My Monday Mind Dump...

1. I realized this week that before Kidd-O my schedule was: Mon. night-Pilates, Tues. night-Yoga, Wed. night-Kickboxing, Thur. night-Cardio/weights...Now it's: Mon. night-The Bachelor, Tue. night- Teen Mom, Wed. night-Modern Family, Thur. night- Jersey Shore...PATHETIC.

2. Little Debbie is my new best friend. Nutty Buddy Bars...yum.

3. My husband has started calling me "mommy" and it's just weird.

4. And I've caught myself calling him "daddy" and that's just stupid.

5. My mom has always loved baby jar bananas and I've always thought she was nuts, but now I know why! They are delish! Kidd-O agrees.
6. Eat Pray Love was probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I couldn't even finish it. 1 hour that I will never get back. The best thing about it was the song by Florence+the Machine from the trailer...and it wasn't even in the movie!

7. I told Kidd-O "NO!" for the first time last week, and he laughed at me. I said it again, and he got the picture. That wasn't fun.

8. The show Strange Addictions is quite disturbing. Who is addicted to eating couch cushions? Or hair follicles? Not me.

9. I still haven't received 4 Christmas presents that I ordered FOREVER ago! I hope they get here for next Christmas.

10. I had a GREAT day with one of my little sisters!! She's quite the artist, so we went and painted pottery!

Life is Good!

I would really love to thank me sweet friend , Lisa, for giving me this bloggy award! I enjoy her and her blog so much and seeing what goes on in her day-to-day life!! I wish I got to visit with her more in person, but visiting her blog is the next best thing!

The rules for the Life is Good award:

1. First, thank and link back to the person that gave the award (obviously)
2. Answer the 10 survey questions
3. Pass the award along to other bloggers whom you think are fantastic
4. Contact the bloggers you have chosen to let them know about the award

On to the questions!

1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing this? If you aren't anonymous, do you wish you started out anonymously, so that you could be anonymous now?
I am not anonymous, and am not great at keeping secrets so, no I do not wish I was. Although, I do refer to my husband as Mr. Clean, and my baby as Kidd-O

2. Describe an incident that shows your inner stubborn side.
ummmm...this is one of my biggest flaws! How much time do you have?

3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?
A teenager...with a few more stretch marks. Seriously though, sometimes I can't believe I'm 25 because I often feel like I'm 15 still!

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?
Poor Man's Lemonade. Water, a slice of lemon and a splenda

5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?
write or read. I love to read!

6. Is there something that you still want to accomplish in your life?
I have a TON of things I would love to do! I want to pursue photography, I would love to plan parties...or just throw parties left and right! I'd love to start a business with my mom's help on the creative side and my Sis-in-laws help organizationally. But the photography thing is what I have my eyes set on at this moment!

7. When you attended high school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching?
I loved Middle School, but didn't care too much for High School...except my communication class, which I LOVED with a passion! I was a good kid, I wasn't shy, I ditched occasionally ( yes, my mom knew) and I basically just counted down the days until graduation. Although, I often wonder what my classmates thought of me...I hope I was nice!!

8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what would you see?
Giving birth to my baby...without a doubt...no question about it...pretty much the most awesome thing ever!

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog, or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people and events?
I find it necessary to be truthful and honest! My blog is mostly for me, I have enjoyed writing so much, and I want to look back and get an honest glimpse at how I've felt and I TRULY hope though that people can read my blog and relate to the things I've been going through and know it's OK to be real, to be raw, and I hope I can make people smile from time-to-time too!!

10. If you had the choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?
I have a bad habit of doing both things simultaneously...this is a toughie!!!! Depends on the book and depends on the person!


I would like to pass on the award to the following bloggers;

My Sister-in-law, Jaimie: Her blog is creative thought provoking

Deanna: She is probably the funniest person I know!

Audrey: She's is looking to grow her blog and she has some cutie little girls!!!

The Way We Were...

Soon after your first baby comes, many people ask themselves "What on Earth did we ever do before we had kids?!" I've seen a lot of pictures this week from all of my unencumbered, childless friends frolicking in the snow with their husbands ( I was slightly jealous, because I have an infant and am literally, completely home-bound), and I began to think...What did we do before Kidd-O came into our lives??I wish I could say that we went "out on the town" every Friday, enjoyed lazy Saturday's complete with brunch and later catching the newest box office smash. I'd love to tell you that we took exotic vacations every Summer, and amazing ski adventures every winter ( never mind that I'm an awful skier), with random weekends to the mountains in between. If it were up to me (the spender) we would have done all of those things...but then we'd be living under a bridge somewhere and I'd be wearing my denim jacket from middle school.

So, no, pretty much none of those things happened...at least, not like that. We didn't "go out on the town" obviously, because only 80 year old's say that anyway, and the closest thing to brunch would have been a fresh box of cheerios, and instead of going to the movies, we watched new releases on netflix. Our exotic vacation was a riveting trip to Washington DC (woot woot!), to which the entire time Mr. Clean asked when we were going back to the hotel so he could watch cable...ah, yes,that was life before Kidd-O! Exciting, I know!Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed our time, just the two of us sooo much! I loved not having the responsibility of an infant, and I was terribly worried that life would change dramatically!! However, since Kidd-O has dropped into our lives, life has been pretty much the same, except we are a little more tired, a little more strapped for cash...but we are having A LOT more fun!!! And I'm fairly certain it's only going to get more exciting from here on out! Maybe we can do all of those "fun" things when Mr. Clean and I are once again childless, a looong time from now! We'll see, but for now life can't get any better!!!!

A Question For My Readers....

Hello to any and all of you who are kind enough to stop by!

As I try to expand and grow my blog and the readership (which I'm still trying to figure out how to do...I'm AWFUL on the computer), I'd like some suggestions from you on how to make it better! My first question to you is:

Should the music stay or go?

I hand select the music according to each post, and feel that music can add to a post...but I also know that it can distract or take away from it. How do you feel about it? I would love to know! I would also love to hear any other suggestion you might have! Are their posts you like more than others??

I'd love feedback! If you would like to post a suggestion here, GREAT, but if you would rather send me a private message you can email me at thehousewiferookie@gmail.com

Thank you so much for stopping by! I'm so thankful for you!

A Snowy Day Blessing!

Some of you may know that Mr. Clean started a new job a week after Kidd-O was born and he was so excited to start, because this job was going to be "sooo much easier!"(famous last words a few hours before I had our son). And many of you know (because I have whined often about it) that he has been working like a dog, not coming home until 9 or 10 at night, working almost every Saturday, working some nights from home until 1 am, and really not enjoying it...it has NOT been easy! It has been difficult. It has been very difficult not just for him, but for me as well.
I have to say though, we are extremely thankful that he has a job, and we are even more thankful that it has allowed me to stay at home with Kidd-O. The Lord has taught me a lot through this. We are extremely blessed. But, because of these crazy hours, Mr. Clean may go days without seeing his son. I try to keep Kidd-O awake and entertained as long as possible so Mr. Clean can see him awake. I'll walk him around the house showing him everything from a sack of flour to the ice machine, or even how to flush a toilet. However, often times my efforts are futile and I go ahead, feed the babe, and he falls asleep in my arms. I will hold him until Mr. Clean comes home so he can hold his sleeping son as long as he wants. That's been our life for the past 5 months.Fortunately, the Lord has been good to us recently by providing us with snow! Lot's of snow! So much snow that Mr. Clean can't go anywhere! Glorious snow...which I typically don't care for, because I HATE the cold!But, it has provided us with some much needed time together. Time for a father and son to roll around together, time for him to give his baby a bath, time to feed him, and time to rock with him. Just time.

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."

-Psalm 107:1

Photo Flashback!

I've decided that I'm dropping the "Friday" in my "Friday Photo Flashback", so now it's just "Photo Flashback"...like you really care.

Ahh, middle school. Those 3 years are the most awkward 3 years in a human beings life...well maybe not for everyone, but MOST CERTAINLY for me! Boy, did I think I was cute. And speaking of boys, I know what you're thinking. My hair. You see, my dad used to be a hairdresser (with major emphasis on USED TO) and this was his "go to" haircut. His ONLY haircut. I would ask for it to look like Meg Ryan, and this is what I got. This is also the same haircut my sisters would get, as well as my brothers. I'm not sure when I "fired" him...but it wasn't soon enough.

I actually loved middle school! And 7th grade (which is when this beaut of a picture was taken)was one of my favorite years ever. It's just so unfortunate that the pictures make me cringe, and some of the memories make me want to crawl under a rock and die. I was a TOTAL dweeb, who was completely in love with Leo DiCaprio (blech). I saw Titanic 9 times in the Theater. That's right. I even owned the entire script to that stupid movie, which used up 2 ink cartridges, and an entire ream of paper to print out (please, I beg of you, don't ask why). Momma and Daddy-O were not too happy with me. And I might as well put it out there, because I KNOW it's going to come out, but I would also cry whenever I would hear the theme song to Titanic. Ya know, the one that Celine Dion does? yep, boohooed like a little baby (again, please don't ask).

If only Mr. Clean knew what a catch he was getting!

Welllll...I'm going to stop right there. I don't want to share too much, for fear of losing friends. Besides, I have plenty more to share when I break out a photo from the 8th grade. The year of NSYNC, my braces, and my missing tooth. Stay tuned...please.
Thanks for Stopping by...I'll be hiding under my rock now.

The Evolution of Cooper to Lumpy....

As I've mentioned before, I am the oldest of 8 kids, and in our family, we are no strangers to nick names. We have always taken a name and just go runnin' with it! For Instance, my my brother Sammy somehow has ended with the name Flambodia, my sister Francesca was called ChexieWexie or Chesabellarosamaria, and my sister Davianna has been known to be called Fluffyianna, which morphed into Fluffy Stuffy. So, it is no surprise that my little Kidd-o has had lot's of names to go by...I'm not quite sure how he will ever know what his real name is!

I learned this week that this may not be the most normal practice in the world when I posed the question to the mommies in the playgroup we attend. I realized I was calling Kidd-o one of my many names, so I asked the others if they call their kids any strange names...I think there was one other mom who did.

So, here it goes. The many names of Cooper:

Cooper,
which turned to Coopie,
then Coopie Pie,
then Coopie Doo,
then Scoopy,
Scoopy Doo,
Scooby Doo,
Scoobers-and-a-Doobers,
then we watched the Grinch,
which introduced Scoopy Lou Who,
at some point I picked up Angel Baby,
then Angel Baby Love (to which this name has it's own song),,
then little lubbers (which is "baby" talk for lover),
then I noticed he has boxy feet,
thus introducing Boxy Toe Boy,
And keeping with the Christmas theme I didn't want him to be a Sugar Plum Fairy(that's girly),
so I came up with Sugar Lump,
Which finally turned into Lumpy Love...then just Lumpy.

There ya have it. The Evolution of Cooper to Lumpy.

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