Mommin' It Up!

April 11, 2012April 11, 2012

Pin for the Wednesdays: HAIR!

Well hello there, Wednesday! It’s time to show off some pins! I’m actually a little peeved at Pinterest these days because it’s making me think that I can do things that I don’t actually have the skills to do. Hmm. So my pin this week is a win-in-progress. You see, I have a love-hate relationship with my hair. Sort of. I used to love it, or at least like it, when it was straight. But after I quit breastfeeding Sophie three-and-a-half years ago, my hair got WAVY! It’s totally weird, and I still don’t know what to do with it. Also, it’s very thick and heavy and it takes me fifteen years to blow it out or flatiron it. Both of these processes usually leave me angry and sweaty, and generally I end up just letting my hair air dry. Sooooooo, I decided to see if Pinterest had any tutorials that could show me some styles for my thick, wavy hair.

Pinterest has WAY TOO MANY ideas and tutorials for my wavy hair woes, many of which I could NEVER do. But, I did find one pin with a whole bunch of tutorials and I’ve tried a few. It’s this pin from the Small Things blog. She has tons and tons of ideas and tutorials, some of which I’ve spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME on this week! But I’ve gotten a few results I feel ok about!

hair1 — Double twist w/ ornament bobby pin & messy ponytail

hair2 — Teased my hair all over and finger-combed it out

I’ve had a few failures as well, but I am going to keep trying. I am tired of wearing my hair the same way every day. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get “good” at doing my hair. Doubtful, but you never know! I want to have it looking super-swanky when Emily and I take Miami by storm in a couple of weeks.

Allright, I wanna see what you got! What pins have you been working on that you’ve loved? Link up below, or if you don’t have a blog, leave a comment. Just pretty please follow our rules:

1) In your post, please link to your original source – the pin you got the idea from.

2) Make sure and link back to our original Pin For the Wednesdays Post here at Mommin’ It Up! (please!)

3) In the Mr. Linky below, leave a direct link to your Pin FTWednesdays post, not to your main website.

4) Totally optional – grab our cute #PinFTW button! The code box is over there in our sidebar.

Can’t wait to see your WINS!!

April 9, 2012April 8, 2012

Easter or something like it

Yesterday we had sort of an untraditional Easter. First, we committed sacrilege by attending church on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning. Now, we do this every week as our church has a Saturday night service, but it did feel a little odd not to be going on Easter Sunday. It did, however, feel veeery nice not have to run around Easter morning to get ready for church! Instead we had time for a little egg hunt in the house. The big kids enjoyed it very much. It started at 7:30 a.m. when they bounded out of bed and downstairs like a herd of wild donkeys, and ended about two minutes later. (I only hid 16 eggs total. Do I need my kids hopped up on sugar for the next three weeks? NO, I do not!)

Later in the afternoon, we headed over to my Grandma’s house for a late lunch. It was kind of weird because my parents took off for their “second home” in Virginia last week, and my brother and his family joined them. Since the last thing my other brother wants to do is spend Easter with his favorite sister (and procurer of his razors and deodorant, I might add), they spent Easter with just my sister-in-law’s family. So there was a very small crowd at my Grandma’s. Nevertheless, my children were very entertaining and adorable. Even though this was the best picture I could get of them:

We did get some super-fun playtime in with Jonah at my Grandma’s as well. Her coffee table is the perfect height for a game of ball! You want to watch this, it’s 15 seconds of ADORBS!

Finally, we left my Grandma Brads’ house and headed for my Grandma Burns’. The other weird thing about Easter is that we weren’t having a big meal there, since there really weren’t even enough people to cook for. So we just had dessert, which was excellent. I had great fun hanging out with my favorite cousin Anna, since her sister (whose name starts with an E and ends with a y and has an mil in between), who was formerly tied for favorite cousin, had better things to do than to join us. Her text message on the subject said, and I quote, “I was napping”. PLEASE!

{Side note: Don’t worry Mackenzie and Shelby, you are still tied for favorite cousin on the Brads side. But let’s just keep that betwixt us, if Donovan finds out I’m afraid he’ll have a hard time finding something to live for.}

So, Easter was a wee bit weird, BUT! We made it work, we spent time with what family deigned to be around us, and most importantly, we remembered that the grave couldn’t hold Jesus. Can I get a WHAT WHAT!?

That was our Easter! How was yours?

April 5, 2012

Gallbladders are dropping like FLIES

About three weeks ago on a Monday night, I went to bed as soon as Bobby got home from work. I had this weird pain in my side that had been plaguing me all day. The next morning, I felt better – for a few minutes, and then it came back. It wasn’t super-bad (trust me, I am a MAJOR WIMP), but it was annoying and uncomfortable. I knew it couldn’t be my appendix because I gave that organ the heave-ho when I was 18. I began to suspect kidney stone, gall stone, or cancerous tumor (see: post category, Jenny is Neurotic.)

Six days later, on a Sunday, I decided to go to Urgent Care because a) Bobby was home with the kids and b) the pain was so persistent I had really psyched myself out that a terminal diagnosis was forthcoming. So off I went, with super-high nervous blood pressure brought on by my wild imagination as well as my symptoms.

At Urgent Care, the doctor asked me a few questions, pressed around my abdomen, assured me I did NOT have a tumor, and upon learning I also did NOT have an appendix, told me I most likely was experiencing a gallbladder attack. I was relieved and not really surprised. I had expected that, if I wasn’t to soon me on my deathbed, it was probably my gallbladder. My mom had hers out when she was younger than I am now, and my BFF Luanne just gave hers up in December. My friend Lori had hers out just after having a baby (or were you pregnant, Lori?)

The good doctor told me (in heavily accented English and using the phrase, “ok, cool” a lot) that I could go get a liver function blood test and an ultrasound at the nearest hospital if I wished.

I thought about it and decided to pass. That sounded expensive! The past two weeks I’ve been treating my symptoms by drinking ridiculous amounts of water (previously unheard of for me) and taking herbal supplements to promote gallbladder health. And, it’s really helping. I can still feel that gallbladder telling me it’s there sometimes, but not nearly as much as before, and it really is not painful, it’s more of a nag. I’d really like to try to avoid surgery, because who has TIME for surgery, I’ve got a fabulous trip to Miami to plan for! (However, see above, I AM A WIMP – if it gets excruciating, I will head to the nearest hospital and demand they operate.)

But then. This week, for some reason the gallbladder PLAGUE has hit all of my Facebook friends! THREE, count’ em THREE people I know (two I actually KNOW, like, in real life) have gotten their gall bladders removed THIS WEEK!! One is only 21 years old, the other two both have babies that are less than two months old.

What’s the deal, gallbladders of the world? Is there like a general uprising going on?

So, have any of you dealt with this? Any exciting remedies I should know about? I am using one that has like, a million fab herbs for liver & gall bladder function in it. I got it from Health Foods Unlimited, so you know it has to be the cure-all. Ha.

Give me your best advice or gallbladder stories! Save the gallbladders!