On life...

It's been more than a year that Tripp's been with us but tonight things just kinda hit me. He is spending the night at my parent's house and it is so weird to be home without him here. It is weird to think that nights like tonight without him here were our old normal. I really can't even remember what that was like. It is so weird to think that I will not see him for about 24 hours. It's weird to think that I will actually have to set an alarm tomorrow morning and that I will take a shower without a little face peering around the shower curtain to check in and see what is going on. It is weird to think how much our lives have changed so much in one short year. Nelson and I went on a date to the bookstore after we dropped Tripp off with my folks and it felt so good to just sit and read a magazine. and I caught myself just randomly looking up from my magazine to look at Nelson and remember how much I love being with him. Which is something that I have forgotten way too often after having Tripp. I also far too often "forget" (or really just let tiredness or my own selfishness get in the way) to treat him with respect. It is really easy for me to get absorbed with the fact that I no longer get to just up and leave and go somewhere, or that I can't take a nap for as long as I want to or sleep in as late as I want to. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that I was talking with my parents about how awesome being an empty-nester sounded and another time with a friend about how having a kid really rocked my world. But then I realize how much I love that little guy and wouldn't trade him for the longest nap in the world or to even be able to sleep in everyday again. He brings an unspeakable joy into our lives and even though our lives are rocked forever, they are rocked in an amazing way.

P.S. Little Bug- Most people get things stuck in their teeth when they are eating dinner. But you my friend, have something stuck on your shoulder. And I am pretty sure you put it there on purpose.

boys will be boys

When it comes to bodily functions, Tripp is not so quiet about anything. For example, he came to work with me one day for our end of the year party for our graduating students. he had a little cough and my boss said to me "Emily, does your child have the whooping cough?" (No, he doesn't, in case you were wondering - he just has a loud cough). He also cracks himself up whenever he burps or toots. He has even been known to imitate with his mouth noises that come out of his rear. Apparently it doesn't stop when he is sleeping either. Tonight was a perfect example of that. I went in to check on him as I do at random intervals before we go to bed. His head kinda perked up when he heard me come in (only now after having a child did we realize pretty much the only downside to old, wooden floors-squeaks) so I just said to him, "Hi little buddy, how are you doing?" and I bent my head down to look at him through the slats of his crib. He heard me, lifted his head up, looked straight into my eyes and just let out a big burp, put his head back down and was right back to sleep. I guess that was his way of telling me he was doing just fine. I know that one day we will have to work on manners with him, but for now, I just think it is kinda funny.

Happiness

Coupon 101

Sometime earlier this year, Amanda, a good friend of James and Steph's, introduced me to the world of coupons. I am not sure why I never used them earlier, I guess I just thought that it was always cheaper to buy the store brand. While that may sometimes be true, it is usually not the case. When you can combine a sale with a coupon, you are in luck! For example, last week, Ken's Salad Dressing was on sale at our local Shop 'n Save for $0.88. I had a coupon for $1 off Ken's Salad Dressing, so that made it free. And thankfully I had two coupons, so I got two bottles for free! Learning about couponing has taken me a while. I read this book, and it was very helpful. I have read lots of blogs, and I have started getting the Sunday paper. We have probably cut our toiletries, household goods, and grocery bills in half. Which is pretty good I would say. However, this couponing does come at a little bit of a price to me. More specifically, my desk. I try to stay on top of keeping my coupons organized, but some weeks are better than others. Take this week for example:

Coupons all strewn about my desk and the guest bed (good thing Winsor and Weston aren't coming for another week)!

I have handy organizers, but they seem to make themselves into Tripp's toys quite often.

That may have something to do with why I have a hard time keeping my coupons organized. So today, I had to keep the little guy upstairs (under his father's supervision of course) while I got things straightened out. Everything is in the right spot, but Tripp was apparently not so happy that I was gone and that he now has two less toys in the basement to play with.

If you are not a couponer, I would definitely suggest it. The least you can do is try it at Walgreens, CVS, or Target, if you are not feeling the grocery store. Trust me, you will be happy you did.

a really great weekend

one night without tripp (sorry bud, we love you but I will admit, it is kinda great to have you sleep over at your grandparent's house sometimes) + friend's graduation and staying up late talking through the important things of life + lots of playing at the park and walks outside + one garage sale + one visit to Five Guys + one Cardinals's game = one great weekend!

A few pics from the weekend


Proud graduate!








Tripp in his uncle's sweatshirt from when he was a kid

Another crazy day!

I think the best thing about Mondays is that there is only one of them in each week. Today was a weird and crazy day- I had to give a presentation with a lady who has never given a presentation before or used power point before. So I had to do a lot of hand holding and practicing with this lady which was very frustrating because I have a lot to do at work and not a lot of time. I was planning on going into work this a.m. and then to the place for the presentation about a half an hour early. Unfortunately, my co-presenter was making a bunch of changes to the presentation over the weekend and she wanted to practice again! So I had to go early for that. I was in a pretty bad mood about the whole situation but thankfully, a few things happened to give me a good laugh. First, I was excited to get a free lunch! But I should have known that at a conference, the food would not be good. I was sitting at a table of people I did not know just minding my business cutting my broccoli. Well, as I go to bink (that's a word James and I made up- it's what you do with your fork when you are getting your food onto it) the broccoli stalk, it flies off my plate and directly onto the plate of the unsuspecting lady next to me who I don't know from Adam. Thankfully as I am turing bright red, she just started laughing and said something to the effects of "I'm going to let you get that back on your plate." So then after a not so tasty lunch, I head with my co-presenter to our room. As we were standing up front, getting ready and people were trickling into the room, my co-presenter goes to her purse and pulls out a bottle of cough syrup. She proceeds to unscrew the lid, throw her head back and just chug it! She probably drank half the bottle! No kidding! I was kinda in shock and I think she saw that on my face and so she said "oh, I just have a tickle in my throat." Well, I am no doctor but I am pretty sure you don't need half a bottle of cough syrup for a tickle in your throat. So then she asked me if I had any breath mints. I mean, of course you need a breath mint if you just drank that much cough syrup. I said I didn't, but that there were some on the tables outside of our presentation room. She then asked if they were individually wrapped and I said yes, thinking she would like that because they would not have germs (although I don't think any germ could still possibly be alive after that much medicine passed through her mouth). Well, she did not like that answer one bit and instead proceeded to get a tube of toothpaste out of her purse, put some on her finger and "brush" her teeth and tongue, all while we are standing up at the podium only minutes away from our talk. People can see her!! So we give the talk, it goes fine, and I get the heck out of dodge because I need to get to work to get all my stuff done. I realized there was a Sonic on the way so since it was between the hours of two and four, I definitely needed to stop and get a Route 44 Diet Dr. Pepper. And I was still hungry since lunch was no good. So since we do not live in Birmingham where Sonic serves fried pickles, I had to settle for the mozzarella sticks. They were so tasty and I was enjoying them thoroughly until I dropped the marinara sauce all over my pants. I think I was more upset that I didn't have any marinara sauce left to dip my sticks in than I was about the fact that now I was about to go into work with a big red stain on my pants. I get to work all mad about my morning and proceed to get a little bit of work done. The rest of the afternoon was fine, just lots of interruptions from people who were supposed to have our new lab space all finished and ready for us to move into tomorrow (so we ordered a bunch of equipment to be delivered tomorrow) and apparently it is not ready. So around 4:45 when I was so done with the day, I called my boss to give her the report that we were not in fact going to be able to move into our new space and we both decided to be done with the day and start over tomorrow. So here's to hoping that Tuesday is a much better day! And so that you don't have a completely pictureless post, here is a picture of Tripp who now only smiles with his eyes closed because he is tired of all the flashes that he has been subjected to for the past year of his life:

what a day

today was an interesting day. i woke up on the wrong side of the bed x 10. i mean, i was just in a terrible mood and i am not sure why. i did sleep pretty terribly last night and tripp was up at 5, so that might have had something to do with it, but i was pretty much on the verge of tears for no explainable reason all day. but this afternoon, my day got a lot better after a few events.
Event #1.
We have some crazy cleaning ladies who take out our trash at work. They feel the need to try to talk to us about everything (here are a few topics we have covered: STDs, birthday parties, divorce, and giving birth). So you never know what will happen when they come to the door to take out our trash. I have been known to fake a phone call just to avoid talking to them. But today it was just me in the lab and just one of the ladies. So I figured it would be fine. And it was. It was just funny. Our conversation went something like this:
Emily: Hey, how's it going?
JW (that's the cleaning lady): Do you have the internet on that computer you're on?
Emily: Yes, why?
JW: Well, can you do me a favor?
Emily: (against my better judgement) Sure, what?
JW: Can you get me sent a catalog of Lane Bryant? You know, that store for fat ladies?
Emily: Umm...sure....
That was a lot easier for me to do than to discuss who my baby's daddy is, so I gladly proceeded to the Lane Bryant website, figured out how to get a catalog mailed to one's house, put in her name and address and sent her on her way. Awesome. My day was already getting better. Then comes Event #2.
I get home and there is a present on the table from my mom for Tripp's bday. She had already gotten him lots of things for his birthday so I figured it was just something small she had picked up somewhere randomly. Well, I was right, it was something small that she picked up randomly, but boy did it mean something big. I opened it up and tears just started rolling down my cheeks. My mom had gotten and written in this:







It's a book for a grandparent to write to their grandchild, all about the grandparent's life growing up, all about raising their kids (the child's parent), and about their (grandkid and grandparent) time together. It is very special. My day was immediately made even better. Then came Event #3.
We went out to dinner as a family. While this may not seem like much, it is. For me not to have to cook, for us to be together, enjoying each others' company- it really makes me happy inside. And I had a very tasty hamburger that really hit the spot. My day got even better. Then came Event #4.
I have always said my brother makes me laugh. and he does. Today, at just the right time, he made me laugh. Here is what happened, with first, a little background:
James and Steph are kinda anti-chain restaurants. I mean, they will go to them, but they are not the biggest fans. Nelson and I, however, are true pure-blooded Americans, support capitalism and thus, have nothing against them whatsoever. I mean, if the food is tasty, and the price is a lot less (the three of us ate for $23 tonight!), we will go. Anyway, here is the text message "conversation" that proceeded after our dinner tonight:
Emily: We just finished dinner at the applebees! used our coupon! so tasty!
James: Way to go!
E: what are you guys up to?
J: driving to meet some chums for dinner
E: Oh! at applebees???
J: No, Area 41
E: you mean, area 51 in roswell, new mexico
J: Yes
E: Such a long drive
J: We are flying....in our UFO
E: Oh wow, that is awesome! Why have you never taken us anywhere in it before?!
J: Because it only sits 2!!
E: Oh, ok, well we will just have to borrow it when we are in town next.

So I had a good laugh, while in the middle of Target, and my day got even better. Now, Nelson and I will watch some TV, eat some ice cream, and enjoy just being together. And hopefully tomorrow, I will wake up on the right side of the bed.

Sewing Project

I have a great book that Steph gave me called "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts." There are some really great projects in there and I was reading through it, I came across a really cool pillow that I wanted to make for some friends getting married in a little over a month. The only problem was that it involved embroidery and I don't know how to do it. But I thought I could just figure it out. Well, that did not go so well. In fact, it was pretty terrible. So terrible I should probably show you a picture just to prove it was so bad. But I don't have a picture, so I can't show it to you. But thankfully Steph was in town this past weekend and could see my terrible attempt and teach me to do it the right way. I was just doing a few things wrong. According to Steph, I was doing the wrong kind of stitch, with the wrong kind of thread and the wrong kind of needle. Other than that, I was right on. So once I got the embroidery figured out, I made this pillow:



It was lots of fun and I can't wait to make some more!

Winding down the celebrations

We saved the majority of the celebration of Tripp's birthday for this weekend when James and Steph would be in town. They forged the flooded waters of Nashville to make it here and we are really thankful that they did. I am pretty sure I burn an extra couple hundred calories a day while they are around because of how much we all laugh when we are together. There is no one like a brother to get you laughing (especially when it has to do with songs the two of you made up when you were kids about your neighbor's dog or the weird rash we both had in our armpits). But I digress. The focus of the weekend was celebrating Tripp's first birthday. And celebrate we did. He got new shoes, some awesome new toys, a Cozy Coupe (which, apparently most places have an option of paying to have them assembled. we went the cheap route, passed on that, and had James do it instead. I am pretty sure I owe him something big for that), and he ate his birthday cake with was lovingly baked by his aunt (with some "coaching" from his mom). The cake eating was actually kinda anti-climatic, but the cake was SO good- I am pretty sure the adults liked it better! It was a great time, we are thankful for Tripp's first year of life, and thankful James and Steph were here to celebrate with us.

Tripp's 12 month stats

Tripp had a great check up at the doctor this week. His stats:
Weight: 24 lbs 10 oz (77%)
Length: 30 3/4 inches (80%)

His newest trick these days (besides discovering that he can scream at the top of his lungs to make a lot of noise) is figuring out how to use utensils (well just a spoon at this point). He does a pretty good job, of course he is messy, but he gets more in his mouth then out. So I'd call that a success for now.

flim pics by uncle james

Happy First Birthday, Tripp

what a day. Tripp is one. it truly is hard to believe. i know it is cliche, but man, this year really flew by fast. it has been the hardest and best year of our lives to date. this little guy brings us so much joy and laughter- it physically hurts me sometimes to think about how much i love him. my heart actually aches. it also is really hard to be a mom sometimes. especially when feelings of selfishness take over. that is definitely my biggest struggle thus far as a mom. but it has been a great year, one that i wouldn't trade for anything! we celebrated by going to bread co for breakfast, nonny's house during the day, the custard station and a haircut, then a walk and some reading. and the real celebrating will continue this weekend when james and steph get here.