I wish... I could re-live one Easter memory from my childhood, and it would be the Easter that ________!


Oh man if could pick only one!  Ha!  They have all been SO wonderful!! Let's see, my whole entire life I have looked forward to Easter every year.  It was always a big deal!  Like a little spring Christmas!  When we were little we would wake up at the crack of dawn to see what the easter bunny had brought us.  We always got candy galore and of course, new easter shoes.  Preferably white patent leather with the tiniest 1/2 inch heel that made us feel oh so grown up!  We always dyed eggs the day before, tons of them, and I always cried because Susannah's were prettier than mine.  I remember trying to use the white wax crayon that came with the kit every year and messing up multiple eggs, but without fail I tried it again the next year!  Although occasionally new candies were introduced we had, without fail, malted milk eggs, robins egg gum, Reese eggs, and jelly beans.  Not the good Jelly Belly's either, the fat gross ones that always have more black ones than good colors!  Oh yes and Peeps!! We never went without the peeps!  I LOVE Peeps!  The only way to eat them is to leave them open for a day so they get that slight crispy outside and perfect marshmallowy middle! 
This was never a problem because "the Easter Bunny" always opened them the night before long after we had gone to bed as she got busy stuffing our baskets!

Then there was church.  We never wanted to go, of course we wanted to wear our fancy Easter dress and new shoes but more than that we wanted to eat our candy, play with the several new gadgets from our baskets and eat at the country club.  Now because of this we had an ongoing bribe for as long as I can remember that if we didn't go to church, we didn't eat at the club.  This included Dad who attempted to get out of it EVERY YEAR!!  But we went, and we quietly ate candy during the entire service as we passed notes back & forth all while avoiding slaps from Mom!  We would go and eat until we were sick, every year, until all of us were sick, then head home for Easter pictures!  Thank god I don't have those on my computer!! Oh the outfits we went through!  The linen dresses in the 90's that we felt SO cool in!  I vaguely remember my sister coming home from college for one Easter and she was wearing something that resembled the color of flesh, hugging every bit of her top & bottom, and Mom kept questioning her outfit choice but to her, she had made the right one!  Last year was just as fun!  We all went to my sisters house as she was pregnant with my lovely niece, and did ALL of the things we used to do, except for the club, we cooked at home!  

And then we come to this year, we won't all be together for the first time in a long time.  I am to fat pregnant to travel, and sister & J can't pack up niecy for a 4 hour trip just for the day.  Although John & I (baby included) will be with my parents & his, we will eat great and have fun I am sure, but I will still miss my sister so bad.  No one will dye eggs this year because we are the only ones that ever do, and no one will get Easter baskets because we were the only ones that always did.  Although I can't come up with just one Easter memory I want to relive, I can say that next year we are going to have to meet in the middle.  I just don't want to do it without my sister. Of all the great Easter memories I have, the ones that matter the most are with my sister.  

It's almost been a whole year...

No! I haven't been pregnant for a whole year, it just feels that way, but I am only 47 days from being married for a WHOLE year!! This has been the best year of my life!  I am so excited for what is to come for our little family of 2.5!  I finally, yes 300+ days later, put our wedding pictures on the computer and I can't seem to stop going through them, so I am going to share some of our awesome day with ya'll!  We got to start out with a few relaxing days just hanging around the beach with all of our closest friends and family!  Many memories (or things I can't remember) were made!  Such as my "bachelorette" party, this consisted of us 3 bar-hopping around Florida & Alabama and having old men pay for our drinks.

See when I drink, I seem to make A LOT of friends, usually older friends, and I insist on inviting them to my wedding.  I then reassure them that swim trunks and a Guy Harvey t-shirt just happen to be the "preferred dress" for the occasion...

No, shortly after this was taken I DID NOT get on stage with the band and wail out on my air guitar all while smoking a cigarette, holding a can of Bud Light, and being filmed by my dear friends.  Classy I know.

Lets get to the good part shall we?  Now most that read this were lucky enough to attend this big event and man was it fun!! We had a quick ocean front ceremony in which my soon to be husband about passed out due to hangover heat-stroke.  As soon as it concluded our guests went up to the reception room while we spent some time playing while our creepy, not quite Russian but with a slight fake accent photographer, followed us around the beach!  See for yourself!

We had a BLAST doing this but it was so hot and we were both feeling a little "thirsty!"  We were ready to join our friends and family up at the reception!  

 

We partied the night away!  We ate 40 pounds of crawfish among other things, and most certainly drank our bartender out of EVERYTHING before 10 o'clock at night!  Oops!!  When the happy couple finally decided to retire back to the condo so that we could make our 5am flight to Puerto Rico in 2 hours, we seemed to have given away all of our room keys.  So we spent an hour waiting on the OB sheriff to let us in, went directly to bed, got up an hour later and made a very long and tiring trip to our honeymoon destination!  

This is right when we got off the plane in Puerto Rico.  We were sooooo tired!  We immediately were offered rum for our taxi ride to the resort, we gladly accepted and kicked off the honeymoon!  We had a blast!  

I hope ya'll enjoyed seeing some of these because I honestly can't get enough!  I also have to realize that in 5 short weeks I probably won't have time to sit around and browse through 500+ pics just because I feel like it!

Shower the baby #1

We have the most wonderful friends!!  Yesterday we had our very first baby shower and it was so much fun!  Great people, great snacks, great cake! and of course great presents for the babe!!  Our friends got together to throw us a couples shower, one where we could relax, mingle, eat & drink.  No silly measure my belly games (thank god) because I don't think anyone really needs to know the inches of this beast, just relaxing fun!  While the boys drank and goofed off the girls sat around and gossiped (and drank and goofed off!)  They had a beautiful cake and ya'll I don't like cake but I guess I could have fooled everyone as I sat there eating off of the cake (no plate required).  Someone made a magical cream cheese dip with strawberries that I ate with a spoon as well!  Here are a few pics!

Me & John

How cute is this!!!

2 of the sweetest girls who thanked me for all of "their" presents!  They thought they were for them!

It was a wonderful Saturday evening with friends!  Now, back to our junk food & jammy day!!  Yeah you read right, we are both in pajamas and have disgusting plans to have pizza rolls, chips & dip, carrots & bleu cheese, & watermelon for dinner...all while watching the new Simpsons!  

My Wishful Wednesday

Oh my god I could not have found a more perfect thing to blog about!!  I have this want need that I developed shortly after finding out I was pregnant.  I need an awesome diaper bag, one that doubles as the cutest purse ever and makes people that don't have it jealous.  I know, stupid right?  I have had this problem for longer than I have been pregnant but just not with handbags, with anything I want and have no justifiable reason for buying other than I will have it.  So I just recently came across the one, the bag that will make all of my diaper bag/purse needs come true.  One that I went so far as making my husband memorize the brand and name of the style so that if anyone asks what i want he can proudly recite it!  This bag is DELECTABLE.   It oozes pretty.  It is versatile.  It makes me smile really hard.  It also come with a hefty price tag!  Now although this wouldn't have stopped me 8 short months ago something in me will not let me do it.  Maybe it is the old "pregnant brain" kicking in (thank god) or maybe it is because I have been work free for awhile but whatever it is, I want it to go away!! I want to have this and stare at it and get little bottles from it, and tuck my phone into one of the MANY perfect mommy pockets so I can be hands free to reach for whatever I am trying to buy at the moment...then reality sets in.  I remember that although to some $400 is not a pretty penny, to me it is.  I remember that I can pay multiple bills with that, or I could just buy the damn bag.  But I won't, instead I will ask John to recite the name daily until he is so tired of saying it that he goes and buys it...(hmmm a plan is forming)   Push Present??  Oh well, without further ado, here is my Wishful Wednesday Handbag!!  The Petunia Pickle Bottom Cake Society Satchel.  (yes he memorized that whole name!)

Aren't they just LOVELY?!!!!

I'm a diaper in a genie baby...

I don't want to make this a strictly baby blog because you know not all of my MANY followers (HA!) are parentals just yet! I just want to get some input on the well known Diaper Genie... I have heard as much good as I have bad on this thing and I wanna know what other people think. My thoughts are that it is stupid, I just can't see why stuffing shitty diapers in a bag in this robot looking thing is really that necessary. I mean I just assume put them in a wal-mart bag and throw them in the outside trash. Anyone with me? Have any of you guys or people you know had one and what do you/they think about it? Let me know...

On another note I have my 34 weeks check up Thursday! Woohoo!! I will leave you with a pic of my sweet girl! This was at 30 weeks with eyes and mouth wide open! I am pretty sure she is saying, "Get me outta here!!"

My day at the farm

Yeah you read it right, I said day at the farm, yes me, I went to the farm.  Ha! Well we went, but that is kind of a big deal for me, I am not a "out in the sticks" kinda gal.  If you know me you know that I like to shop, go out to eat, and shop so being 30 miles from the nearest SAM's club just won't cut it!  But...we have family that lives in a little town called farm Spiegner, AL and today we went to play!  With fun projects in mind we left home at about 10 this morning.  John & his cousin Matt are cooking BBQ in a big time cook thing (contest?) with fancy peeps like Myron Mixon so we had to give the methods a test run just to be sure that they can beat him!  (They can)  I on the other hand had ulterior motives...Matt's lovely wife Erin happens to have a monogram machine and offered up her services and ya'll let me say, a southern baby cannot have enough monogrammed goodness, so I quickly found a few plain items we have that we could spice up!  Now if these 2 temptations weren't enough to get us out to the "sticks" then this little guy was!!

This is Rutledge and you guys he is the cutest thing ever!  I am not kidding he is one good looking kid!!  Now he is not to fond of "Wawah" as he calls me but he loves him some John, he just laughs & laughs when John picks him up!  He cries when I look at him!  We arrive this afternoon and Erin immediately pulls a pork tenderloin out of the oven and slices it perfectly thin for sandwiches!  Delicious!  The boys go directly to the barn to begin the cooking and Erin and I set out on our monogramming adventure!  Before I go straight into the cuteness of my loot I will show you what we got to bring home just to make your mouth water a tad & as usual if you want the full meal you will have to hop on over to Johns blog!   It will be up later in the week.

And to give you an idea of how BIG this thing is, take a look at my big ass next to the smoker!  My ass didn't look so big here, I think I may bring this thing around with me until I give birth...

OK back to the fun!  First of all, for anyone that thinks monogramming is easy, it is not!  There are a LOT of steps in doing it and if you don't pay attention, you will monogram the wrong side of things...not that we did this or anything.  Once we chose our fonts and what was going to go on each item, we had to make them on the computer then pick thread colors then do all of this other crap that I am soooo glad Erin had the patience for before we could even start!  Wanna see my goodies?

This is one of several sweet little blankets that Grannie made for baby!

2 little plain onesies that we put an "S" on.

Blanket from Grannie

My FAV of all!!  This is the softest, sweetest blanket of all with a pink hem stitch and green letters.  This is our "out on the town" blankie!

You guys, we made out like bandits from our day at the farm!  It was tons of fun, relaxing, and we got some great loot!  Needless to say, we will come down any time Matt & Erin!  And for all my preg buddies, Erin monograms for WAY cheaper than you can buy so let me know if you want some prices.  She also does package discounts. (the more you want, the cheaper it is!!)

Ring around the toilet?

Needless to say I have been a little lax on my cleaning duties lately.  I don't know why... maybe it is because it is a struggle to keep my eyes open for more than an hour at a time, maybe it is the fact that I can't bend over anymore for fear of falling on my face, (so I'm a little top heavy) maybe it is just because I don't flippin want to clean right now!! Whatever it may be, I have a house and I have to keep it clean or I get asked questions like this.  Just picture this, I'm in the kitchen washing dishes (see I do some things) and John yells from the bathroom,
"Hey Byrd?"
Me : "Yeah?"
John : "What is this ring around the inside of the toilet?"
Me : "Well it is because I haven't cleaned it in about 2 weeks."
John : " Oh...really? That is what happens?"
Me : "Yup that is what happens."
John : "Well why has it never been there before?"
Me : "Well because I used to clean it every week babe."
John : "Hmmm, oh."

So what did we do?  Did we have a cleaning lesson on the toilet?  Did we finish the kitchen and move onto the rest of the house?  Why hell no!  We made a Caramel Custard and hopped on over to my parents house to grill out!  We had a blast, ate too much, and some of us drank too much! (not me don't worry!)  Wanna know what we had to eat? You can check out Johns blog @ Macon Dinner and later tonight it will be there for all eyes to see!  After a great dinner and even better company we headed home in time to see Jimmy Buffett & Zac Brown on CMT and get to bed at a reasonable hour.  We woke up this morning and after I had some custard breakfast we/I decided it was time to CLEAN HOUSE!!  We got out butts in gear and now we have a very clean house.  It is time to dirty it up again because I am making a BIG pot of spaghetti that you will also be able to see on Johns blog later in the week!  If only I could get around to those baby clothes that I haven't washed...if I'm not careful she will be here to help me get that done!!  Hmmm, it's a thought!

Are you "Enjoying the small things?"

Have you guys ever read or seen something that literally changed the way you think?  Like made you feel different about something you never knew you had feeling for in the first place?   Although I just started blogging I have been quite the blog stalker for sometime now.  When my sister @ The Edwards Edition started blogging I made fun of her. I said, "who the hell is going to read that and why do people do this?"  Now I get it.  I can start reading on her page and look up and it is 3 hours later, I haven't made dinner, I'm crying over someone I don't knows blog, and forcing John to READ THIS BLOG I FOUND.  

When I was little I used to ask my mom if I could adopt Down Syndrome babies when I grew up because I didn't think that it was fair that some people didn't love them and I would.  I used to beg her, I used to think adoption was simple and I would never be married and want to have my own babies, I would just "get" these babies from all over and love them like my own.  I wanted tons of babies, I wanted to live in Australia with all of them and give them nothing but love, and I believed I could...then I grew up.  And all of the bad that is in the world changed me, changed how I feel and think and love.  Changed me completely.  

A while back I came across a blog that helped me get back to that love with an "absence of stereo-types" that I felt when I was a little kid pretending my baby dolls had down syndrome because I thought they were so much cuter than "normal" babies.  Guys I am not kidding, a hundred times through out my pregnancy I have thought "WHAT IF?"  What is she is sick, what if she has a disease, what if she has heart problems, what if she dies, what if?  I want you to know that now I know what if.  Now I know that if anything in the world were to be "wrong" with my sweet angel I could do it.  I could totally and completely do it.  This blog has brought me to GUT-wrenching tears more than once and it is not in a bad way, it is the sweetest, most loving tears I could ever have.  I have them for this family, I have them for myself, I have them for Nella & Lainey.  I have them for everyone who has EVER had to live through anything, even just life.  So please go see this beautiful life that this family lives, just this normal one in a million family because man they live it in a beautiful way, they really do.
  "Enjoying the Small Things"

10 items or less...PLEASE

First off, I know that I said that I was starting a blog to chart the growth of our little one...with that being said she won't be here for a little while longer so until then I am here to bore entertain you with what is happening in my life right now!  I have a major peeve, one that fires me up to no end, one that makes me want to hurt someone....I guess I will hold off on doing these things and just bitch about it instead.  We shop at Publix.  I mean really shop, all the time, everything we need, we go about 5 times a week if not more.  It is always pleasant, the people are friendly and helpful and we can always find what we need.  So everyday we head over to Publix and ride around the parking lot looking for a spot, we don't mind walking, we almost always park in the back of the parking lot just because I make fun of the people that wait 15 minutes to pull into a spot up close and by the time they have gotten out of the car, I am done shopping.

I have been wanting to park under this sign for about 5 months until deciding that I can actually park here!

I now have FULL rights to the "New or Expectant Mom" parking space right up close to the door, and now that I do there is ALWAYS a non-pregnant, overweight, lazy person getting out of their town car that is parked in MY spot!  Yes, MY spot, I earned that spot, I gained 44 pounds to be able to park in that spot, I get out of breath thinking about walking from produce to frozen foods because I am pregnant, not just fat, pregnant.  After we once again park in the back and walk into the store giving the evil eye to the childless mid 40's lady who "just doesn't feel like walking" we  begin our shopping.  It never takes too long because like I said, we go almost daily, so as we round the corner at frozen treats (always the last stop!) we come upon the Express Lane.  The 10 items or LESS lane, the "oh you just came in to grab fruit, ice cream and bread" lane, we stumble upon the assholes people that are in this lane with anywhere from 15-237 items.  What about 10 items or less is so hard to understand people?  We look at each other, then at the lazy bastard that probably left his/her car running in the "pregnant" spot and laugh, every time we laugh.  Sometimes I say a little loudly, " man that is a long receipt for 10 items" but every time, we laugh.  We leave Publix laughing and while we walk the mile to the car as I huff and puff trying to get some air in my tiny, baby squished lungs we see the non-pregnant man with no small children and his 219 items putting his bags into his car that is in MY spot and then what does he do?? Oh you would never guess.  He does not walk the 3 feet to the cart return, or back into the store with his cart, oh heavens no, he pushes it up against the "Expectant Mom" sign, gets into his car, and drives right by us...still walking.

What I got

So I haven't been keeping record of the giant that is growing in my belly but I suppose I can show you all the progress I have...  First off, it is so very true when people say "you just wake up with a belly!"  For quite sometime I was thinking man, I look pretty good, just a little belly and it's kind of cute, in a weird "I have a gut" sort of way.  All of a sudden I wake up to see something slightly resembling a HUGE beer gut that is hard and only slightly larger than my ever growing, gigantic, head-sized boobs.  Just to ease my tiny, cute pregnant friend Laura, at Groovin with the Grizas, hopes and dreams of staying small and cute the WHOLE time, I will share!

This is very newly preg, maybe 7-8 weeks.  (god I want those jeans on me now)
I think I was making that face because my subconscious was telling me that I was soon to gain 44 pounds and still be hungry.

9 weeks... shortly after finding out I was pregnant I had all these wonderful intentions of tracking the whole thing! Yeah not so much.  It is hard for me to believe that several short months ago I was able to walk around bra-less and not feel like I may hurt myself or anyone else within several feet.

Around 17-18 weeks here.  

Hmm the big guns are coming out, this would be around 21-22 weeks.  This was that overnight thing I was talking about.  I had gained 12 pounds in 4 weeks...oops

I am quite sure I got FAT discouraged shortly after the previous picture because this one is around

25 weeks and I look/felt like I had gained a hundred pounds, although I had only gained 8 thank you. 

This is the most recent at 30 weeks, my head has gotten huge I think.  Maybe that is just my boobs smashing it up I can't tell.

This is all I have for now and if something crazy were to happen and I was to actually get dressed today I will add the latest but I have to say, don't hold your breath on that one.

Virgin Bloggers Block...

Alright, where do I start?  I suppose here is as good a place as any! I am 32 weeks and 4 days pregnant...Due to have a baby girl on May 6th.  For those of you that didn't know, that is 10 days short of my 1 year anniversary... so yeah we have been BUSY!  Shortly after I married my one true love we discussed having kids, should we wait, should we not, what should we do?  We both decided (with a little nudge from myself) that we would just see what happened.  After my sister from The Edwards Edition suffered multiple miscarriages and many of our friends have tried and tried and are still trying to get pregnant we thought we would put it in someone else's hands.  Man they had some fast hands because a short 2-3 month after being newlyweds we had to come to terms with being parents as well.  As much as I thought I was ready to be a mom, I was FREAKED out!! SO, here we are 7 months later and we are so excited at the thought of being parents to a little bitty us!  Scared, yes, but excited too!!  I figured I would start a blog so that our friends and family that don't live in town could see our little girl (and us) ALL OF THE TIME!!  Well I am getting a head start and thought I would show some of the nursery, the growing watermelon I seemed to have swallowed, and get these first few posts out of the way so that when little miss decides to arrive I won't have virgin bloggers block.  I will give warning that I cannot promise a clean happy sweet blog, this is going to be me, and those of you that know me, know I am far from 100% clean, sweet, and lovely.  (I'm like 99% there.)  So if you don't want to hear me bitch, moan, and talk about the fact that I haven't pooped in 3 days thanks to iron pills then I would suggest you move on to another read.

OK thats out of the way.  According to my "What to Expect" app on my phone, I have 7 weeks and 3 days to go...I kind of hope it is more like 4 weeks and some days but hey, who's counting?  Baby Macon is as big as a honeydew (from head to toe,) thats about 19 inches and 4.5 pounds... now if only I could figure out where the other 40.5 pounds is that I have gained??? Hmmm anybody?  This app is awesome!  I have had it from the beginning and think it is a great way to follow pregnancy, especially if you are guilty of buying multiple books, reading 3 pages, and putting them down!  It also has weekly photo albums so that you can track the ways your body changes week by week.  I have just recently gotten to the point of uncomfortable-ness that is keeping me from sleep, my other true love, and according to the app this is the time that happens!  Apparently this is normal but for whatever reason I was under the impression that I would surpass all pregnant women in the world and only gain a few pounds, never be sick, never lose sleep, and still want to have sex (yeah right!) God was I WRONG!! Ha! With the exception of being sick, I have surpassed all of these and then some.  If you have been pregnant, then you are well aware of all the weird/gross things that come along with it.  Now unlike my sister, I DO NOT love being pregnant.  Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful and I can't believe I am making a human, but I do not enjoy it by any means.  I long to be skinny again, I want my body back, my normal clothes, my jeans with actual zippers.  I want to see my feet, my feet in heels, I want my boobs to be small and not leaky and bumpy and gross, I want my thighs to be smaller than a redwood and I want to feel good!! Like really good, and awake.  I feel so bad for John (my husb) for having to see all of the above and for only getting to look at a "hot wife" for a little while.  Now he has to see me struggling to get on HIS boxers to sleep in and wearing a size E bra...Really that exists, mine is cutting into my back fat as we speak.  He still tells me I am beautiful everyday and I believe him but this is NOT what I call beautiful!  Now I am going to show a few pics of little girls room and some cute-ness! Maybe even one of my sexy belly!! Consider yourselves lucky!

First and foremost, if you are not a member of Publix Baby Club JOIN NOW!!  It is free and I got coupons for all of this, some free, some BOGO, but you get coupons up until the babies 2nd birthday!! I don't know about you guys, but I like free junk.  My loot:  bought the Huggies diapers, got the box of Huggies wipes free.  Bought one pack of Kotex Maxi pads, got one free.  Bought one pack of Publix wipes refills, got one free.  Also I had coupons for free: Beech Nut Rice Cereal, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a big cocoa butter lotion, and a hand sanitizer!! Dang ya'll!! I spent $38 and got $28 worth of free baby goods!!

This is little ones crib!! I think it is so sweet! The crib is an antique guys!  As in my mom used to sleep in it, DANG that's old!! (j/k momma!!)  Found the bedding at Storkland for a measly $475, laughed in their faces, then found it online for $127!! The cute prints are from ETSY.  Very cheap and adorable!! I think I paid $41 for all 5 including shipping!  And please notice the sweet little Sleep Sheep hanging on the crib!! A great gift from my Johns momma!

We really wanted to have a bed in the nursery so we could both sit and play with baby, we got lucky because  my Johns momma found us a twin bed that matches the crib!!  This was used by John when he was little!!  The bedding is from L.L. Bean on major sale!  The bird prints are from Target & they were $19.99 a piece, a little more than I wanted to pay but I had to have them!  They are now on sale for $13.49!  The little white lamp base was $14 from Wal-Mart. The mirror and the basket are handmade from family members and I love them!!

Sorry for the bad lighting but I got his chair for CHEAP!! $169 at Wal-Mart and $20 for the slipcover!!  The curtains are from Land of Nod on sale for $40 for 2 panels!!

The most awesome car seat & stroller!!  I could not pass these up, I have a friend that works at Swaddle in town who sold me on both!  We chose green so that we can reuse.  These are Peg-Perego, an Italian brand that is by far the safest, not only do they pass European safety standards (which are higher than ours) they are super cute!

That is all you get for now but stay tuned as I attempt to track our wonderful little mess that we are referring to as life!

I will leave you with my belly!! Maybe you will get face next time!

(This is the changing table covered in all of the clothes I have yet to wash!)