Random Fact #5

I am a spelling and grammar FREAK.

I have had an eye for spelling and grammar since my wee days in school. I always wrote excellent papers, often waiting until the night before they were due to begin the writing........it just flowed for me. And other students hated me for that. I was always the person other students brought their stuff to for proofreading, and teachers often asked for my assitance in grading papers. I'm a nerd at heart. For "community service" in National Junior Honor Society, I would go back to my elementary school at T.A. for my favorite teachers. Even after my requirements for community service were fulfilled, I still found myself walking back to the elementary school to help. Bad grammar and spelling stick out like a sore thumb. I often correct people when they are speaking - which, I know, is rude and people don't care to hear me correct them. But honestly, it's out of my mouth before I can even stop myself!

Spring Cleaning

Eric and I spent the majority of Saturday cleaning the house ..... from top to bottom. The house really needed it! We went room by room, putting everything away instead of just creating stacks and piles of stuff. Everyone in the house helped..........even Carter and the cats. Can't you tell?

Random Fact #4

I am in love with Rome.


I have never been so fascinated by a culture as I am with ancient Rome. I have watched countless documentaries and shows on TV and read so many books about the Romans and their culture, and I'm struck. I love watching movies that have to do with the ancient Greeks and Romans, their wars against the world as they knew it back then, the senates, the rules and laws, the battles for entertainment, Caesar, etc. I would love to make it to Rome one day to see all the ruins of the great architecture. The prestine nature of the buildings and monuments are simply amazing and it baffles me as to how they built these wonders without the use of modern machinery. Another dream...........

Random Fact #3

I love candles

I think candles are fun. I think they are romantic. And they certainly make your house smell good. I love a good candle display. I don't like tacky candles - I am very picky. My friend, Jenny, got me a candle warmer for Christmas and I use it every day. It melts the wax and makes the house smell so good, without burning down the candle. And, there is no flame, so I don't have to worry about forgetting to blow it out. I love candle light. It's soft and romantic.

Decisions, Decisions!

Well folks, the cake has been decided. We met with Aimee, of Amaru Confections (here) last night to do some cake tasting. What fun! I wish I could show up to every appointment and have a plate of cake samples just waiting for me! All the flavors were delicious. Below is a picture of what our cake will be based on. The frosting will be ivory, the little dots will be navy, and the little pearl-looking things along the border of each layer will be peri. I think it will look fabulous.

And it should TASTE fabulous, too! We went with different flavors for each layer. And this is no boring cake, I tell ya! Hopefully, something for everyone.

The bottom layer will be coconut cake with raspberry filling. Raspberry, you say? That doesn't go with coconut! Oh yes, my friend, yes it does. And it goes quite well. The lady said she usually does a key lime flavored filling with the coconut, but she just so happened to have some raspberry filling, which we sampled with the coconut cake sample..........delish! Not a combination most would think of - but you will like it, I promise!

The second layer will be strawberries and champagne cake with strawberry filling. This cake sample was to die for. Absolutely amazing.

The top layer will be red velvet cake with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Yum!

The frosting will be buttercream. We decided to not go with the fondant - I have done extensive research on fondant, and have not had the best reviews. Sure, it looks amazing and makes the cake look really smooth, but it tastes horrible and most people "peel" it off, leaving cake with no frosting. And who doesn't like buttercream frosting?!

So there it is - the cake. Only $300, to boot!

Random Fact #2

One of my life dreams is to see the castles in Europe.

My family consists largely of English, Irish, and German heritage. Fortunately for me, all three places boast amazing castles. One of my life dreams is to travel through the countrysides of England and Europe and tour some of the amazing castles, whether maintained, or just the ruins. The entire subject fascinates me - the time period, how the castles were built and maintainted, the lifestyle, the kings, the princesses, the arranged marriages, etc. Everything about it. I have done lots of research on castles over the years, including the family names associated with the castles. The Blake name (my grandfather's name) pops up many times. Who knows if we are in the same lineage, but it's nice to think that maybe some day, way back then, my family resided in some of the great castles.

I hope that some day, I can make this dream come true. Maybe an idea for our 5th wedding anniversary?

Random Facts

I thought this would be a fun idea. I think I will randomly post little tid-bits about myself that some or most people might not be aware of. Have fun learning about me!

Random Fact #1: I love reading

I LOVE reading. I remembering keeping a log during one teenage summer of all the books I read and I think my total was 42. I must have been grounded or something! I love sitting down in my spare time and diving into a great story. Some of my favorite authors include James Patterson, J.K. Rowling, Tess Gerritsen, Michael Crichton, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, James Rollins, Dan Brown, Janet Evanovich....the list really does go on. I have read so many books in my life and encourage others to do the same. It's a proven fact that it makes you smarter, expands your vocabulary, etc. Whether it's fiction or non-fiction, it's an escape from reality and I love it.

RSVP

For our wedding, we have decided to do our own invitations. Eric's mom is a very talented woman when it comes to cards/scrapbooks/crafty stuff like that. So, she and I are going to make the wedding invitations. Below are some pictures of the basic idea - obviously the colors will be ivory, navy, and peri. Don't they look great?! She's going to put together a sketch of what we are basically going for, with our colors, so I can see what they will actually look like. After that, we will order all the materials and get to work! Hopefully we can spend a couple of weekends (or maybe more!) putting them together, and in the meantime, I can be gathering addresses for all the invitees. Hopefully by the time it's "proper" to send out invitations, we will have all of them put together. I'm very excited to be hand-making the invitations. I hope they turn out fabulous! I'm sure they will.

Raincheck

Pictures yesterday were a no-go. It was really overcast and too windy. Another weekend will have to do!

Easter: Part 3

Easter: Part 2

...and more...

Easter: Part 1

There will be many pictures regarding Easter. Carter and I had a photo session today. Kid pictures are hard!! He's doing very well on sitting up....only toppled over a couple times. Check back for many more photos. We are going to Eric's mom's house tomorrow for Easter and she lives near a park. So we are going to head over to the park and take some family pictures - it's been too long since we have done pictures of Eric, Carter, and me.

Practice Makes Perfect

We're almost there! We have still been working on the sitting up thing every night. I feel we are sooo close!

Call Me!

Eric gave Carter his phone the other night to play with.

Happy Spring!

Spring is here. The weather is slowly getting warmer. The flowers are blooming.....which is not good for my seasonal allergies. Hopefully the weather will continue to get warmer and we can get Carter outside more. We are hoping to do some family pictures this weekend, weather permitting, so check back to see what we came up with!

Learning to Sit........Part 2

So two days later, he's doing much better. He still tips over from side to side, but he has stopped trying to scoot. He can prop himself up, pitched forward slightly, but hey, progress is progress, right?!

Here are some pictures from last night - we played for several hours. Eric even brought the guitar in and we rocked out. Carter loves watching and hearing Eric play the guitar.

He fell over this way.....

And that way.....

But figured out that he can prop himself up, even if it is squishing his belly!

We finally just let him fall over and play with Mr. Elephant.

Gotta love him!

Learning to Sit

Ok, this learning to sit unassisted stuff is rough!! We have been working with Carter a couple hours after work every night so sit by himself. The first day was rough. He fell all over the place. So I finally propped him up with pillows, but he would scoot his butt down and end up on his back. These pictures are from this last weekend. We have made progress since then.

Easter Bunny!

We were at Wal-Mart on Saturday and they announced free pictures with the Easter Bunny. Hey, we can't be passing up free pictures, now can we? There were kids absolutely throwing fits, scared to death of the bunny. Who was quite scary looking, in my opinion. So we never faced Carter towards the bunny. Not the best picture, but that's ok. It was free.

6 months old

Where does the time go?

"You're gonna miss this.

You're gonna want this back.

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.

These are some good times.

So take a good look around.

You may not know it now,

but you're gonna miss this."

~~Trace Adkins~~

So far, he has tried the following foods for one week at a time:

pears, squash, bananas, sweet potatoes, peaches, peas, applesauce

Bananas are by far his favorite. He absolutely mows through the bananas - I can’t shovel it in fast enough. He wasn’t too fond of sweet potatoes. He ate them, but it was a battle with the spoon. Everything else, he has done very well with. He’s still on the rice cereal.....we have done the flavored stuff, first banana flavored, then the mixed fruit flavored, now he’s on to just plain oatmeal cereal. He gets the cereal and a bottle right before bed.

He’s doing great at daycare. I am very comfortable with the people he’s going to. I had some issues at first, but we seem to have gotten over those. (I guess it’s only me with the issues, of course)

We had a long battle with a very runny/stuffy nose, which later turned into a double ear infection. That was miserable for everyone in the house. He was up to a 102.4 fever, at which point, I called the doctor. We got him on some meds, and he’s all better. Back to his playful self.

He can roll over.....belly to back, back to belly. We caught that on video.

He responds to his name.....MOST of the time. He loves the TV. Doesn’t matter what is on. We have tried some of the Baby Einstein DVDs (I got a 25 DVD set on e-bay for $62 - sweet!!) and he seems to like those.

He loves his floor toys. The one for his feet....he cracks me up, he lifts the darn thing OFF the floor. He’s a strong little fella! He reaches out for toys and swings them around wildly - sometimes hitting himself in the head or stomach. He doesn’t seem to mind.

He’s becoming so much fun. He’s more and more interactive as time goes on and I love it. He’s so fun to play with now because he’s constantly laughing and squealing with delight. We roll around on the floor and play. We are still working on the sitting up unassisted. He does ok, but still falls to the side or backwards.

We are going to get into swimming lessons in probably a month or so. How exciting!

Happy 6 months of life baby!!

Here is my friend, Jenny, giving Carter a mohawk for his birthday. Too cute!!

Discovery

Carter was playing with the water at the end of his bath tonight. My boss and his wife (here) just put their daughter into swimming lessons. She's about 6 weeks older than Carter, so I'm thinking of putting Carter into swimming lessons soon. He has his 6 month doctor appointment on Monday, so I will discuss this with the pediatrician to make sure it's ok. I will probably give him one more month before starting the lessons. He has always liked his baths, so I don't think swimming should be a difficult thing to introduce.