Baby Bieber Fever

Since it's been pouring rain incessantly for about three days now, Gemma and I were going a little crazy cooped up inside the house and decided to hit up the mall for a bit yesterday.  It was a short trip because Gemma was really cranky, but she did perk up when we suddenly spotted Justin Bieber!

Okay, so it wasn't really the Biebs; it was just a cardboard cutout of him.  But we still had fun getting our pictures taken with him.

Gemma in particular seemed a little too excited to have her picture taken with him.  I think she has caught the baby Bieber Fever!

A Side of Spam with Your Blog Post, Anyone?

Anyone else having spammy links suddenly show up in their blog posts?  Links that you definitely did not put in, and apparently cannot remove?  For the record, I am certainly NOT advocating any of the ridiculous celebrity fad diets my post below is now linked to suddenly.  I truly hope this is just a fluke or some sort of hacking that Blogger will soon correct, otherwise they will be seeing the end of my posting days on their site!

Weekend in Review

We had an exceptionally fun weekend this past weekend.  It started off great on Friday night with a spontaneous date night.  Nana was in town watching Noah and Liam for a few days, and she and Wes offered to watch Gemma Friday night so Cy and I could go out to eat.  I don't think we've had an opportunity to go out alone since our babysitter (Nana) moved a couple months ago.  (We have an overnight getaway planned for our 5th anniversary in a couple of weeks that we are very excited about.) We went to Outback and had a really great time getting to chat and actually focus on each other without having to give Gemma our full attention the whole time.  Then we stopped by Barnes and Noble to pick up a couple of their delicious Cheesecake Factory-made desserts to take home.

On Saturday, we had more deliciousness in the form of Bojangles breakfast and homemade pizza for lunch (Greek pizza with spinach, feta, red pepper, and black olives on my half; pepperoni on Cy's half)...did I mention that I really need to get back on the wagon with my low-carb diet this week?  We took an early morning trip to the pool to play with Gemma, and enjoyed having the entire pool to ourselves.  Nana picked up Chick-Fil-A for her and the boys and they came over around lunch time to play for a bit.  Gemma and Liam and Cy all had a fabulous time tackling each other in the living room.  We continued our Harry Potter movie marathon with Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, and part of Half-Blood Prince.  We ate some delicious fresh watermelon that was given to us:

Cy enjoyed playing Halo in his official new XBox pants (a surprise gift from me):

On Sunday, we were running late but still managed to make it to church.  And wow, I was glad that we did.  The sermon was definitely one I needed to hear.  The title was "Women We Should Esteem" and the scripture was from 1 Timothy 5:3-10.  Buster talked about the things that our culture tells us we should esteem in women: expensive fashion, and looking young, thin, and beautiful, etc. and how wrong this is.  He then outlined 7 things that the passage showed we should esteem in women:
1 - Women who put their hope in God
2 - Women who have been faithful to their husbands - and he talked about how this didn't just mean morally, but that it also meant respecting and building up your husband
3 - Women who bring up children in the Lord - and not just their own children
4 - Women who show hospitality
5 - Women who wash the feet of the saints or bless other believers through service
6 - Women who help those in trouble or relieve the afflicted
7 - Women who devote themselves to doing all kinds of good deeds
This sermon spoke to me because (as I've written about before) my biggest personal struggle is with obsessing over my weight, and hating and refusing to accept my body and the way I look.  I have tried all sorts of diets and forms of exercise but I am at a point where it is extremely difficult for me to lose weight.  And I hate myself for it.  But this is not a new problem for me - at my smallest, I wore a size 2 or a size 0, and even then, I hated myself and thought I needed to lose weight.  It is something I have struggled with for years, and I just can't seem to keep my head on straight about it, and if I am not careful, I let my constant obsession with it completely overtake my life.  Buster's words on Sunday and the words straight from Scripture were a reality check for me (once again) that I am spending way too much time focusing on something completely superficial and that is pulling me farther and farther away from Christ.  Some days, worrying over my weight is literally all I can think about.  And I don't want to be that person.  I want to be the type of woman Buster described in his sermon.  I want to be expending my energy ministering to others instead of being completely wrapped up in myself the way I have been lately.  And I'm not saying that just by boldly declaring this, I'll never fall back into my old patterns again.  It's something I have to take day by day, minute by minute even.  But hopefully I can keep this sermon in the front of my mind and fall back on its reassurances when I am tempted to indulge in my self-centered ways.

Anyway...I didn't intend for this blog post to turn into a sermon of its own, but that was a very important part of our weekend and it was on my heart to share.

On a lighter note, we took a fun trip downtown on Sunday afternoon to check out the fairly new Forever21 store that opened in the old Saks Fifth Avenue building.  I really really liked this store, but found it a bit overwhelming because there were SOOOOO many things to look at in there!  I ended up getting a dress and two shirts after about an hour of just roaming around with a glazed look on my face.  This may be my new go-to store now though.  They have such cute, trendy clothes and so inexpensive!  I paid around $50 for the dress and 2 shirts:

We finished up our downtown trip with a quick stop at Robot Candy Co., where I scored some strawberry puff candy that I loved as a kid but haven't seen anywhere in ages.

Our family loves our weekends together, but it really makes Monday that much more of a bummer when Cy has to go back to work and I have to start on the week's chores!

Sew, a needle pulling thread

I randomly decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to learn how to sew.  Actually, that I wanted to teach myself how to sew.  My house is populated by people who will always need everything hemmed due to their shortness, and I didn't even know how to sew a button back on, let alone hem a pair of pants.  So I borrowed a sewing machine from my mother-in-law, went to Wal-Mart and got a couple yards of fabric off the $1.50/yd. clearance table, and got some sort of skirt pattern that claimed it was an easy, learn-to-sew pattern (this turned out to be a lie).

Things started off well - from years of experience watching/helping my mom sew stuff (she is an extremely talented seamstress), I knew a few basics and was able to get the fabric cut.  Then after much time puzzling over the user manual for the sewing machine (who writes these things, anyway?) I got the machine threaded.  I started by sewing the side seams of the skirt.  That was easy and went surprisingly well.

Then it was time to do the separate piece elastic waistband.  (Remember how I said the pattern people lied about the level of difficulty?)  The way the instructions suggested I complete this task made absolutely no sense to me so I ended up calling my mom and we hashed out a few ideas and then came up with a method of our own which worked way better.

Then it was time for the hem.  Well, since I had followed the instructions and pulled the elastic waist in and saved the hem for last, there was too much excess material at the bottom of the skirt and so the material kept bunching up and pulling.  Grr.  I called my mom again and we brainstormed a few more ideas.  We settled on one, and I began sewing again.  I was about halfway through the hem thinking that things were going really well again when I noticed that my bobbin had completely run out of thread and I was not actually stitching the hem but instead just poking a line of holes into the fabric.  Grr.  Then of course, I could not for the life of me get the stupid sewing machine threaded correctly again.  I still don't know what the deal is but eventually I got it sort of working and just finished up the hem not really caring at this point what it looked like. 

In the end, I finished the skirt, though it is too big and the stitching is not great so I doubt I will probably wear it but the point was sewing practice and not cutting-edge fashion anyway:

I have gotten several other very cute fabrics and am planning to try a bag next (with a Sewing For Dummies pattern this time - hopefully that will be easier than whatever nonsensical pattern I used for that skirt!):

If I ever feel brave enough, I'd love to make something cute for Gemma out of the pink cowgirl fabric and this green owl fabric:

4th of July and other stuff

We spent (part of) the long Independence Day weekend with Cy's family on Lake Murray.  Gemma hasn't been sleeping well away from home lately, so we made it a short trip: we drove up Saturday morning during Gemma's morning nap time, then drove back Sunday afternoon during Gemma's afternoon nap time.  Even though it was a quick trip, we had a lot of fun.

We were able to take a tour of the new house (we hadn't seen it since they were laying the foundation) and finally get a feel for the layout.  It is going to be a really nice house!

We of course enjoyed splashing around in the lake some, and had a highly entertaining dinner at a nearby place called Spinner's.  I say highly entertaining because there was an extremely sketchy local band named Cash Money belting out old favorites such as "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" in a truly awful falsetto.  Also Gemma was removing all my French fries from my basket one at a time and dropping them in my purse (I found a petrified French fry buried at the bottom of my purse a day or two later):

After dinner, we had some cookie cake and presents for Cy.  He was serenaded with "Happy Birthday" several times during the weekend.  On Saturday night, we dragged some chairs to the new house to try to watch the fireworks.  We ended up not being able to see at all through the trees, so gave up pretty fast and went to bed.  Gemma had fun playing with Noah and Liam while we were there too.

We spent the actual 4th of July (Cy's birthday) just taking it easy at home.  After years of having his birthday on the 4th, Cy pretty much hates all 4th-related activities (such as fireworks), so we generally try to avoid them.  He said that the relaxing day at home was perfect and just what he wanted.  Gemma got all decked out in a cute patriotic halter dress for the special day (I finally got an iPhone and I am addicted to Instagram!):

In other news, Gemma was officially 14 months old as of yesterday and wow is she growing up fast.  She is learning tons of new stuff every day.  For example, I haven't been feeling well (as an aside: I left my bottle of allergy pills on the table at Spinner's after giving them to Gemma to play with during dinner and have now developed a gross cold/sinus thing) so instead of kissing Gemma when she went down for her nap, I blew her a kiss instead.  Without hesitation, she put her own little hand to her mouth and blew me a kiss back!  It was so sweet!  She has also gotten very good at finding your nose if you ask her to.  She still is not walking but I know that it will happen when she is ready. 

I took this growth picture of her last night right after she finished her bath (hence the crazy hair).  Apparently the bath got her really wound up, so I had to snap this picture very quickly in between her rocking in the chair and throwing her giraffe on the floor.  Good times.

If I were a Pretty Little Liar...

...I would totally be wearing this necklace:

or this pin:

among other absolutely gorgeous fashionable things.  I would LOVE to have either of these but I am a few months too late and a lot of dollars short.