The Bachelor Breakdown Week 4

I'm SEW excited!

As many of you know, my New Year's Resolution was to embrace my femininity. I consider that to be quite a lot of things, but one of them is sewing. Sewing is something I've always wanted to pursue, but never had a reason to. I remember taking a sewing class in 8th grade and really loving it. But then I locked it away in a drawer of my heart somewhere and thought it would be one of those things I would never get around to doing. ENTER OLIVIA.

Now all I want to do is learn how to sew, just so that I can make her pretty things. I also want to teach HER how to do feminine things. Let's face it, in a house full of boys, she's going to learn how to do things like burp the alphabet and eat worms. I'd like to balance that out just a bit. But I have to learn first myself. So I'm taking the opportunity while she's a baby to do it.

I love trying something new, and seeing if I like it. I think that's the great part about a new year... the ability to start fresh, to reinvent yourself, to do something you've never done before. Because you never know...you just may be great at it!

My adopted mom Deb gave me her great sewing machine (What a sweetheart!) and I've bought a pattern, looked up lots of tutorials on youtube, and am in the process of buying some fabulous fabric on etsy. In a few weeks, I plan on trying my hand at making a pillowcase dress for Liv. I gotta say... I'm LOVING this resolution! So, check back with me in a few weeks... I plan on posting the results!

The Bachelor Breakdown Week 3

The Mommy Know-it-Alls

So, the first time I was pregnant it started. I would say something like, "Man...I'm so uncomfortable" and inevitably someone would come up to me and say "Oh just wait till you're 9 months pregnant... THEN you'll know what uncomfortable is."

Everytime there would be an ache or pain I would complain about, some wise cracking mom would say, "Just WAIT until labor, then you'll have something to complain about."

It really started to annoy me. But I figured, once I had a child, things would be different and I would be accepted into "the club". Ofcourse, there was labor... which I would like to think 17 hours would qualify me but there were the really snitty women who would say, "Oh, well you had a C-section... so you don't really know what giving birth is like."

When I became a part of the club, the mommy-know-it-alls didn't stop there. First it was, "Oh you have a baby... just wait until they're 2!" Then it was, "Oh you only have one child, just wait until two!" Then it was, "Oh you only have boys, just wait until you have a GIRL!"

Now here I am, 3 kids deep. I thought I had the corner market over the mommy-know-it-alls. I mean, who could top 3 kids in 3 years? Well, just last week, I found one. "Oh yeah, you should try doing all that and working FULL TIME."

Ugh, why do people feel the need to trudge on what is OBVIOUSLY a difficult thing and make it so that their story is always so much worse? I don't know. But what I do know is, so help me GOD, if you EVER catch me saying, "Oh just wait until...." please slap me. It's rude, it's annoying, and it trivializes the hardships of others.

GAH- there I said it!

Warky Banter

Me: I could really go for some chocolate right now....but we don't have ANY!

Tim: There's some cake frosting in the cupboard.

Me: Cake frosting? I'm not going to eat cake frosting straight from the can.

Tim: Why not? Isn't that a girl thing? I am always seeing girls eating frosting straight from the can.

Me: Tim that is sooo cliche'.

3 minutes later......

Erin slinks into the livingroom with a can of chocolate frosting in one hand, and a spoon in the other.

The Bachelor Breakdown Week 2

I started a new vlog series on the Bachelor. For those of you who are fans...check it out. And feel free to comment!!

77 days of sleep deprivation

So today marks 11 weeks in which Olivia has been alive. Which translates to 11 weeks that I haven't slept. I don't know why in the WORLD she isn't sleep trained yet. My other 2 were sleeping so well by now. Just when I thought I had this parenting thing all figured out, then comes this girl who totally rocks my world and makes me question everything I've ever done or known to do. What the HECK?

So in honor of Olivia's 11 weeks.. I give you a haiku entitled:

77 Days of Sleep Deprivation

Party All Night Long

We are Drinking until Dawn

It's a baby's life

To be totally honest, that sounds more like a great rap song. Perhaps even a youtube hit? I might just have to break out some mad rapping skillz and do a music video.

A Girl can "Dream" right?

So this is the home that HGTV is giving away this year.

Every year we talk about what we would do with the home, how we could use it. We talk about getting in our brand new car and driving across the country; leaving our job, our furniture, and pretty much everything we own and know to live in an amazing house at an exotic location.

I know it sounds crazy, but wouldn't it be such a rush? To just move to a house that was paid for, in an area you've never been before? To experience new people, a new culture, to have an adventure? Because, let's face it, when you have 3 kids your adventures are rather limited.

This year it's in Stowe Vermont. A little ski lodge tucked into a gated community. There's a mudroom (for our millions of little muddy feet) and a ski dorm full of bunkbeds that look like little dwarves live in it. So FUN! A hottub- yes please! And an incredible kitchen. The adventures would be...endless! And, ofcourse, there would be an open invitation to any and all faithful blogreaders out there. There happens to be an incredible skiing mountain just minutes from the house.

So everyday Tim and I enter (2 times each) for the home of a lifetime. Who knows, maybe they'll come to our doorstep and surprise us? If that's the case, I hope they call first because I might just be in my pajamas.

A Prayer from a pit

Dear God,

I've been having a really bad past few weeks. So many things have been happening, and not happening. These children are small, they are helpless, and they are trying. I'm losing sleep, and my mind. And I feel ALONE...very alone. I have no family, I have no support and the bottom is dropping out of my world. The deciever is lying to me, and pulling me apart at the seems.

And yet, in the midst of total turmoil... I can still feel you. I feel your sweet breath against my skin, I see your goodness in the smiles of my children. You spoke to me, I heard your voice, heard the words you spoke to me and I am standing on them today. I know that it may not make the pile of laundry go away, or the temper tantrums end, but in the quietness of my heart.. I praise you.

I write to you today to remember that even in the midst of total despair, sadness, darkness, and the feeling of being cut off from the world that YOU WERE HERE. Thank you.

Psalm 40:2-4 He pulled me out of a dangerous pit, out of the deadly quicksand. He set me safely on a rock and made me secure. 3 He taught me to sing a new song, a song of praise to our God. Many who see this will take warning and will put their trust in the LORD.

The Pink Resolution

So here it is, the first blog of the new year. And it's all about my resolution, ofcourse. It seems like every year we claim it is the year of "no babies". Last year we shouted it from the rooftops "2010..the year of NO BABIES" ......a month later we got pregnant. This year, really truly I can say it with certainty that it is the year of no babies. But that's not really what my resolution is about. This last year, I had a girl and suddenly it opened my eyes to a whole world of pink I was missing.

I spent so long ignoring pink, looking away from it focusing on cars, and football and manly things that suddenly I lost myself in a world of boy. I stopped buying things like nailpolish and makeup. My shoe collection became scarce and, well, scary. I began to look at everything from a neutral point of view. And then, this little bundle of pink entered my life and I realized that I had denied my inner girl.

I am a girly girl at heart. I LOVE chick flicks, and makeovers and shopping. And Olivia showed me that it was okay to be a girl. So this year, my new year's resolution is to embrace my feminity. I want to go get my hair professionally colored, get pedicures, buy pretty dresses and get my eyebrows waxed. I'm not going to feel "silly" or "imprudent" for doing it either. Because, it's okay to be a girl...afterall....that's exactly who I am.