesn’t say many words, he babbles and we’ve got the mommy, daddy, no, cow, juice, car and choo-choo bases covered, but he wasn’t going much further than that.  As every normal mom does, I’d compare him to every other toddler that was further in the speaking department than him and freak out.  I’ve gone as far as wondering if he’s tongue tied and I’ve interrogated the pediatrician and ladies at daycare until I’m blue in the face and they run the other way when they see me coming!  I am sure I will one day soon miss the silence of my binkie baby, I am loving the sweet words coming out of his mouth!  Today he saw the moon in the sky as we were walking into daycare and said “moon”.  When a cloud moved in to block it, he said “Where go?”…he’s never put two words together…I beamed brighter than that moon! 

So the two week binkie update is this, we’re getting there….slowly but surely!  Someday we’ll proudly proclaim “Binkie Free since ‘13”!  Who wants a T-shirt?

*UPDATE- As I was editing this to post, I casually asked my husband if he had any trouble finding the bink (I stash it under things on his dresser, out of sight out of mind).  He said he didn’t find it, went to bed without it….casually, just like that!  HELLO calm man who just put our binkie addicted kid to bed WITHOUT ONE... think you’d inform his mother about this groundbreaking information???  Either way folks, this is HUGE and could be it.  If you need me I’ll be around my house teetering between moments of a binkie conquest celebration dance (think running man meets Macarana, while having a seizure) and crying my eyes out….watching babies grow sure is bitter sweet! 

-Meg

Hello, my name is Les and I am an addict!

I  knew from the moment I realized it, this wasn’t going to go well. It’s like the itch you can’t reach, the tickle in your throat that just won’t go away. Once you know it’s there, you can’t stop thinking about.

“No no no no no no no” chanting over and over in my head, like saying it wasn’t going to make it so.  There is one way to drive an addict mad, take away the access to their addiction….

Already running behind this morning, I grabbed up my stuff, my daughter’s bag for daycare and thankfully remembered to actually grab my daughter too before running out the door. Punctuality has never been a strong suit for me, especially in the mornings. Routine is the key. After a night of getting in late, trying to give my poor girl a breathing treatment and finally crawling in bed at midnight, I just ignored the fact I wasn’t prepared for the morning that was approaching quickly. Sleep was all I was concerned with.

Of course, because it’s Monday, nothing was organized, the bovine hunter had to leave early and Aida needed a breathing treatment, so I over slept. Okay really it’s the same time I get up every morning, it just happens to be 20 minutes (or so) after my alarm goes off. In a hurry to get down stairs, I skipped a few primping steps (thankfully I am married to Mr. Right so I can skimp on beauty) and rushed off to take over the parenting responsibilities. We were managing, we were in the car almost to school and I felt it. It wasn’t there and now I knew it. Had it been any other thing, I would have brushed it off with an “oh well” and not given it another thought. This however was not something I could do without, this was my life line.

How would I make it through the day without my CELL PHONE!!!

So plan b, I asked my darling hubby to bring it with him when he met me for lunch! Well as you can guess, he FORGOT it!!! (Granted after taking our daughter to the doctor for me today, he was off the hook). I think this is the point when I began to sweat, itch and have withdrawals. I was so close, yet so far away! I would now have to survive 3 more hours without it!

I did give some thought to blowing off work and being late returning from lunch, all so I could go home and get my phone. I mean by this time the poor phone probably thought I had abandoned it for good. After much debate, I decided to put my big girl panties on one again and suck it up! I would just have to wait!

What can't you "live without"?

Bad Clothing Karma, we aren't really friends!

Have you heard of bad clothing karma? Well, let me tell you, It Exist!

I am true believer in karma! She can be good to you, but boy, you get on her bad side and things are going to "Hell in a hand basket". (I am southern and I still don't know exactly what that means, but it ain't good). Well Karma has this cousin, we call her "Bad Clothing Karma" and clearly we aren't on good terms.....I think I know why....

Pacing back and forth in my closet, the depression started setting in. There I was, a few days before heading back home for a wonderful 10 day Christmas break in North Carolina, and I had nothing cute in my closet to pack. Now, normally I don't care too much what I look like, but I was heading to spend time with some of the cutest, hippest, fashionistas I know. I love my friends, they are some of the greatest girls I know, but they kill me on the cute scale. I mean really, I can't even compete. So in my hour of darkness, I cursed the lack luster clothing in my closet and started just throwing things in a suitcase. It was what it was, nothing I could do about it. My mood did perk a little bit a few days later when I had received the wonderful gifts of money and Kohl's gift cards. SHOPPING TRIP!!!! It is amazing how little you get for $200 these days, but I was happy! I now had new stylish things to wear, well shirts anyway. (I am not sure I can ever compete with their jewelry)

Well, I thought all was good, but then I lost the first pair of jeans. Randomly one day, a few weeks ago, I realized I had a hole in the knee of my jeans. Assuming I just caught it on something, I had a little "sigh" moment and moved on.

Oh, but karma wasn't done yet. While giving Aida a bath last weekend, I lost pair number 2. I was sitting there on my little stool, chasing her around the tub, trying to get her washed up when I heard it. Yep, ripped right up the crack. You know, if that isn't a self esteem buster, I don't know what is! Like "hey fatty, have another Hershey Kiss!" What? Your jeans don't talk to you? An even bigger "sigh" moment and almost a tear! I had now lost 2 of the 5 pair of jeans I own.

Well wouldn't you know it, Bad Clothing Karma reared her beautiful (trying to get on her good side here) head again last night. I was folding laundry when I saw it, #3 is on her death bed. The butt of this pair worn so thin that she's going to go (no pun intended, hehe) any day now! And just to make sure death is upon pair #3, the knee is about to blow too.

This is no coincidence that I have lost 3 pair in a two week time period. This clearly is the work of Karma!

Moral of this story, don't fuse at your clothes, they will revolt!