Book Club Friday

Love me some book club Friday!!

I have a goal to read 50 books this year & I am really hoping to stick to it. 

I didn't meet my goal last year, but considering I started in August, I think it was an unfair advantage.

What do you do?

Grab the button and then link up here!!

"Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?” 
 
Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!
 
In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka." -Source

I love Mindy! I am not the biggest fan of the office, but when I have watched it I crack up. I LOVEEEEE her on the Mindy Project and when I read this book I read it in her voice the entire time. I really liked this book. It had me laughing a lot, and I think that it says a lot for the fact that the entire book made me think of her voice as she was writing it. It kept me quite entertained!!

Baby Routines

I can not stress enough how important routines are in our house. 

Yes babies at times causes things to be chaotic and not everything always happens when it was planned to, but the overall routine still needs to be the same. 

About two months ago, G was about 6 months and nap time was atrocious. 

We took away his pacifier, since he has a big mouth and could fit the entire thing inside of it to the point where it became a safety issue, and after that we couldn't get a nap to save our lives!

At that time G would only go down for maybe a 15- 20 minute nap 3x a day.

We had a great evening routine, but that is when I really came to the realization that the whole day needed to be routined.

Kids crave routines. They like to know what they are doing and they like to be scheduled. 

Now I am not talking about doing the same boring thing everyday. 

No, that is not what I mean, but I am talking about doing the important things near to the same time. Eat, sleep, play, learn, bath etc. 

Once I realized that it was most likely our erratic nap schedule causing the issues. We got to planning. 

We now have a set time for when we wake, eat, nap, play, run errands, take a bath and go to bed. 

Little man went from 15- 20 minutes naps to 1 - 2 hour naps!!

So to any mama's out there struggling with naps, eating, bed time etc, if you are not trying a routine, give it a shot!!

Kitchen Renovation

So we will be buying a house in just about 4 short months!!

How do I know it will be 4 months?

Well we are going to buy my in-laws old house due to them buying a new house. 

The house is in good shape but a lot of if is QUITE outdated. However, the price that they are offering it to us for makes it so we are able to fix it up. The kitchen is the first thing that I am looking to replace. 

I wil take before & after pictures once we are in the house, but the kitchen cabinets have been painted over so much they hardly close. We will be completely ripping all of them out and putting brand new cabinets and countertops in. Along with all new appliances. 

Here are some of the ideas I am leaning towards. 

We have been looking at ideas in the store here and there. 

So we are looking at a more cherry kind of cupboard with light counter tops!

Love!

Book Club Friday

Love me some book club Friday!!

I have read like 12 books in the past month!

What do you do?

Grab the button and then link up here!!

I am starting with the books I have read beginning from the first f the year, although I am already a bit behind. 

I track the books I read on goodreads. 

Add me if you have an account :)

This week I am reviewing. 

Two For the Dough

"Bounty hunter Stephanie Pum is still learning the ropes at her cousin Vinnie's bail bond office, so when she sets out on the trail of Kenny Mancuso - a suspiciously weatlhy, working class Trenton boy who has just shot his best friend - the stakes are higher than ever. That Mancuso is distantly related to vice cop Joe Morelli - who is trying to beat Stephanie to the punch - only makes the hunt more thrilling...

Taking pointers from her bounty hunter pal, Ranger, and using her pistol packing Grandma Mazur as a decoy, Stephanie is soon closing in on her mark. But Morelli and his libido are worthy foes. And a more sinister kind of enemy has made his first move... and his next move might be Stephanie's last" -Source

Review:

This is the second book in the Stephanie Plum Series. The first one being One For The Money which was made into a movie staring Katherine Heigl.

I really am into the Stephanie Plum series right now. I love the humor and thrilling parts. I am rooting for the main characters to get together as always, and am curious when it will happen, seeing as their are 20 books in this series so far!

I gave this book a five because I just loved it!!

30 Day Challenge.

My postpartum body is not my favorite thing in the world. 

I love my baby more than the world and would do it a million times again 

and will (hopefully 2 more times- we wants 3 babies all together), 

but I am not a big fan of my extra skin, baby pooch and stretch marks. 

I have lost all my baby weight. In fact since we breast fed for 7.5 months, I actually weight LESS than what I did prior to getting pregnant, but I am not a fan of the pouch. 

Since we are in the process of buying and renovating a house, financially we re a bit strapped for extra spending money. So I am trying for an easy at home 30 Day Challenge. 

I decided to go with two at once since I don't think that one will be enough. 

Since I see no reason to wait until the start of the month to try it. 

I am going to start tonight. 

Some of the end ones are a bit crazy, so I am going to have to break them down into sets, but I think I will be able to do it!!

Choppity Chop Chop

I am never going to do that again, I said. 

I love my hair long, I said. 

NEVER AGAIN, I said. 

& then I did it. 

& I have never been happier!!

I decided to chop off all my hair when the baby started really pulling on it. 

I was constantly throwing up my super long hair in a bun, and since I have SO much hair it constantly just fell down and I looked awful!!

SO I braved the fact that I never wanted to cut it off again. 

I started somewhat mildly. 

Kept that for a couple months and then chopped even more!!

The Before:

The After:

The After After:

I literally love love love love it. 
Next time I may have her leave the front just in a little longer and make the angle a little more drastic, but otherwise I am so happy I made the cut. 
It is freeing. Easy to do & looks adorable curled!!
So glad I went for it!

I'm on a Boat

A few weeks months ago my beautiful best friend got married. 

On a boat. 

It was beautiful, she was beautiful, the dress was beautiful, 

but it was cold. 

I was a new momma, G was 4 months & I was too tired to buy a dress of my own.

So I looked to renttherunway.com 

Have you heard to them before?

It where you rent designer dresses for super cheap.

(No I am not in any way paid by RTR)

Alls you do is go to their website, find your dress, pick out the TWO sizes you want. Yes you get to pick an extra size just incase the first size doesn't fit, and its free, and it will be there the day before your event!!  You can rent shoes and accessories on there too. My package also came with matching nail polish and other goodies pictured below. 

Crappy picture quality courtesy my iPhone!

I am really impressed with RTR and will be ordering again.

My only dislike was when I first got the dress it smelled like mothballs. 

Had to let it air out and spray it before I wore it. 

Tax Break for Nursing Mothers

Who doesn't love Tax Breaks!?!!

Everyone has their opinions on breastfeeding, but we have been breastfeeding for the past {almost} 8 months. Although we are weaning now, which breaks my heart. I read this amazing article that now states there are tax breaks for nursing mothers on breast pumps and other nursing supplies!!

Check it out here!! Tax Break, and just incase you are skeptical of silly sites here it is on the irs.gov site.  

Enjoy ;)

Happy New Year!!

I took a blog hiatus for a while. With going back to work & being a new mommy, I didn't really have time to shower & eat let alone think of creative topics to blog about! 

Now that I am getting into the actual swing of things and {G} and I have a good routine, my creative juices are back flowing!

I am so excited to be in 2014. One because I have an odd fascination with even numbers and two I love new years and everything that there is to look forward to.

2013 was a great year & I am even more excited about 2014. 

Look back at my 2013 resolutions: 

1. Get myself more involved with my spirituality. -  We did really well with this until the baby was born & we started house shopping. Now we unfortunately have not been to church in quite sometime. We say prayers every night with our cute little buddy, but we really need to get back into church on a regular basis. 
2. Keep up with cleaning- I have been doing excellent with this one. Our house has been quite cleaned and picked up more of the time!!)
3. Lose the baby weight/ Work out regularly- Well all of the baby weight is lost, but this dumb hernia has slightly been preventing me from working out. Running is no pleasant and sadly I don't have a bike or elliptical to use. Hopefully in 2014 this will be better. 
4. Save More/ Spend Less- Eh.. I would say this was a fail. 
5. Blog More- I did very well with this until the baby was born {see above}

2014 Resolutions:

1) Be the best mom I can absolutely be. My little man is so important to me. He is my my sunshine, my best friend, my inspiration and my dream come true. I want to give him the perfect life. I want him to experience every possible thing that he can. I want him to travel, to play instruments, to play sports, to dream big, to take chances, and be brave and I want to help him get to every goal he has ever had. This will always be a resolution of mine because I am always going to constantly strive to be better!!

2) Stop biting my nails- This is a goal that I come back between and that was not on my list last year because I was kicking so much butt. After the baby was born I must have become anxious because I began biting them again. I am determined to stop!

3) Stop drinking soda- I don't drink coffee or tea really, so at times when I am really tired I resort to soda. I love soda. It is amazing. Sadly I know how unhealthy it is and I am determined to stop drinking it for one entire year. 

4) Continue blogging-  My family is more important to me so I am not going to focus on how many readers I have or how many times I blog a week. I will blog when I want to and when I have something to talk about. 

5) Be a better wife- Just like with being a better mom, I can always strive to be a better wife. I really want to be there to help support my husband and build our lives together. 

6) Read 50 books 

7) Move into a bigger place - Our apartment although AMAZING is too small for us now. We need something bigger.

8) Keep my hair short for one whole year - I always grow mohair back out super long and I really want to keep something fresh and different!