Coming Soon ...

Hey friends! So I have a fun little announcement, I'm starting a new blog! I've had so many people that have had issues reading now that it's private AND my amazing blog designer offered to create a new one, that I decided to move forward. The difference is this one will be very vague. No names, locations (i.e. I'll just say we live in Texas), I will approve all comments (to make sure no one mentions anything personal in them) and the title will not have my last name in it. This way everyone can read without having issues signing in.


I will let everyone know when Fabulous K is done with the design, until then I'm getting excited!

Apology.

Okay friends, I have an apology/confession to make.  For my lack of blogging.  To be honest?  I just haven't been motivated to.  Don't get me wrong, I have a beautifully full life with a sweet precious toddler who literally fills my days with joy, smiles and giggles.  I just feel like I'm boring now.  Like I have nothing to offer you but mundane updates about the every move that my boy makes.  Incessant pictures of him doing the mundane updates that I update you with.  And basically, BORE YOU TO DEATH.  And I don't want to do that.  Well, I don't want to do that to anyone other than my mom that is.  She would love it.

Another confession?  I'm having a hard time getting motivated to blog in general.  Why?  (Now it's about to get real personal up in here)  Because I went private.  And going private means not having a bunch of followers.  And?  I really liked that.  I'm just being honest here folks.  I liked the comments, I liked seeing that little followers number pop up, I LIKED feeling LIKED.  Narcissistic? 

I think so. 

I could sit here and make a ga-jillion excuses as to why that is.  I could explain that I was a chubby adolescent and was teased a large portion of my ages 10-14 year old years.  That my peers called me fat, ugly, worthless on a DAILY basis.  That it still affects my self esteem and messes with my self image.  And the fact that I had followers, whether or not they were people I knew or didn't, that would make positive comments?  Made me FEEL good.  Made me feel like I was worth something.  Basically like I walked into the cafeteria, the cool kids asked me to sit at THEIR table at lunch and then the captain of the football team asked me to the prom.

And that's not right.  Hence part of the reason I decided to go private.  A large part was for privacy purposes.  But this was also a big portion of it as well.

A few weeks back I prayed that the Lord would bring to light areas that were keeping me from drawing nearer to Him as well as areas in my life that He wanted me to change.  And this was one that was loud and clear.  There are certain times in my life I KNOW that the Lord is speaking to me.  This was one of them.  Because goodness KNOWS I for sure didn't want to do it.  But I knew I had to and did so pretty soon after.  He basically was saying "Katie, your blog, facebook, friends, family, WHATEVER does NOT give you self worth.  Does NOT make you "cool".  Does NOT satisfy any need that I can't.  I DO.  Me alone."  And He does.  SO much more than anything on the world wide web could.  Or anything else for that matter. 

So where does that leave me?  Well.  Not blogging.  Very much at all.  And that's something I need to wrestle with.  Because this isn't something I started to do (initially) because I had followers, or because it made me feel "cool", or because I had (have) a darling blog design.  I decided to do it because I love to write.  And make people laugh and smile.  Whether it's 500 people or 5 people, that shouldn't make a difference.  And whether I write about doing the same thing day in day out shouldn't either.  I'm still me.  I still have humor to share.  I still enjoy using this as an outlet for whatever I need it to be that day.

But most of all?  I love y'all for loving me enough to even care to read.  And I want to thank you for that.

So in the meantime I will pray to hear the Lord's voice, (something I never want to cease praying for) spend more time with Him and really make an effort to write more.

Thanks for listening if you've made it this far.  I sure do love y'all!

Since I'm the Worst Blogger Ever.

I'm just going to post this link to two articles I've read recently. Wonderful for all you mommies.

To the Mother With Only One Child

Don't Carpe Diem

I hope you appreciate them as much as I did.

Happy Tuesday friends!

Private = Boring.

So apparently going private = going boring.  This MIIIGGGHHHHT be my fault.  Okay, that's definately my fault.  Maybe I meant LAZY not boring.  Truth be told I just don't have a WHOLE lot to update y'all on.

The Mister's out of town, C has a cold/teething/snotapalooza (but luckily is still in a precious mood).  I have allergies (HELLO Texas weather, make up yo' mind PLEAZ!  70 degrees/40 degrees/60 degrees/30 degrees rain/sun/clouds/sun/rain.  MY SNEEZE REFLEX DOES NOT APPRECIATE YOU!) which makes sleeping borderline impossible.  We both pretty much stay in our jammies all day (because why get dressed when you don't have to?  HELLO more laundry to do?  NO thankyouverymuch).  So, like I said.  Boring.

I DID have a fun little girl's night last night at my house.  The theme was bring something that you got for Christmas that wasn'tsomuch ... ahem ... your taste?  To then swap it in a White Elephant-like gift exchange.  Actually, who are we kidding, the theme was "get mommas/wives/girlfriends together and have some girltime" but mixed in there somewhere we played the White Elephant game.  And funnily enough, C LOVED what I ended up with ...

Sorry it's sideways.  Hopefully y'all have laptops and can just lift up your computer and turn them counter clockwise.  I sure do love that little booty-shakin' boy. 

That's all from this Princess of Boredom!  But that's okay.  I like my boring days with my anything BUT boring boy!

Photo Opp ...

This was absolutely one of those "run and grab your camera" moments.  Little guy totally went and plopped down, next to Koda.  In this shirt.  In the perfect spot.

Priceless.



Koda does not look amused.

I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of "the dog did it's" in my future.  Until he has a younger sibling.

Man these two are cute.

Back to Life, Back to Reality ...

Anyone else LOVE that song?  Just me?

Moving right along.

So today the Mister went back to work and the holidays are officially over.  Sad, sad, SAD face!  I'm still in a bit of a post Christmas de-partum depression.  It just doesn't feel as cozy once Christmas is over.  Don't get me wrong, I love everything about winter time.  The clothes, warm coffee drinks, fires in the fireplace but after Christmas is over I'm honestly ready for it to warm up and for Spring to come and visit.  But I'm pretty sure we'll have a few snow/ice days in our future and hopefully that'll mean the Mister will get to stay home and we can have a few days of locked up in the house, watching movies and sitting by the fire, family time.

So how was everyone's holidays?  Ours were perfect.  We started out with my family's annual White Elephant exchange at my Mama's house.  We ended up with a pretty candle, a box opener (?) and a minuature flashlight (again, ?).  It really is a wonder the Mister married me after being introduced to the circus that is my family.  We sure do have a lot of fun!

The next event on the agenda was my parent's annual holiday party joined by a few of my favorites, my brother and Silly and my MOH and her darling boyfriend.

We woke up bright and early the next morning to join my brother, stepmom and dad for a quick trip to Coon Creek and enjoyed some family time (i.e. hunting time for the Mister) ...

The next day was Christmas Eve, we joined my family at the candlelight service at church, definately my most favorite service of the year every year ...

{Cutest thing ever, we taught him to say "ho, ho, ho" which comes out "huh, huh, huh"}

Christmas was fast and furious as usual.  The way I'm used to, and the Mister is GETTING used to it.  Seriously, it's a wonder he married me ...

{Favorite present of the day?  The universal remote from his uncle Mike!}

We ended the day at home, by the fire, with a baby cozy in his bed, watching Christmas movies.  Beautiful ending to a beautiful Christmas season.

The Mister was off all the way through the new year so we took some time to take little man to start some Christmas traditions.  One of which was visiting the trains at North Park.  I grew up going to the trains with my dad and have loved it every year.  I wanted to start this tradition with Caleb and I'm PRETTY sure he didn't mind it ...

{Mommas lookin' a little rough.  No makeup, thrown on random clothes, few extra holiday pounds ...}

He kept saying "Ooooohhh, ooohhhhh" and pointing.  Precious.  I'm totally loving this age.  Who am I kidding, I've loved every age.  I'm thinking it's probably just because I LOVE this kid.

The next day was New Year's Eve.  I'm not going to lie.  If I had it my way we'd go out and do it up right on New Year's.  Not necessarily because I LOVE New Year's, more because I LOVE having an excuse to get dressed up! 

And on a sidenote, I'm pretty sure I've met my quota on using the word love.

  I mean, I spend 350 days out of the year in VS sweats or work out clothes.  Having a chance to put on makeup, a cute outfit and actually DO my hair is very appealing to me.  The Mister?  Well, he's an 85 year old man trapped in a 30 year old man's body.  Plus he hates New Year's Eve.  Pair those together and you end up with a husband who's in bed at 10:30pm leaving you downstairs to watch the ball drop by yourself.  And honestly that's fine, we had SUCH a fun, relaxing night at home that involved pizza, candy and wine.  This was PRE resolutions of COURSE!

{I mean really?  Who can complain about this?  Really, I just like to give the Mister a hard time.  And now, I'm officially missing my Christmas tree.}

And last but not least, on New Year's Day, we took this little guy ...

{So. obsessed. with channel changers.}

To my parent's house for a beautiful New Year's dinner and to watch the Cowboy's lose play.

The following is an attempt to get a family New Year's picture by my parent's tree ...

{FAIL.}

And then, enter his new obsession (i.e. his aunt Ally) ...

{SUCCESS!  Seriously, I'm pretty sure he loves her more than the Mister and I ...}

And that's it.  PHEW.  I'm tired.  That was a lot to catch you up on!  Let's just go ahead and make another resolution.  NOT to go that long between posts!

I hope everyone's New Year's were equally as loverly.

HAPPY 2012 LOVES!!!

PHEW.

Well that was dramatic.

I feel like I just broke up with my boyfriend, talked about my best friend behind her back, cheated on my math test AND didn't get asked to homecoming all in one little click of the "private" button in my blog settings.  But honestly?  I feel SO GOOD about this decision.  I have thought about it for awhile (hello, my whole last name is in the title) and have been feeling more and more led to do so, but I kept telling myself that I would be too sad to see my number of followers go.

Followers Katie?  FOLLOWERS?  Is that REALLY worth the safety and privacy of your child/future children?

No.  Absolutely not.

For me this is absolutely the right decision.  PLUS I can be more candid now (like I wasn't before) because I actually KNOW who you people are that are reading (BTW, I was FLATTERED to find out so many people that I actually know read my blog, that's always a fun thing for a blogger to find out, especially when none of you ... ahem ... comment ... ahem.  Mister, you're included in this calling out.  I'm kidding of course.  Kind of ...) and can therefore know my audience a little better.

So that's where I stand for now.  Hopefully this will inspire me to post a little more since I will feel like I'm talking to my friends (which I am) instead of my friends plus a few hundred randoms of which I don't know if they're other moms like me or dirty 40 year old men in their underwear eating fried chicken.

Gross.

Hopefully y'all enjoy the blog just as much as you did before if not more.  Here's to Life in the PRIVATE Fulmer Lane!