Tomorrow...

Ok so I know in my previous blog I said I'd update later & I had good intentions until I went to get on my laptop & our wireless Internet was out! Turns out I had to call our cable company to replace our router.. Something about a bad port, don't ask me I barely understand how to reset the thing! So that was replaced today! But before then we had a play date with my sister & her kids & my friend Scarlett & her little boy Mason at the inflatable fun factory! The kids had a blast for 3 hours! While us girls had some much needed adult interaction! Well I just wanted to post a quick update but I will blog tomorrow about the cupcake experience with my sister from last weekend & also post about the festivities to come this weekend!

P.S. Christmas is in 3 days!!

Can You Catch Time?

Because I certainly can't! It always seems to get away from me! I wanted to update yesterday but never found the time to get around to it.. I think I'm going to have to put aside an hour to blog & take it seriously! And of course now that I want to write I can't because my Internet is down so the app on my phone will have to do until my provider opens & I can call but for now a glimpse of what's to come!!

The Joy Of Motherhood

Motherhood is definitely the most fulfilling and challenging experience in a woman's life, it's the toughest but the most rewarding job. It's insane to think my baby is 5 years old which I guess doesn't make him a baby anymore, at least according to him. I thought the terrible two's or three's were bad, that's nothing compared to the attitude a 5 year old can posses. As a kid myself I admit I was full of attitude. Whenever I was giving my mom a hard time she always said 'when you get older and have a kid I hope they are just like you' and boy was she spot on. Don't get me wrong Holden is awesome. He's actually a really good kid & I'm lucky to have had a fairly easy time raising him. He's now able to understand sarcasm & has a tone to his voice if something doesn't go his way. Half the time it's hilarious to me and I want to laugh. There are times when he tries to be witty and makes no sense what so ever. The other day when I told him we were going to see Santa this weekend he was so excited but then got really serious and asked 'how long do I get to see Santa?' I explained to him you get to tell him about something you want and you get a picture with him. He tried telling me that simply would not do, he said 'mom I need like 20 minutes to talk to him.' And when I laughed he got a little mad at me. I told him we could write Santa a letter telling him everything he wanted to say, but he wasn't having any part of that then asked if we could just call him. I had to explain that Santa is so busy and wouldn't be home because he's working and he challenged me again asking why we couldn't just call his iPhone... As you can probably tell I'm trying not to laugh this entire conversation but it's just so darn cute. After getting through all of that I finally convinced him it would be fun to write a letter and draw some pictures. I love the way a 5 year old mind works.

Holden @ the Shedd in Chicago

Holden & my niece Trinity

Kind of Obsessed

Oooh Spooky! Scary! One of my new favorite shows is on tonight, American Horror Story. In case you've been living under a rock it's a new controversial thriller on FX. American Horror Story revolves around the Harmon's, a family of three who moved from Boston to Los Angeles as a means to reconcile past anguish but little do they know the new fabulous house they just bought is haunted & not just by one ghost but several. It's from the creators of Nip/Tuck & Glee. It just keeps getting crazier & crazier! I never see what's coming, they always keep you guessing! I'm looking forward to tonight's episode... The birth... Do you watch the show? What do you think is going to happen??

Christmas Time Is Here!

Happiness & Cheer! That's right a post dedicated all for Christmas! It's probably my most favorite holiday to decorate for. I love going all out & too much is never enough. This year is a bit different though. With my hubby working out of town it's given a whole new meaning to the song 'I'll Be Home For Christmas' He's coming in the day before Christmas Eve so that means it's just been Holden & I doing all of the holiday activities. I didn't go to the lighting extreme that Ed usually does for our outside lights but with my parents help (thanks mom & dad!) we got some put up. I did however deck out the entire inside of my house!

Love the soft glow of our tree


 Were gonna do our Christmas cards in the next day or two. Usually it's a themed family picture but this year it's just going to be Holden & Tootsie. I can't wait to order the cards, I already have one picked out! Not many people send out Christmas cards, it seems like every year we get less than the previous year. With the price of stamps rising I can see why. I've got a family holiday party this Saturday I need to bake for. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I'm going to attempt to make a treat or two, I'll let you know how that goes!

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Photographer... I'd like to think so!

Alright, so maybe not professionally but amateur possibly! Anyone who knows me knows I love to take pictures. According to my husband maybe a little too much! But I love capturing moments! I'm one of those people who will pull over to the side of the road if I see something picture worthy. I really do have a passion for it. I'm ashamed to say I don't know much about it other than I like what I see & can mess around a little bit with a camera. I'm looking forward to taking a photography class when I start school. The hipstamatic app on my iPhone has become my new best friend and has made me fall madly in love with wanting to learn more about photography. My husband actually owns a hipstamtic camera & I'd love to see about finding someone who can fix it! I thought I might post a few of my favorite shots I've taken with the app on here for you to see and or judge (ha!)
This is one of my absolute favorites & first picture to be taken with the app a couple years ago. It's of our dogwood tree in our front yard.

I adore that one of Holden smelling the roses. It's so sweet.



The two up above are from our recent trip to Chicago (my favorite city)



Remember When...

Stomping around NYC this week. Funny how life got so busy... I remember the days when I lived here with nothing to do but take my journal to a cafe and sit and stare and write and daydream. This was before electronics took over our world. This was when cell phones made and received calls and nothing else. There was no texting, blogging or checking email away from home. There were no smartphones or ipads. My laptop was about 7lbs and typing my thoughts on a lit-up screen felt like such a betrayal to the art of writing that I would wear out my right hand by long hand-ing it for hours at my favorite little spots in the city, most of which have long since been replaced by a Kinkos or Cosi's.

Somewhere along the way I stopped journaling. I used to write songs almost daily, but I lost track of that too, somehow. Instead, I check my twitter account and catch up on my netflix queue and, if all else fails, play FlightControl on my iPad (which, I'm sorry, still sounds like a maxi pad to me and I really think they should have given more consideration to naming this thing...iTab?)

Anyway, I had a great dinner with friends this evening at a NY fav (Sfolgia on 92nd & Lex) and it made me miss the days when it was rude to have your cell phone out at a social gathering. Like, how about we just look each other in the face for a few hours and drink wine and laugh and let the people who text us just wait a minute!? Right?

Well, here I am, typing all this for my blog on my computer at quarter past midnight in a hotel room with the TV on. I've somehow become a product of my generation in many ways. Does is help that I still watch I Love Lucy & Bonanza over breakfast in the mornings? Does it help that I still write actual letters to people? I sometimes I think my kid will be the only one in her school who knows the names Doris Day and Cary Grant.

What can we do? How can we fight against the mindlessness of GenerationME and encourage kids to get off their computers and kindles and read a book, read a book, read a motherf&*ckin' book!?

I got this blog from Bethany Joy Galeotti, who you should check out! She's amazing! http://www.bjgofficial.com/ But I completely agree with everything she wrote. Even as I sit here and type up my new blog I myself have fallen into the world of technology head first. It makes me think & I'm going to make it a point to write in my journal more. I have tons of notebooks from my younger days & love looking back at them. I want to be able to have ones from my 20's as well! Inspired! :)