It's Almost August, Y'all.

My blog posts just keep getting farther and farther apart.  It's not because I don't like blogging.  I LOVE blogging.  It's just that with two kids under age two in my life (and in my FACE) 24/7, there is always something else more important to do when I do get a moment of "free time".

Aka, both kids are napping.

I figured I'd give a mid-year update since there's no telling when I'll sit down and write again.  Maybe tonight, maybe a month from now.  Ok so not tonight for sure.  I feel like crap (sore throat/earache thing) and we're driving to Nashville for the day tomorrow.  So I shall choose to sleep this evening.

Anyways.....so Delano turns 23 months old on Wednesday and Lucy is 6 1/2 months old already!  CRAZY!!  They just keep growing and growing and growing.

Big Stuff.

Big Stuff #2.

Delano is talking up a storm, though nobody but me, Lucas and my mom can understand him (and even then it's often questionable).  I stopped teaching him sign language once he started forming words, but I'm beginning to realize it was WAY easier to understand him back when he was just signing.  So I'm thinking I'm going to start tossing in new signs again for the words he likes to say to help avoid frustration.  For the signs he knows, if he realizes we're not understanding the word that's coming out of his mouth, he'll sign it and THEN we'll get it.  Or I'll ask him if he can say it with his hands and if he knows it he'll do it.  But most often we resort to "show me" to get him to point to whatever the hell he's talking about.

Lucy is almost sitting up by herself (though not quite) and is almost crawling (though not quite).  She's now sleeping in a Pack N Play by our bed instead of the Rock N Play, but I still have to swaddle her lower half since she can't yet sleep when her legs are free to do what they want.  I recently bought her a crib for the guest room, but I need to call the piano movers to come move the piano out of that room and into the den, and I need to buy a crib mattress.  As soon as all that gets done we'll be back to having our bedroom to ourselves!  Delano was in our room until he was seven months old, so she's right on schedule.

I still cloth diaper both kiddos.  Lucy is currently in the Size Small gDiapers, but it won't be long before she'll be moving into the Mediums.  And I anticipate having the exact same problem with Lucy as I had with Delano: the jump from Small to Medium is just a little too big.  When I made the switch with Delano, he was leaking in the Smalls (because they were too small and sitting too low) and leaking in the Mediums (because they would gap at the leg openings) so I played around with other diapers and different insert combinations and what not until he grew just a little more.  The whole diaper transition debacle didn't last that long and we were soon fitting into the Mediums like a glove, but I do see the whole thing happening again soon with #2.

Delano has his own potty sitting in the bathroom and he will sit on it (clothed) and play with it, but has shown ZERO interest in actually pottying in it.  So I'm just waiting for the day that he wants to go.  I'm not going to force it, plus he's not even two yet.  But it would definitely be awesome if he wanted to do it!


Tuesday:

Obviously I finished this post up right on time.

So what else has been going on?  I talked about the beach vowel renewal a little, though not much, so let's talk about that!

Here comes the bride!  That's my brother on guitar.

The wedding happened down in Miramar Beach, Florida on May 10th, our one-year anniversary as well as my 35th birthday.  There was a threat of thunderstorms all day so it was a little windy, but it turned out to be perfect for the wedding because it wasn't too hot or too sunny.....nor did it ever rain....so it was perfect!  The dress that I wore was not AT ALL the style of dress I envisioned myself in on the beach, but it turned out to be pretty perfect for the mom of a 4-month-old baby (it covered my lingering baby belly and held in my giganto milk udders like a glove).  I told Lucas that next May, on our 2nd anniversary/my birthday/Mother's Day when I'm all skinny again, I want to wear something sexy and formfitting and do another photo shoot on the beach. :)

Anyways, a few of us girls practiced (via a homemade video shared on Facebook) a little song and dance number for the start of the ceremony.  We sang "Going to the Chapel" but replaced the word "Chapel" with "Beachfront". 

Sangin' and Dancin'

Our ceremony was short and sweet, but it definitely had its "oops" moments.  Amanda and I had not practiced hair and makeup beforehand for various reasons and so everything was a one-shot deal with no time for changes and then we were still almost late to the wedding anyway (and I almost arrived with REALLY BRIGHT lipstick stuck to my lips).  Lucas and I had written haikus for each other to read, but I left them in the car.  But the biggest "oops" was during the sand ceremony.  At the last minute Lucas and I decided to toss our sand instead of pouring it into the vase.  I tossed my sand with a little too much gumption, it caught the wind (remember that wind I mentioned earlier?), and then caught a few bystanders in the process - worst of all my 4-month-old daughter who started WAILING.  Oops.

The exact moment when the s*** hit the fan.  The sand, that is.

After the ceremony all 40-50 of us went to Pompano Joe's for dinner, drinks, cake and conversation.  Then after that we put the kids to bed and after-partied at our rental house.  We spent the next two full days eating a whole lot of seafood and being a whole lot of lazy.  On the 5th day of vacation, we had brunch with the remaining members of Lucas's extended family that was in town, and then hit the road to head home.  It was a vacation that ended way too early!

It was hard to tell in the beach photos, but my dress did have a train.

Thursday:

Ugh.  I cannot stay on task long enough to even finish this dang blog.  I could have wrapped it up days ago, but I just didn't feel like it was "finished".  But right now my hound dog is barking like crazy downstairs and I have to go see what her problem is before she makes me crazy.  I think it's just because she knows I'm up and doesn't like the fact that I already put her (and the others) to bed.  I'll pause the TV for now to see if she stops..........

She did.  She can hear the TV so now she thinks I went to bed.  ;)

Anyways......what else has been going on?  Let's see.....I've been bartending special events at the Hunter Art Museum for the past seven (SEVEN!!!) years, but just got hired on by the Tennessee Aquarium as a special events bartender this past May!  So now I've got a relatively busy schedule with both venues, which is awesome.  Gives me a little extra money in my pocket, gives Mommy some time away from the kiddos (even though I'm working) and gives Daddy some time to rock the kiddo-gig all by his lonesome. 

I still do contract work as an environmental scientist and actually completed two overlapping projects a few weeks ago, but I don't have anything else in the books as of now for environmental work.  I'd definitely be okay with seeing a few more of those projects come in, though! (That's where my big money comes from.)  Mama needs to pay off her school loan!

Saturday:

I swear, no more days of adding to this blog after today.  This is just getting ridiculous.  And I'm only going to write a short bit today and then I'M DONE I SWEAR.

So for the past few weeks I've been keeping the secret of my plans to trash the dress.  If you don't know what I mean by "trash the dress", then I should explain that I mean trash my wedding dress.  Years ago I had decided that I wanted to do this, but I had forgotten all about it until my friend Nikki mentioned that I would be the perfect person to trash a wedding dress.  Then I was like, OH YEAH! THAT'S RIGHT, I AM!!!. The typical trash-the-dress photos anyone sees out there usually involve either paint or water (see below).

A water-related trash-the-dress shot.  Completely awesome, but typical.

Cute as a button, but again, pretty typical.

I forgot about mud.  But I guess that kind of goes right alongside water.

And then there's also fire, but that's pretty much either a photoshop effect (so not a real trash) or a definite one-shot deal.  Can you imagine if your photog didn't get a good shot? "Umm....can we do that again?"

I had been following the story regarding the Wall of Doughnuts in Chattanooga, a mural on the side of the Koch's Bakery storage building that has been placed under fire by the City of Chattanooga as being "illegal advertising".  The bakery is defending the $11,000 mural as art and wants it to stay......the City wants to paint over it.  As I was reading about the mural, it hit me that it would be the PERFECT location to trash my dress!  So I scheduled some hair and makeup, scheduled my photographer, bought some doughnuts (and chocolate sauce and whipped cream and sprinkles) and planned to trash my dress!  It was raining during most of the session, so I borrowed my FSIL's clear umbrella (that she and my brother had used in some of their engagement photos) to use in the shoot as well.  Here's a sneak peek:

 

I'll share more pictures (along with pictures from our recent family photo shoot) in my next blog post.  For now, though, I'm pulling the plug on this one.  It has taken me way too long to write, and I've got crap to do anyway.  :)