Game-Night Friday

Yesterday was a crazy, busy day at work & I was stuck there until 7:30pm :( Shane had picked up Mason from daycare & was on "Daddy Duty" for the evening since Mommy was working late. Our game-night girls were also gathering for our monthly get-together so knowing Mason was fast asleep already,  instead of going home I stopped in for a much needed cocktail, food & caught up with these lovely ladies.

Several girls from the group were unable to make it & as I looked around the table I realized that those of us present were the original 5 girls from way back when game-night started. It's been almost 8 years since this group started our monthly tradition & love that we are still able to meet up & enjoy each other's company.

Erinn was our hostess this month & her husband joined in the festivities by making the ladies sushi. I'm not a sushi eater but I must say that Jeff did an amazing job & according to the other girls it tasted as good as any restaurant if not better!

As always there was a great display of food being shared amongst friends & we ended up playing a really fun card game called Cards Against Humanity. It is like playing Apple to Apples but a more "adult" version of it if you will. There were lots of laughs & "oh my's" throughout the game & we all agreed to play it again in the future!

Shortly before everyone left, Michelle & Keri's husbands joined the group & finished off the rest of the sushi. We of course had to include them in our monthly game-night photo!

Melissa informed us that Rob's eyes were closed so we had to take another pic:

Um yeah...this happened! No wonder we heard so much giggling during this picture! It's a good thing the little blonde in the plaid shirt is married to the tall guy in the camo shorts :)

Thanks so much Erinn for the much-needed girls gathering! Looking forward to next month :)

40 bags update

So the Lenten season has come to an end & so does my 40 bags in 40 days project. I tried my very best to get rid of one bag per day but sometimes it was all I could do to attempt to fill a bag once Mason had gone to bed. Some days I got rid of 3-4 bags so it made up for the days that I missed. All in all I am happy to report that my house has been downsized from ALOT of junk & clutter & it makes me feel SO much better having gotten rid of so much crap!

As promised, here are a few pictures of what I have accomplished these past 40 days! First up, the freezer. We have a chest freezer in the basement but for some reason I find walking down there too much work so everything I buy that needs to be frozen goes in our small freezer in the kitchen. Everytime I would open the door something would fall out so it was way past time to organize it! 

Before pic on the left - after pic on the right! SO much more space & nothing falls out when I open the door - YAY!! I ended up getting rid of 2 grocery bags full of old, frozen, unedible freezer-burn items!

Next was a couple of drawers in the kitchen that have become "junk" drawers. Nothing all that important in them other than lots of "junk". You know - the drawers you throw stuff in when you clean up just to get it out of sight or are having company over?! Well, in the past 10 years these drawers have accumulated lots of stuff so it was time to organize.  The before pic is a chaotic mess & the after pic is much more organized with a bunch of stuff thrown out - 1 grocery bag worth. There is even a little bit of room in the back of the drawer for more junk stuff!

Here is the 2nd cabinet drawer I cleaned out. Everything in this drawer got put away in its appropriate place but the majority of it got thrown out - another grocery bag full! Now I have an empty drawer waiting to be filled!
After cleaning out the drawers, I tackled the closets. I ended up cleaning out 4 closets & got rid of 4 garbage bags full of clothes for Goodwill & another garbage bag of junk that got thrown away. I also cleaned the cabinets under the bathroom (2 grocery bags full) & kitchen sinks (2 grocery bags full)& packed away all the clothes that were getting to be too small for Mason (1 large bin full).

Even Shane got in on the fun. He took our very messy, cluttered computer desk....

....& turned it into a clean, neat & tidy area as well as painted it black & gave it a fresh new look:

Getting rid of all this stuff has been so very good for the mind & I am blown away by all the stuff we got rid of. Now I don't have to worry about A&E showing up at our house wanting to film an episode of Hoarders :)

Throwback Thursday

This TBT photo was taken back in 1997:

This picture was taken while on a cruise to the Western Caribbean with my dear friend Martha. We were on one of the decks sipping on $12 margaritas, having the best time without a care in the world - good times!

Miss Martha is another dear friend of mine who is also included in the "SC girls" group & she was the very first TRUE southern girl that I ever met. She was born & raised in SC & taught me so much about her southern roots & culture while I lived there. 

She introduced me to cheese grits, collard greens, cornbread stuffing & oysters - none of which I eat to this day, took me to my very 1st Master's golf tournament & showed me what the hype was all about, attended my 1st horse race called the Carolina Cup where we wore the appropriate attire of a huge southern hat (need to find that picture :), took me to my first college football game - the SC Gamecocks vs the FL Gators & showed me what there is to love about Hilton Head & Charleston, SC as well as the beach. She is to blame for my love of the South & am so thankful she was put in my life to experience so much!

Easter Weekend on the Farm

It's Easter weekend & Mase & I are off to South Dakota to spend the weekend on the farm with my family. Unfortunately Shane has to work so we ended up making the 7 hour drive alone. I left at 530am & Mason slept for almost 3 hours. Once he woke up we stopped to stretch our legs, have breakfast & then back on the road. He was in the car seat chilling the rest of the way playing with his books & toys & we stopped again for lunch around noon. By 1:15pm we had reached our destination - Grandpa & Grandma Farm's house. 

We were both pretty happy to be out of the car:

The first thing Mason saw when we got out of the car was the sheep & all the baby lambs. He was fascinated by them & loved to sit & watch them.

He could have done this for hours! We spent the next couple of days playing, coloring, reading books...

...watched more lambs & had fun trying to feed them corn - even though most of the corn ended up on the ground!?

On Saturday evening we dyed eggs for the"Easter bunny"with my nieces Kyra, Joslyn & nephew Lane. My sister-in-law & I were talking about Pinterest & all the cute Easter egg ideas on there & then we started talking about what produced the brightest colored eggs - the dye tablets that come with the kits or food coloring? So we put our skills to the test, tried both & it was determined that the food colored eggs were by far the brightest. 

This was Mason's 1st time dying eggs & didn't quite get the concept of it so Mommy stepped in to help. We did 4 eggs - each with our initials on it & one extra for the doggies.

Later after all the kids went to bed, the Easter bunny's "helpers" stuffed plastic eggs with candy for the Easter egg hunt the next morning. The "Easter bunny" hid them all outside early Easter morning & the kids had so much fun finding them all. It didn't take Mason long to figure out what this egg hunt was all about. He watched his cousin's picking up these oval shaped objects, putting them in their baskets & before long he was picking them up himself.

And yes, my kid is still in his PJ's....classy I know :)

Later that morning Mason discovered his Easter basket & loved going through it pulling out all the fun stuff inside. He got crayons, a coloring book, a stuffed lamb, a baby chick that chirps when sitting in your hand, a wind-up bunny that hops, bubbles, 2 books & eggs filled with vanilla goldfish:

Around 11:30am, my grandparents, aunt, uncles, a few cousins & our dear family friend Mary Ellen came over & my mom ended up making an amazing Easter lunch. We all stuffed our bellies full but not too full for dessert. As always, their is dessert after every meal in my mom's house which this time was coconut cake & cupcakes which were oh so yummy:

I may or may not have went back for 2nd's....maybe even 3rd's :)

We spent the rest of the day being lazy, watched more sheep, blew our new bubbles outside & got everything ready to head back to KS in the morning. 

We left super early Monday morning & the trip back to Kansas went just as smoothly as the trip to SD. Mason is such a good little traveler! We were sad that Shane wasn't able to spend the weekend with us but managed to have a great time with my family. Mason loved being on the farm & we are looking so forward to coming back at the end of August.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter & was able to spend some time with their own families!!

Throwback Thursday Stories

Today I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner who has linked up with The Mom Creative for the first installment of Throwback Thursday Stories. I have decided that I need to add a little more spice & flair to my blog as it has become pretty boring the past couple of months. I contribute that to working full-time, being a full-time mommy, wife & along with all my other domestic duties. Doesn't leave much time for a social life or for blogging but I am working on it!

So every Thursday I am going to try & post a new "Throwback Thursday" photo along with a little story behind the photo. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what "Throwback Thursday" means, it is when you post a picture from a "while" ago on your social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. I always enjoy seeing everyone's pictures from years ago so I am hoping you will enjoy seeing mine as well. Trust me - there are some interesting & crazy photos out there in my collection to share with you all!

Today's TBT photo was taken back in 1996:

Wow - hard to believe that was over 18 years ago! I remember taking this picture like it was yesterday. This was taken in Columbia, SC at Providence Hospital which was my very first "real" job out of college. We are all posing with our lovely lead aprons since we worked in x-ray all day long in the Cardiac Cath lab. I absolutely loved the print on my lead apron...it was a jungle theme & had the cutest little monkey's, elephants & giraffe's on it. I have always regretted not stealing taking that lead with me when I left.

I spent 5 wonderful years working at this hospital & learned SO much about myself, about work ethic & about being out on my own. The girls with me from left-right are Stacey, Michelle & Amy. Us three girls did everything together those 5 years that I lived there & it was SO very sad when I left our little group & moved to Kansas City. 

To this day, these 3 girls are still very near & dear to my heart & we have remained very close - even after 18 years! I refer to this group of friends as my "SC girls". Stacey & Michelle still live in SC & Amy has since moved to PA. Even though we don't see each other as often as we would like, with social media like Facebook & Instagram we are able to always keep tabs on each other & check in with each other whenever we want.

1st Haircut

Well it's official: at 14 months old Mason had his 1st haircut. He went from looking like a baby boy to a BIG boy in less than 5 minutes. 

***cue the tears***

Up until the day of, I had mixed emotions about getting his haircut as did my husband. I kept telling myself it is just hair, it will grow back. Except I wasn't really upset about it growing back. I was more upset of the fact that the hair on his head had been growing since he was a newborn & I was about to have it all cut off. As well as the fact that you can't change the remarkable transformation that occurs from baby to little boy when they get their first haircut.  

Sounds silly I know, but at the time it seemed like a big deal. That crazy, curly, matted mess in the back of his head was starting to resemble a mullet & was needing some serious attention so it was getting to be time.

We ended up taking Mase to a cute little kids salon called Sugar & Spice. They have a "1st haircut package" that included a before/after photo, a locket of his hair & a special keepsake certificate for his baby book. The salon had cute little cars & motorcycles for the kids to sit in, TV's at each station with cartoon's playing to distract them & the staff was super nice. 

Mason chose the red car to sit in & remained perfectly still the entire time the girl cut his hair. 

 

She took a tiny bit off the top/sides & took 3 inches off the back. Doesn't he look handsome?

A before pic: Mason's mullet

And a post-mullet pic:

And here is the adorable certificate they made with before & after pics along with a little baggie of his hair in the upper left-hand corner:

And now he's the most handsome little man on the block - in my humble opinion ;) With every new "first" that comes & goes, Mason is becoming more of a little boy & less of my little baby. Yes he looks older after his haircut & yes my heart wants to break a little but I am glad we went through with it & love how it looks!