Getting in the Christmas Spirit

This weekend was full of decorating for the Holidays at the Moody house. Growing up the only decorating Syd from SouthernSassblog.com and I had was the Christmas tree.  Mama C always put the tree up and added the ribbon, burlap, etc she had chosen for the year.  Once the tree looked like it had come straight out of a department store we were allowed to put the "special" ornaments on. 

So knowing this bit of info plus the fact that I am very controlling and majorly OCD when it comes to things like decorating, organizing and the way people clean, you can imagine my reaction when Aaron pulled out the Christmas tree and decorations last year.  There was a pre-lit tree and "special" ornaments....that's it.  No ribbon, no bows, no glitter, no bulbs of one color to give the tree some uniformity.  It was more than I could wrap my mind around so we immediately made a trip to pick up the necessities and it ended up being beautiful.

Now that we have moved into a bigger, prettier home with much taller ceilings, his bachelor 6.5ft tall tree just wasn't going to cut it.  That man found me a beautiful full 9ft tree that looks amazing even before Little J has been home to put the "special" ornaments on.  Our new house definitely is more of a rustic decor home so we I opted for rust/bronze colored ornaments in shiny, matte, and glitter bulbs.  Wrapped some burlap ribbon around that baby, added some burlap to the bottom for a skirt, if you will, and it looks great.  We ended up getting a tree that was not pre-lit and I think adding the amount of lights we deemed appropriate was the most daunting task.

My parents never bothered with Christmas lights or yard decor when we were kids.  My mom always had more on her plate than she could handle anyway so it was a miracle the tree was even up before Christmas. So, when Little J wanted Christmas lights and yard decorations Aaron and I were not about to tell her 'no.'  Not to mention I probably wanted them more than she did.

I even changed out centerpiece for our table and our wreath for our door.  I was in major cleaning/decorating mode this weekend.  I'm not sure if it has something to do with being at the end of my pregnancy and I still haven't even started on the baby room so I needed to "nest" something or if I was just so excited to decorate our new house for the Holidays but Aaron and I are both much more pleasant to be around when our house is as clean as it is right now and everything is decorated.

Baby Bumps!

I have failed miserably at taking weekly, monthly, whatever baby bump pictures. If you know me, you know that everything has to have an order to it so obviously it drives me crazy that these are all so random! Here it is, my ever growing baby bump:

1 week (or so they tell me). Obviously I had no idea.

 9 weeks

15 weeks

 18 weeks

 23 weeks

26 weeks

30 weeks

 

As of tomorrow, I am officially 32 weeks.  Only 8 more weeks until we get to meet Baby Girl Moody!  

Baby Shower Time!

My baby shower was Sunday.  My mom and I may be the worst ever at getting invitations to events out to people in a timely manner.  The last of the invites were mailed on Thursday.  I won't even mention that the first set of invites were only mailed on Monday.  Seriously, who gives people less than one weeks notice for things like this?? 

I am not one for big over the top things.  I prefer to be low key and keep people out of my business.  So, the fact that my mom and aunts, Aaron's mom and aunt, sprinkled with a few other important people were the extent of my shower, made me very happy and took away the anxiety of having to make small talk with people I don't know. 

I have taken care of a LOT of babies in my nannying days so I am not clueless when it comes to babies and the things they need and how to care for them but when it comes to registering for necessary items your own baby needs, where do you even start?  We have a crib, we have a changing table, we have about 5 strollers (don't even ask), car seat: check, bedding, tons of clothes, more shoes than any human being could ever need.  So what is left?  Diapers and wipes obviously, but what else?  I had no clue what to tell these people I needed! 

Now that it is said and done I have a ridiculous list in my head of things I need to go buy to prepare for this child.  Where was this list weeks ago???  What are some things you guys couldn't have lived without when you had your babies? 

I guess someone needed new kicks...

Nothing irritates me more than people stealing from others.  I don't mind helping people out but do not take what doesn't belong to you.

I logged into my bank account this morning just like I do every morning to make sure the number I have in my head is the exact amount actually in my checking account.  Sure enough, it says I have $600 in my business account however, only $34.15  is available for use!  Umm..say what?  I haven't purchased a thing for business or personal use since yesterday when I checked on my money!

Upon further investigation there is a charge for $395 to finishline.com.   Sure, I could use new running shoes BUT I sure did not spend a dime at the place today.  And $395?  Are they serious?  How many pairs of Nikes did you need today?

I immediately called my bank.  As they are telling me how to go about recooperating my money I scroll down just a bit to see if there are any other charges I did not make.  Apparently the culprit also needed a Match.com account. 

So, to anyone perusing match.com profiles today, if you come across someone with a love for fresh kicks:  BEWARE!

Oh, how life has changed.

If you had asked me 2 years ago where I thought I would be in life right this second, I wouldn't have ever suggested anything even close to what my life has become.

Eighteen months ago I met an awesome guy who really wanted to put up with my shit.  No matter how much I fought it. 

Seven months later, he gave me this pretty ring, to be followed four months later with a wedding.  Yes, I  married this guy 11 months TO THE DAY that I met him. 

I exchanged my 20 something roommate for a  newer model 7 year old step daughter who teaches me way more than I could ever teach her.  And they tell me as of January 29th there will be 3 girls covering our house in glitter and tutus rather than just the two of us who live there now.

Clearly this is a far cry from what I, or anyone who has ever known me, would have expected but I love it and I wouldn't change it for anything!

Who knew?

I've decided that having a step-daughter is kinda like having a sister.  I know its not that way for some people but Little J is just cooler than those other step daughters.  When I start really getting upset that I don't get to spend as much time with S as I'm used to, little J pops in and gives me a taste of my relationship with S when she was 6 and I was 9. 

First of all, Little J thinks I'm awesome.  6 year old S thought I was pretty awesome too.  Who am I kidding, 20 something S still thinks I'm awesome.

Little J NEVER shuts up. As long as its just the two of us in the car or in the house she will chat ALL. DAY. LONG. When S and I were younger we could start chatting when we woke up and a few hours later we'd still be in the same spot where we had managed to lead into story after story of things that were important to our 6 and 9 year old selves. Little J does the same thing...that kid does not have a secret in the world she hasn't felt compelled to tell me. 

S and I used to get in trouble at night for talking too much.  We went to bed at 8:00 every night promptly after the theme song from COPS played through the ending credits.  Papa C did not give bed time warnings or warnings of any kind for that matter and we KNEW that the ending of COPS was our cue to get our butts to bed. We would take ourselves to bed and that girl would not stop talking.  Even though we would talk to each other all day every day we still had things to say for hours when it was time for bed until one of us finally said "I'm going to sleep. Stop talking."

Little J and I stayed at my parents house this weekend and slept in S's bed since she was gone.  I almost forgot it wasn't S chatting away keeping me awake until 2:30 in the morning in our childhood bedroom.  Add to that the grinding of the teeth and snoring as she slept, Little J transformed into S until it was time to wake up and she turned down eating breakfast.  The fact that she turned down a meal was my only indication that she was in fact not my sister.

 

I have a twin...

It all started 10 holy crap…really years ago.  I was at a high school graduation my senior year in a massive event center, I looked to my right and about 2 sections over I made eye contact with a girl that made me think I was looking in a mirror.  I kid you not, I was in such shock that I could not stop staring at her.  I’m sure she thought I was a freak but this girl looked EXACTLY like me.

Once or twice a year throughout college I would get phone calls from people wanting to know why I didn’t say hi when they saw me at a place I had never been or where I was going when I passed them on the road while I was magically still in my bed.  I even got an angry phone call from my mother when I was 19 or 20 because some guys that worked for my dad swore to him they saw me at some trashy bar in a town a didn’t live in or even visit that often.  Its hard to convince people its not you when the person looks exactly like you.

Over the last 2 years the encounters people in my life have been having with this girl have gotten more frequent and I’ve been mistaken for her on several occasions as well.  I can only assume I am being mistaken for the girl that is being mistaken for me.   Let me also note that the sighting of this mystery girl always occur in a 10 mile radius an hour from where I grew up.

One and a half years ago I bought a harvest moon color VW Beetle convertible (biggest mistake of my life, judge me later).  That’s when things really started to get weird.  I have been led to believe that my twin also drives this same car. When I drove that thing the amount of pissed off people that I ignored when they “waved at me” tripled.  Aubrey and Erin (cousins to S and me who lived with us at the time) were visiting their mom and passed “me” waving and called me immediately to find out where I was going. The real me was tucked up into bed watching Gossip Girl but that was the point that I knew there really was a girl running around town tricking people.

A few short weeks after that happened I was leaving a place with my mother in the same 10 mile radius and a truck swerved over in front of me in a parking lot and starting laughing and waving as he rolled down his window.  He pulled up next to me to chat and I just stared at him.  It took him a second and his eyes got quite large and he apologized because he thought I was someone else.

I hadn’t heard much about this girl in a while until last night. A distant cousin of my mom’s posted this on my facebook wall:

 

I thought “ah…she’s still alive.”

Then today my best friend in this world besides S of course, who would know me just by seeing my shadow sent me this:

At least my boobs are bigger.

Does this happen to other people???

-G