First Day of Kindergarten!

Today is a really big day for us, it's Gavin's first day of kindergarten! Just like everything that happens in my life, it always comes with a story. This is the story of Gavin going to Kindergarten....

PS prepare to see a WHOLE LOT of the kindergarten sign I made. I plan to make him a sign every year (because after grade 3 or 4 they all start to run together). I want to get one good picture of him every year to see his progress, how handsome he is etc. Therefore... the sign is in every picture is in hopes to get 'the perfect shot.'

Lets start with breakfast this morning... I have been very spoiled (forever) in that the daycare always gave Gav his breakfast/first bottle of the day/etc. So I don't really buy a lot of breakfast foods, just maybe some pancake mix to do breakfast up right on the weekends. Not anymore, i'm now a short-order cook! I made gav these (disghusting but he loves them) flax and fig waffles (don't ask he found them at Earth Fare and won't eat anyting else) and an apple. He ate exactly 1 slice of the apple.

After than I got him dressed and let him watch a little TV while I finished getting ready/straightened my hair (oh the irony) before we walked to school. Yes I said walk.  We live basically across from his elementary school and I knew i wanted to walk him in. Instead of dealing with the parking, it just makes sense to walk right???

(Unfortuinately I don't have a front porch, and our front door is in this long dark hallway, so I opted to do an in the front door photo shoot instead.)

It somehow took us 10 minutes to get from the front door to the street. I honestly thought the entire trip would only take maybe 5-10 minutes. Um nope. And it's like 85% humidity (remember me flat ironing my hair?) 

So we walked and walked and walked. We got to the school zone sign and stopped for more pictures. Any anxiety Gav felt about starting Kindergarten was quickly replaced with slight annoyance as I kept taking more and more pictures (here's the deal... I never had professional maternity pictures done. It's probably one of my biggest regrets ever. I never ever want to miss another once in a lifetime photo op.) 

 We finally made it to the school... 25 minutes later. Not a huge deal, we were there with plenty of time. So we made our way past the carpool line and to Gav's classroom. (notice the 2 kids with LL Bean backpacks in front of Gav with his)

More hilariously awesome, classic 1st day of school shots 

We got to Gav's class and yeah.... I could not have put together a more epic awesome hilarious classic photo if I tried.

Pretty sure this is the one that will make it to the baby book kidding! not really.

Gav was sooo ready for me to leave. Ok really, to end the photo shoot.

So on to the important stuff. he has a little cubby where his bookbag and lunch box are. He sits at the front of the room which I am of course a fan of (if he or anyone else start acting up the teacher will see).

I adore his assistant teacher (white lady in the middle). She has cool tats like candy canes, bows, fireworks, and even a hello kitty like me!!!

  The kids all had books to read when they sat down before school started. Gav had Goodnight Moon on his desk (prob one of my fav Children's books ever!!!) and not that gav can read, but he has it memorized (because he's a genious) and read to the kids at his table. It was pretty adorable!

 That's about it. I ended up being 15 minutes late to work, even after being like an hour ahead of schedule (or so I thought). Remember how i straightened my hair before I took Gav to school? yeah... total waste. Hello wild 90's big hair! 

But I do like this picture... gav's empty carseat. It was a good morning dropping him off to Kindergarten.

(He's riding the bus to his afterschool. I hope he does okay... )

You're the meaning in my life

You're the meaning in my life
You're the inspiration ...

Guess what? I got to go see Chicago!

You should know,
everywhere I go.
You're always on my mind, in my heart. In my soul....

But... here's the thing. It was an outdoor concert + it was raining. Hard.

Like as in we totally covered ourselves in tarps and sat on the grass.

This was my view:

It was actually really fun because I was perfectly dry (well until I realized water had soaked through the blanket I was sitting on and my butt was wet).

The concert was good, my cousin actually used to date Keith, one of the guitarests back when she was in HS. We could have gone back stage (he kind of remembers me from back in the day, & my family & his family are still friends). But that would have been awkward, so we just went to amalie's and had eclairs.

...which is never awkward. Well I do have a hilariously awkward amelie's story, however it ends with me eating an eclair (like all Amelie's stories should end) so that's the important part.

Anyhow, here are some pictures of us trying to stay out of the rain before the show. Hilarious.

Pinterest

I know I'm totally sooo late on the whole pinterest thing. Yes, I fought it for a while. I sorta got it, but sorta was like what's the point. Anyhow, yes i am on there (this is after I check my fb, twitter, all email accounts, etsy feed, and have nothing else going on).

I've seen some cool stuff. Like really cool, inspiring stuff that I feel the need to share on here. More like out of all the cool crap, this is stuff I really for real x infinity want to do. And I'm more likely to remember how to find it on here (hey this blog's been happening since '09) then there.

Basically, this post is more for me than you. But I'm pretty sure this stuff is universally awesome.

Anniversary / Christmas / Annual whatever picture. Love Love Love

I've been thinking about xmas a lot. Ever since the bf told me that he couldn't wait to take me to s. park (the big fancy mall in qc) at the holidays, we'd get hot chocolate and people watch, so happy that we already got all of our gifts for ppl online. 

this is just ribbon tied to twinkle lights (PS I keep those command adhesive clear hooks around my ceiling year round because I'm so excited to decorate for the holidays.)

I randomly have this obsession with wanting to make wreaths (not that I've ever done it... but I have the need to big time. Nevermind I live with an exterior door that's like down a dark hallway).

Summer

Easter

I would sooo have this on my door right now (gav starts kindergarten tomorrow!!!!)

This would be for my birthday/your birthday/anybody's birthday

ok... over it for now. but you get the idea!

PS if you want to follow me on pinterest, here you go

ShopLeah Accessory from Hello Kitty Pin Up

The bad news is I still don't have all these pictures from CRD, so I can't edit them all. The goods news is I got a few that I did have edited and put the last hair accessory I wore for my pin up shoot on ShopLeah on etsy! I am not sure who this look would appeal to. I tagged it as Suicide Girls, Punk, but what else? I don't know what to call this... and no, I'm sure you all think this is how i dress everyday. But no,  it's not my normal running to Target outfit. Well... I do wear that top a lot. remember this post?

The Real Love Potion #9 (it works) Review

Guys falling at my feet, me getting out of speeding tickets, getting asked for my number daily... actually more like several times daily. People freaking out when they see me saying I look like a rock star. So what's the secret???? Ok get ready for the full story....

Last week I was contacted by Brian Hunt of Misikko to do a product review of the HANA Pro flatiron. After asking the obligatory questions (like can I keep it & him saying yes) I agreed. Just a couple days later I received a pretty decent size box in the mail.  And being the good blog reviewer that I am, I grabbed my camera and began snapping pics... omg I'm so glad I had my camera handy because what came next was so exciting I would have torn into it and not documented any of this...

I open the box and inside, packed all cute was the flat iron (somewhere) and so much more! it was like a girly spa day in a box! Ok, so maybe lots of you buy this kind of stuff for yourselves all the time, but honestly... i don't. I don't spend any $$ on beauty anything except for maybe some drugstore make-up once every 7 years or something.

As I started taking things out of the box, there was more and more and more! it was just like christmas morning! but not xmas, just a random august afternoon :)

ALLL of the below items were in this box... can you believe it!?!?!? I was so crazy excited! This is pretty much better than christmas!

Because (sidebar) there was something in there that I have always, my entire life wanted. And it's nothing I'd ever spend $$ on to buy myself, and I've never actually even seen it in real life (ok this story's getting depressing). But the item was... can you guess from all the things above???

Rose Petal Soap!!!! ok yes, probably a let down, but I have legit always wanted this and I got it!!! so i had to take one apart to see how it worked. it smells sooo good, like real roses! (sad this is what gets me so excited, there's a freakin $200+ flat iron in there hahah).

Another thing I hate to admit... I hate taking showers. Well really I hate washing my hair. It takes sooo long and i hate to dry it, I hate to flat iron it. It's like 1 1/2 hrs of my life (if I do it right) that I will never get back. But not this day, I was sooo excited to take a shower and try out the flat iron!

First I did play with a little more of the stuff in the box...

Ok, so all the stuff they sent was really cool. like if/when I do buy make up, this is the colors and stuff I'd really get!

Brian typed me a nice letter, so I took a pic of that too :)

Anyhow, I finally took my shower and blow dried with my  hair dryer  (that's the before flat ironing pic first below).

I think not only was this flat iron great, but it didn't make my hair 'too flat' (more coming on that below). I also think the extra straight hair makes me look like I've lost like 20 lbs. true? maybe?

So yes, I do have a flat iron I use daily prior to this review, but I think it's like the $19 conair cheap kind from target that doesn't even get that hot. This is the legit real kind. It's not that I have never had an interest in the fancy ones like chi... but I have tried them at the mall kiask (you know you have too!) and it makes my hair so flat it's ugly.

What I discovered is that the Hana flat iron doesn't do that. Even when I cranked it up to 450 (hey why not?)  I used the Hana Heat Styling Therapy gel (not a huge fan of the smell, but once it was on my hair I couldn't smell it). And I think my hair turned out really good (see after pic above).

PS I liked the cilicone pad they included for my counter. I've never really been worried about melting my counter, but I guess in an apartment it's a good idea to take precautions against that happening.

I'd describe my hair as normal/thin/color treated/lots of hair (even though the strands are thin).

Next, I attemped the illusive 'flat iron curl.' I pretty much failed, but hey, it's worth a shot.

 So I flat ironed my hair some more to get it straight again and I think it was really cute!
PS in my patti stanger 'Be your Own Matchmaker" book, she says guys like girls with STRAIGHT hair. I usually make my hair reasonably straight, but this was extra straight. ... and this is where the review gets interesting...

 So yesterday (wednesday) was the 1st day I wore my hair ultra flat to work. Below are the comments/compliments/things people said (normally no one says anything about my hair ever).

Daycare receptionist - did you cut your hair? you look like a rock star! your bangs look so cool (note I've not had my hair cut in over 2 mos).

Lauren (friend at work) - did you get a hair cut? (no) did you dye it (no) it looks so much thinner! like you had them take the weight out, it looks so good!

Next, Lauren, CRD and I walked to WW in the hospital across the street. They went to the bathroom, I stood around out in the hall. This guy in scrubs comes up to me and (this is a summary, it was a long convo).
- "Hey... wow... um, how are you? what's your name? do you work here? have I seen you before? I hate to be forward, can I have your number? (no) do you have a boyfriend? (yes) He's very lucky (duh)" Lauren and CRD took forever in the bathroom, but I tried to keep this dude around just so they could witness this random interaction. So he left, they came out, i told them... then I saw him in the atrium. So I waved, he waved back.

 Today at a program at work random vendor tried to talk to me FOREVER. Asked all my info, got my card, gave me his card... all that.

Then not even 5 min later I had to run down to tell the servers something for the catered lunch and these 2 dudes were ALL over me. About a second later one of the guys came up to where I was standing with my co-worker and straight up on the spot made up a song about me. I was too busy making 'omg' eyes to my co-worker to know what the song was about, but it was something with pretty and something else. Then this dude came back and tried to talk to me again. what the heck?

I snapped this pic of me in the bathroom... just so you could see it wasn't like I had on some hot sexy outfit. It's the hair!!! ???

Last thing, so I had to run back to work today and (bad news) was going 66 in a 55 so I got pulled over. The cop comes up to me, and gives me a warning, tells me it won't show up anywhere, then sees my Hello Kitty wallet and starts chatting it up with me for like 5 minutes about that and how cute he thinks girls with HK are. 

WHAT THE HECK!?!

Moral of story. All the ladies should go buy the Hana Pro flat iron if you want guys to hit on you. End of story.

I felt like sandra bullock/tate donnoval in Love Potion #9 people have been hitting on me like crazy! thanks Hana hahahah :)

Birthday Weekend Wrap Up!

I've been talking non-stop about birthdays these last few posts.
My bf is 28 years and 1 day older than Gav. I thought I'd be spending the entire weekend w/ Gav, but it worked out for me to see my bf too, so it was a total win-win for the boys (and me!).

Here is a wrap up of what went down this weekend...

Friday: Gav's party at his school (post HERE)
Friday evening: Drove to charlotte, suprised bf, met him out and got drinks.
Saturday: BF's 33rd bday. Bf's family came to his house, had lunch, more of his fam came over, and we did cake, etc. See my post on his amazing gift HERE
Sunday: Gav's 5th bday. Party at my mom's house, bf came over and my mom's fam & friends.
Sunday evening: Drove back to gboro so Gav could spend time with his dad (who had to work all weekend).

So I'm pretty sure everybody was super happy, I love when I can coordinate it so everyone gets their time. Gav and I are going back to charlotte next saturday to celebrate his bday again with my dad's side of the family (yay for so many divorced parents, grandparents, etc. non-stop party time!)

The only downside is that my camera fell into the depths of my bag and I couldn't find it all weekend :( so these pictures are taken from my phone & edited.

bf's mom made this!

so delicious

BF blowing out candles (cell phone action shot) and cute cake his mom made!!!! (he loves koalas)

Gav at my mom's on his bday (I gave him a backpack for school)

My mom made gav a special bday breakfast (rice a roni, apples & french toast).

Cool super hero wall clings from his dad