Sweet mercy. So many….so much….too many things not enough ti….{sigh} This month, you guys. This month – nay, several months – is full of such good things that are somehow proving to be incredibly stressful. Buying a house, having a baby, potty training, starting a new job, traveling to speak…all happening within several weeks of each other. [Side note: my husband is awesome. He is rockin out his new job, killin that Q-10.2b form or whatever he does, getting shoutouts from the CEO…I’m so proud of him. And I love his new company. Working in corporate financing at a theme park has it’s family perks.] Oh, and also? I just…

This blog never really follows a pattern, but this post is especially random. You’ve been warned. Punkin Patchin‘ One thing I love about having a kid is that I can use him as an excuse to do childish things. You better believe I will be at every new Disney/Pixar movie that comes out, whether he is old enough to watch movies or not. (2 month olds enjoy a good flick every now and then, right?) Also, don’t think I didn’t consider taking him trick-or-treating so I could eat all the loot. That said…I wanted to go to a pumpkin patch really bad this year. Taylor hated the idea, and rightly…

Trick-or-Treating 101 Helpful hints for being “the good house” on Halloween. If you don’t know what constitutes a “good house” on Halloween, chances are your house is not good. Good houses give out dollar bills, 1-pound Hershey bars, 3 handfuls of candy (instead of 3 pieces), or name brand candy like Reese’s, Snickers, M&M, and Kit Kat. Bad houses give out dimes, off-brand flavored tootsie rolls, 1 Werther’s, or religious tracts.  Don’t be the bad house. Intervention Someone help me. I am begging for an intervention. Put me in front of materials that can be shaped into facial hair and I’ll spend the next hour making myself laugh and my…

I would label this section InstaFriday, but a) it’s not Friday and b) some of these pictures aren’t from Instagram. (If you blog and want to play along with InstaFriday, you can read about it at a lovely site found here: Life Rearranged.) Insta…week In logical dog world, if you chew an antler off of your favorite toy, the antler becomes your new favorite toy. It just makes sense.  We celebrated 2 months of post-womb life with Beckett this week. Seriously – look how much more alert he is now compared to month 1. It’s amazing. No more comatose stare; we have an active baby on our hands. And, as…

More Searching I love this game…more Google search history. (And I’m mad at you for not sharing yours. I’m vulnerable here.) This one is entertaining to me. Note: many of these searches are done in the wee hours of the morning while I’m up with the babe. I realize this is my own search history, but what does “pink baby” mean? Anyone? Chunker Went to the doctor today. Beckett has gained 1.5 pounds over his birth weight in 15 days. The pediatrician explained to me that I “produced cream instead of skim milk”. I would tell you my secret to quality milk, but then I’d have to kill you.  In…

Cold Stone With my current job at Unemployment Inc., I have ample time to hang out anytime anyone wants (seriously…anytime). I also have time to help out friends when they need me. Last week I got to watch 66.6% of my friend Megan’s kids while her husband took the other 33.3% to the doctor. She just had twins, so I got to play with one of the 11-week old twins and her 18ish month old son. Her husband brought back some tulips and a Cold Stone Creamery gift card to say “thanks”. Very thoughtful, right?! If you ever wonder how long it takes Taylor and I to spend a gift…

Attention, attention: Baby Brooks is now 14 weeks old as of today. He/she is the size of a lemon, which is quite a bit bigger than the poppy seed we started at. Who knew that time could go by so fast? I’m already in the second trimester! It seems like just yesterday I was scheduling an appointment with the doctor to confirm that both of the pregnancy tests were false positives, and I had indeed breathed in hormones from the 4 other pregnant women at work – hence the high HCG levels in my blood from the test at the walk-in clinic. Turns out, the signs were there all along…

Team Ice vs. Team Brooks Today has concluded a fabulous weekend spent in Waco with our good friends, Whitney & Estebaan Ice. We took a [very] long overdue trip to visit them and had a fabulous time, of course. Funny how much fun you can have when you carve out time from your “super busy” schedule. They’re great friends and we miss them being around. Estebaan is one of the most randomly knowledgeable person we know, and the most naturally talented person we’ve ever met. He could literally do anything he wanted to. Whitney is super fun, very passionate, a great listener, a killer competitor, and a fabulous cook. She…

“No Truck for YOU!” When I was training for my halfsie recently, I would run through this one neighborhood pretty regularly. One day, I passed a truck that had a hand-written sign on it that was begging to be read. I stopped to snoop, and saw the message below: I mean, seriously?? How lucky is this guy? This lady just stops by and offers to buy a truck that has no For Sale sign on it. At this point in the story, Taylor goes, “I’m going to park my truck over there.” Ha! Then comes the good part. I run through this neighborhood a good 3 weeks later and see…

As I logged onto Facebook today, I experienced the ever-present guilt trip when I checked my event and group invitations. Have you ever received the “Pray for John Smith’s left leg” or “If 10,000 people join this group, my friend will become a Christian” invitations on Facebook? It doesn’t matter if it is a hoax, if you know the person, or if you are actually going to participate in the group, you have to accept. It is your Christianly duty to accept anything with “prayer” or “Jesus” in the title. Is anyone else guilted into these groups or do you have the strength to ignore? A dear friend of mine…