WW: Real Monsters!!!!

nightmare on fox street

Brandons birthday was this past Saturday so I decided to throw him a costume b-day bash!

We had spookity themed food...

 

 

 

Matching themed costumes...

 

 

 

All types of pinterest inspired decor...

 

 

 

And of course fun friends!

 

 



 



Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid.

-Bob Dylan

October is an important awareness month. We wear pink for breast cancer, we walk for our buddies with Down syndrome, and we talk about domestic violence.

Just the facts ma'am:

1. According to the CDC, domestic (or intimate partner) violence can be any physical, emotional, sexual, or psychological action that one person uses to gain power or control over another.
2. Anyone, anywhere, regardless of age, race or gender, can be affected by intimate partner violence.
3. An average of three women in America die as a result of domestic violence each day.
4. One in four women and one in thirteen men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.
5. In the last year, one in 10 teens have reported being physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend.
6. As for women in college, one in five young women have been sexually assaulted.
7. Women age 20 to 24 experience the highest rates of dating and domestic violence.

8. Females ages 16-24 are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence than any other age group.

9. Almost 70% of female rape victims were first raped before the age of 25, and over 40% were first raped before age 18.
10. Young women age 16-24 are victims of rape at almost triple the rate of women age 25-34.
The number of teens physically hurt by a dating partner has not declined between 2001 and 2011. The same is true for the number of teen victims of sexual assault.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence.-virgil So this is the month! Go walking while wearing pink and talk about the hard stuff. Especially share some DV info with your kids, your little brother, your neighbor...whoever! Talk to change.

WW: Loading Swag... ████████████████ 1000% Complete.

 

Just a boy and his guitar...

 

 

The REAL most wonderful time???

I really enjoy Halloween. In fact, out of all the holidays I might enjoy Halloween the most. Not for the usual reasons either. Candy is great. Dressing up is fun. Placing my children in a pumpkin patch awkwardly and taking photos is WAY up there on my idea of a good time. Honestly, I really like Halloween because of one thing; It is NOT overwhelming.

I have crashed and burned every Thanksgiving and Christmas since the age of 3.

Why? you say. The holidays are a joyful time full of family togetherness and wonderful imaginings! Every feel good feeling wrapped in shiny paper with a bow!!!

Yeah...no. Every major holiday I have had the privilege of going not to one. not to two. but to at the very least three places to eat drink and be merry. I get so excited and so exhausted all at once that eventually I crash. Like seriously I have a melt down. As in puffy faced crying while eating pumpkin pie speeding down the interstate meltdown. Its go big or go home when it comes to my crazy lady style. My poor kids will one day understand that mommy isn't crying because shes filled with the Christmas spirit...meh. Disclaimer: All family readers, Don't think I do not enjoy our family and the majority of our time together please. I really do!

Halloween on the other hand has zero expectations. Do we see every member of our family on Oct. 31st? Nope! Do we plan and plan for 2 months ahead of time and make elaborate laminated schedules of what we will be doing all day long? Heck no! We go about our daily business, dress the kids up, snap a few photos on the porch and trick or treat the night away. This year Brandon and Colton will be doing the leg work, while Nolan helps me pass out candy. When they return with their spoils we'll inspect and make sure to taste test (making sure Brandon and I eat the poisonous candy of course...a selfless act for the good of the children....) Then we can go to bed. The end. Its over. We don't have to return numerous decorations to the attic. There are no toys. Thank you Lord there are no toys...Just cute pics, the memory of a relaxing fun evening, and that. is. it. I know I know BAH HUMBUG! 

WW: king of the playground

 

WINNER!!!

I'm one of those average people who hardly ever win anything. Its not for lack of trying, I'm just not one of those lucky I win everything don't let me touch you for you might turn to gold people. So you can imagine my amazement when I won not just one but TWO contests this week! Big shout out to one of my favorite blogs Everything and Nothing From Essex (really awesome blog about a lady and her 2 kiddos one of which happens to rock an extra chromosome) for the awesome canvas print (from Photo-Canvas) and Breakformoms.com for my new Holly Yashi necklace!

Oh and I've been approached to do a product review and giveaway myself...not sure if that's the direction I'm wanting this blog to go, but we'll try it out just once for fun. Look for it around December.

Oliver

I have neglected to shine the spotlight on our amazing furball Oliver (aka Ollie).

Background: we have had Oliver for 3.5 years. He was a birthday present from Brandon...3 months early. Then do you know that when my actual birthday came that joker didnt even get me a card??? I got you the dog! Thats one rookie mistake he'll never make again. Anywho, Oliver was born on a farm in the pottery capital of NC. When I spoke to the breeder, I had visions of rolling hills and shih tzu puppies running free with a plethera of biscuits and love. Yeah, no.

Oliver day 1

We arrived at the farm. It was indeed a farm. It had a barn, a house, animals...Only they werent roaming free as the wind blows living the good life. The lady with no teeth took us to the barn and in there were a ton of puppies in cages. One stacked on top of the other. Not just shih tzus either. Pugs, poodles, puggles, chihuahas, all types. Don't get me wrong they werent like the puppy mills on TV or anything. They had tons of food and she kept the cages clean and around back was a free roam area for the mamas and daddys. It was just really really overwhelming. In a cage right on top at eye level there he was. My sweet little 3lb Oliver in a cage with his brother. His brother was a growler and picking on my baby.



Brandon eventually got rid of his bows

Brandon scooped him up payed the woman and we were outta there. On the way home we noticed some things about Ollie that were a little different. Different in an incredibly adorable way that is. #1 his tongue was too big to fit all the way in his mouth. #2 he was missing a few teeth (aka all of them) #3 he was panting pretty hard and had a croupy bark. We got him home and I immediately started treating him like a baby with the croup lol. I stuck his teenie little noggin in the freezer, called his new doctor to get an appt asap & of course snuggled.

The bestest vet ever saw Ollie a good 12 hours later and had some news for us. First thing was he had kennel cough and needed meds asap and no doggie contact for quite some time. Then he mentioned that if we were planning on breeding (never crossed my mind) he wasnt exactly stud material. Turns out that Ollies family tree is probably missing a few branches. Still, that dogs light shines bright and he is the most loyal little fella we could have asked for.

your words matter!

I believe that your day to day conversations are your lasting message. I talk about this IRL often with my sisters and their friends. I have zero problems talking about this with a rocket scientist should the need ever arise. Please allow me to take a moment and be a lil bit serious guys...

Imagine that you have brown eyes and the mass majority of the rest of the world have blue. You can't help that you were born with brown eyes can you? Maybe you were born with blue eyes then woke up at 12 years old and suddenly had brown? Your eyes may set you apart from the blue eyed people, but they do not make you less of a person do they? Now imagine that instead of using the word "ugly" to describe something unattractive, the blue eyed people say "that is SO brown eyes!" How would that make you feel? How would that make your blue eyed mom and dad feel? or your brothers and sisters? your friends? Anyone who believes your eyes are indeed unique and beautiful.

Now imagine that you have a subtype of intellectual disability. Lets say it's clinically diagnosed as mental retardation. You may have been born this way or maybe you sustained an injury. The mass majority of the rest of the world do not have your diagnosis. You are no less of a person because you've been diagnosed are you? Now think about how many times you or others you communicate with regularly have said "that is SO retarded!" In place of the word silly or "stupid." Get where I'm going with this? Just like it would be wrong to insinuate that someone with brown eyes is unattractive, it is wrong to insinuate that a person with a certain diagnosis is not intelligent. 

What I'm getting at is to make yourself aware. Although society does not react the same way they might if you were to use a racist slur or shout 4 letter words from the rooftops. It's still not nice and can genuinely hurt people and the ones who love them the most. Also, if you think people are just overly sensitive and trying to take away your 1st amendment rights, yada yada yada... you're not picking up what I'm throwing down here so you might wanna quit reading muh blog mmk.

I just wanted to put that one out there into the universe after hearing 3 people on 3 separate occasions this past week use the word retarded to describe something they deemed to not be working correctly or someone acting silly. So now you can't say you didnt know!

WW: Bring on the trick or treaters!

Talent Corner: Timeless Dreams Photography

We recently had some family photos taken by the awesome sister duo Jennie & Kristi of Timeless Dreams Photography . We were only prepared to take pics of the kids so can you imagine that our angels refused to participate without us?!?! hah. Well it turned out that maybe this time kiddos knew best. The #1 reason I really enjoy these pics is because we look like us. We aren't all matchy matchy with perfect hair and non-flip flop feet. We just are what we are. When I look back I don't want an unrealistic picture of what it was like.

I went to High School with Jennie and can tell you she and her whole family are good people. I would highly recommend them if you're in the area and looking to have some photos taken anytime soon (ahem Christmas cards...) Colton was anything BUT a happy camper the day of our shoot (shocking I know) and amazingly enough these ladies were able to keep him smiling and get some cute shots! I work with children and can tell you that even if people have children they sometimes claim of their own, not everyone can deal with a 2 year old and his crazy I'm gonna eat this grass and only make a pukey face whatcha wanna do about it? attitude. These ladies for sure can handle it and have an awesome presence and sense of humor that the kiddos can pick up on. So there you have it: kid friendly, creative, affordable, good people. Check them out & remember to support your local businesses.

Some of my favorites:



How ADORABLE is this? ^^



 

<3

 

Must. Not. Eat. Vegetables!!!!

 

(Ignore the unfolded laundry and the rest of the house)

 

Note: no squash was actually eaten during the making of this video

 

WW: memories that matter

Halloween Crafty Time

No pigs aren't flying and last I heard hell is still hot...we got crafty. I'm not a huge craft person. When I first left work to stay home with Colton we would have a theme and a craft every week...for about 3 weeks. Meh. Its not my thing. He usually gets his collage on at preschool or with my MIL who is an artist. And yet...inspiration struck and we went with it. So here's what we did.

We took some old baby food jars and wine bottles:

And we painted them super creative I know...



Colton painted the baby food jars orange (and yes he is wearing a trash bag smock)

I painted the wine bottles white but didn't like them so I had to start over...

Then we put jack-o-lantern faces on the orange jars & I painted pumpkins on my wine bottles

I put tea lights in the pumpkins and they look pretty cool in our bathroom.

 

Coltons favorite part was mixing red and yellow paint to make orange. Nolan is more of an art appreciator than artist, but he seemed to enjoy the finished product.