Thank you to all my wondeful readers!

Thank you for giving me the courage to be honest and open about... well EVERYTHING. It's really hard to show your feelings of negativity and doubt. I am lucky that you are all so supportive and encouraging! I love you all! It means so much to me all the comments you wrote about my last post. I can't tell you how many times I debated over whether or not to publish that or not, and I am SO glad that I did. I blog for community with other readers and other moms and that is exactly what you are all providing, a GREAT community of wonderful ladies. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Speaking of giving Thanks (and the pure fact that I don't want to post ANOTHER post right now), Deanna at Delirious Rhapsody is hosting a thank you giveaway for her readers in supporting her blogs first year. Go here and make sure to enter! Trust me, this blog is A-mazing and is definitely one of my top fave blogs. ever.

Let me be REAL.

Thank you everyone for the congrats! I put up a new tab talking a little bit about our newest "addition" that has yet to be born. We are beyond excited! Baby E is due on June 8th, 2012. Meaning my little ones will only be 18 months apart. eek! 2 little ones under 2 years of age will definitely be a challenge, but I know God will be there to help renew my strength, energy and patience every step of the way.

With that being said....

I really feel like my blog is a place for me to be totally honest. And if I were to be totally honest, I would have to say that this baby was not welcomed at first. There, I said it. You can judge me all you like, but I can't lie about it.

When we found out I was pregnant, James was ecstatic! I was terrified and upset. How could this happen? This wasn't the plan! We can't afford this! Where is this new baby going to go in our teeny tiny apartment? Yes, these were the thoughts going through my mind. Not joy, not overwhelming happiness. Once I got over the initial upset, I felt denial, "this is not happening, can the test be wrong?". Then I went into analytical mode... Okay, lets look at finances, lets look at what our possibilities of moving to a bigger place, lets look at what it would take to afford this little one. I still wasn't at a place to be happy, but at least I was accepting the fact that I was pregnant and looking at what we can do to accommodate this little one growing inside me.

It took many days, many prayers to God, many shed tears (only on my part) and a desperate call to my Mom for me to accept the baby is a blessing. I mean, I feel all children are blessings, even if unexpected, but deep down I wasn't ready to be a mom to 2 little ones and at first this one sure didn't feel like a blessing. I feel guilty for saying that, but it is true. I had to accept that this is all God's plan and that He has perfect timing and although I may not understand it and sometimes don't want to accept it, it IS perfect. This baby is inside me right now for a reason. A reason unbeknownst to me. I had to accept that to find inner peace and happiness. Once I did, it felt amazing. I now can say that I do truly feel absolutely ecstatic to have another little one coming. I still don't know how I will handle it (Chloe is definitely a handful for me), but I know through God, I will be able to get through it and I will be a better mom, a stronger person and more spiritually fit because of it.


I still feel guilty, even writing all this out and I am not 100% sure if I will ever hit that "post" button, but if I do it's only because I want people to know that its okay to not be overly joyed at first. Sometimes the true happiness comes later and that is REAL. I don't want to lie and say everyday of my life is the best day of my life, that would be a facade. And if I had the best day of my life everyday, where would my need to rely on God come from?



I do want to say, I AM super excited about baby Emery and can't wait for him/her to be here already! I am very grateful for this little one and I know that they will be an amazing addition to our little family. I will post more and more details soon.

Testimony Link Up

I will be linking up with Through Clouded Glass to share my testimony on November 17th. She is asking anyone who wants to participate to share there testimony on their blog and link up with her. I think it is a great idea, especially with Thanksgiving just around the corner. So... will you join the link up???

I made Chloe a special onesie...

(Yes.. it's true! More details to come! and I put up a new tab at the top about this little one to be)

More truths about myself...

I will be partaking in the 100 truths/ Sunday Confessional thing that Deanna from Delirious Rhapsody has going on. I would love for you to participate too so that I can get to know you a little more!

100 Truths - I will give 10 random truths/facts about myself each week.

11. I have never broken a bone in my life. I am as clumsy as they come, I wake up with new bruises on a daily basis. However, I somehow had made it through life so far with not a single broken bone. Luck is all I can attribute this too...


12. I am a horrible cook. I would love to know how to cook, but I just really don't have the time nor energy to learn something like that right now.  I burn grilled cheese sandwiches and pancakes, for goodness sakes. I can make some good hamburger helper though.... I do eventually want to take cooking classes, it looks like it would be a ton of fun. And I would love to experiment with different foods and maybe open up my pallet more. I can say this, even though I am bad at cooking, I did win 2nd place for a mashed potatoes contest at work and 3rd place for a best dessert contest at work, that's gotta count for something!


13. I am the oldest in my family out of my generation. I am the oldest of my siblings and all of my cousins. I think that is why I am such a "mother hen", that and the fact that I would have to play "mom" while my mom was on west pack with the Navy when I was younger too.

14. I am the first and only (so far) in my entire family to get a degree from college. You think I could have gotten a scholarship or something for that. It was a pretty big feat for me. My younger sister is in college now and will hopefully get her degree soon.The sad thing is, I didn't end up "walking" and going to the graduation ceremony because I was on a celebratory flight to Hawaii instead. I do regret not going to the ceremony.

15. I had a black tooth when I was younger. There are family pictures and everything to prove it. I slipped and fell in the bathtub when i was little and hit my mouth pretty hard. The impact killed all the nerve endings in that tooth, causing it to "die" and turn black. It was my front right tooth too, so no hiding that.

16. I really really dislike cats. Sure kittens are cute and cuddly, until they attack you out of nowhere with there razor sharp claws and lick you with there sandpaper tongue. They even hurt you by "kneading" you when they are happy. What kind of sadistic animal is this? I think I really dislike them because we had a cat who was the spawn of the devil, really. If I even blinked, the cat would come out of its hidden spot and try to attack my face.

17. My favorite book of all time is Little Women. I read it when I was in 5th grade and had read it often throughout growing up. It still makes me cry when Beth dies, every time. I even bought a fancy copy with a ribbon place mark, gold rimmed pages and everything.

18. I played softball for 9 years when I was younger. I was all about softball and even played on the special winter leagues. I stopped because of family problems at home, but I wonder how far I could have gotten with it. I really did love playing. 

19. I get terribly sea/motion sickness. That probably added to my horrible morning sickness when I was pregnant with Chloe. I get headaches and throw up and the works. We purposefully avoid the winding roads and if we have to take them, I take crackers and water and try to sleep the whole way. Dramamine definitely helps.


20. I love Mexican food. I mean love it. I love it so much I would marry it.  We eat it at least twice a week in my house. I am always down to go to a taco shop. It helps we live right by the border and have amazing Mexican food. My favorites are enchiladas, tamales and California burritos. 

Will you all leave a comment with one random fact about you???

Belated Halloween

I know Halloween was SO 3 days ago, but I forgot to post our Smencils Halloween. My favorite is the Angry Bird flying across the top. :)

oh and the ghost buster costume is totally legit. That is actually James costume that his mom made him when he was younger and all the toys that are pictured with the costume are the original toys from the 80s. James has kept them through all these years. He loves the nostalgia of it.

Hello Newbies and Oldies!

Since beauty week, I have about 20 new readers to my blog. I would like to officially say, WELCOME TO SHE SAID! Hope you have fun reading and find my little ol' life interesting. I would LOVE to learn more about you. I have been popping in on peoples blogs and I must say, there are so many wonderful reads out there I wish I could keep up with ALL of them! You all make me laugh, think, and enjoy my 10 minute break away from work each day. Thank you for following and I can't wait to read more about you!

With that said, I think I might have to re-introduce myself. I will be partaking in the 100 truths/ Sunday Confessional thing that Deanna from Delirious Rhapsody has going on. I would love for you to participate too so that I can get to know you a little more!

100 Truths - I will give 10 random truths/facts about myself each week.

1. I am a natural blonde. I always start with this when "revealing" unknown truths about myself. It's funny because many don't believe me because I haven't used to say I would never go back blonde, although I recently had a dream that I was blonde again and now it has me wondering.....

2. I didn't become a Christian until I was 21. James invited me to church one day and it didn't take long for me to jump right in. Now, I don't know how I got through my adolescence without God. I was never closed to the idea of God, just never really understood who He was. I am so glad Chloe will get a chance to know her Savior is with her through these important life lessons and years that she has coming up. 

3. I hate Facebook. (Gasp!) I know, I have a Facebook page so I can't hate it that much, but I feel as though I do. The only reason I have it is to keep our family updated with Chloe. I rarely post pictures and I don't really comment on anyone's pages (unless it's there birthday!) and I hardly ever update my "status". I just feel like real life personal connection is just so much more important and I think more and more people are loosing touch with that these days.

4. I have a bachelors degree in Liberal Studies. As in Elementary School Teacher. However, I am not nor will ever be a teacher. Why do I have that degree then? My last semester of College I realized I didn't want to be a teacher. Teachers are amazing and give up so much of their life to the students and the classroom, and I am selfish and didn't want to give that up. I want my family to be number one and my "career" to stay at work. I don't want to have to think about work when I clock out each night. Fortunately, I am blessed with an amazing job that allows that for me. Unfortunately, I didn't need to go to college for my job and now we are in major debt due to college tuition fees.

5. I want to be a SAHM so badly. I mean the works, I want to know how to be a amazing cook, an expert sewer (I want to hand make ALL of my kids clothing, bedding, home decor, etc...). I want to have my house clean and I want to wear an apron, pearls and heels while doing so! I know, so 1950's of me... I want to home school my kids until 6th grade. I know being a stay at home mom is so much more than that, but I want it all. I would give anything to stay at home with my kids and be the one they learn from and never miss any of their milestones. I would give anything except for us to end up homeless, which is why I still work.

6. I have 2 "broken" pinkies. To say they are broken is not quite right, they are more "deformed" than anything. They point inwards rather sharply and look like they have been broken.  My dad tried getting them "fixed" once while my mom was away on West Pak for the Navy. The Dr's told me they would have to literally break them back into the proper placement. I screamed and screamed until my dad caved in.
I was born like that and believe it or not, crooked fingers is a genetic thing... I check Chloe's pinkies constantly. Luckily, they look straight for now...


7. I took Spanish Classes for a total of 6 years and still can't speak if fluently. How? lack of practice. Have you heard that expression" If you don't use it, you lose it?" Yeah, it's right. I used ot be able to speak to someone and totally understand what they are saying to me, but when you aren't surrounded with the language, you start to forget it over the years... At least I do.


8. For someone who went to college to be a teacher, I have horrible grammar.  Seriously, just read my blog, mistakes left and right. I am pretty well known for overusing the "comma". I am just too lazy to look up grammar stuff and "re-teach" myself anything.


9. When I was younger ( I mean like all throughout my teenage years), I wanted to be a single mom and adopt 2 kids by age 24. Random, but when you get to know my past, it makes it much more clear why I wanted that. I am so glad that I didn't go that route.


10. I believed in Santa until I was 13. And I would have continued to believe in him if I didn't accidentally see where my mom was hiding all the toys for Christmas that were supposed to be from Santa. I used to get in fights on the school playground over Santa being real, that is how serious I was about it. You better believe I will have Chloe convinced he is real too.


So there you have it. I wold love to hear yours! Leave a "confession" or two on the comments. And make sure to go check out Deanna's blog, she has a Sunday Confessional on her blog every week!

Chloe's First Halloween!!!!

 So I was super stoked for Chloe's first Halloween. We had decided pretty early that we were all going to be clowns. I made a really cute costume with a huge adorable tutu and clown hat and everything. When Chloe tried it on last week, she hated it! She screamed and pulled at it and was miserable. I was so sad! We made a mad scramble to try to figure out what we could be and came up with Alice, the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter... and I think it worked out splendidly! The costumes consisted of everything we already owned, minus the bunny ears that I got at Walmart for $5.

 

I painted my face like a bunny (sort of) and wore all the time piece necklaces I had, and glass bunny charm necklace.

Chloe loved her outfit because it wasn't too poofy and it didn't have anything that she had to wear on her head, other than the bow that she had no idea was there.

I wish we were able to get some good family photos of us together, but these are the only ones on our camera.... (as you can see, Chloe kicked off one of her shoes as soon as we got out of the house)

We went down to our old church's Trunk or Treat. People park in the parking lot and decorate their trunks in Christian/ fall type themes. Then all the trunks pass out candy, so instead of going door to door, we go car to car. They even had air jumps and carnival games and rides. It is a pretty cute event. 

We met up with a bunch of friends and family there and of course, tons of pictures were taken.

The baby cousins...

Apparently, Chloe already has a thing for candy
(don't worry, she didn't actually eat anything)

Chloe's boyfriend, Noah

We had a pretty fun time and Chloe really seemed to enjoy it. She passed out as soon as we got into the car. 

I hope all of you had a great Halloween! Can't wait to read your blogs and see tons of pictures!!!!

Beauty Week Day 5 - Accessorize

And this is the last post for beauty week. I hope you all learned a lot and found some new blogs to follow along the way. I want to thank all the ladies that participated in the blog party. You all are amazing and beautiful women!

and now for the final post, by Ashley...
Hey again! Ashley here from The Peanut Gallery! Last time I talked about how to expand your wardrobe by taking spring and summer pieces into the colder weather. This time Im going to expand your wardrobe again but in a different way. Through the use of accessories. Im going to show you how to take one dress and make it into three totally different looks.

Each look was inspired a different piece or accessory.

The Dress if from Francesca's Collections

Inspiration #1 

My first look was inspired by this turquoise and brown belt.

I added a turquoise leather braided bracelet and an amber and hazel wood bracelet. I was going for a native American inspired look with natural materials and colors.

A messy low side braid and some turquoise tights added to the look

and I chose some strappy brown heels. They have some faux animal prints and are multiple shades of tan and brown.

I might wear this look to an afternoon party or Dinner with the girls

Belt- Francesca's Collections

Leggings- DIY

Shoes- Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse

Leather bracelete- Flourish on etsy 

Amber bracelete- Hazelmaid

Inspiration # 2

My second look was inspired by these boots. I was going for a western/cowgirl look. Basic browns and animal prints helped me achieve my look.

I just wore my hair down with a natural wave.

I added a snake faux snake skin belt and jacket. Both in brown.

It's a simple more casual look compared to #1

I would probably wear this look on an anyday basis. Maybe to the pumpkin patch or out to lunch.

Jacket- Syms

Boots- REI

Belt- Azura

Leggings- Nordstrom

Inspiration #3

My third inspiration was the dress itself. The white lace and the loose fitting A-line is very 1920 inspired so I went with a flapper look.

I wore a short, cropped, sparkly, black shrug and a long layred necklace.

pointy, low, black heels make it possible to do the Charleston  :) 

I wore my hair in the no heat pre curl look. Its very 1920's to me. 

This look is a little dressier to me and I would probably wear it to a night party, or a fancy dinner.

Shrug- Thrifted

Necklace- Francesca's Collections

Shoes- Macys

So there you have it. One dress, three totally different looks! I hope this inspires you to build your wardrobe through the use of accessories! 

Beauty Week Day 5 - Accessorize

Hi! Amber from I love you to the moon here! So happy to show you a few of my favorite tips for spicing up an outfit. My favorite thing to add to allllmost any outfit is a belt. Chunky belts, skinny belts, bright belts, belts belts belts! I love them. I’d say probably 90% of my belts are thrifted for about a buck a piece.

Boots also have a special place in my heart. Seriously, just having a few different pairs of boots and a few different belts can make you feel like you have a whole new wardrobe.

Today, I started out with this dress –

Simple and black

Threw on a mint green belt. I’m telling you, Goodwill knows where it’s at in the belt department!

Then knee highs and boots!

And a cardigan to add a lil color and cover up my arms for work. :]

I’ve totally worn this same dress with a chunky gray belt and red boots, orange belt and purple heels, and yellow belt and gray wedges.  So many different ways to mix simple lil dresses up!

Thank you for having me over to your adorable corner of the internet, Michelle!

Hope you ladies are having a wonderful week!