Time to browse?

A friend of mine told me about this website for modern, hip and retro clothes that are not expensive.  http://www.modcloth.com/  Plus they measure the clothes not on the body so you can get the perfect fit.  Here is how they describe it:

How do I know if an item will fit me?


Every garment sold on ModCloth is specifically measured for bust, waist, and hip fit. These dimensions are provided in the "Measurements" section of each product page. Dimensions given are in inches and taken flat across the garment. The listed measurements do not include any stretch the item might have, nor do they correspond directly with the item's circumference. While it may seem unconventional to provide each item's specific measurements, it's actually the most accurate way for you to determine fit while shopping online. To best assess your fit, choose a garment that you already own and that fits you well. Lay this item flat and measure across the front. Then, compare your measurement with your desired garment's "Measurements" chart. Please note that measuring your body directly may provide misleading measurements.

If you have time to browse and are looking for some fun party clothes go to this site.  I have found at least 3 dresses that I really want and not one of them is over $100.  Much better than the $250 you spend at boutiques around here for essentially teh same thing!  Oh and flat rate $7 shipping.

A little catch up

I know that I promised a post last week about our great Lake Martin trip with one of our favorite families over Labor Day weekend.  But the week got away from me and then we had a BIG weekend.  Ted has a friend that he met after law school when he went on a camping trip through NOLS.  The guy is a lawyer in DC and started this amazing non-profit called WILL where he takes inner city kids and teaches them to be leaders through outdoor activities (and also other stuff like nutirtion, being accountable, etc.).  He is an amazing and inspiring guy.  Anyhoo, he and his girlfriend came to stay with us for the weekend.  The purpose of the visit was a trip to Tuscaloosa to the Alabama v. Penn State game as he cheers for the best team in the nation and she cheers for Penn State.  We had a great time, but we were busy.  Here is a peek into the schedule:

FRIDAY:
(they got in around lunch and Ted took them to a famous meat and three and then to the Civil Rights Institute, which is a must-see for anyone who comes through town)
5:00 Drinks and appetizers at the house, unpacking, introductions and they brought presents for the kids so everyone was VERY happy!
6:00 6 year old birthday party at the neighbors with jumpy castle, dinner, etc.
7:15 Home to bathe Sam and put him to bed - Ann Park was quick to follow
7:30  Light the fire for the steaks, make the squash and sald
8:15  Eat (starving)
10:30 Bed

SATURDAY:
(I'll omit the middle of the night adventure for our visitors - short story is that she had a migraine and did not have a very good night)
7:00 Wake up call from AP and Ward - Ted got up and let me sleep!
8:00 Time for mommy to get her butt out of bed
9:00 Head to Broken Egg - the best brunch in town!
10:00 Off to the zoo for the kids, daddy and daddy's friend - errands for mommy to get ready for the game
1:00 Leave for Tuscaloosa
2:15-10:30 Tailgaiting, drinking, laughing, visiting with friends and watching the Tide dominate
11:15 asleep, finally

SUNDAY:
8:30 Mass for Ted, Ward and Ann Park while mommy cleans up house, laundry, etc.
10:00 Mass for mommy while kids play
11:00 Everyone to the park
11:45 Lunch at Jackson's
1:00 Grocery store
2:00 Ted takes friends to airport
3:00 I have 30 girls over for a meeting - I am President of a volunteers group called the Ballet Guild and we had a Chairmen's meeting for all the chairs of the different committees
6:30 artshow and dinner for my friend Hampton
9:30  Home and bed

So can you tell why I didn't have time to blog?  But if you are still reading this post, I will reward you with some pictures from Labor Day weekend.  The weather was perfect and company fantastic.  We even made a bonfire on Saturday night!

James and Ann Park playing on the boat

Ward's self portrait (we get one every time he finds a camera!)

And here are a bunch of fire pictures.  We didn't have marshmellows so notice the hotdog Ward grilled!

Sam in Mose's batman mask

Mose and Ann Park watching Veggie Tales

James was helping Sam make some music on the pots!

Mom post

My good friend Shay just posted this on facebook and I had to share for all the moms out there.  It is a short video with answers to the following question from real moms: "If you could go back to before your first baby, what would you tell yourself?"  My answer?  It's okay to ask for help and you don't have to be super-mom all the time.  What would you tell yourself?

Football Season is HERE!

Football season is finally here!  If you know my family (and you all do if you are reading this) you know that football seasons puts a perma-grin on my mom and makes me pretty happy too.  We didn't get to watch too much this opening weekend because of all the activities on the lake (a post on that later), but I at least got a small taste of it.

And speaking of taste, football season also means food.  Appetizers, specifically.  I am a HUGE fan on appetizers.  Give me a good bloody mary (or glass of wine or sometimes even a nice cold beer), along with some great appetizers and I am set.  I don't even need "real food"* as Ward says. So I have been searching through some recipes and found a couple of good ones that I thought I would post.  They are not your usual "chips and salsa" (although a couple are oldies but goodies) so are fun to make if you are having people over.  Eat up and ROLL TIDE!

White Pizza Dip (Lipton)

1 envelope Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix
1 container (16 oz.) sour cream
1 cup (8 oz.) ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup (1 oz.) chopped pepperoni
1 loaf Italian or French bread, sliced

Preheat oven to 350°. In shallow 1-quart casserole, combine Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix, sour cream, ricotta cheese, 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve with bread.

            - As an aside, I also think that this would be good with fritos!

RO*TEL Sausage Balls


1 lb sausage
3 cups Bisquick
8 oz Cheese Whiz
1 can RO*TEL diced tomatoes with green chilies

Pulse RO*TEL in food processor until the tomatoes are broken up into smaller chunks; 10-15 pules.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine sausage, Bisquick, Cheese Whiz and RO*TEL. Mix until thoroughly combined. Shape into 1-inch balls. (May be frozen at this point).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Beer Cheese Dip (YUM!!)

2 cups sharp cheddar, shredded
2 (8 oz.) blocks cream cheese, sofened
1 pkt. ranch dressing mix
1/2 cup beer
Dash of seasoning salt or garlic salt (optional)

Mix all together until well blended.  I think that it works best if you mis the frist three ingredients together and then add the beer.  Chill for several hours before serving or make the day before.  Serves lots!

Layered Mediterranean Dip

2 containers of Hummus
1 jar Marinated Artichokes, drained and chopped
1 large jar Kalamata Olives, drained and chopped
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
Pepperchini peppers, drained and sliced
1.5 jars of Sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
Feta Cheese
Pine Nuts, toasted

You can make this as large or small as you need.  The hummus should be on the bottom and the feta & pine nuts on the top.  Layer the rest in the order listed above.  Serve with Stacy's pita chips.

              - This recipe is really great and gives you a little creative license.  You can always leave out any       ingredient you don't like (i.e. when I made it I did it without the olives since Ted doesn't like olives and it was still fantastic!)


* "Real food" according to Ward is a meal.  Anything else is just snacking and apparently doesn't count.  This always cracks me up since he eats like a bird.

Homework

I think that I have already posted on here that Ward has homework every night, M-TH.  It is not much, but we still have to sit down and do it.  I kinda like it and think that he is getting into a good routine - especially since I hear that in first grade they really "lower the hammer" when it comes to homework.  And I was very surprised to hear that the incredible public school just around the corner from us (where I went to school and routinely gets awards as one of the highest ranked elementary school in the US - "Blue Ribbon School") does not do homework for Kindergarten.  At least they haven't yet. 

But, that was not the point of this post.  Instead, we got a note home over the weekend about how the kids are going to start "Social Studies" this week.  They already do grammar, writing, reading, math and science each day so they are just rounding out hte subjects I suppose.  (Of course if you ask Ward his favorite class is PE where he learned to punt a football the other day and couldn't wait to get home to show me - ALL BOY!)  The problem with starting social studies is that is came with homework.  A project really.  And the project was for me.  It is not a big deal, but it will take some thought and time to do something that Ward will understand.  You see, they are going to start studying about thier ancestry.  She asked that they bring pictures of ancestors, a map from where our family is from, a family tree, etc.  That is all fine and dandy, but that means I have to do the work. 

And then Ted and I got into the whole "well whoee family do we do?"  Mine won out of course since Ted is going to be out of town this whole week and I will be the one doing the project.  Plus, Ted doesn't have any idea about his ancestry and he claims that his family doesn't know either.  I seriously doubt that, but you get the point.  The one nice thing is that one Christmas when I was in high school my grandmother, Ann Samford Upchurch, gave each of her grandchildren a small book that she had printed for us.  It is the diary of her grandfather, William Hodges Samford.  There are some pictures inside and a couple of great stories. She also detailed how the Samfords got here from England and at one point I did a family tree (with lots of blank brachnes) from it. Not sure what I am going to make yet, but if you know me, you know that it will be good.  And colorful.  Poor Ward will probably be embarrassed by his over-achieveing mother.  Oh well.  He has a lot to learn about his mommy!

Another Holt boy

I took Sam to his 15 month well-baby appointment yesterday at the pediatrician.  He is in a "I don't do strangers" stage (i.e. he screams bloody murder whenever a stranger gets near him) so it was not so nice with the nurse trying to get his length, head circumference and weight.  He was grabbing onto me for dear life, like I was abandoning him at some truck stop.  All of my kids have gone through this stage, but Sam seems to be going a little stronger than the other two.  Let's just hope that doesn't mean that his laid-back personality is changing into a more type A one.  (On that front, he is a right in the middle of Ward and Ann Park - Ward is cool and calm, while Ann Park is more like her mama, high strung!)

But back to the pediatrician.  Everything looks great.  He is walking, standing from a sitting position, picking things up from the ground from a standing position, has at least 3-6 words (even some that others can understand), etc.  The funny thing was his numbers.  He weighed 21 pounds 2 ounces and was almost 31 inches.  Apparently that puts him in the 10th percentile for weight and the 30th for height.  The pediatrician, who is a friend of mine, says, "I am not worried that he is dropping off his chart a little bit, I mean he is a Holt . . . I mean a Holt boy."  That totally cracked me up because Ward has been small since his days in the NICU and Ann Park has never been little.  Don't get me wrong - she is not fat by any means.  In fact, she is pretty damn near perfect and has stayed in the 50% range her entire life.   She, my friends, in body and personality is an Upchurch.  Lucky girl.  I joke that at least mama can teach her how to dress her curves!  Let's just hope that I can keep up with her sense of fashion.

Amazing friends

Ted and I spent this past weekend in South Carolina for the wedding of one of my closest friends from college.  It was a grand affair and I had a blast.  Of the 8 girls I was close with in college, 6 of us were there.  All three of my roomies and then two others.  And we had a blast.  I definitely acted like I thought I was still in college and my liver is paying for it.  Plus I stayed up until 2 am for three nights in a row.  Do I think that I am 21 again?   But that is not the point of the story.

As we were flying home yesterday and generally feeling like poo, I kinda got a little emotional about my friends.  There is certainly something very special about those girls you bond with in college.  At 18, I left  the comfort of my family and the only home I have ever known and moved 10 hours a way to a little place called Lexington, Virginia.  Who knew that I would meet people there who would shape my life and mean so much to me (probably even more than they did while I was there) close to 10 years later.  These girls know me.  They get me.  They accept me.  They love me despite all my faults.  And I love them. 

I don't know what it is about this group of women.  We live across the country from each other - Oregon, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee - but when we get together the distance doesn't matter.  It is just like it always was.  Of course now there are stories about kids and husbands instead of boyfriends and dates.  We talk potty training and preschool instead of what so-and-so was doing at the party.  But it is all the same.  It is all good.  It always is.

The problem is that we have such a great time together so very seldom.  I have not made it a priority in my life to keep up with them.  I am not good at keeping up.  I never call.  I rarely e-mail.  I sometimes blog.  But I want that to change.  I miss them.  They are a huge part of me.  And I love that part of me.

Reality

With the first "week" (W-F until1:00) behind him, Ward was feeling pretty confident about school.  He didn't have any homeowrk and his "mean friend from last year" had been behaving well and had not bothered him.  Well, reality set in yesterday.  First, Ward will have homewokr EVERY DAY, Monday-Thursday.  It is not a lot, but it is something that I have to force him to do.  Last night it was practice writing his "A" and "a" five times (the hardest part about this is staying in the lines and getting the sizing right - this is particularly hard with the lower case letters) and count 1-20 five times.  We also have to read one book every night and keep a reading log.  Right now it is me reading to him but it will be him reading to me sooner than I think.  That will add some time to the homework routine.

Second, the "mean friend" pushed him down at the playground and made him cry.  He said that he told the principal (who he claims saw the whole thing) and he said that they didn't need to fight.  Ward sais taht he scared the "mean friend" who reciprocated by pushing Ward to the ground.  I hate to hear stories like that.  And I especially hate this kid.  Hate is probably too strong of a word - I dislike this kid, a lot.  He has been in Ward's class the past two years and I have heard stories like this over and over again.  He doesn't play nice.  He is a bully.  He is mean to Ward.  And I don't like him.  Period.

But back to the homework.  I have decided to make Ward do his homework when he gets home from school, before he can go out and play.  That seems kinda mean to me, however, since he just got home from school, but he is exhausted by 5 and I can't imagine trying to get anything done any later than that with the bath-dinner-bed routine.  It is too much.  Even for this super-mom (yes, I call myself super-mom, it gives me a little ego boost when I need it).

First day of school!

Well, it is officially here.  Ward started kindergarten this morning.  He was on cloud nine and could not wait to get in his uniform as soon as he woke up.  I was playing it up so much for Ward that I felt like I was leaving Ann Park out a little bit, but I quickly recovered and she was all smiles.  Kindergarten and 4K . . . where did all the time go?  At least I still have Sam!!!

While I was drying my hair, Ward got hold of the camera and took a couple of cute shots:

He loves self portraits

Ann Park struck a pose.

Then I made them go out on the front porch and model with their backpacks.  It was really hot (already) so we just got a couple.  Plus I felt a lump developing in my throat so we needed to get going!

Good intentions

So I totally meant to write this fabulous post all about our week at the lake with the Tuscaloosa Holts and post all my wonderful pictures.  But, as I am sure you have noticed, I didn't get around to it.  Instead, we had a great weekend of swimming, playing "house", lemonade stands, going to Ann Park's 4K class, and watching Sam struggle to walk.  (He is a LATE bloomer at almost 15 months!)  Ann Park also informed me that she has a boyfriend, whom she wants to marry and kiss.  Great. 

On another note, this week is a BIG week in the Holt household.  Ward starts kindergarten on Wednesday.  I can hardly believe it.  I feel like those long days and nights of the NICU were only a short time ago.  Five years goes by so fast!  He is still my angel and always will be.  No offense to my other kids as I love them dearly, but there is really something special between a mom and her first born.  He will always be the one who I had all my firsts with.  I promise to document the occassion as Ted is going to be out of town for work and will miss the first day . . . uniform and all.  (Most of you know that we are sending him to Catholic school as opposed to public, right?)  I am sure that I will shed a tear or two, but I will never let him see it.  I want him to have quiet confidence as he walks into that school on Wednesday.  It really is the first day of the rest of his life.  I was thinking that once you start school, you are in school for at least 17 more years.  And I have 20 more with law school included in there!

Here is a little walk down memory lane (using pictures from my work computer so I don't have a ton!). . .

Summer 07

October 07

March 08

Summer 08

Fall 08

Age 4 - Fall 2009

Summer 2010