Miss You...

As we enjoy the holidays I can't help but miss Michael's dad more. Today Michael sent me the poem that was read at his dad's funeral. It was, and still is perfect. I like to think we live like this poem. Laughing, and remembering him as he was. Living as if he is a part of our lives still. I am sad Charlie won't "know" his grandpa, but he will still know him! I love you and miss you Diddyo.

Death is nothing at all...
I have only slipped away to the next room...
I am I and you are you...
Whatever we were to each, that we are still.

Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak it to me in the same way you always used.
Put no difference into your tone,
Wear no false air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect, without the ghost of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident.

I am but waiting for you for an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner.
All is well.

It's Been A While...

It's been a few weeks. Time really flies with a husband, baby, and huge family; all of which I am very thankful for.  So here's what's been up...

The church directory photos turned out quite well, surprisingly! I'll post pictures soon.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Really one of the best ones in years. We went to my grandma's house for lunch, and got to spend a few hours there. Which was really nice, because we're usually frantically running from place to place all day. We sat and ate and spent time with family. (Well at least I did ;-) Michael fell asleep with Charlie on the couch for a little while). Then it was time to head home and grab ingredients for some yummy mac and cheese and the pretty cake I made and head to Michael's mom's house. We got to Michael's mom's house early so we could cook and help set up.  It was such a lovely night. Michael's mom's best friend Sally came early too to help. :) Then we were joined by my step-sister, step-dad, mom, Jen, Andy, Landon, Baylor, John, Jessica, Matt, and cousin Ryan. Michael's mom's house is beautiful. It was dimly lit and there were fresh picked flowers on the table. Along with little Thanksgiving trinkets she has collected since childhood. It went really well, no drama-which almost never happens on a holiday! A great day for giving thanks, indeed. :)

Now, somehow, it'd Dec.1...how?, you might ask...I don't know! Charlie's 6 months old and eating stage 2 foods! (big deal to me, lol) Now, my favorite part of Christmas...buying gifts, and wrapping them! Ah, I love thinking up all the neat things I can do for the people I love. We ordered most of Charlie's Christmas presents online, so that was easy. The hard part is being patient while waiting for them to be shipped. Yesterday we got one small present, and I haven't decided whether I'll wait for the rest to come before I wrap this one! Now, on to figuring out what to get for all my brothers, sisters, moms, and dads!! :)

Yay! I love the holidays! God is so good!

It's Picture Time!

Today we have our appointment today to get our taken for our parish directory. Apparently, instead of the usual sit, smile, done...you have a whole photo shoot! So today is the first time we are having a "portrait session"! Haha, it should be interesting! I'll post later to let ya know how it goes!

I am the luckiest.

Today I was asking Michael "Do you know how lucky we are?" and he replied, "How lucky?" and I said back " The luckiest." It made me think about the day we got married, and the song we danced our first dance to. It's a song called "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds. It's beautiful and comes about as close as any song can to explain how we feel about each other. Now not only are we the luckiest to have each other but to have such a precious child. I'm reminded that more and more every day. Charlie was spitting peas in my face and laughing while I growled at him, and it makes me realize, I am the luckiest. :)

God is sooo so so so good!

My boy covered in peas!

Here's a link to a video that has the song with the lyrics. Enjoy!
Ben Folds: "The Luckiest"

Frustrated.

So, I just spent almost 2 hours of my day going to the doctor so they would write a letter of appeal to the insurance company to get me covered. UGH! It just cost me $104 to get my finger pricked...not a happy camper! Anyways, let's hope it does th trick and gets me covered. The insurance company wanted the cause of my anemia, and now I'm not anemic! We'll see...

God is good, insurance companies...not so much!

Thankful.

It is almost Thanksgiving (how???). Wow. It honestly doesn't feel like it's been very long since last Thanksgiving.  I was just thinking of what I could blog about, and I was thinking of how thankful I am for all the wonderful things God has blessed me with and I was hit with the realization that it's November. Times passes  so quickly. You hear that so many times, but it's SO true. Last Thanksgiving I was sick as a dog and couldn't really enjoy it. I was thankful for lots of things, but not throwing up all the time was NOT on of them. This year, it is! I am so thankful for my health, and my healthy baby, who is here with us!! I can't even begin to explain how amazing it is to have a child, a son. It still sounds a little funny. I have a son. Wow. :) The other day I was being silly and making faces and funny noises at Charlie and Michael said to me "You're a great mom." There's nothing better to me than hearing someone, especially my amazing husband (who is such an awesome father to my son). I am so lucky to have the ability to have a baby. As hard as it was to get through my pregnancy, I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to not be able to.

I have such an awesome family. I love each and every person in it. Each person is special and great in their own ways. I am so thankful for all the people God has brought into our lives.

I have been blessed with so many good things, and I'm undeserving. Life is great. Cherish it! :)

God is GOOD!

Charlie :)

Sunday's are great!

What a lovely day! Got up and got everybody ready for church. We were ready in time to get to church early enough to get a good seat but sweet Noodle (Michael's mom's dog, who's staying with us while she's away in Italy) decided she wanted an adventure this morning! haha Good old noodle. We weren't too late. Once we got home from mass it was time to start cooking! I made my signature hash brown casserole. Yum! John (my brother), Jessica (his girlfriend), Brian (another brother haha), my mom, and David (my step-dad) came over! We don't know how to do anything small in this family. Maybe because there are so many of us that we always have to have a ton of food. Here's what we had: biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, muffins, mimosas, and sweet tea! :) Phew! As you might have guessed...we were realllly afterwards!

Here are some pictures of the afternoon!

Cinnamon rolls with pink icing for breast cancer awareness...DELICIOUS!

Kind of blurry but here's some of the food.

Yummy biscuits!

:)

Us!

Charlie watching all the action and enjoying his jumper!

Tired boys.

David enjoying brunch.

Brian and John, John didn't know when I was taking the picture. Haha

After all the brunch fun, we decided to go get some pumpkins to carve.  I always forget how not easy it is to do, but I think it turned out pretty well.  Here are a few pictures of our pumpkins for Charlie's first Halloween!!

The "fun" part...getting all of the gunk out of the middle.

On the front porch!

Cute little owl!

Sad the weekend's over, but Monday has to come! Little Charlie has had dinner and his bath and is fast asleep, hopefully Michael and I can catch up on some TV or something! Good night, and God bless!

Sooo looking forward to another great Sunday!

Throwing together a Sunday brunch after church! Love it! :)

I love my family.

EX-HAUS-TED! Oh my gosh! Long day! Good day, but a very very long one. As much fun as we had I couldn't be happier to be home! We met mom and Brian (home from Clemson :) )at Papa's and Beer (Mexican restaurant). Charlie did pretty well, he had just had a pretty good nap, but we did have to walk him some. He had sweet potatoes while we had quesadillas, burritos, nachos, and fajitas! Once we were back at mom's and full, my aunt called saying there was an impromptu birthday celebration at my grandma's house (25 mins away).  Charlie got in a little nap so we decided to be adventurous and try to make the trip even though Charlie HATES the car. Ugh it really sucks to have a baby who hates the car. I pray that when (and if) we have another baby that they LOVE the car. I can't tell you how many times people say "my baby looooooved the car!" and I'm thinking....ahhh I wish mine did. Well anyways, Charlie did pretty well on the way there and was good WHILE we were there-but on the way home...much different story!! Woooo-weeee! Longest 35 minutes of my day!!! It is not fun to have to listen to your baby cry knowing if you stop to help them they'll calm down until they're back in the seat to go again. Boo. This too shall pass (?). Now we're home he's fed and giggling on the bed getting his tummy blown on by Daddy. God is good!

PS) I looooove my family. It's not a real party until the race car is outside grandma's house!! Love it!!! Shout out to my awesome family!!

Daddy gettin' Charlie's tummy!

Thank the Lord it's the weekend!!!

Do you ever feel like the weekend is well deserved? I do! I am soo glad the weekend's here. I just can't wait to spend some time with my two boys. We normally are torn between staying in all weekend and just relaxing and spending time together, and going out and getting things done and spending time with friends and family. We tend     to stay completely busy and all of a sudden it's Sunday night and we squeeze in some Mommy/Daddy/Charlie time. So, this weekend since poor Charlie is teething and not feeling great we let him nap and relax and we just hung out and watched tv and had dinner at home. It's been so nice. Now if we spend the rest of the weekend running around and doing fun things at least we had some family time! I am soo very thankful for the weekend! I'm also verrry thankful for my amazing husband who gives me some time to just sit here while he takes care of Charlie. Alrighty, so enough time on the computer...off to spend the rest of the night with Michael and Charlie. Who knows what adventures are in store for tomorrow. :) God is good!


Aaaand here's a funny video to put a smile on your face...

We are not fans of teething... :(

Okay, okay...the video is kinda funny. (especially on mute) but our poor little Charlie just isn't himself today. So sad to see my baby in pain. On the upside-we get to see his precious teeth soon! :) God is good!

My Sweet Tiny Boy.

So Charlie is almost 5 months  old now, and I haven't taken the time to put up pictures from the day he was born. Partly because it made me hurt to look at them for so long! :-P It was the longest, most painful, hardest, most amazing 24 hours of my life! I'm so thankful we decided to have a baby, our life just wasn't complete without sweet Charlie. 

Here's a little background on the day...

I was what we thought was over a week overdue (he wasn't very big, so I don't know if it was that or if his due date was just wrong) and I was delivering naturally (no pain medication...I know what you're thinking--crazy??) with a midwife.  We decided it was time to try and induce, since I was so miserable...thanks to many things, such as my crazy pregnancy rash that felt like poison ivy on my whole body. The natural approach to inducing is using blue and black cohosh (bleh) and if that doesn't work-the dreaded castor oil (dun dun dunnnn).  Yes-it is as bad as you think. Ugh. After a whole day of herbs every hour not much had happened so it was time for the castor oil. I choked it down, knowing I'd do anything to have my precious baby boy here, and that's when it all started.  I was miserable and for longer than twelve hours couldn't keep anything in me. Not the way you want to start off labor!! Anyways, after countless hours of contractions it was almost eight in the morning, we had been up all day and night and it was time to push. I pushed for a little over an hour, and he was here. I made it through! It was all over...well until the terrible six week recuperation! I'm quite proud of myself for making it through. Here are some pictures from the night/day.

Here's the day this precious little angel was born...

Here's the room where I had him, candlelit to relax me!

Ready to be done with this...

By my side every second.

Holding him for the first time.

Our sweet family.

We did it!

Daddy holding his tiny hand.

Love this.

There he is!!

All snuggled up.

Pigs!

hahaha cousins

His very first hat and socks.

footprints

One happy mommy!

I guess every weekend has to come to an end...

So, it's the end of another great weekend. Oh how I love weekends. There's nothing like spending all day with my sweet boys. Here's what this weekend consisted of, two haircuts, organizing, stocking up on baby food, checked out the (beautiful) restaurant my brother works at, checked out the amazing "Vatican Eucharistic Miracles Exhibit", spent some fun time with lots of family! :)

Here's a link to the website for the organization that sends the exhibit to different churches...
Vatican Eucharistic Miracles Link

Sooo amazing...I got goosebumps many times while reading about these miracles.  Of course we were running late and had to kind of rush through, but I found a book with all of the different miracles compiled in it.
Amazon Link for the Eucharistic Miracles Book

Here are some pictures from the weekend...

I went through all of Charlie's clothes, towels, etc., put up everything that was too small, and made my own labels...phew! A lot of work but it's so helpful!

We stocked up on baby food at the store since they were having a sale, and since we had a ton I took the opportunity to reorganize the pantry!

Charlie's precious outfit for his fancy Sunday brunch! :) Complete with cutie patootie shoes, and Ralph Lauren  pants that I got at the yardsale for $1!

Me and Michael...I love him so!

Ahh, I guess I better get to bed. Our cute little alarm clock will have us up bright and early in the morning! Goodnight! God is gooood! :)

"The shoemaker's children are often shoeless."

I'm sure you've heard the old proverb, "The shoemaker's children are often shoeless.", well the hairstylist's husband is often shaggy! Poor Michael always waits so patiently for his (typically) quarterly shearing! haha So today, we decided it's definitely time for his turn. After 3 tries of cutting it while Charlie was asleep and woke up I finally finished his haircut! He looks so handsome (if I do say so myself). Here he is...

Charlie's checkin out Daddy's new 'do in the mirror!

My two handsome boys!! <3

Thanks for being so patient babe, you're the best!

The squirrels are eatin' good tonight...

So...we got Tito's Pizza for lunch...a special treat. And I got to enjoy one piece, and was going to eat left overs later. As I was driving down the road I heard a thump, and in my rear view mirror I saw our delicious Sicilian pizza tumbling down the road. Boo...

My toes are cold!

Happy Saturday! Nothing like starting off your Saturday morning with a good old fashioned southern yard sale! My mom and I went to a yard sale a couple of her work friends were having. Charlie and daddy stayed home so the little guy could get his morning nap. I got some awesome stuff! We got a new boucer for Charlie, a little carrier thing for him and of course some clothes! (oh and a purse to use as a makeup bag :) ) Even if I didn't find any good deals, it was fun to go hang out and freeze my butt off! It is so nice to be cold...I am really tired of hot weather!!! It was nice to go out and have fun with my mom, but I missed Charlie and I'm definitely happy to be home and see his sweet sleeping face.

How about some pictures?


Okay...

Bouncer-Like new!! 

Usually costs $65 we got it for $5

haha me, being silly...as usual.

Modeling the new baby carrier!

It normally costs $80 and I got it for $1!!!

This is what I came home to!

Precious boys! :)

Gotta love the weekend!!!! Can't wait to enjoy the rest of it with people I love!!! Yet again, God is GOOD!

Here's a picture of me and Charlie in his new carrier...so cute! He was confused, and mildly amazed!

\

:)

Phew!!! A quick visit to see an old friend/dinner turned out to be quite an adventure...then again, what doesn't when you have a baby? I've been finding myself saying that a lot lately.  We just got back to our house after 3 hours out! It's not easy to go much of anywhere with a baby who doesn't like to ride in the car...so going from our house downtown (which takes 25-30 mins. is no easy task). But, it was all worth it!!

I have been missing my old friend Caroline, from high school, so I decided we'd try making it to the restaurant she works at.  I invited my mom and step-dad to go for some good company and a couple of extra hands for the baby, and I knew mom had been wanting Liberty lately.  So we agreed to meet at the restaurant. After about 3 u-turns in the neighborhood to go back and get things we had forgotten we finally were en-route and the drive actually went quite smoothly...then we got downtown...we had to drive around in a circle several times to find a parking spot. I thought I found a reasonably good parking spot, until our trek to the restaurant made me think otherwise!

We parked on the other side of the baseball stadium from the restaurant and what I thought was a side road turned out to be a creepy empty (not lit) railroad track!! So it took everything in me to not run until I got to main street.  (couldn't leave Michael and Charlie in the dust). Finally after some freezing cold wind and gravel in my sandals we got to the restaurant.

Dinner was great, and apart from Charlie getting grumpy a few times.  Michael came up with an awesome idea to lay his napkin over the baby sleeping in his lap to catch the crumbs. Hahaha I love my husband! <3

It was awesome to see my dear old friend who I realized tonight that I've known for 9 years!! Gotta love a good night with good food and good people! But, I sure am glad to be home in my cozy house with my sweet boys!!! God is good!!!!

Here we go again...

So...I'm no good at keeping up with something like this, but what's wrong with trying again. Maybe I can make it work this time.

Here's a little bit about me:

Well as you can tell from my blog title, I'm a hairstylist, and a mom! haha
I come from a big family, and I love it!
I would love to have a big family of my own, but I don't know that I can maintain sanity and do that as well...
As for now Michael (my husband) and I have a precious almost 5 month old boy, Charlie.  He is amazing!
I have one (WONDERFUL) sister-Jen
3 (AWESOME) brothers- John, Matt, and Brian
I've also got 2 step brothers- Frank and Scott; and 2 step sisters-Anna and Ari
I love my family more than anything in this world!!!!
I'm Catholic, and I love it. I'm working on strengthening my faith more everyday.
I've lived in SC my whole life, and plan to for the rest of it, I love it here!


Aaaaanyways, congrats to me on making a blog and completing my first post....ta daaa!

More to come...  :)