Hair Disaster!

There will be no Weigh In Wednesday post today, I have been so consumed by Cecilia’s upcoming birthday party and getting my house company ready I haven’t had a chance to eat right or exercise.  After this weekend I will be back on the band wagon.

Anyways, several of my Twitter and Blogger friends color their own hair, Mandy and Bren both do a great job at it.  On Sunday I got the bright idea to color my own hair.  My roots were looking horrible and I desperately needed to do something before Cecilia’s party this weekend.  I didn’t want to look back at pictures and cringe, because my hair looked horrible.  So while at Target I picked up a bottle of blonde hair dye.  It was one of the more expensive dyes so I was hoping it would look good.  Paying $18 for hair dye verses the $100 plus I would pay in my salon was worth it or so I thought.

I am an impatient person and after putting Ci in bed on Sunday night I busted out the hair dye. I followed the instructions, I thought I got it everywhere it needed to be, I left it in for 20 minutes, washed it, dried and put on the conditioner.  I combed my wet hair after I got out of the shower and I notice it was orangish.  Then I look at my roots. I missed a HUGE spot.  It looked horrible.  I looked like a leapord.  I was almost in tears.

When I walked out of the bathroom Daniel said, “What in the hell did you do to your hair?”  I seriously could of broken down in tears.  I explained how he’s always saying I spend too much money, getting my hair done, eye brows done, etc. and I wanted to save money…but in the end I effed my hair up even more! Because our week is so crazy I couldn’t get an appointment until Thursday with my hair stylist.  Until then I am walking around looking like this!

I want a change..I am tired of going blonde, blonde in the summer.  I found this picture of Jennifer Aniston’s angled bob and I think this is what I want.  What do you think?

So the lesson is learned, don’t take short cuts.  Leave the hair coloring to a professional!!  Have you ever had any hair mishaps? 

Happy Third Birthday Cecilia!

Three years ago today my life changed forever when I became a mother to a beautiful, eight pound, two ounce, twenty two inch long baby girl.  Cecilia Anne was welcomed into this world at 9:13 PM on April 17, 2009 after a long, 25 hour labor.  My life has not been the same since!

In the last year Cecilia has really became her own person.  She has opinions and isn’t afraid to use them.  She still prefers fruits and veggies to any type of junk food.  Her favorite vegetable is tomatoes, but she loves green beans and corn too.  She hates asparagus and turns her nose up every time I put it on her plate.  Her favorite fruits are oranges, strawberries and blueberries.  She never turns down any type of fruit though. 

She loves to be outside and we could spend hours at any of our nearby parks.  In the past year her favorite park apparatus has changed from the slide to the swings.  She loves to swing and can do so herself.  Sometimes she scares me of how high she goes!  The slide is still her second favorite.  Forget about those sissy baby slides though.  Cecilia prefers the tallest and fastest slides and doesn’t want any help getting up to them.  She also loves anything to do with a ball, whether it be throwing a football , playing catch or hitting a waffle ball.  Her new favorite obsession is basketball, one of the only things she is asking for her birthday is a basketball.  She loves playing basketball at daycare with her friends.

Speaking of her friends, Cecilia has made a few new friends this year.  Her best friend is probably Jenna, a friend that lives in our town.  She loves having Jenna over to her house or going over to Jenna’s.  Every day she asks if she can see Jenna.    Ci is still shy around new friends, but once she gets to know them, watch out, she becomes a social butterfly!

Cecilia has learned so much this year, every day she comes home from daycare learning something new.  Along with knowing her ABCs, colors, shapes and being able to count to 50, Cecilia can now count backwards.   She also is obsessed with anything involving the stars and space.  She knows what planets have rings around them and can tell you all of the planets in our solar system. She is super smart and can turn on our tablet and phones to access her favorite matching and puzzle games.   She prefers reading to watching TV or a movie any day. Hopefully she’ll love Science, because her momma hated it.  She tells us that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up so hopefully that’ll stick!  

Cecilia loves to dress up and if she could she would have a tutu on every day.  However, most days when I pick her up from daycare she is dirty, because she rough houses and plays with the boys.  I always joke that she is a little tom boy who will be wearing her tutu while playing in the dirt.   She does love one very girly thing though, Hello Kitty!  Cecilia’s Hello Kitty obsession started last November and it has taken over.  She wants everything Hello Kitty she sees, whether it be a purse, shirt or Hello Kitty doll.  She loves to watch her Hello Kitty DVD.  She  even requested a Hello Kitty birthday party this year.  She started planning her own birthday party (right after Christmas), she told me she needed Hello Kitty plates, cups, napkins and balloons, along with a Hello Kitty cake.  I wonder where she gets her love of planning from?

Overall Cecilia is a very happy little girl, she wakes up most mornings with a smile on her face.  She does have moments where her daddy’s temper shows.  She doesn’t like when things don’t go her way or sharing one of her toys.  She has gotten better though.  She needs to learn how to share though if she gets the baby brother she has been asking for the past few months.    She hates sleeping in and prefers to wake up with the sun comes up, because “It’s not dark outside!”.  She still takes excellent, two to three hour daily naps most days! 

I thank God every day he blessed me with this beautiful, smart little girl.  I love waking up and seeing her smiles, every day I can’t wait to get off work to hear how her day went (and she tells us too..every little detail).  I love seeing her become her own person and having her own ideas and opinions.  She amazes me of the things she says and the songs she makes up.  I can’t wait to see what this next year has in store for us, before I know it she will be heading off the kindergarten.    

Happy birthday, Cecilia Anne! You will always be mommy’s little girl!

Saturday Top Five Laughs

I remember when Saturday Top Five Laughs just started and it has been months since I have participated, but I am trying to make more of an effort to blog more.  As a mom of an almost three year old  (TUESDAY!) I find myself cracking up at things Cecilia says multiple times a day.   I love Melissa’s blog hop for that reason, because one day I can look back and remember these innocent toddler years.

My Top Five Saturday Laughs for this week

1.        Saturday we attended an Easter egg hunt in my hometown.  When I was younger, they would release bunnies in a fenced in area and allow the kids to chase them.  If you caught a bunny, you got to take it home for you.  Times have changed and the Humane Society probably told the Lions  Club in my hometown that it was animal cruelty.  So now instead of chasing bunnies, kids can take a rabbit home if they find an egg with a “R” on it.  Guess who got an “R” egg? Yup, Cecilia!  She was soooo excited, but mommy wasn’t very excited.  I had images in my head of a rabbit leaving little droppings all over my house, images of our Miniature Schnauzer eating a rabbit…..  If Ci was a little older, then yes, she could have kept the rabbit, but at two she’s just not responsible enough to feed it every day and clean it’s cage.  She was not very happy with me when I told her no.  She put her hands on her hips and said, “BUT MOMMY I HAVE WANTED A BUNNY MY WHOLE LIFE!” I cracked up!! As hard as it was to say no to that little pout we did not come home with a bunny.  Instead she got cuddle time with her cousin’s bunny.

2.       Last Friday night my mom brought over an Easter dress that my parents had bought for Cecilia.  It was gorgeous!  As soon as my mom pulled it out of the dress bag, Ci gasped and said “A princess dress for me!?”  My mom helped her put it on and she twirled and twirled showing us her princess dress.  She wore it on Sunday for Easter and every day since she asks if she can wear her princess dress to daycare.

3.       One night this week, Daniel’s friend came over.  We were talking about something and his friend said ‘I don’t know where I am going to get money for that, I guess I will just pull it from my butt.’ I looked at him and warned that we had little ears around.  He said ‘Well I didn’t say the a word, I said butt!’  Cecilia never lets anything slip, she said ‘Well I pull farts out of my butt.’  I didn’t know whether to laugh or be mortified, that my angelic little girl said fart in front of mixed company.  We all laughed! While Ci is a girly girl and loves dressing up in her tutus, she does go to daycare with mostly boys – the girls are outnumbered 5 to 3. So she knows all about bodily functions…

4.       Wednesday was Cecilia’s friend, S’s birthday.  S turned five and this weekend she is also having a Hello Kitty birthday party to celebrate.  Well when Daniel picked Ci up from daycare Miss Sally sent a cake pop home with her since they made cake pops for S’s birthday and had extras.  So when I get home I ask Cecilia, “Oh, wow, who’s birthday was today?”She said “MINE!” I said “No your birthday is next Tuesday.  I think S’s birthday was today.”  She is in denial anyone else’s birthday can be in April, she thinks April is HER month!  Also when you ask Cecilia how old she is going to be she says “FIVE!” (Up until last week she said three, but since S is turning five, Ci wants to be five too.) I will correct her and tell her she is turning three, then she says “But I don’t want to be three, I want to be five!” She’s rushing it on me…I want to keep her this age and innocent forever. 

5.       Daycare was closed on Easter Monday so Cecilia spent the day with my parents.  My parents spoil her and she loves going over there.  Well, on Tuesday when I took a left out of our neighborhood instead of a right, Cecilia started crying.  I asked her what was wrong, she said “I don’t want to go to Miss Sally’s, I want to go to Mom mom and Pop pop’s!”  I am amazed how she knows that we turn right to go to my parents (she could tell me all the turns to get there) and we take a left for daycare.  It’s not that she dislikes daycare (she LOVES it), but she just wanted one extra day with my parents.

If you want to join in on Saturday’s Top Five Laughs be sure to visit Melissa at The Mommyhood Chronicles!  Have a wonderful Saturday everyone!  We have a fun day ahead of us, we are going to S's Fifth Birthday Party Hello Kitty style of course and then my parents are hosting a get together for my mom's side of the family.  I'm excited, I haven't seen some of them since Thanksgiving!

Giving Back

One of my New Years Resolutions this year was to give back and get involved in some form of charity work.  Well that I did! Last June, only two weeks after my mother-in-law passed away from spindle cell sarcoma (a soft tissue cancer) I attended the Relay for Life Event in a local town.  I had heard of Relay for Life, but I have never attended any of their events.  In my Maryland hometown, Relay for Life was held at our high school and all I knew was that people camped out in tents all night.  Well, I was sadly mistaken at least at the event I went to.

For those of you who don’t know, Relay For Life is an overnight relay-style event where team members camp out around a track.  Members of each team take turns walking around the track for the duration of the event. Tons of food, games and activities provide entertainment and fundraising opportunities.

My boss is involved in Relay and invited my co-worker, Rian up that night.  Rian, Ci  and I, along with Rian’s cousin Chree went up and we were shocked when we couldn’t find parking anywhere near the event.  We walked a good mile to the actual event.  We could hear music blasting, people talking and as we walked up it looked like one big party.  I guarantee at least a thousand people were there, walking the track, dancing to the music, participating in scavenger hunt or just laying back relaxing at their camp site.  Seeing this many people supporting a cause that had affected my life so much recently brought tears to my eyes.   As if that wasn’t enough to bring tears to my eyes, not long after we arrived the luminaria ceremony started.

From Relay For Life’s Website:

As the sun sets at a Relay For Life event, luminaria lining the track illuminate the night and a hush falls over the event that had been filled with the sounds of celebration. Relay For Life participants, survivors and caregivers then gather together for the Luminaria Ceremony to remember loved ones lost to cancer and to honor those who have battled the disease.

As participants walk the track lined with luminara bags in reflection, a caregiver who has lost a loved one may find comfort from a fellow caregiver who has faced a similar loss. Meanwhile, a survivor gains hope and strength from others who have followed the same journey and survived. All resolve to keep fighting to save more lives so no more luminaria bear the names of those lost to the disease.

I knew then that the following year I wanted to be involved in Relay For Life.  Rian and I both committed to starting a team.  We are now the Co-Captians of a Relay For Life team.  For the past five months we have been meeting every few weeks discussing fundraising ideas with our team.  We had one successful fundraiser selling Joe Corbi’s Pizzas that just completed; we have a Dine & Donate coming up at Texas Roadhouse in Camden, Delaware on April 24^th.  If you are local and would like to attend and support our team, please let me know so I can get a coupon to you.  We are also doing a Quarter Auction at the Camden Moose Lodge in Camden, Delaware on May 18^th.  I am really excited about this event; we have a lot of great items we are auctioning off for a dollar or less!  Some of the items include autographed books by bestselling authors, autographed sports merchandise from local professional teams (Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Eagles), a GORGEOUS necklace from Amrita Singh valued at $250, , gift certificates to restaurants, dinner cruises, theaters and parks in the Delaware, Maryland,  Pennsylvania and DC areas and so much more!  If you aren’t familiar with how a quarter auction works (I know I wasn’t), go to Quarter Mania Party'ssWebsite and they describe it well. 

We are selling paddles for $5 or an All In Paddle for $20 (that means you don’t have to bring any quarters and you can bid on EVERY item!).  I am really excited about this event,  I hope we get a GREAT turn out.  If you are local in Delaware or Maryland and want to attend, please let me know!  Also, if you have a business and would like to donate an item or gift certificate we are still taking donations and they are tax deductable.  I will give you a letter with all of our Tax-ID information.  

I think cancer has touched all of us in one way or another.  I know personally I have lost my grandmother, my childhood friend (at the age of 16) and my mother in law to cancer.   My cousin’s amazing daughter battled and won the fight with leukemia at the age of 3! My husband lost both grandmothers and his mom to cancer.  Within our little family, five people have lost their lives to this horrible disease. I am hoping by doing my little part with Relay For Life I can help make a difference. 

I am debating on putting a link on my blog so you could donate to our team, but since this blog is public I don’t want to put my personal information (along with my team members) out there.  If you would like to donate to our team, please let me know and I will get the link to you.  Every little donation helps, whether it’s $5 or $25!

Three On Thursday: Spring Must-Haves

One of my favorite Blog Hops, Memes or whatever you want to c all them when I blogged regularly was Andrea’s (from My Chihuahua Bites) Two on Tuesday.   Andrea no longer does Two on Tuesdays, she now co-hosts with Cole at All The Small Stuff, Three on Thursdays which is even better!

This week they asked:

Share what three of your Spring "must haves" are. Do you always get a new pair of sandals? Splurge on the newest seasonal fashions? Is it not Spring without a pedicure or highlights?

My must haves for Spring, they already listed in the question, but I’ll list them anyway.

Next week I am scheduled for my first pedicure of the season (Cecilia is getting her very first pedi EVER!).  There’s not many things I find more relaxing then a pedicure (except for when they use that tool to remove the dead skin).  I love having my feet soak in hot water, massaged and my favorite part is the hot towel they put on right before they paint your nails.  

Love this new color from OPI's Texas Collection "Too Hot Pick Too Hold Em"

When you have the perfect pedicure, the next logical step is to find that perfect pair of sandals, right?  I am obsessed with the Color Block trend this spring.  I love these sandals.

Last, but not least spring time also means highlights! I desperately need highlights now, but as I said yesterday my reward for myself when I lose ten pounds is going to be highlights.  So I need to get on the ball and lose weight!

What are you three spring must haves?  Join in on Andrea and Cole’s Three onThursday!

Weigh In Wednesdays

I know I have said it on here before, but I really need to lose weight.  This time I really am going to do it.  I can’t remember the last time I was ever happy with my weight, or if I ever was.  I remember in high school thinking I was fat, because I wasn’t stick thin like a lot of my friends.  I was curvy and back then, I hated my curves.  I didn’t want boobs or a butt.. now girls embrace that!  Looking back at pictures of myself in high school and my early college years, I was NOT fat.  I’ve always had an athletic build and later on a curvy build, but I was never build.  I maintained a size 4 to 6 until I turned 20.

My goal is to lose 50 pounds, and then I will be at the ideal weight for my height.  Last year I lost twenty pounds, but I have gained all but seven of the twenty I lost back.  I have some motivation for getting in shape, Daniel and I are starting to seriously discuss baby number 2 and I want to be at my ideal weight before getting pregnant.  Next year I also turn 30 and I hear it’s harder to lose weight the older you get, so why not lose the 50 pounds before I turn 30? Also summer is coming and there will be a ton of beach days in my future and a summer vacation (more about that later), I’d love to lose at least fifteen pounds before vacation in July.

I want to do a weekly weigh in on my blog.  I am not going to post my actual weight, but I will post my progress.

Weight Lost This Week: 0

Weight Left to Lose: 50 lbs.

First Goal: 10 lbs. 
      Reward: Hair Cut & Color

Goals For This Week:

 1.          Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.
 2.          Exercise 5 days a week.
 3.          Keep track of food and exercise on My FitnessPal.

And since no Weigh In Post is complete without a picture, I will be posting a picture of myself tonight on this post.  If anyone else wants to join in on Weigh In Wednesdays, please feel free to!

An Egg-cellent Easter Weekend

We had such a great three day Easter weekend this past weekend, I was sorry to see it end.  It started off on Friday, which also happened to be my 7 year Dating Anniversary with Daniel.  How many married couples actually celebrate their dating anniversary?  We didn’t do anything special, just spent a great day with the three of us.  Cecilia slept in until 8:00 which is late for her. We had a lazy morning and then decided to run some errands.

First stop was one of our favorite florists/greenhouses.  It is the place Daniel remembers going to growing up with his grandmother and mom to get flowers every spring and to pick strawberries every May.  We picked up flowers for our mothers and my grandmother’s grave.  Cecilia LOVES flowers and I have a feeling she inherited the green thumb from her grandmothers (both my mom and Daniel’s mom were/are avid gardeners…I could kill a cactus..I am not good with plants).  She picked out which grandmother would get what, pink tulips for my mother in law’s grave, a purple hyacinth for my grandmother’s grave and daffodils for my mom and Daniel’s step mom. 

Ci at the greenhouse with my grandmother's hyacinth

After we dropped the tulips off at Daniel’s mom’s grave we headed to lunch at our favorite sushi resteraunt.  Then we headed to my favorite place in the entire world (ok maybe not favorite, but very high up on the list)….Target!  My hubs is not a fan of Target, in fact he prefers Wal-Mart *gasp* to Target!  Since I only get an half hour lunch most days and Daniel I carpool, I rarely get to go to Target like I used to. It is great for my pocketbook, but I tend to have withdrawls.  Although I think Daniel’s opinion of Target may have changed.  We scored three adorable spring dresses for Cecilia for $21!  One of the dresses was on clearance for $2.80!   After Target it was well past Ci's nap time so we headed home. When we got home, hanging on our side door was Ci’s Second Easter’s basket (her first was from daycare on Thursday) Friday full of candy from her Pop Pop Ernie (Daniel’s step dad).  Friday night, my mom came home and we all dyed Easter Eggs.  Cecilia was already a pro at this dying thing since she dyed eggs at daycare on Wednesday, but she still had a blast dying eggs with us.  Of course she wanted every egg to be pink, but Daniel wouldn’t allow that.

Dying Eggs with Mom Mom

Saturday started off with an Easter Egg Hunt.  I love tradition and every year I take Cecilia to the same Egg Hunt I went to as a kid.  It is put on by my hometown’s Lion’s Club.  I always see familiar faces, kids that I used to hunt eggs with now bring their own kids.  Cecilia was in the 1 to 2 year age group, she was a head taller than the tallest kid in her age group.  Considering Ci will be three in a week (yikes!) she definitely had an advantage.  She got the most eggs in her age group (9) and even got one rabbit egg.  The rabbit egg means that she would get a real live bunny to take home as a pet.  Needless to say we gave that egg away to someone who actually wanted a pet rabbit.  CI was not happy with me.

She did some cuddle time in with my cousin’s daughter’s rabbit at the cemetery while we dropped off the flowers on my grandmother's grave.

Saturday afternoon after a very brief nap for Ci, we went to Daniel’s dad’s for a little family get together with his dad’s side of the family.  We don’t get to see Daniel’s aunt and cousins nearly enough, I really wish we saw them more, they are a blast to be around!  This family get together was great and as always there was an abundance of food and great wine.  My sister in law and I may have finished off three bottles of wine between the two of us.   Lauren, my sister in law recently moved an hour away and we don’t get to hang out every weekend like we used to, so when I see her we definitely have catching up to do.

Sunday was another early morning.  Cecilia was up bright and early to see what the Easter bunny had left her in her basket (Hello Kitty bubble bath, sidewalk chalk, a book, Hello Kitty PJs, a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser and a few candy items). She loved it all!!  We then got dressed and went to meet my parents and grandfather for breakfast.  Cecilia LOVED her Easter dress that my parents bought for her.  She kept calling it her “princess dress”.   

 After breakfast, Ci received another Easter basket from my parents, full of bananas, oranges, apples, blueberry applesauce, regular apple sauce and yogurt!  Thank you mom and dad for not giving her even more candy! 

4 of the 5 baksets Ci rcvd (From my parents, The Easter Bunny, Daycare & Pop Pop Ernie)

Sunday afternoon we had Daniel’s dad, step mom and sister over  for a laid back relaxing dinner.  After they left on Sunday, Daniel and I crashed.  I think we were both in bed by 9.  He fell asleep and I stayed up late reading The Hunger Games. I tried not to buy into the hype of The Hunger Games, but I caved in and I am glad I did.  I finished the first book last night and I am well into the second.  My friend is on Chapter 7 of the first book.  After she’s finished, we’re going to go see the movie.

This was the first of many busy weekends this month.  I don’t think there is one weekend until May 12^th where we have nothing planned, I love it though.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter!