Monday, June 30, 2014

Momma & Miles Monday - The weekend of no naps

It's true, you don't realize how precious those naps are for our littles until you experience a day without them.  Or in my case, almost 2 days.

This weekend, things just lined up in a way that naps proved very difficult.  I mentioned Friday that I was cleaning all day Saturday and I had hoped carrying Miles around in the carrier would help to facilitate a good nap.  Well, it started out well enough.  I got to cleaning and he fell asleep relatively quickly.  Except now that he's bigger, while he more than fits in the carrier, it doesn't have any way of supporting his head or neck and they were flopping all over the place once he fell asleep.  So I thought, he had been asleep for a good 20 minutes, he was probably sufficiently out and I could move him without waking him up.  Wrong.  I tried putting him in his crib and the second I laid him down he was awake and screaming.  After 20 minutes of that nonsense, I realized that I had too much work to do, so I put him back in the carrier and hoped he would fall back asleep (he didn't).

Fast forward to 5:30 - kid is absolutely exhausted.  So, against my better judgement, I let him pass out on the couch for half an hour.

That night, bedtime came and went and Miles was still rockin' out like it was 4 in the afternoon.  We decided at 10:15 that he was going to bed whether he was tired or not.  Which meant that I was in his room coaxing him to sleep until 11:30.  Since we don't let him cry for more than 5 minutes, it was a lot of cry, rub back, sneak out of room, floor creaks, kid wakes up and realizes you probably left him forever, repeat.  After more than an hour, I was finally able to get out without making a single sound.  I was so exhausted at that point, I went right into my bed and fell asleep - didn't even take the time to go tell Chad.  Oops.

Cue day 2, when we all slept in until nearly 10 am (and Chad until 11 am) - it's nice and all, but it sure does throw off the schedule, since nap 1 generally occurs around that time.  We had made plans to meet up with some new friends for lunch - they wanted to get together at 1...which is nap 2 time.  I was not looking forward to that...but we went anyway and had a good time (Miles finally cashed in his birthday gift card from Aunt Megan and Uncle Brad and got this awesome hoodie).When we got home we tried to get him to nap with zero luck.  We continued trying for over an hour.  Finally he fell asleep around 4 and we let him sleep as long as he wanted (again, probably not the best choice when it came to bed time, but necessary).  We also took advantage of that time to get a quick nap ourselves.  
Bedtime that night was slightly better - he was actually tired at bedtime.  And I never had to re-enter his room after initially putting him down, but it still wasn't without a fight.  I'm ready for him to go back to being able to put himself to sleep without a fuss.  The only thing that saved my sanity this weekend was that once he went to sleep, he stayed asleep.  He's finally consistently sleeping through the night and it's been FANTASTIC.  The dog has also generously agreed to sleep through the night most nights as well, meaning momma has been getting a full 8 more nights than not.  I can feel the difference.  It's wonderful.

Despite all that, we had a great weekend - Chad got to come home early on Saturday, so it was almost like we had a full weekend with him.  We love that!  Long weekend with Grammy & Papa is coming up and we are anxiously awaiting their arrival!

And now for more cheeks!
Must stay awake to tell you how tired I am!

Hey, giraffe. How's it goin'? I like your long neck, that looks really great. So you're a giraffe, right? What's that all about? Okay, well it was great to meet you. Say hello to your mother for me.
Stay chelish, friends!

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Social Media Mixer - Week 5

I'm so excited to be guest hosting the Social Media Mixer for the month of July.  Take some time to check out all of the wonderful blogs that are linking up and add yours as well!
-Chel

Welcome to the 5th week of the Social Media Mixer, a brand new social media link-up started when the Weekday Mixer and Social Media Sunday joined forces. Thank you to everyone who joined us for Week 4 - we had 141 blogs and numerous social media link-ups!
Social Media Mixer-2
The Social Media Mixer is all about networking and making connections. Also, you can gain exposure and increase your social media following! Link up your social media accounts and mix it up with some of the other linkers. Each week, the Weekday Mixer will start on Saturday nights at 8:00pm and go on until Thursday night at 11:59pm. One linker will be chosen each week each of the hosts and guest hosts and featured in the following week’s link-up! If chosen, a brief summary about yourself and your blog/website and all of your social media accounts will be featured. It’s a great way to stand out among the crowd!

Welcome your hosts!

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 Natasha from Epic Mommy Adventures | Angel from Sew Crafty Angel | Cathy from A Peek Into My Paradise | Teresa from Crafty Wife | Julia from Minivan Dreams | | Liz from Look by Liz Lewis | Kaitlyn from Three Sisters and Us | Shana from Technotini | Anni from Grapefruit Princess | Tiffany from Mrs Tee Love Life LaughterCe Ce from A Chicago Mom |  Jillian from Baby Doodah | Brittany from BrittanyBullen.com | Holly from Southern Mom Loves

Shana from Organized Chaos has left us due to personal reasons...we hope to have her back soon!

And welcome your guest hosts for July!

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Bonnie from LadyBlogger | Chelsea from That's So Chelish... | Tara from Anything & Everything | Aysh from Words n Needles | Amanda from Old House to New Home | Krissy from Hot Commodity | Jen from Twenties Chic | Victoria from Giveaways 4 Mom | Maria from Simple Nature Decor | Breanna from Brepurposed

A big giveaway...

There's still a couple of days left in the So Happy It's Summer Giveaway...have you entered to win??
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We’re giving away $600 in Paypal cash + some more great prizes! Enter to win here! Untitled design (10)

And here are the Featured bloggers from last week's Social Media Mixer...

Huddlenet
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"Huddlenet.com has been on the Internet since 1999. It is a family website with crafts, recipes, tips, printables and old fashioned fun. Our website has grown and changed numerous times with the goal being to provide fun and smiles. Enjoy your visit and play with our toys – we don’t mind sharing!"
Immensely Social
Lori-Hil-Books1
"I am a creator, writer, and freelancer. I’m an avid learner who believes in constant expansion and growth. My goal in life is to inspire others to live the best lives they’re capable of. Happy lives of passion, purpose, and fun. This crazy, beautiful life is amazingly brilliant. I hope you will join me on my journey to love completely, live passionately, and have loads of fun in the process!"
Jenn's RAQ
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"We are a homeschooling family and are actively involved in several groups to keep us sane and socialized! I stay at home with our children and have enjoyed being able to see those little lightbulbs go off when they learn something or acquire a new skill."
Structure In An Unstructured Life
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"Welcome to Structure in an Unstructured Life! I am a full time working mom to two adorable and energy-filled boys, ages 7 and 4, and the wife of a football coach. As you can guess, life gets crazy and chaotic around our house at times! But being a lover of order, organization, and simplicity, I am constantly trying to find calm amidst the chaos! In the posts of this blog, you will find the ways I create structure in our often unstructured life. My quest for structure is intertwined with my quest for happiness, so besides meal planning and organizing tips, you will also find my thoughts on happiness, parenting, marriage, and life. Thanks for stopping by!"
Home Is Where The Heart Is
julie
"Home Is Where The Heart Is is my personal blog on news and tips on many topics in every day life in the home. My two toddlers keep me busy. When I’m not also cooking, cleaning, or working, I love to take some me time and write. You can find me writing about kids, health, fashion, my favorite recipes, ways to make your home better, and so much more."
Life In the Wilde
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"As a single mom, I have a VERY special bond with him and I just love watching him learn and grow. I am a foodie, and nutrition fanatic which leads to some serious “should I or shouldn’t I” anxiety. I work full-time as a Managing Director for a boutique staffing company. I love to write, blog and vlog. I am passionate about sharing my heart and story with strangers. Sounds weird but, true."
Pretty Thing and Co.
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"Pretty Thing and Co. is a beauty blog written by two cousins looking to find the best in makeup, skin care, vintage markets, inspiration, diy’s from Richmond, VA all the way to Rome, Italy – and of course everywhere in between."
Tales of a Pee Dee Mama
Me2
"I'm a mama who lives in the Pee Dee. I blog about the many adventures that occur simply being a homeschooling mama to 5 small people."
Life's Little Projects
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
"My name is Amie Jo.  I married the man I’ve loved since I was 17.  I am a mother to 2 remarkable children.  I am a former teacher turned stay at home mom, and loving it, even when I am not.  I am so glad you are here.  What you will find here at Life’s Little Projects: You will find crafts and activities that you can do with your kids. Recipes that my family loves. Even the picky eater. DIY projects for you home as well as for kids. I will share things that inspire me, tips to make life easier, and a little about the craziness that goes on in my home. You will see pictures of my kids and others in my family but I have chosen not to show their faces to the whole world. I do hope that you understand. I am sharing a couple of pictures on this page so that hopefully my blog feels a little more personal. I also plan on sharing how real and messy life can be."
Simple Stitches by Rachelle
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"I am: a professional photographer, a seamstress, a crafter, a busy mom to 6 children, religious, a blogger, an organizer, a singer & a volleyball player!"
I'm Not a Trophy Wife
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"In late 2013, this little blog, my tiny corner of creativity, my therapy (taking place on a social media platform and not on a couch) started to gain national attention from a few (kind of) famous people and several national brands and companies. All of which had one thing in common: each found me and my writing style to be honest, creative and entertaining. Creating and managing content for brands on social media/and national websites is a great way to balance the contract driven demands of real estate and small business ownership. And, I love it!"

If you were featured above, feel free to share the badge below with pride on your blog or website!
Social Media Mixer
<div align="center"><a href="http://epicmommyadventures.com/category/blog-hops/social-media-mixer/" title="Social Media Mixer" target="_blank"><img src="http://epicmommyadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/i-was-featured-on-button.png" alt="Social Media Mixer" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Are you ready to start mixing it up?? Then, let's go!

Make sure to add the button below to your sidebar to invite even more people to join the fun!
Epic Mommy Adventures
<div align="center"><a href="http://epicmommyadventures.com" title="Epic Mommy Adventures" target="_blank"><img src="http://epicmommyadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Social-Media-Mixer-2.png" alt="Epic Mommy Adventures" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
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Friday, June 27, 2014

Friday 5 vol. 8

1) Biggby.

It's funny that I live in Lansing - the city where Biggby Coffee was founded - but I only really get it when I go out of town (it's probably a good thing that there is not a Biggby anywhere near my drive to work, otherwise I would not be making that statement).  So naturally, I was very excited to find out that I had to make a trip to our corporate office this week.  There is a Biggby right around the corner and I always stop there on my way in.  A super iced fluffy clouds always hits the spot! (I don't know what happened to that picture - it's not that distorted on my phone...)

2) Nail Growth.
Wednesday marked 2 weeks of the jamicure.  It was time to remove them - they were starting to peel up around the edges - but how great did they still look?  The best part?  All that nail growth on the bottom.  2 weeks without biting my nails may be a record.  Miles' daycare provider invited me to a Jamberry party tonight, so I'm excited to go and get some more product (tell me again why I'm not selling this stuff yet?)

3) The baby carrier.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Infantino Support carrier (it's actually a discontinued model, the updated version is called the Union).  It's very similar to the Ergo in design at about 1/3 the price.  I don't get to use it as much as I'd like because Miles is not a fan of being carried/worn for any period of time.  He's like his daddy with a really high body temp and he just gets too hot.  But it's still perfect for when I really need to get something done around the house and don't want to leave him alone.  Yesterday that meant collecting all the trash from around the house to take out.  Tomorrow it will mean actually cleaning the house to get it ready for visitors (yay!).  I'm hoping that I can combine cleaning with nap time, since he's usually really good at falling asleep while I'm wearing him.  

4) Old Navy $1 Flops.
One of the best days of the year!  While technically it's tomorrow, it's worth putting in this week's 5 since I've been looking forward to it all week.  My plan is to be there when the store opens so I can actually take advantage.  Last year I got there too late and all that was left in my size was brown (which I already had).  This year Old Navy is also putting Flip Flop vending machines around New York and LA and if you tweet with the hashtag #flipflophooray, you can get a free pair out of them.  Why oh why don't I live in New York or LA?  

5) Hodor.

Hodor.














Stay hodor Chelish, hodors friends.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

A View From My Desk

This is where I spend a good portion of my time...so here's your inside look at what I'm looking at right now.


1) A picture of the white board at my last desk - I took a lot of notes on that thing that I didn't want to lose.  Of course, I can still see that white board from where I'm sitting and it still hasn't been erased...ah well.  At least I'm prepared if it ever is.  Also, a list of the paid holidays for the year - always good to have the days I don't have to be here handy :-)

2) A Microsoft Certificate of Achievement stating that I successfully completed course 2778 Writing Queries Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL (VS).  Can I tell you what I learned in that course?  Absolutely not.

3) A random container of Garlic Sauce from Hungry Howie's.  Yep.

4) 1 of 3 monitors.  I try to avoid doing any work on this monitor - it just rotates my photos every 15 minutes, so it's mostly a glorified digital photo frame.

5) My lunch/snack bin.  Very important to know where the food is kept.  Obvs.

6) My window.  Sometimes I like to look out and just watch the birds at the birdhouse.  Very early this spring (as in, there was still snow on the ground), we had about 9 bluebirds sitting on the branches.  Also, my pink foam bunny.

7) Monitors 2 & 3 - where the magic happens.

8) A jar that was previously full of cashews (and in location 5) and a grilled sandwich maker - because who wouldn't want to make grilled cheeses at work?

9) My new whiteboard.  Currently holds notes about some of the more important projects I'm working on.

10) Conference name tags.  They make me feel important for some reason. Like - hey look how cool I am.  I go to conferences.

And that's my desk.  If you check out my google + page, you'll be able to see a full photo sphere of the office, which is pretty sweet if I do say so myself.  I hoped you enjoyed this quick little peak into my day-to-day.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

What (Not) To Wear Wednesday

I am, admittedly, fashion-challenged.  I've committed to working on bettering my so-called fashion sense - learning what does and doesn't look good, being more adventurous and trying items I might not normally have worn, taking time to choose an outfit instead of throwing on my staple jeans and a t-shirt/sweater/hoodie (or if I do wear those things, accessorize in a way that makes it look like I tried a little).  I've found inspiration from my blogger/mommy friend, Shaunacey, who has made some really awesome fashion updates in the last couple of months.  Now I want to do the same.

So to help me do that, I'm implementing What (Not) to Wear Wednesdays*- a spin off of the popular "What I Wore Wednesday".  It's basically the same concept - I'm going to post pictures of the outfits I wore for the last week.  My goal in this is two-fold: 1) I have some accountability for choosing an outfit that I'm not embarrassed to show the world and 2) get feedback from you!  What did I do right?  What did I do wrong?  What could I do to make it better?  Do those jeans give me "mom-butt"? etc.  I view this process as not something I should do alone, but as something I should readily accept help for.  So please, help me! (And also, please excuse the picture quality for the time being.  I don't have a full length mirror, so I'm stuck using the forward-facing camera w/timer on my phone.)

This will be a short week, as I only decided to do this on Monday.  Here are this weeks choices:
Wednesday's Sweater Detail


Monday: Striped Tee - Old Navy, Jeans - Old Navy, Shoes - American Eagle (old)
Tuesday: Tank - Kohls (Similar), Cardigan - Motherhood (Similar), Jeans - Old Navy, Shoes - American Eagle (old), Scarf - Modadorn (Similar)
Wednesday: Cardigan - Delias (Old), Tank - Vanity (Similar), Pants - Unknown (Old), Shoes - BCBG (Old)

 So there it is.  What works?  What doesn't (and don't say my face...)?  Your feedback is what will make this work, so get to it!


*Name in progress...suggestions are welcome.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Going Back to Hogwarts...

Since downloading the Timehop app on my phone a few weeks ago, I've been having so much fun reminiscing about what I was doing on this day 1, 2, 3, 4....8, 9, 10 years ago (because I've had facebook for almost 10 years now - yes, I'm one of those...).

So for example, 2 years ago today I discovered Pinterest.  I wasted more than 4 hours browsing pins that first day.
3 years ago today, I found a picture of a cake decorated with darth vader riding a my little pony over a rainbow.  That won the internet that day.

But the best timehop I got today was from 5 years ago.  When I discovered AVPM - A Very Potter Musical (which at the time was still called Harry Potter the Musical), and 3 hours later when I was officially obsessed.

If you're a fan of Harry Potter and you have not yet discovered Team Starkid's excellent musical theatre, you are doing yourself a disservice.  AVPM became so massively popular that it spurned AVPS - A Very Potter Sequel, and AVPSY - A Very Potter Senior Year (guest starring Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood).
I could watch these shows over and over and over again.  I constantly listen to the soundtracks.  I make random references to it in my everyday life.  I fell in love with Darrin Criss before he was on Glee.  I went to their SPACE tour concert.  I'm a geek.  I admit it.  But watch this and tell me it's not the best thing you've ever seen, ever...


So thanks, Timehop, for this wonderful trip down Starkid memory lane.  And now I'm off to listen to the soundtracks.  Again.

Stay Chelish, friends.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Momma & Miles Monday

Miles and I had a great weekend together.  Saturday we went and spent the day with Grammy and Great-Grandma.  We also met Great-Aunts Debbie & Tina for lunch at our favorite spot - Benihana.  I wish I had gotten some pictures that day to show off...but someone was being a little more clingy than usual.  He wouldn't even let me put him in a high chair at the restaurant, which is so unlike him!  He finally warmed up to Grammy after lunch and let her take us on a little shopping spree - he's finally stocked up on summer gear (and I may have added a few items to the closet as well...).
Enjoying the Ginger sauce...just like his momma!

Loving on my cousin's dog, Monkey
Sunday we added Daddy to the mix.  My company had an outing to the local MILB stadium for a game.  We were all decked out in our Tigers gear (even though the home team was an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays and the away team was an affiliate of the Tampa Bay [Devil] Rays.  For our family (at least until little league starts), Baseball = Detroit Tigers.  So that's what we wear.  Luckily, Miles was very into Daddy so I got some great pics!

It was a hot day, so Miles especially had fun drinking water out of the water bottle and then spitting it out all over the floor...
It was also "Bark in the Park" day, so we could have brought Zuzu with us, but she would have absolutely hated it, so I'm glad we chose not to.

On the way out, I finally got Chad behind the camera so I could get a picture with my handsome dude.  I wish I could have convinced Chad to do a family pic, but he was not into it (boooooo).

(oh also, too - I was loving my outfit that day - I didn't get a great pic, but how great is this skirt?!)



 It was such a wonderful weekend with my family.  I'm so glad Chad is finally able to step away from work more and spend time with us (and that we're doing more with that time than just sitting at home - we still do a lot of that, but we're getting out of the house a lot, which I love)!  I can't wait to do it again when my parents and sister come into town for the 4th of July!

And with that, I have to get back to work - today has been a classic Monday and I really needed a break.  But there is a ton of work to be done and as much as I wish it would, it won't do itself.  Until next time, Stay Chelish, my friends.