jodified

Yesterday should have been a great day. My mom and mother-in-law, Terri, came over and helped me get Grayson’s room clean, organized and decorated. I took photos I’ll try to post later.  The room looks great and I couldn’t be happier that it’s all done.

Then in the afternoon as we were wrapping up I got a call from our car repair shop telling me that to fix our air conditioner it will cost $2600. I hate that. We don’t have an extra $2600 laying around but it’s something that has to be fixed or it can make the whole care break down eventually, not to mention it’s not safe to drive around with three little ones, especially an infant, in the middle of a St. Louis summer. So we have to work it out.

When things like that happen it literally ruins my entire day. It made me think more about the set-backs we had yesterday than the great progress we made. I stopped caring so much about the adorable nursery we put together and thought more about the fact that the light went out in the fridge, or that the ceiling fan in the nursery is broken and we have to buy another one, or that Parker had a blow-out and poop ended up on the ottoman and remote control not to mention all over her. 

So today I’m hoping I get no more expensive bad news! We have Parker’s 18 month check-up this morning and then some house work to get done. I have lots of Jodified stuff to wrap up now that my shoots are done, I have one more Emmanuel piece to finish and a few other random bits. We might try to fit the park in or a short walk and we really need to hit the grocery store… which might just count as our walk!

This day is full already and it’s barely begun! That means I need to get moving! Have a great Tuesday!

Who watched the Desperate Housewives season finale tonight?

What was with the ending???

This week I realized that the girls were both born at 37.5 weeks, which means that if Grayson follows suit I have less than 2 weeks until he’s here. And that has me completely freaked out.

I have shoots to edit, designs to finish, laundry to do, baby things to buy, a nursery to organize, and the list goes on and on.  If he comes early I will not finish everything I need to! 

So Monday my MIL and mom are coming over all day to help me organize the baby things we have, shop for things we need and put the nursery together.  And this weekend I am knocking out as many edits/projects as possible, especially tonight and early tomorrow morning b/c my parents have the girls and we don’t get them back until we meet them at church. So I’m attempting to get as much done as possible, but I’m still pretty stressed.

One thing I got done just now is the Zuniga Photo Album (check it out over at the left of the screen).

This family was adorable!  Their baby girl is the biggest chunk, which I say lovingly b/c I LOVE fat babies! Their thighs especially. And the rolls at their ankles and wrists. And their cheeks. And really, I just love chubby babies!  So she was no exception! 

They also have two beautiful boys that played so hard with their dad it made me really excited to see Grayson and Chris together someday! 

It was a great shoot on a beautiful day in the park!  Thanks guys!

Oh, and aside from my slight freak out this weekend, we also had some excitement yesterday morning:

Oh yes, we got TPed.  It was senior wars at Webster which is supposed to be the upcoming senior boys vs. girls, but a few weeks ago Chris apparently gave away one of the girl secrets to a boy, so the girls deemed him on the boys team. Or something like that. C was the only teacher to get hit and according to some Webster parents who saw lots of houses hit in Webster and also ours, say we got it the worst TP-wise. Thanks girls!  Of course two of the culprits are our baby-sitters and when C told Bailey who did it, she went around all day telling people that these two girls put paper ALL over her house! While I was working this morning Chris and the girls attempted to clean it up… it took three trash bags!

So we’ve had a great weekend so far… lots of laundry, lots of work, lots of toilet paper, and lots of Daddy/girl time.  I hope your weekend has been good too!

So last night I wrote this post and when I went to post it the internet had gone out. I HATE that. So I threw my computer set my computer down gently and refused to open it until this morning.

Our weekend was insane. In all the good ways but so so busy.  If you are family/friends this might interest you and if you’re not you might be bored, so I’m including a message to make this post worthwhile.  The message is: everyone takes crappy photos. Usually I just delete them, but at times when you’re so busy you practically forget to get out the camera, just take what you can and capture the moment. Don’t worry about using your flash (something I very rarely do) or the lighting or whether or not the subject is even in focus (although that can be helpful). Just take the photo so you have a memory of the moment! You will see many examples of these photos in this post.

The first great thing about the weekend was that Baby Samantha came to visit. She brought her parents too, but I was all about her. I’ve never been an aunt before and I can’t even describe what an incredible feeling it is.  It’s almost like she’s one of my own. When C’s brother’s have babies I know I will love them too, but I think there is something different that happens when your sister has a baby. It’s a closer bond or something. And we’re her God Parents so we have an even greater purpose in her life than just as her Aunt and Uncle.

Here are the first examples of BAD photos that capture moments I don’t want to forget…

I’m not even in focus here, but I love that we got a photo of me holding her b/c I basically didn’t put her down all weekend!

One moment that had me holding back tears was when the girls had a chance to first hold Samantha. Bailey held her right away but we made Parker wait until Sunday b/c I really didn’t think she was old enough. But watching my girls love their baby cousin so much makes me even more excited for Grayson to get here!

Again, totally out of focus but I LOVE this photo! Parker is so incredibly proud that she’s holding her, Sam is screaming and Bailey is patting Parker’s head like a proud big sister. These are the kind of imperfect perfect photos that make me miss scrapbooking.  It tells such a story! I wrote the story down in my journal so that someday, when I have time, I can scrap it… a great idea for us busy moms!

The other great part of the weekend was the BLUE party my parents surprised Chris with!  They threw him a blue baby shower of sorts to celebrate the fact that he’s having his first (and last of course) son.  We had a blast seeing family and friends but my favorite part was watching HIM open all the gifts and "oohing and aahing" at onesies!  It was hilarious! I haven’t laughed that hard in so long… and then when I thought I couldn’t laugh any harder, C’s Grandpa walked in wearing a NASA jumpsuit! He said they told him it was a BLUE party so he wore the most blue he owned!

Oh, and did I mention he bought one for Grayson too? 

So this party is what sparked the idea for Man Notes b/c I decided that if Chris was opening all the gifts, he could write all the thank you notes!  But I knew he would be short on words for some of the baby items… the beer he got he could write about, but onesies, not so much.

The first Man Note:

*the front

*the back

Do you think he can handle that? 

I can’t wait to see what he writes!

So this is where the give-away comes in… in honor of the first Man Note I had extras printed and they are here waiting for another man to need them.  These are generic enough that you could use them for any kind of occasion!

Just leave a comment again and tomorrow morning Bails will chose the winner.  I have 15 to give to one lucky guy!

And speaking of choosing the winner, here is Bailey picking the winner yesterday:

***Amy, they are being printed and will be in the mail to you asap!***

And just b/c I have to include at least ONE good photo… here is Bails yesterday morning:

Today: we have had a slow morning b/c Parker decided to party last night at 3am but we need to get moving b/c Parents as Teachers comes this morning, then we’re delivering a fun package to a friend on bed rest, then to Grandma’s so I can go back to work at KCCI.  Somewhere in there I have to do some Jodified work too so we’ll see how that goes. And I still have SO much to talk about from the weekend, but unless I want PAT to see me with crazy hair and no bra, I need to get moving! 

Have a great day and don’t forget to leave a comment HERE if you are interested in some Man Notes!

GIVE-AWAY CLOSED :: will post winner later this morning!

Eventually I want to have a line of cards that anyone can order (via PayPal probably) at any time. Just everyday cards… birthday, thank you, thinking of you, etc.  I’m also working on a line called "Man Notes" that are made just for men when you want help with that stack of thank you’s after the baby’s born or your wedding or whatever.  Man Notes will also cover birthday’s, Mother’s Day, and all other days that they tend to forget. 

So in honor of my new endeavor (this will take a while to get all set-up b/c of Grayson coming of course!) I am going to have a give-away today.

This is the first card I’ve created in my everyday line ::

*front

*inside

{this is an A2 fold-over note card}

The give-away works like this ::

Leave a comment on THIS post and tomorrow morning I will pick a comment at random to win a set of 25 cards which I will mail to you! 

Once I choose the winner (at random!) I will email you for your address.

There will be a new give-away with EACH new addition to my everyday line! 

Back to work now…