Happy Halloween!

This week's Spin Cycle with Gretchen over at Second Blooming is a Halloween Show and Tell!  I did look for old pictures of my own costumes as a kid, but I surprisingly couldn't find any.  (Sorry!)  That's probably for best because some of them are pretty embarrassing.  I seem to recall a 80s pop star outfit with pink fishnets when I was like 8 or 9?  Anyway, onto the cuter things....

 

 

Aubrey was our little monkey this year.  I was so worried her outfit wouldn't fit, but it was actually a little big.  But it was snuggly and cute, and so was she.  Onto the photo sessions...

 

 

This picture was our first attempt.  Right before Parents of the Year here watched her tip over and bump her head.  And cry.  And yes, I felt absolutely horrible about it.

 

So here was our second attempt.  Her good friend the lamb had to jump in to help make her smile again.  And we utilized something soft and supportive to hold her up.  Still working on that sitting thing.

Daddy and Aubrey getting ready to trick or treat.

Mommy and Aubrey (We finally got her to smile!  Yay!)  And I love the little banana that is in her pocket.  Too cute.

 

 

And our family picture.  Notice the family of pumpkins behind us...

 

 

While we only visited a few houses, friends of ours in the neighborhood, it was still fun showing her off for her very first Halloween.  I'm sure next year we'll have a little one dragging us around from house to house.  So I'll take it while we can!  


Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!  Stop by Gretchen's and see what other Spinners have to share!
       

Soul searching

I don't talk much about my job here, and I plan to continue doing so given the nature of what I do and the confidentiality that goes along with it.  Plus, there's just a level of unprofessionalism that comes along with just broadcasting information about your work.  I just won't do it.  But, lately, my mind has become occupied with questions on whether I am in the right field for me, whether my heart can take what I do much longer.  

 

 

I've had to make tough decisions.  Being a boss is tough.  Some days I just feel so awful when I come home.  I just want to hide.  I know in my heart some of this does have to do with my post partum and everything that accompanies that.  But at the same time, I look at all of my past legal jobs with the question of "have I ever been happy with any of them?  Why not?"  I question if there's something wrong with me in that I can't be happy.  I know that everyone goes through rough times with their career, and I know that there is no way I'll be in a field where it's all rainbows and ponies every day.  Tough days, tough weeks, hell, tough months happen.  It's a given.

 

 

But at the same time, I'm only 31 years old.  I have at least 31 more years left to work if not more than that.  Do I really want to be unhappy that long?  Or is this just a phase, and will it go away?  Should I just ride the storm out?  I simply don't know. 

 

 

I feel sometimes like I can't walk away from what I do.  I have a huge amount of student loan debt that comes along with going to law school.  It seems like I would have wasted all of that money to not even use my degree for what it is intended.  And I have a family to support.  I have to keep my salary at where it is, if not higher.  Living in a one-income household is simply not possible.  Nor would me being at home.  During my maternity leave, that drove me insane.  I do need to be around people.  I need to be busy.  But, I don't know how much more I can handle the way I feel. 

 

 

I hate that I'm just ranting on this post, but this is what is weighing on my mind.  I really need to think on this, I know.  And hopefully that answer will come sooner rather than later. 

 

 

Have a very happy  Halloween, everyone!  I promise to come back with pictures of Miss Aubrey in her monkey outfit soon!

   

Why is it?

I'm sitting here on a Monday night, needing to write my blog, at the end of a rather...well....shitty day.  I'm at a loss for what to write, so, you get some more random Nain.  Well, actually random Nain observations.  Enjoy!

 

 

Okay, so in Elmo's World, he's always asking Mr. Noodle how to do something.  And then Mr. Noodle tries to do it, albeit incorrectly, and Elmo's all like "no, Mr. Noodle...that's not how you do it!"  Well, kid, if you knew how to do it the first time then why the hell did you ask him?

 

 

 

Further, what's up with some random man hanging outside a child's house?  Pedophile much?

 

 

 

And speaking of pedophiles...Chris Hansen's "To Catch a Predator" has been on for ages.  Wouldn't you think people have caught on by now?  I guess there are just that many stupid people out there.  I've actually seen an episode where it was the second time a guy hadn't gotten caught.

 

 

 

Now that I have had a baby, I swear I have never discussed poop so much in my life - the frequency, consistency, you name it.  T and I seriously have conversations about poop now.  What has happened to our lives?  We were carefree and crazy people once.  Now we talk about our baby's poop. 

 

 

 

But it really isn't right how much we spend on her pooping.  Diapers, diaper cream, wipes.  That's a lot of money for cleaning poop. 

 

 

 

How much does it suck to be that weather man who gets sent out to stand in the winds and rain of a hurricane?  It's like the employer is saying "well, you're expendable...go out there and stand in a hurricane.  Try not to drown!"

 

 

 

Seriously, I am very worried about friends and family out there on the East Coast.  Praying that everyone is safe. 

 

 

 

My daughter gives the messiest but the best kisses ever.  (Aside from T, of course).  No matter how bad of a day I have had, getting one of those open mouth, slobbery kisses makes it all better.  What is it about a baby's smile that can just make your day? 

 

 

 

So those are your random Nain musings and observations for the week.  Praying that the rest of this week gets better.  It's never a good sign when you are this discouraged on a Monday night, right? 

 

 

 

Think weekend...

 

 

 

 

     

Getting motivated

 

Happy Motivation Monday, everyone!  Yes, it's another Monday.  A Monday of a week I'm really not looking forward to, but....yeah, I won't go into that.  It is a week where Aubrey will have her very first Halloween, so that's exciting!  And I promise pictures...actually, I will have a Halloween Spin Cycle post with pictures so stay tuned this week!

 

 

Anyway, so the motivation...still on progress for the weight loss...I did struggle last week with not eating within the food exchanges I am allotted.  One of the tough things about going to a work conference, you have to eat what they give you.  And when the lunch they feed you involves a wrap, pasta salad, chips and a cookie?  Yeah...I did my best, and I hate to say it, but I had the cookie.  Not the chips, but the cookie.  Oh well...move on.  I'm probably irrational in thinking I will suddenly gain 5 lbs because of eating that cookie, but I am that person.  I am my own worst enemy, I guess.

 

 

So my motivation is to work on my ab muscles.  While I am losing weight, I still have that post baby pudge.  And I know it all won't go away, but I still would like to tone it up a bit.  Because, dude, she stretched me out something fierce.  I wasn't a big person before, and well, she's a big baby so yeah.  My dietitian recommended I try a video on YouTube called 8 minute abs.  And while the thing is clearly from the 1980s, as evidenced by the clothing and background music, it really is a pretty good workout.  My stomach muscles were hurting pretty badly for days afterwards.  And it's easy to do because it's only 8 minutes.  My only problem is I apparently don't do the form correctly because Saturday night my neck hurt so much.  So maybe I need to work on that form.

 

 

The abs and the water.  I am so so bad at drinking water during the day.  I'm supposed to do that four bottles a day of water, and I hate to admit that there are days when we get to the afternoon, and I have had one bottle of water, if that.  So keeping track of that and ensuring I actually drink water is something I definitely will work on this week, too. 

 

 

Alright, so let's get motivated!   Join in on the fun, and write up a post on what is motivating you this week.  Just leave a link to your post in a comment, and we'll get motivated together!

  Christie @ Christie Koester    

Mom is always right

So we have a sick little Aubrey here at the Nain and T household.  Poor little thing....

 

 

   

So on Wednesday we noticed that she was starting to have "tummy issues" (I won't go into detail but I'm sure you can put two and two together to guess what issues that would be.)  We took her to daycare, and when I got her out of her car seat, she had spit up everywhere.  All of her formula, and her outfit was soaked.  I took her in, and I changed her and asked the teachers to let me know how she did.  Well, at about two, I got a call from the teacher that Aubrey had refused two bottles.  (Not like her at all given the fact that she clearly is a healthy eater - 23 lbs and 4 oz being evidence of that.)  And she was having worse stomach issues.  They said they would give her a bottle and try again.  Well, that didn't work so Mommy had to go pick her up.  She was in her third outfit for the day, and though she was acting relatively okay, something was off.  We took her home, continuing to have her "stomach issues" through the evening. 

 

 

 

We got up Thursday to another one of "those" diapers.  She had three more of "those" diapers in a matter of 30 minutes, so...yeah, Mommy wasn't going to work.   I took her into the doctor, and turns out she had an ear infection and a stomach virus.  Poor little monkey.  If you recall (those of you on my FB page)...last Friday, I took her in for what I thought was the start of an ear infection, and the doctor said despite some redness, she was okay.  I went home feeling like a paranoid Mom, and well...look at that...Mom was right!  Something WAS off!  So I suppose I should trust my instinct a little more often. 

 

 

So today (I'm writing this on Thursday) we are staying home, trying to get her to keep some food in her without much success so far, and since she still is having "those" kinds of diapers, Daddy will be home with her today (Friday, when you are reading this).  I had to buy some yogurt for her to see if that helps.  Whoever came up with the name "Yo Baby" clearly has a sense of humor.  All I can think of is "Yo MTV Raps."  They should make a cereal line called "What up, baby?"  Or "Word, baby."  I know, I know...Yoplait makes the yogurt, but still...it's just too funny. 

 

 

However, I feel like I have been vindicated just a bit.  Here I thought I was this crazy, paranoid Mom.  But I just knew something was off.  I hate that I was right, but I guess Mom knows best, huh? 

 

 

We'll be working on getting Miss Aubrey ready this weekend.  Hope everyone out there has a great weekend!

     

A scary story

 

This week's Spin Cycle over with Gretchen at Second Blooming is a spooky one, in honor of Halloween.  Scary stories?  What scares you?  You name it!  Honestly, I don't have a huge scary story to share.  Things that scare me?  Sure, sure - spiders, snakes, clowns and pigeons (not necessarily in that order). 


So scary stories, hmm...I had to really think about this one.  And only one thing came to mind.  My encounter of the ghostly kind.  Or so I thought.  Or maybe it was, and the excuse we were given was just a cover up.  Who knows? 


My friend Jess and I had ourselves convinced in 5th grade that my house was haunted.  Granted, my house was constructed one year prior, but we were convinced.  Evidence?  When we were hanging out in my bedroom we would hear a banging from the attic.  I would take something and poke the ceiling back when we heard the bang, and sure enough, we would get a responding bang.  And this didn't just happen one day.  It happened repeatedly.  Of course, we didn't tell a soul about this.  I mean, we needed to really dig into this and figure out if, in fact, my parent's house (only one year old, mind you) was haunted.  So we did what any diligent ghost hunter would do and we went to our public library, hit the Indiana room and pulled up a map of who lived on the land prior.  We found that apparently our house was built on Indian burial grounds.  So my house WAS haunted!  Petrified, we ran back to our parents with our discovery.  Needless to say, I was scared to death of being in my room.  The banging from the ceiling kept happening, and I just imagined this ghost coming through the ceiling and haunting to me while I slept.  We had to get out of there.  The house was haunted. 


Well....yeah...it wasn't.  Turns out apparently we looked at the wrong piece of land when looking at the map.  And it turned out that the "ghost" banging around upstairs was a loose piece of board in the attic.  The noise mysteriously went away after my Dad took a trip up in the attic and nailed the board down. 


Convenient.  Really convenient. 


I personally, to this day, believe this to be a cover up.  They were all in on it.  A "board," they said.  "Wrong side of the map," they said.  Or is that they wanted us to think? 



That house is haunted, I tell you, haunted! 


So that's my "scary" story for the week.  What to be even more scared?   Stop by and see what other spooky tales spinners have to share over with Gretchen!

   

Wordless Wednesday: Cuteness

I am running short on ideas for today's post, so in honor of Wordless Wednesday...please enjoy some cuteness for your day: