A Day of Sweet Victory!

We had two great victories today!

Devlin "officially" crawled today! He's been moving backwards and doing lots of "downward facing dog" poses trying to get the idea down. Today was the day that he put the pieces together. You can see a little of it in the video above.

Just when I thought the day couldn't be any better. Corben goes #2 two on the potty for the first time!!! He goes "pee-pee" like a champ but he always seemed scared to go #2. He would ask to be put on the potty but then he acted like he was holding it in. Then of course he would go a little while later in his big boy pants.

We did the same song and dance this time but I tried to explain what to do again and then I bribed him! LOL I told him I would take him to the coffee shop and he could have anything he wanted... a sprinkle cookie, cupcake WHATEVER! I used lots of big fun words to describe the desserts like gigantic, humungous, huge (with the motions and voice inflection to go with them). Okay, I was getting tired of cleaning poo out of cloth underwear! I got desperate.

He kept getting on and off the potty. So I went on doing things around the house. Then I saw him dart for the bathroom. So I followed but stayed back just in case he needed "privacy" ?? I glanced in and saw him pushing and then a few seconds later I hear, "MOMMY!!!"
"Yes, sweetie"
"I GO POOOPEEE ON THE POTTY!"

Lots of joyful dancing came after that!!!!
I couldn't be more excited! And on the day that Devlin crawls! I was praying and hoping that I could be done with potty training before he crawled. I was thinking that going #2 was going to take a while for him to be okay with doing.
YAY!

Oh and in case you are wondering. Corben chose the "sprinkle cookie" so that is exactly what we went to get after dinner. :)

"Life isn't about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself."

I guess I'm starting a trend of using a quote as a title. I just love them so much that I can't help myself.

This post is to let you know that I'm quitting my day job. That's right I'm not going to be a mom anymore. LOL. No. My other day job :).

That's not entirely true either... I guess the best way to describe it is that I am going to start shifting my focus away from graphic design.

I hate that everybody and their brother is a "designer." They have the programs so they are a designer, right?
It's like saying I have a stethoscope so I must be a doctor. Being a designer is a lot more than owning the expensive programs.

But besides that, I have struggled for years with everything going to the web. I hate doing coding/programming for web design. I've put off learning a lot of code for years. So what did I do? I outsourced. I work together with a friend of mine I design the look and feel of the site and he does the programing for me.

I like the setup but I don't like not having control over the entire project. Yes I know I can be a little bit of a control freak when it comes to design. Ok, Ok in general ... there I said it! It just puts me in an uncomfortable position with clients. So what to do? Everybody wants some sort of digital design nowadays...

Everybody also needs something else to go with that - COPY. Or text for an advertisement/project in layman's terms. I always enjoyed writing and I wish I would have thought to take some copywriting classes in college. I took english and creative writing etc. I guess I just didn't have the vision at that time. But oh well.

So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be a copywriter. Most copywriters work from home and the work doesn't take a lot of time and you can make decent money. Which is pretty much the setup I have now. Clients email me the specs and I go to work. With my background in business and design it should contribute a lot to this new venture.

I am considering taking a copywriting course although my mentor thinks I shouldn't worry about it. I've been giving clients copy and slogans for years for free! Which is true. I've always loved everything about Advertising. Especially coming up with slogans etc.

I'm not giving up design totally. I love it too much. I'll still do a little to keep my hand in it, but I want to really focus on this new venture.

So long story short... I'm doing a few pro bono projects to get my feet wet, buying some books to immerse myself in and stalking the really awesome copywriting blog called copyblogger.

I don't want to ever stop creating myself. Forget finding myself, I'm not lost - I know exactly where I'm going.

Your dream kitchen... only smaller.

Childhood is just not complete without a play-kitchen, am I right?

I have been thinking about getting one for Corben ever since he had such a great time "making pizza" with his friend Ella at the Children's museum. As I was debating about which kind to buy I came across these amazing ones that people have created from nightstands or old cabinets!!! I am sooo in! So the search begins for an old nightstand via craigslist or a yard sale.

Pictured above is my favorite one so far from the ikea hacker blog. You can see the post about it here.

There is a whole flickr group dedicated to it too... check it out here.
They are amazing! aah to be a kid again... washing the dishes would not take nearly as long!!

"In the craziness, I see genius."

I've talked about how much I admire Albert Einstein. His genius was unique. He saw the beauty in creativity and that makes me love him so much more. It wouldn't be right if I didn't mention my love of another genius.

He has a similar love of creativity and creative people. He loved them so much he wanted to make products just for them. That's right - Steve Jobs. The man that started it all. The title quote was Jobs talking about how creative people can be a little odd, different and even seem a little crazy sometimes but those are the people he loves. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, huh? He loves me... he really loves me. :)

You have to admit he was a handsome guy back in the day right? What can I say, I have a thing for geniuses :) I guess that's a huge compliment to my hubby. Love ya!

Love the commencement speech he gave back in 2005. Funny seeing as he never graduated college.
Check it out below... It's 15 minutes but sooo worth it.

Terrific Two's

Let's be real...sticking to your guns is not easy!! In fact it stinks.

Corben asked to go to McDonald's to play today so we went and got a snack - some yogurt for Corben and a dollar sweet tea for Mom. Then I got everyone settled in the play area. Corben was sitting in his chair happily eating his yogurt, baby in a high chair mouthing a spoon I gave him and me sipping my sweet tea.

Another mom was next to us with her two boys and the usual conversation came up.

"Wow, bless your heart how close in age are they??"

Me - "About 21 months apart."

"Well you look like you've got it down. How is it having them that close?"

Me - "Some days are better than others." :)

I was a proud mom at that moment. Look at my sweet boys being so good. Sigh.

Then Corben took his shoes off and got down to play so I moved to his side so I could get a better view of the slide where he was playing. Corben comes back over and tells me to sit in "your" seat and points to the seat that I was in first. I explain calmly that these are everyone's seats and mommy came to sit here so she could see him. Do you want to sit with mommy?" He then starts to push at me and scream that it is "HIS" seat. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. So I pick him up and put him in my lap and tell him that he needs to calm down or we are not going to be able to play anymore. He squirms out of my lap and throws a fit and of course by now the playplace has filled with other parents and their children. I scooped Corben up, got baby out of his high chair and took them to the bathroom.

Then we marched back to the playplace put Corben's shoes on, packed up our stuff and went back home. Our outing lasted a whole 30 minutes.

Being a mom is HARD. Being consistent is even HARDER! I told him we would leave if he acted out. So we had to leave even though he asked so sweetly to stay when we were in the bathroom. But I couldn't... I told him we were going to leave if he threw a fit. So that's what we did.

I really do understand why so many parents don't discipline and aren't consistent. It seems like it would be so much easier to just live and let live. I could have just moved and laughed it off "oh he's just type A like his daddy." I would have totally bypassed the whole situation (well sort of... it would continue to rear its head until its dealt with). But I would have been encouraging the selfish behavior that we have been working through. It's not about me. It's about them understanding actions have consequences. Honoring your parents, using self control, sharing etc etc. All those lessons that are tied up in those short thirty minutes of life.

I don't always handle situations the best but I do the best I can with what I know. I was having a hard time with discipline a while back and started reading some of the articles online from No Greater Joy Ministries. It really encouraged me. He encouraged parents to not be too hard on themselves and that there are not enough hours in a lifetime to devour all the knowledge that you need to be a parent. But you do have God and he has all the wisdom you need.

I can definitely see that I'm going to need a lot more grace and a lot more face time with God as they get older. This must be where praying without ceasing comes from! It gets easier right?

At least I didn't say to the lady. "Oh it's great, having two this close is sooo easy!"

Thanks for letting me vent a little.

Making fresh bread everyday.

I know some of you read this title and got nervous and sweaty. Being a mom of two little ones I would normally be right there with you. Making fresh bread everyday sounds wonderful... for someone else that has lots of time and maybe for me when my kids are grown and I have nothing better to do than bake lots of stuff for the grandkids (Can't wait for those fun days too). But wait, this is something you can do! I promise!

And guess what.... you don't need a breadmachine and you don't have to knead anything! I'll give you a little background first before I give my secret away. Since moving to Macon a mommy group has formed out of people I have met through different circumstances and I have been so blessed by them in so many different ways I can't even describe. They were my saving grace especially when Chad was working non-stop. One of the ladies is a beautiful Italian girl with a grandmothers heart. She is always baking things and bringing them to the group. Everything she cooks is soooo good. One day she told us about this great book called "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." I was a little skeptical at first but she let me borrow the book and I gave it a try. I had thought many times about getting a bread machine because there is nothing like fresh bread and it is way more cost effective to make your own.

So I gave it a try. Now my first boule loaf was not pretty needless to say, but it was sooo yummy and after a few tries I was getting beautiful loaves and it was so easy. Since then every time I have guests I bake them fresh bread. It takes no time and I can use the dough for boule bread, pizza, stromboli, flat bread etc etc. It's wonderful dipped in spinach dip! When my girl friends came down to visit we put away a whole loaf with some spinach dip.... YUMMMMM!

There's a couple tricks that make it so easy but mainly it's because you mix it ahead of time and then store it in your fridge for up to two weeks. Everytime you need a fresh loaf, you just cut off a chunk, let it sit while you make dinner and then throw it in the oven. Beautiful bread everytime! You can find the recipe for the basic bread online HERE. Give it a try! If you like it, get the book - there are so many wonderful recipes you can make. You will impress your guests everytime!

Who needs a bread machine and who has time to knead??? NOT ME!!

The Beach

Last weekend was my brothers wedding in Charleston so we decided to make a vacation of it. So we rented this house on Seabrook Island for Friday through Monday. We were originally going to rent a hotel but found that a house was about the same! We booked it a week before and didn't know much about where we were staying. We just wanted to be near the beach and that's all we needed to know.


It turned out to be a wonderful family area to stay. It is a private island so no fighting crowds for beach space and there was so much wildlife. It was just gorgeous. The island had horseback riding, biking, tennis, restaurants and a little "town" area with beach shops and a soda fountain in the drug store. We had a blast. While on the beach I captured a shot of someone riding a horse on the beach and a beautiful sailboat going by. Wow. I think next time we'll have to do the horseback riding thing!
Unfortunately it was really windy. So we only stayed on the beach for a few minutes. So the rest of the time we enjoyed biking the island with bikes that were provided for us, and just being lazy and enjoying our kids!


The town area had some wonderful restaurants and a grocery store so there was no need to leave the island for anything. It was sooo nice. We ate at a wonderful authentic Italian place (I know we are at the beach and we should eat seafood, but I'm just not a big seafood person). But I LOVE italian food. Their pizza was out of this world.


The rest of the days we just ate simple meals in the kitchen and then had a big brunch for John's wedding. Which was gorgeous. They got married at a gazebo right on the pier in Charleston. I wore my BIG hat and felt like a real southern lady :).

To be honest I didn't know how a vacation would be with two small children but after a little bit of adjustment the first day, it was great. So our first family vacation was a success... now I'm ready for the next one!!!