Destiny Ring

This is a ring I love and want. Mine and Chris's "song" is God Blessed the Broken Road and this just completely matches those sentiments. It's a Destiny ring.

"Destiny: Some things that happen in our lives feel like destiny. We meet certain people or go to certain places and feel like we were meant to. This lovely ring holds tribute to those things in our lives that are meant to be. The wires represent the many different paths we take to get there."

This would be a great anniversary gift from my wonderful husband. Hint hint.

It's been a while hasn't it

Work has made blogging at work nearly impossible. With the exception of a few days where most of the office is out, like today, I can't do anything personal on the computer. PITA I tell you. It's like they expect me to work or something. ;-)

Anywho, nothing much has changed. We're in a pretty nice state of happy right now.

Friday I took off work so that I could prepare the house for Derek's 1st birthday party on Saturday. Holy mother effing hell. I completely understand why people have parties at event centers. Albeit, our house desperately needed the deep cleaning it received (our bathroom especially) but there was so much to be done to prepare. It took me back to the wedding preparation days! MIL came over and was such a huge help watching Derek and helping me clean. The party went off without a hitch. Funny story, Chris nearly burned the house down because our grill has issues and he turned it off because it was out of control and it was still burning crazy a half hour later. We had plenty of food and my mom made the cutest monkey cake that everyone loved. It was fabulous. I just can't believe my sweet baby is turning one.

A not so funny story, while out shopping yesterday for a baby shower gift, I recommended some swaddling blankets (Circo brand 3 pack 42" x 42", best things EVER next to the Miracle Blanket) and one of the women asked how old Derek was. I told her he was about to be a year old. She looked at me and said "oh and is he getting company" aka knocked up. WTF. I so wish I'd thought fast enough because as we walked away I told Chris "nope, I just had too much at Olive Garden and have to poop" but apparently look knocked up. Niiiiiiiiiiiice. Reminder to self: do not ever, ever, EVER ask if a woman is expecting unless you can see the head crowning or are absolutely certain beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Chris is still happy with his job, although it's outdoors and it's nearly 100 degrees everyday outside. My job is still going ok, the drive is long but Atlanta traffic sucks whether you live 10 miles away or 60. I'm just lucky to have a job right now and keep reminding myself of that.

Things did get a little interesting this weekend with my Dad's side of the family but I'm trying not to think about it and stay in my blissful happy state. The IL's have a potential buyer for their house and they've agreed that if it sells they'll buy our house and we'll move. It'll give them a cheaper mortgage and allow us to get closer to my job. Win-win. We were planning to move into my parent's in-law suite in their house for a while to help with debt but now there might be a kink as the drama with my Dad's side of the family includes my brother moving home. There's just more to consider right now.

Holy long venting post. There's the catch up for now.

Vampire Diaries eat your heart out

Let's talk convertible car seats

Why does every single baby purchase have to have 686,344,589,315,213,715,849,642 options?

There are so many items you have to purchase after having a baby, from the stroller, crib, playard, bottles, carriers, bouncy seats, exercausers, high chairs, the nipples (don't even get me started on the entire aisle of silicone, latex, slow flow, fast flow, variable flow, wide neck, standard that is not really standard as it doesn't fit every bottle!!, wide touch, ventaire, COME ON PEOPLE!!) etc.

So when the time came to purchase a convertible car seat for Derek, I started researching the best buy. This entailed finding the safest seat for the best buck for my frugal (read cheap & broke) happiness. Oh my sweet Jesus, there are so many seats to choose from my eyes are crossed and I have a headache. When I went to BRU website there are already 29 different options, just within one brand of carseats. Seriously, seriously?!

There are so many variables, just as with the nipples.
- rear facing weight limit
- cup holders (a plus for sippy cups)
- latch installation availability
- SIP (aka side impact protection)
- forward facing weight limit
- ease of installation
- side handles
- 15+ brands to choose from!!
- 2+ options within each brand (Britax has 8)
- shut the front door, there are about several different color choices per seat

Just to name a few!

We currently have a Britax Boulevard that I'd highly recommend to anyone however, since Britax is considered God in the convertible carseat safety world, it has a hefty price tag. I was able to get that one on clearance since the color choice was being discontinued but holy mother trucker sticker shock for full price ($309)!!! I highly recommend stalking online stores for deals.

However, it'd be awesome to find a great seat at a better price. And before you start throwing the flames, I know, I know, you cannot put a price on your child's safety. I get that. Like I said, I'm just trying to get the best bang for my near non-existent buck.

I think I'm torn so far between just sucking it up and getting another Britax Boulevard (they're on sale for $219 at AlbeeBaby) and getting the Graco My Ride 65. Both have great safety, both have high rear facing weight limits, the main difference is the Graco is $115, which is a lot nicer on my checkbook. Britax is the easiest car seat to install ever however, I don't know if that's worth $100.

Pssst...look up there

Check out that handsome man up in my header?! I just wanna eat him up, nom nom nom!

There are more pictures on his blog (link also located on the right side) and I'm both too lazy and too busy to put them here as well.

Derek has bronchitis. Our wonderful sleeping angel has turned into a sleepy cranky coughing crawling creature that doesn't want to sleep. Ever. EVER. Again. Not for naps. Not for bedtime. This leads to Momma drinking lots of coffee after 2 nights straight of crazy interrupted sleep. He woke up a couple times last night and one time he just wanted to stand up in his crib and do nothing else. Then he decided to sit and play in there like Daddy was the crazy one acting all sleepy. Poor Daddy took night shift last night after Mommy had it Sunday night and Daddy isn't feeling good either. Enter caffeine overload and I have a serious headache. Yikes.

Hopefully Derek sleeps tonight. I guess this is retribution for having a wonderful sleeper from birth. It could be much.Much.MUCH worse. This I know. Thank you baby Jesus and we'll take these few days of interrupted sleep happily.

Since I'm an AW anyway

I'll post these on my blog too. Everyone should marvel at the cuteness.

One should know that it took the genius Jody to get that smile from him, and lots of effort from Momma behind her as well, because Derek was not a happy baby with his teeth coming in and it was misting outside and he didn't like it. I'm so proud of the little boy in these pictures, but he'll always be my baby! Even though I'll try my hardest to be BSC and turn him into a complete and utter Momma's boy, he's definitely my Momma's boy.

Tweet tweet

To twitter, twit, er, tweet or not? That is the question. I'm contemplating joining twitter but not sure I want to get into the obsession that it entails.

So...should I join or run for the hills and stay in my non twitter bubble?