Mom Jeans

Before I dive into the dirty underground world of mom jeans, let me soften the blow with my new favorite pic of Farrah and daddy. She looks so much like him.

Ok... now here we go. The term "mom jeans" sends shivers up my spine because I never wanted to become one of the moms who lets herself go and wears ill fitting clothing. I'm still not very close to my pre-pregnancy weight (that's a whole other post so I won't even go there) so my clothing options are very limited. I haven't gone out to buy any new clothing besides maybe one pair of pants and one shirt because I can't bring myself to spend the money, plus I just know I'll get back down to a comfortable weight eventually and I don't want to have a bunch of my fat clothes hanging around in my closet... just sayin.

Now that fall is upon us (for those of you e-friends reading my blog please remember we're in California so the term "fall" is relative), the weather isn't quite cold but isn't quite hot either so my clothing choices have been pretty pathetic. I'm aware I'm not quite wearing 5th Avenue worthy clothing, but I didn't think I was on the level of a Christmas sweater wearing piano teacher, that is until I was getting ready to go out with Farrah for a Target run and I passed by our full length mirror and caught a glimpse... it hit me like a ton of bricks... Mom Jeans!!!! And not just mom jeans... it was a full on mom ensemble! Mom jeans, shoes, shirt, and hair clip. Yikes! I guess I had pretty much given up on fixing the situation so I went on to Target and broke down and bought 3 shirts! ::gasps:: Target has some cute stuff! I ended up returning one of them only because when I got home and tried it on it didn't fit. (ps trying on clothes when I have a baby with me strapped to an over sized shopping cart has become a thing of the past.)

I like to think of myself as a girl that can laugh at herself so I had Abe take pictures of my super hot ensemble to document such a life changing ordeal. He didn't get the shoes in the picture but it's bad enough without them. Imagine white leather K Swiss that needed a good cleaning.

For me clothing seems to be the most difficult thing for me. Even in my skinny days I was known as the girl who wears big clothes. Literally, my college friend had a shirt made for me that said "I rock big shirts" because it was my thing. When I go out of the house I usually get dressed appropriately, but as soon as I walk in the door, I'm immediately back up to my room to change into an oversized T-shirt and boxers. However everything else seems to be put together. I can be in my oversized shirt and boxers with a full face of makeup and my hair looking slammin! And it's not because I don't have style. I see fashion magazines and love the clothes and would wear them if I could. I'm definitely one of those people with a closet full of clothes with nothing to wear. I would say 80% of it is too small. Another 10% is probably in the hamper, and the remaining 10% are the other 3 outfits that don't happen to be dirty at the moment.

Here are some photos for your enjoyment. My next post will have some pics of me looking fly! A girl's gotta redeem herself!

Let's talk about.....

Money... you just cringed didn't you? I wanted to post about money because I know it's on everyone's minds these days and I haven't mentioned much about finances in the blog so why not? The idea for this post started in my head several weeks ago when I met up with an old acquaintance I hadn't seen in quite a while. In fact I don't think I had seen her since I had just gotten married. So, of course, she was asking about the baby. She doesn't have any kids of her own yet. She asked if we were going to have another baby anytime soon. I told her that we do want to have more but probably not for a few years. We both want to achieve some goals with our careers and we definitely want to be able to save up before adding on the big expense of a new baby. She then said, "You know, I hear this all the time about kids being so expensive... I don't understand, what is so expensive about them?" And yes, it was a serious question.

Hmmm... now that is not a question I ever anticipated having to answer when it comes to the "when are you going to have more kids?" question. I'm sure I don't need to go into what my response was to her about all of the expenses of having a child are to all of you fabulous readers. But it definitely got me thinking more about money or lack thereof ;)

Don't get me wrong, we're not destitute by any means. We live in a great house, we both have good jobs (and I'm on the verge of a big promotion which will be awesome for my bank account.) But there are things that I would love to be able to do for my family that cannot happen with our current financial state. So I started watching CNBC on Saturday nights... can you tell what a crazy socialite I am? ;) Suze Orman and "Til Debt Do Us Part." I know absolutely nothing about money. All I know is that you want a lot of it. But I feel like I've learned a lot from these shows. Even though we're still paying off our student loans, it has got me thinking about Farrah's education, and our retirement.

Oh retirement.... it seems so far away and yet I'm supposed to start paying for it now? As if I didn't have enough incentive to accomplish my goals with my career, I was looking into the retirement plan they offer for the top position in the company (National Sales Director- NSD for short). Once you reach the position of NSD you are considered one of the top leaders in the company... and boy do they pay you for it. Here's how the retirement plan works: When you retire they take your last 5 years, pick your best 3 income-wise, and pay you 60% of that for the next 15 years. At this point of your career you're making, on the low end $15,000 per month, and on the high end, $100,000 per month. So 60% of that is not too shabby. And if you pass away before the 15 years is over, they still pay it to your family. You don't have to pay into it, you don't have to do anything... they just give it to you.

When all of these thoughts were crossing my mind, Farrah was asleep and Abe was out DJing so I was alone with my thoughts. I couldn't get off my mind what this would mean for my family. I know it won't be easy, but if over 200 women in the US have this position currently... why not me?

It sounds kind of silly I know, but this idea of working towards securing a future for my family and not just working to pay the bills that are due on the first of the month is something I hadn't really put much thought into before, and now I can't stop thinking about it. I'm sure not everyone reading this blog is in the same place that I am, but we all have something we want that finances are keeping us from attaining, so I'm sure, in some way, this idea pertains to everyone out there. Something to think about, I guess.

"Remember your priorities. The purpose of work is to provide happiness and security for your loved ones and for you. Your happiness and theirs are intertwined; what's good for you is ultimately good for them too." -Mary Kay Ash

I leave you with some new pics of my adorable reason for everything I do.

Daddy loves to put head bands on her. She grew all of this hair really quickly after she lost it all. Wish I wouldn't have spent $40 on a variety of headbands for babies with minimal to no hair!

I love the expression on her face in this pic. It's like, "yeah I'm chewing on your camera... so what?"

Looking just like mommy

And 2 seconds later looking just like daddy. (And yes she is playing with an empty bag of wipes... whatever works, right?)

Tag... I'm it

So I've been without consistent internet access for a week now ::gasps:: My computer, which technically isn't even my computer it's my sisters old computer that we've been borrowing since my laptop's screen went out last year, apparently has a virus or something so it's not working at all. Luckily I have a computer savvy friend that has offered to come look at it and hopefully fix it in exchange for some Mary Kay... haha love that! Fingers crossed if nothing else she's able to get all of my pics off of there because no, I'm not smart, and I didn't back them all up. I do have a bajillion (spell check is screaming at me right now) pictures of Farrah on Facebook so if nothing else I have those.

My hubby's wonderful new promotion also landed him a sweet new MAC laptop for work (and my non-work activities too... shhh... don't tell). So I was able to get on to check some of my sites and I was excited to see that I was tagged by my homegirl Krista (yes another Krista... awesome name right?) over at The Cameron Chronicles to answer a couple questions about myself... a little getting to know you if you will. Here goes!

1. If you were stranded on a desert island what are 3 things you would take with you and why?

Assuming I can't bring my family and it's only objects, I would probably say diet coke, my Mary Kay tinted moisturizer with SPF 20 (a girl's got to look fly even on a desert island!), and a stack of tabloid magazines to read... Wow I just realized how shallow I sound by my answers... haha

2. What is your favorite memory from college?

I would have to say that many of my favorite memories involve my group of besties (there were 4 of us) and all of our shenanigans. Most of which would sound weird and make absolutely no sense to anyone outside of our group. My favorite would probably have to be Freshman year we found a live crab chilling on the sink in the bathroom ( my dorm was pretty much right on the beach) and then someone threw it in the trash and we felt bad so we went to go get it but by the time we got it, it was already dead so we took it to the beach and had a burial at sea and named him wheezy mcwheezerston because when he was alive he was making this weird wheezing noise. You know how weird my stories with my friends must be if that's the tame one I decided to post :)

3. How did you meet your husband?

Ahhhh this story makes me believe in fate. I needed a job in college and I had applied at a couple places but didn't hear back ( they obviously didn't know talent when they saw it ;) so much to my dismay I decided to apply at a Quiznos close to school because every time I walked by I saw a help wanted sign in the window. I remember as she was interviewing me I was hoping I wouldn't get the job because I didn't want to work in a sandwich shop. Unfortunately she hired me on the spot and asked if I could start the next day. Abe was one of my coworkers there but we were just friends for about a year until I left to study abroad. I remember while I was abroad there was a bus company called "ABE" so every time I would see their buses drive by I would smile and think of my friend Abe from Quiznos. When I got back to Santa Barbara to return to school, my old boss called and asked if I might want to come back. If he hadn't called, I probably wouldn't have ever gone back but I decided to go back until I could find another job. When I returned there were a ton of new people working and Abe was the only one I recognized so we started hanging out and just clicked. The rest is history!

4.What does a normal day look like for you?

"Normal" is usually something different everyday but here's an idea:

6:30 wake up, get Farrah changed and dressed

6:45 bottle for Farrah

7 I shower and get ready while Farrah plays in the bathtub right next to my shower (no water so it's more like a play pen with toys... hey whatever I have to do to be able to get it done right?)

8 Conference call for work while Farrah has some rice cereal

8:30 Play time, reading, Baby Einstein, etc

9:30-10:30 Morning nap (although lately naps have been short and inconsistent) I usually return emails and calls at this point.

10:30 Farrah eats her fruit

11 Errands, lunch for me, sometimes the park

1 pm bottle

1:30-3 afternoon nap. I usually make booking calls, do laundry, dishes, etc.

3 Farrah has a veggie

3:30-5 Playtime, reading, etc.

5:30 Farrah has her"dinner" aka meat/veggie combo

5:45-6:45 walk around the neighborhood

7 Bath time

7:30 Bottle

8pm bed time

Then Abe and I usually crash on the couch until about 9:30 or so... yeah we're cool like that.

That's pretty much me in a nutshell. I'm supposed to tag some other bloggers to answer some questions about themselves but I'm ashamed to say I don't have anyone to tag.... I'm just an anonymous stalker of most of the blogs I read. So I guess it will have to stop here until I come out of hiding and introduce myself to some of my favorite bloggers.

9 months

I can't believe she's been an outside baby as long as she was an inside baby. Here's what's new with Miss Farrah Lynn

She weighs about 22 lbs.

Not sure how long she is, it's been a while since we last measured her.

She goes to sleep around 8:30 and wakes up between 6:30-7. With 2 naps, each about an hour and a half

Her 2 bottom teeth are all the way in and her Dr. pointed out to me that her 2 top fangs are starting to come in. Should look pretty funny when those come in before her 4 teeth in the top front.

She can now get from laying down to a seated position on her own.

To get where she wants to go she usually rolls or tries to pull herself if she's close enough.... still no crawling.

She has "conversations" with herself. Her favorites consist of yayayaya, babababa and dadadada.

She's trying to pull herself up on things but isn't quite there yet, soon though.

She loves water. Bath time, pool time, fountains... you name it, she loves it.

She has about 4 bottles per day and 3-4 "meals." So far she still loves sweet potatoes the best.

Pulling mommies hair and ears is her new favorite past time... exhibit A the 2nd picture from the bottom.

She loves to chew on wet rags, shake rattles, is very intrigued by remotes, loves reading books, and going for walks either in the baby bjorn or stroller.

That's pretty much 9 month old Farrah in a nutshell. She's amazing.