And the results are in...

I hope I'm not the only irrationally momma out there who thinks every headache, upset tummy, and sleepiness are signs of another occupant living in my belly!

Seriously ever since I've had Phoenix every few weeks I'm like 'Oh crap! Where' my aunt Flo?' and then sure enough she shows up a few days later then I expected. Since having Phoenix making those little red dots on my calendar once a month has been the least of my concerns!

I remember the day we got our little Charlotte girl I was on the way to Target to get pet supplies and it hit me "Oh my GOD! WHERE THE HE!? IS MY PERIOD!!!!" All through Target I walked around in this cloud thinking of two screaming babies, piling laundry, 2 diaper bags and fat rolls galore! I quickly ran to get a pregnancy test and drove home as quick as I could! I called Shawn to come upstairs and I was shaking and crying! Don't get me wrong. I love my monkey baby and I even loved being pregnant. But I don't have a lot of patience and I have always known popping kids out one after another was just not me!

Shawn tried to calm me down and say he really didn't think I was, but based on my math I hadn't had a period in like 45 days! So I pulled open the Clear Blue Easy box and peed so fast!

Those 5 minutes were truly agonizing! But of course it read "NOT PREGNANT!"

Phew! What a relief! But I sure did call my doctor and make an appointment to get Mirena...

But even with this trust little device, I still feel paranoid. Every few weeks when it seems my period is late again (she must like making me sweat) I'll ask Shawn if he thinks I could be, I'm always to scared to pull out my emergency pee stick.

But last night, my mom really freaked me out! After dinner I was debating if I wanted to go to Coldstones for dessert. And I said I had been "craving it"and of course my mom says "You aren't pregnant are you!?" "No!" I shouted. But that 15 minutes ride down the mountain really f'd with my head and as soon as I got home I pulled out my emergency test, took a deep breath and let it go.....



In case you can't see it, that does say NOT pregnant. Phew! Dodged another bullet!

Silent Sunday- Trash Man

Weird & Wonderful Etsy Wednesday

Playskool Busy Ball Popper

Phoenix is a busy body so it's only fitting that he like busy toys! The Playskool Busy Ball Popper is one of his favorite birthday gifts.

I myself also enjoy it to. Phoenix loves to put the balls in and watch them go flying out of the tube. Then he tries to go and catch them and chases them around while saying "ball, ball,ball". Phoenix can get bored easily, but this toy does keep his attention for a long while. And when he's flipping out and have a tantrum I just push the button and he's like "Ohhhh, baaaaalllls"

Ours of course isn't this girly pink color. But it's the only one I could find.

Back to school blues UPDATED

Like a lot of the kids in America right now I was very sad to see the kids go back to school. I lost my nanny's! For the entire summer my little sisters have come over to hang out during the day AND to entertain Phoenix.

It was so easy to get stuff done, but now school has gone back and we are once again on our own.
To make matters worse two more teeth are coming in and unlike other times this has been HELL!!

Yesterday Phoenix was so cranky, whiny, and snotty that I accomplished ZILCH! All he wanted to do was cry all day long. He didn't want to eat, he didn't want to play. His butt was red and raw so he didn't want to be carried on my hip. It was pure exhaustion!

Finally after the second forced nap he woke up and was in a good mood playing with his ball popper toy and then I opened the front door and he started screaming because he wanted to go out! I just couldn't go out then because it was like a 100 degrees, so it took me a good 30 minutes to settle him down again. The only thing that would settle him was this (AND OF COURSE NOT IN PINK.LOL)

That was my Saturday,Sunday and Monday basically. Now he's sleeping and seems to be in a better mood, so we'll see how things go.

I also had to play nurse on Sunday to the other boy.

My parents live in this huge house up in the mountains and my brothers have finally gotten the dirt bikes they have always wanted. Of course every Sunday we are up on the mountain for dinner and Shawn, my brother-in-law, the brothers, and my Dad are out scouting for new trails and building ramps and all kinds of dangerous things!

This Sunday the guys were being all 007. Come to find out they had found some trail to go biking on that actually had a sign that said "Beware of Wilderness" (yeah did I mention there have been bear sightings near their house?!) and had been gone for awhile and when they came back my husband and thrown off of the bike and his back was all beat up! He says if he hadn't been wearing a helmet he surely would have cracked his skull open!

I had to pour peroxide all over his back and hands! I felt so bad for him because he was on the bathroom floor screaming into a towel!

And don't be fooled by these pictures. This was after bandages and peroxide! It was horrid!

And do you know that he got up and talked about how he couldn't wait to do it again?!

All I asked was if the life insurance policy was up to date.....

UPDATED: PICTURES WITH THE BANDAGES OFF

The Campbell Home Makeover

Shawn and I have only been together 3 years and have lived in FOUR different places!

The first place was an apartment and I hated it so much (he signed papers on it before I even saw it!) that I refused to turn it into "home". No pictures, no decor, NOTHING!

The second place was a townhouse we moved into 5 months before Phoenix was born and moved out 2 months AFTER he was born! This place also never felt like home and by the time I started to get comfortable I started itching for something new and itching to be closer to my
family.

The third place was my favorite. It was a single family home that had a huge backyard, hardwood floors, deck, garage, 4 floors. I liked it. I didn't looove it (the outside was kind of odd) but I was comfortable enough that I knew I could make it home for awhile. Plus our community was across the street from a Target, Barnes & Nobles and Old Navy! Mecca! And only 5 minutes away from my family.

But then I get the word my parents were moving an hour away and I started getting sad. I started looking and when I saw what I could get for our money where we are now I knew it made sense. So we gave our landlord a story and packed up!

And here we are now. I pretty much love our house and neighborhood. The only things I don't like is that we don't have a deck and our backyard is small. But it was built in 05 or 06 so it's very new looking, my kitchen is huge,my bathroom has double sinks, jacuzzi tub, I have a walk in closet, full basement,fire place and 4 bedrooms....I think that we have found home for at least 2 more years (maybe. What can I say?I like new things and get bored easily)

Now the only thing to do is turn in to HOME. I read Nesting Place for inspiration and this girl is AMAZING! I also settled on what I what my home to say which is, Shabby,Vintage,Chic (stop laughing Mom!). What I love about this is it's such an eclectic way to decorate a home AND to be completely authentic to the vintage side, it can be done cheaply!

I have all of these ideas about scouring Craigslist, antique stores and even flea markets (Yikes!). I'm thinking old looking pieces of furniture (minus the couch) that can be repainted. I'm thinking doors on walls and shutters. Mirrors and empty frames.

My first order of business is a new couch. I found one Saturday that I really like.


The colors are hard to see. It's striped with sage, pink, and different shades of browns and beige. The colors are lighter then they are showing. It's really comfy and perfect for curling up on and reading allllll day.

And then after that its a few scouting trips to Goodwill, antique stores and flea markets to finish!
On a whim I stopped at Goodwill yesterday and was shocked to see so many great finds (furniture wise).

Shawn found this great trunk which we are guessing is from WW2 era. Perfect for a coffee table
dontcha think?




I found this pitcher that I'll use as a vase, that accidentally matches perfectly with the sofa.


And my favorite piece was this random table thing. I'm thinking of repainting it white and stenciling it with the same words or something else?? And using it near my steps to display pictures.



My final order of business is to mistreat"my windows (blog on this later)

Is this going to be as great as I think or am I totally going to make my house look shabby and used instead of vintage and chic?

Picasa web album

Just wanted to let you all know I had to discountinue using my Flickr stream. The reason for this was after uploading the Monkey's birthday pictures I had reached my monthly free limit.

I'm all for spending money (just ask my husband), but there are some things I just can't see paying for. Like uploading photos.

I returned to my trusty little friend Google and have started using Picasa Web Albums.

I'll continue to make the Flickr stream public (see my stalk me button for the link) but going forward all the new pictures of the Monkey will be on Picasa.

Silent Sunday-Daddy time Edition

Etsy: Strange, weird, & wonderful finds

One of my favorite obsessions is Etsy. I subscribe to daily Etsy finds and sometimes I find some really great things and other times I find some rather strange ones.

I'm thinking of doing an Etsy feature of the strange,weird, and wonderful finds.

Here are today's. Can you guess which is wonderful and which is weird?

This Etsy seller has a lot of beautiful headbands. When my (husband imposed) shopping ban lifts I'll be buying the shop out!

Hmmm...here's an idea....what about hanging this in your baby's teddy bear themed nursery?! Don't steal the idea! It's mine!

Now this is a photo I would gladly display. I think it's very beautiful.

Maybe a nice Valentines day gift for your single bestie?

Filling the closets

Phew! It was actually a lot tougher to not be on the internet then I thought. Our church has extended the fasting until September 19th. I'm not sure if I can go that long without the internet! But maybe that's a sign that I need to?

When I finally got in to check my email this morning I found a couple things you might be interested in.

• Gymboree is having a Friends and Family sale starting Thursday but only until Sunday.Use the code GYMFAMILY to get 30% off

• Crazy 8 (sister store to Gymboree) is also having the same sale. Thursday to Sunday. 20% off use code CZYEMAIL

• One of my favorite daily deal sites Woot just started a Kids.Woot

and last but not least for the Mommas!

My favorite ModCloth informed me today that a dress I've been coveting is back in stock.

The Frassy Dress

Isn't it adorable? I had to get special permission to order it though. My husband finally realized last week what a serious problem with money and shopping that I have. Like it is baaaaaad.
So in order to instill some "financial responsibility" in me and "financial accountability" I now have to get "prior approval" for any purchase other than food. IT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!
But I know that he put his trust in me to manage the money and I suck at it so I want to win back his trust and my shopping freedom! I've really missed my daily friend the UPS man :-(

Silent Sunday-Political Edition

Wasted breast milk

I was just in the Giant picking up some essentials. Cupcakes, orange juice, cinnamon buns, chocolate milk. Ya know the usual?

Well I headed over to the card section to pick up birthday cards for my Gannie (Happy birthday Gans!) and I saw a section of cards from Hallmark called "Edge of Motherhood"

And this card made me LOL.



When I saw this I thought about my sisters wedding. Phoenix was 3 months old and still nursing of course. I was wearing a strapless dress that had to be unzipped and I was still getting used to him and his schedule and getting the hang of everything. Extra diapers? Check. Paci? Check. 3 changes of clothes? Check? Blankets? Check. Pumped milk? Shit! I had forgotten to grab the milk out of the fridge before leaving to go to my parents to get ready. Like I said. I was still getting the hang of this thing. I called Shawn to have him grab the milk and he put the milk in a Safeway grocery bag. When we got the reception venue some milk had thawed and spilled in the bag and some milk was still frozen. I nursed him after the ceremony, but when it was time for another feeding I was going to do a bottle....BUT. Because we left the milk sitting in the kitchen of the venue (to thaw) someone threw it away! So there went about 40 something ounces (again I had Shawn bring it and he brought the entire stash) of breast milk in the trash!

I'm going to be taking a break from extra curricular internet activity. My church is fasting for 7 days and I decided to fast from internet which pulls my attention C.O.N.S.T.A.N.T.L.Y. Shawn is fasting from his phone (YES! There is a GOD!)

I'll be gone until the 19th. But I do have a cute Silent Sunday scheduled to pop up. It's cute and hopefully won't offend to many Obama fans.

Here are some pictures from the aforementioned wedding.



He was the ring baby and his aunt Juli pulled him down the aisle. Scary moment for Mommy!

Hello Lovah!

Sometimes us moms need a bit of a reminder that we are first and foremost girls. And I am a girl that loves beautiful and expensive (but I'm working on it) things.

And today in the Coach sent out just the email reminder I needed.
Are these friggin hot or what?! I was all ready to get my birthday list together to give to Shawn with things I needed to start crafting. But now I'm thinking. Screw the sewing machine! I want these......Although maybe I can get ALL OF IT?! He did get a pretty awesome gift with a very steep price tag for fathers day....so.......

But I'm guessing I won't be wearing these to playgroups or Little Gym classes huh?

What's the deal with milk?

So moms of toddler's who have made the switch to whole milk. Does your little bundle of energy like white milk? Phoenix is not interested in it much. He prefers (like most kids I guess) chocolate and strawberry milk. I was fine with it until I saw that chocolate has 28g of sugar and strawberry has 32g! Hello! Like this kid needs anything else to get him all riled up!

So I thought about just doing one cup (I try to do 3 cups of milk a day) of chocolate or strawberry a day and white the other times. When I tried this Friday he refused to drink the white milk. I ended up giving in and squirting some chocolate syrup in it! But of course I don't want to do this every day!

The same day I was watching something on Disney Channel with a french talking dachshund. He's some kind of "snack chef", he made a smoothie using milk and yogurt and I thought "Bingo!" Who doesn't love smoothies?!

I also have recently started having trouble getting him to eat veggies and we are getting in a bit of a food rut. Breakfast is usually one of the following. Oatmeal with a jar of stage 3 fruit (easier then having to cut up a bunch of fruit) oatmeal and go-gurt, cream of wheat and apple sauce, fruit or yogurt. But if I'm feeling especially awake I'll do pancakes or waffles. Lunch is usually a Gerber micro meal. But I'm getting sick of it and he seems to be too.

So I was wooooondering if any of you mommy's had any tips for getting him to drink the white milk and any menu ideas and/or recommendations for a good baby/toddler (EASY & FAST) cookbook.

Now I know there are people reading my blog. I have a stat counter that says so. BUT for whatever reason you want to be undercover readers and ya never leave me any comments.

Show a girl some love and give me some tips ;-)

Does this warrant a CPS call?

Being a mom (and a wife) is hard all on its own without worrying about strangers judging you. I worry about it a lot. I use 3 people to hold Phoenix down just to clean his nose because I don't want other parents to think I'm one of those moms. Ya know the kind. The kind with the kids who look like the roll in pools of snot, cookies, boogers, and red juice. Yuck! So I really do try not to judge other moms too bad.

BUT. While preparing for Phoenix's first birthday extravaganza I met a neighbor of mine that had just moved in with her 8 month pregnant daughter and her husband. She says that I may have seen her and her daughter outside smoking..."Um, wait you mean the daughter who's pregnant?!" I nearly shouted "Yeah, hahaha she won't listen to anyone"

We chatted for a few more moments and I really, honestly fought the urge to knock this lady in the face! But ever since that day I see the two of them from my kitchen window smoking and I get so angry!

Like angry to the point I want to call CPS! Are you even allowed to do that? Like that has to be child abuse right?

This is why they should make you fill out a questionnaire before getting pregnant

What's in his name?

My sister recently posted a blog about the meaning behind her little girls name. It inspired me and reminded me that I can't remember sharing with you all how Phoenix got his name.

I was that girl that had a notebook (usually my church note taking notebook) that contained list and list of names I would want to name any future kids. Church got boring sometimes so I would sit and think up names. I have never been interested in the standard names. No offense to those out there that like them or have even been bestowed those names. But I personally did not want to holler across the play ground and have 7 Matthews, Ryan's, Jessica's or Emily's turn around.

Thus was born a list of names like: Finnegan, Oliver, Ocean, Tulip, Ruby, Pilot, Jax, Roman, Capri, Calista, Casper, Jet, January, Phineas, etc. But would ya know that when I got pregnant all of those notebooks disappeared and I could not remember any of the names I once loved.

For a bit the top contenders for Phoenix were. Milo, Finnegan, and Blaise. But then one day I was looking at my belly and realized that the ugly stretchmarks had taken on a shape of their own and turned into....A PHOENIX. I showed Shawn and we both looked at each other and said "hmmm...that's nice" and thus we settled on naming him Phoenix.

But upon further thought Phoenix took on a much greater significance for us. I hate to go into all the unsavory details of my life or Shawns, and so I won't. But I will say that Shawn has always had struggles and has always felt like his life was rising up out of the ashes. There was the fact that when I got pregnant with Phoenix and we decided to do this (yes you heard me right) we felt like we were pulling ourselves up from a mess of our own making.

Then there's the whole aspect of Phoenix meaning "bright red". His hair is red.

And last but not least. The name Phoenix has Greek origins, as does the toddler Phoenix and his mother. His entire name took on a even greater significance. Follow along for a moment if you can.

Phoenix Alexander Troy Campbell

We've already discussed Phoenix, so we'll move on....

Name 2: Alexander- A variation of my name, his paternal grandfathers middle, and one of his uncles middle names. Also Alexander of Troy. Significance Alexandria (me) of Troy (my father).

Name 3: Troy-Happens to be named after two uncles (one of the uncles who has Alexander as a middle name) and his Papouli (his maternal grandfather).

Name 4 (his surname) Campbell- Is Scottish and Fin has Scottish roots.

If you also haven't figured it out yet his first three names are all of Greek origins. Purely by accident.

Did you follow all of that?

Now my only question is when he gets older and says to me "Mom? Why did you name me after a city?" Do I point him to this blog for him to see the history of his name in its entirety or do I remove the stretch mark part? Would you be embarrassed if you were named after your moms stretch marks??? Hmmm....I wonder.