It's Ok Thursday

This week I'm saying It's Ok if...

• I have spent close to 15 hours in the last 6 days catching up on the show 'Revenge' on Hulu. Holy cannoli, that show is GOOD!!!!
• I thought this one-liner by Jef from "The Bachelorette" was one of the hottest things ever. 

Despite his terrible haircut, I love him.  

• I have now upped my coffee intake to 3 cups a day. I am getting more sleep these days, yet drinking more coffee. I just don't understand it. Oh yes I do. It's called Cinnabon coffee creamer, and it is one of the most delicious things on planet earth.
• I've started reading the website "Suri's Burn Book" and I find it hysterical. Suri Cruise judges other celebrity babies. Sounds so wrong and shallow, and it is, but it's freaking funny.
• I hum the tune of Em's Jumperoo while getting ready. And strolling down the hall. And working out. I'm awkward...
• I got an Amazon Prime membership (which is AWESOME) and now I order literally everything online because I get free 2-day shipping. Laziness at its finest. 
• I got a Twitter account and then forgot to actually tweet. Or is it Twit?? Hahahaha. #notfunny
• I literally do not remember the last time I got a haircut. It could have been a year ago, though that can't be true. Motherhood has clouded my memory.
• I wear a two piece bathing suit, even though I'm a mother, even though I said I would never wear again, and even though I still have that lovely pregnancy "dough" quality to me. I just couldn't pull the trigger. Not yet. 

What are you saying "It's Ok" to today???

6 Months

Dear Emerson,

Baby girlfriend, first and foremost.... do you care to explain the following pictures????

3 days old

6 months, 3 days old

Please explain to me how both of these pictures are pictures of you, because looking at them right now, I'm just not buying it. Surely that tiny little girl in purple is not the same baby as the happy little pumpkin who sleeps in her crib. Alas, it's true. You are 6 months old!!!!!

Being a mother is amazing, for so many reasons, but one of the best is that you get to watch your baby grow and develop and change every single day. Every day is a new adventure, a new milestone, a new skill, and a new reason that you absolutely, positively melt my heart into a puddle of love.

 

You had a few big firsts this month. Your first time in a real pool (which you HATED because the water was too cold); your first time in a baby pool, which you loved; your first wedding; your first time away from mommy and daddy for more than 12 hours (which I HATED). I guess every month will be full of firsts, because every day you learn something new!

(I love this picture because I feel like I'm getting a glimpse into teenage Emerson., There is so much sass on your face and I love it. Like "OMG, Mo-ommmmmm! Stop taking my picture! Stickers are for babies!" By the way, if you end up talking like a valley girl some day, I will have have failed you).

You tried "people food" for the first time this month. We started with whole grain oatmeal cereal, and though you hated it on Day 1, you started gobbling it up by the second day. However, you seem to be more interested in gnawing on the spoon that I give you, so I've started using two spoons and alternating one to eat and one for you to gum. It works out well! I also experimented with making my first food, sweet potatoes. I finally got to break out the Baby Bullet that we (you) got at our baby shower, and man that thing is awesome!! 2 sweet potatoes and some water, plus some ice cube trays for storing, and I had enough food to last you two weeks! And the whole thing took me less than 10 minutes when it was all said and done. I felt all accomplished and whatnot for having made my own baby food. I hope I can keep it up!

You are still sleeping like a champion! Sleep has changed the lives of everyone in our household, and a few times I've even worried that you sleep "too much." Seriously??? Why do I have to worry about everything? Ha. But yes, sleep is amazing and I still can't get over how gosh darn happy you are all the time. If you're not sleeping, you're smiling, and you charm every single person around you. Case in point: We went to Target on Saturday, and people kept stopping and commenting on how adorable you were. that will never get old. Of course I think you're adorable (the most adorable person ever, actually) but hearing that other people see it too makes me smile with mommy pride. You sleep on your belly now, which freaked me out at first because you tended to face plant when you rolled over and I was nervous that you couldn't breathe. But after several nights of staring at the video monitor for hours (and hours) I realized how much cozier you were in the position.

You and daddy are still best friends. It was your first Fathers Day (outside the womb, that is) and you decided to buy daddy a new golf bag and pose for this adorable photo op:

 

Seeing the two of together makes my heart happy. He is just as in love with you as I am, and I love the way both of your faces light up when you see each other. I am very nervous as to how much he is going to let you get away with when you're older, because you're so darn cute and charming, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

You still look like a deer in headlights when I take your picture, but that's okay. May you never become an actress, because the paparazzi will stalk you as an easy target.

I wish I could freeze time, because if I could, I would freeze it on this summer. Life is about as perfect as it can get, and I'm having so much fun with you, while also getting to hold on to the bits of your baby-ness. Will there ever be a time when I don't see you as my sweet little baby?? I doubt it. I don't care if you're 3 or 30, you will always be my boo boo, snuggle bug, pumpkin, sweet pea, girlfriend, and the greatest example that I've dfone something right in my life.

Until next month darlin'....

Love,

Mama

Guest posting!

Hey party people!

I'm guest posting over on Elf: A Family Blog today!

Check out my post there, and give Libby some love!

Happy Monday!!!

That's Funny Friday

That's Funny Friday is back!

Have you heard of the "alternative" trailers that are on YouTube???

These(in my opinion) highly creative clips truly show the power of editing, and make you see your favorite classic movies in a new light.

Mrs. Doubtfire.... CREEPY

Mary Poppins.... TERRIFYING

The Shining.... Happy 
This one is the absolute best - you can't believe that it's possible until you watch it.

And here are some of the funny clips I found on Pinterest this week...

TRUTH

So true!

 

Oh, the embarrassment!

And now for something highly inappropriate...

This is my daughters new favorite "chew" toy.

YUP. 'Nuff said.

I'm never ordering Chinese food again

Don't worry.... I don't have some gross food poisoning story to share with you.

I'm "never" ordering it again because I made an amazing dinner last night, on the cheap, and it tasted sooooooo much better than the version we buy from the takeout places. And it's much healthier!

I had a craving for General Tso's chicken last night, but since I ate enough food to feed a professional football team while in Vegas, I need to get my eating habits back in check. Which means logging calories in My Fitness Pal and not going overboard.

So I got the idea to make my own version of General Tso's. And the result was delicious and so easy!

My makeshift recipe included:

1lb organic ground chicken
1.5 cups of Kroger stir fry vegetables
1/3 cup of House of Tsang General Tso's sauce
1 bag of Uncle Bens Boil-in-Bag rice
1 tb vegetable oil
Sesame Seeds, Sriracha sauce, minced garlic and soy sauce to taste

Basically, I cooked the chicken with a little oil, then added the Tso's sauce until it was warm. At the same time, I sauteed the veggies with a little oil, water, sesame seeds and then added some soy sauce once they were cooked enough. I threw the chicken and veggies on top of the brown rice, then added red pepper flakes and Sriracha sauce and voila!!! A tasty treat!

I input the recipe onto My Fitness Pal, and each serving (if you house the entire bag of rice like I did) only has 300 calories and 24 grams of protein! I will definitely be making this again.

YUMMO!!!!!

Vegas??? Meh.

I'm back!!!!

Missed me??? I know I missed blogging, yo.

We got home from my conference on Friday, and it's taken me until now to catch up on life. Emails! Projects! Laundry! Snuggle time with Emerson! They all had to take precedence over writing on the internets.

I'm going to give the briefest of synopses on our trip, and you'll see why...

THE GOOD
1. Food

We definitely diversified our food expeditions. We did sushi one night, a steakhouse the next, and a buffet on the last night. 

Sushi Roku in Caesar's Palace was thebomb.com and everything I wanted it to be and more. Seriously, it was so good I almost cried.

The Steakhouse at Circus Circus came highly recommended and the steak was awesome (though the Bearnaise sauce was weird), but the hotel was an absolute shithole! Great things come in ugly packages I guess???

The Buffet at The Bellagio was one of the greatest experiences my mouth has ever experienced. For $32 I literally ate my weight in sashimi, crablegs, pasta, Chinese chicken and noodles, and DESSERT Oh my God, the dessert.

2. Weather
It was 105 degrees and sunny for all 3 days we were there. 105 degrees sounded so awful, but it wasn't at all. You see, Ohio in the summer has 99% humidity and feels like a sauna. But the dry heat of Nevada with its lack of humidity feels like a warm toasty blanket. I loved it. I hate being cold, so it was perfect for me. It made laying by the pool a great experience because it was warm but you weren't sweating your tailfeathers off.

  

3. Hotel
Our hotel, the Paris Las Vegas, was gorgeous. I loved the decor, our room was very inexpensive but still very nice. And the pool was amazeballs!!!!!!!!! It was so relaxing and wonderful to lay on one of the 1,000 pool chairs and look up and see the Eiffel Tower. Well, obviously not the Eiffel Tower, but a 50% scaled version. The hotel was also centrally located in the middle of The Strip, so it was a close(ish) walk to everything.

4. Bellagio Fountains
And The Bellagio in general is pretty stinking cool. I was only slightly disappointed that George Clooney didn't show up and ask me to be one of Ocean's Eleven, but oh well...

THE BAD
1. I'm 28 years old and over that whole "scene"
2. You can smoke in the hotels and the casinos. WTF!?! It was disgusting. I guess I've been spoiled since you can't smoke indoors in Ohio anymore, but I just loathed the fact that my clothes smelled like smoke by the end of the night when I am not a smoker. It's gross and rude, in my humble opinion.
3. Everything is expensive. $25 to work out at the gym of OUR OWN HOTEL. Seriously?!?! $10 for a slice of pizza?? Robbery.
4. To get anywhere on The Strip, you have to walk through other casinos or up stairs, which was kinda annoying given the whole smoking thing. It's hard to get in and out of any place very easily.
5. Tourists and rude people. People didn't hesitate to step directly in the way, push me out of line, blow smoke in my face, etc. Maybe it's because I'm from the Midwest, but I still find it shocking that people can be so blatantly rude to strangers.

THE UGLY
1. Emerson. Leaving my 6 month old daughter for 3 days SUCKED. I couldn't relax completely because I missed her so much.

2. I left my beautiful, beautiful blue topaz ring, my first gift from Emerson, on the nightstand of our hotel room. I can envision exactly where I left it. It was SO STUPID of me to set it there, but it was really loose so I took it off so it wouldn't fall off. Though I know with absolute certainty I left it in our hotel room, housekeeping, security, and the manager of the hotel all told me that it wasn't found. F____ that, and F____ Vegas. I hope whoever failed to turn it in to Lost & Found is enjoying it as much as I did. Bastards.

But with all that said....

The moment I saw my sweet little girl for the first time, and her reaction when she realized Momma was home??? One of the best moments of my life. The recognition in her eyes, her smile, laughter, kicking her legs furiously with excitement.... that right there is what life is all about.

Superfood challenge - OWNED!

Last week I posted about my challenge to eat all 8 superfoods every day for a week. You can read all about it here.

Well, since you care I'm here to tell you that I DID IT! Except one Friday when I didn't eat any beans, I ate every food every day.

The result? Well, I look the same. Hahahahaha. No, I didn't expect to have some magic transformation or to have a 6-pack. Losing 10lbs would have been cool, but I think I'd need food poisoning to achieve that in 7 days.

But what I did notice is that by incorporating all of the superfoods in to every meal, I basically eliminated all processed foods from my diet. And it was so easy! And cheap! I am obsessed and in love with quinoa now that I think I could eat it at every meal. Sauteed spinach is like dessert to me and I went back for seconds most nights. And don't even get me started on Greek yogurt. Ahhhhh, so good!

So the next question you might ask is..... Audra, are you going to stick to this???

Well ladies and gents, yes and no. Yes, in the future, I want to continue on this no-processed food thing. I really like it. But not this week......

Because I'll be in Vegas all week!!!!

I'm headed to a conference in Sin City, and though I do have several obligations during the day, I am suuuuuuuuuper pumped about the Las Vegas cuisine options. And Jon gets to come with me, which makes it even better! We figured this might be the last time the two of us will go on a trip alone for a very, very long time. I just know I want sushi, steak, and a seafood buffet. And a Bloody Mary. And to see the fountains at the Bellagio. And to play the slot machines. And to win $10 (or more).

(I know what you're thinking, and PLEASE don't remind me that Emerson is not coming with us. I have already cried several times and made my flight earlier just to minimize the time I'm away from my daughter. I am freaking out about it so I'm trying to focus on the fun I'll have with my husband and convincing myself that Emerson won't forget who I am and hate me forever because she feels abandoned. Can babies Skype???!?!?)

I'll probably be offline until Friday, but be on the lookout for some awesomely rad Vegas pictures. Unless of course I win it big, in which case I'll just pay someone to blog for me since I'll be so independently wealthy....

Wedding highlights

They're in!!!! 

Lindsay's photographer finally posted all of the photos from their beautiful wedding, and as I suspected, they are STUNNING!

I'm sharing a few (okay, alot) here because I need people to see how gorgeous and awesome this blessed affair was. And how cute Emerson looked ;-)

To answer a few questions in advance:
- No, my sis-in-law is not a model (Though she should be right??? Hot Damn!!!)
- The wedding venue was called The Bluestone
- Their wedding theme was wine, and they did SO much with it - the details were unreal!
- I am not including many pictures from the end of the night, because I have a daughter. We all had fun. That is all I have to say about that.

CONGRATULATIONS MR AND MRS!!!!!