my sassy-not-so-little girl

It's been all of three days since I over-exposed my girl child and made you want to vomit from all her cuteness, right?! RIGHT?!!!

Well, fear no more chicklets. Here's some SidMo cuteness to make your ears wiggle and your toes tingle! She's getting so big so fast - every inch of her is attitude and sass! (Can't you tell from some of these shots?) What am I going to do with her, folks?






























Luckily for us all, she's got a little sweet mixed in with that sass :)

In our version of Titanic, nobody dies

Justin and I like to watch movies where the endings don't always work out, and then re-imagine how things might've turned out if we were in that exact situation. Take for example: Titanic. Whenever we watch Titanic, we mostly laugh (even though I know we shouldn't) because there are a million chances that pass by that no one does anything productive to save their own skin.

Justin always says he'd start making his own raft out of anything and everything he could find once the ship started sinking. But he's just crafty like that. My game plan would be to go with the Dory from Finding Nemo approach: "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." I wouldn't stay still in the water waiting for someone to come back and pick me up. Yes, both of our plans have serious flaws but hey - that's how we roll. We're thinking on our toes here. What's your excuse?

No matter how much we plot and plan and try to convince the people in the movie to GET SMART and DO SOMETHING about their situation, they always go into the water unprepared and not many of them survive (maybe, just maybe someday we'll be able to rewrite the ending of Titanic for them all and more than six people will survive)! Every stinking time those brave souls hit the water, I can feel the air in the room getting tighter. I know what's going to be coming in just a few minutes. As soon as Jack and Rose find each other again, Justin's starts his tirade:

"Oh, come over here honey. See where I parked the piece of wood for us? There's 1,500 people out here struggling to survive BUT NO ONE IS GOING TO TAKE MY PIECE OF WOOD THAT I PARKED RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!!!"

And then when they try to hoist themselves up on said piece of wood the conversation goes like this, starting with me:

"TRY AGAIN! TRY AGAIN! YOU ONLY TRIED ONCE!"
"He's got enough common sense to know the ship will suck them under the water when it goes down, but he ain't smart enough to know you have to get up on the wood from opposite sides?! COME ON, MAN!"
"JUST TRY AGAIN, DAMMIT! PLEASE, TRY AGAIN!"

You have to realize we're screaming at the TV and each other and all the while our child is running amuck somewhere in all of this. Lord only knows how we'll warp her mind with all our crazy TV back-talking (among a million other crazy things we do).

The best part of the whole Titanic experience came at the end of the movie when SidMo, undoubtedly aroused by all of our screaming, became sucked into the movie as much as we were. When Rose drops the "heart of the ocean" back into the water, Sidney started freaking out! Her TV tirade went something like this:

"UH-OH! UH-OH!!! MOM-MOM, UH-OH!!!!"

That's our girl. You tell 'em honey. They just don't know how to make movies, do they? Maybe someday she'll be out there in Hollywood and she can re-write the ending of all the movies Justin and I don't agree with. And then when she's at the Oscars accepting her directorial award, she can look into the audience and say:

"This one's for you, Daddy! Who says everyone had to die at the end of Titanic??!!"


Because we all know men this good-looking shouldn't have to go to waste :)

topsy turvy tuesday

It's not even lunchtime and today has been great so far! Even though I woke up late and was running behind this morning, things still managed to turn right around and end up being ALL GOOD.

Reason #1 - I won a radio contest this morning! YES, ME! Me, who never wins anything like that. I won! My prize, you ask? Well for sure, 100% I get a Mountain Dew prize pack. And I'm entered in the big contest to meet Dale, JR. and go see the Food City 250 (or 500? I can't remember)! Either way - I'm stoked! I'm just thrilled to have won the prize pack, let alone be entered into the big, BIG contest with the even bigger, BIGGER prize! I've never been to a race - should be fun. And Dale, JR. is kind of cute. Sort of - so it'd be neat to meet him & take pictures. It'd my be claim to fame (and the next time the #lameclaimtofame goes around on Twitter, I'd have something to say). Anyways, I'm happy. It made me happy just to win.

Reason #2 - one of my wonderful co-workers made caramel apples this morning. I had one for breakfast! YUMMMMMMM. Not healthy, you say? Who cares!? I have no money to buy breakfast and I'm tired of eating out of the freezer, so I'll take a homemade caramel apple for breakfast any day of the week!!!

Reason #3 - I've come to the decision that whatever happens with my math class this semester is going to happen. It's out of my hands at this point. I'm going to email my teacher, ask her if there's anything I can do for extra credit to try and bump up my grade, but if not: it'll be okay. And even it turns out to NOT be okay, there's nothing I can really do about that now. I've got my final coming up. I'm prepping for that and hopefully, things will all work out for the best. But like I said, either way I'm not going to stress about it.

So all in all - it's been a good morning. A little up. A little down. But all around good. I hope the rest of the week plays out like this!

daddy/daughter

Just because I love them both so much and sometimes I feel like I don't show it enough. Today is a day to be thankful for the blessings we are given and for the people in our lives.





























































The two loves of my life: Justin + Sidney

let today be a good day

To say it was one helluva weekend would be quite the understatement.

It was a nightmare. Where to begin? Friday was as busy as could be at work. The phone rang off the hook, papers were flying everywhere and life was beyond chaotic. The mood at the office was pretty dark due to the fact that a local woman had recently passed away unexpectedly and we all knew her in one way or another. Her wake was Friday night, so we all had to rush home to change after work and then rush off to the funeral home. Luckily, Mom kept SidMo Friday night so I was able to go home and collapse without the added checklist of chasing after her.

Saturday was pretty bad, too. Justin and I had a pretty good row that morning/afternoon. We haven't fought like that in a long time and I hope we don't have to fight like that again for the rest of the year. I'm not a good person to fight with. I cry and I can never get my words right. It's pretty ugly - and he's not exactly Mr. Diplomatic when it comes to our fights. He's a damned good fighter. He knows how to cut to the quick and he knows where to hurt me. But we've been fighting together for almost six years now. I've learned to separate what he's actually saying from what he actually means. You'd think he'd be able to do the same from me, but I'm chalking that one up to him being "male" and well...you know the rest of that gene-pool story.

Sunday was better - actually it got better Saturday night. But Sunday was pretty decent, minus the fact that we had to visit relatives who were aching. Justin's uncle recently lost his wife in an unfortunate car accident - he (Justin's uncle) was pretty shook up about it, as is expected. Everyone deals with grief in their own private (or public) ways. I have learned never to knock the way a person handles themself when faced with uncertain and altogether horrible situations. I can't imagine being in that situation. I pray and hope and wish that I am never in that situation.

Justin and I kept that conversation on repeat on the way home:

"I hope I never have to deal with something like that..."
"I can't imagine losing you like that..."
"Just be careful, dammit. Just wear your freaking seat belt, okay?"
"There's only one thing worse than losing your love..."
"Don't even go there-"

So yeah, needless to say despite all our bickering Saturday we forgave and forgot real quick on Sunday. I hate that it takes death to appreciate life, but so it is. We hugged each other a little tighter and spoke to each other just a little nicer. We should remember to do that always but we don't and I know we won't. It will always take miracles or catastrophes to bring us back to the center again - we will always have to be kicked hard to remember to love each other outwardly as much as we do inwardly.

Somewhere in all that chaos there was also a birthday party, a hellacious storm that lasted all of Saturday night and most of Sunday, moving (wet) furniture and cleaning house among other little tidbits. This coming weekend, SidMo and I are traveling with Mom to Gatlinburg for a little R&R. I can't wait. Honestly, I CANNOT WAIT. I feel bad for Justin because he hasn't been anywhere this summer, but I'm hoping if I plan a good enough honeymoon for us, he'll be okay with the fact that Sidney and I have been everywhere (Florida, Williamsburg, and now G-burg). I'm just hoping for a sane work-week and safe travels this weekend. I hope that for me and for you - remember to wear your damn seat belt, okay?!

**PS please check out MckMama's blog and support her beautiful boy Stellan. It's been a wild ride on Twitter this morning and I'm hoping he pulls through. Lord knows after the heartbreak we all shared over Maddie, we could use a miracle for little Stellan.