LSU Game and Last Boat Trip? - Weekend Roundup

A pretty low-key weekend around here and we enjoyed it!

We were in Charlotte the entire weekend and enjoyed football, food and even a little boat fun despite it already being Fall weather.

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The weather was so nice this weekend we ushered it in by having dinner on the back deck.

Shelby had her version of Mexican that night.

She's doing so good eating table food.

I'm so proud!

 

Saturday was game day!!

LSU vs Georgia!!

Big stuff!

It was even the college game of the week on ESPN.

We were dressed in our LSU gear all day!!

It was Shelby's first run in her cheerleader outfit my best friend bought her before she was born.

We watched the game with a bunch of our VA Tech Hokie friends since their team played on Thursday night.

A little easier than taking Shelby to a bar to watch with the Alumni Group here in town.

Maybe in a year or two.

I made sausage balls and busted out my Tiger chip and dip bowl the 'Old Brad's'(ex-boyfriend) Mom bought me years ago for Christmas. 

 Shelby was a real trooper!

We were out at their house until 9pm because of the game.

She normally goes to bed at 7pm!!

At least there was another baby there to entertain her.

William is 2 and 1/2 months old.

I think she has my personality even though she looks identical to Brad.

She totally loves being the center of attention!

 Such a HAM!

 Sunday we went to church for the first time in weeks giving that I was sick, we were out of town, then Shelby was sick last weekend.

Great service as always.

Then our neighbors Keith and Lu invited us to brunch and on their boat.

The weather turned out to be sunny and 78 so it wasn't bathing suit weather but still super nice.

 Shelby did the best she has done ever on the boat.

I'm not sure if it was because she wasn't hot or what??

 She even got down and was crawling around and standing up on the boat while we were moving.

Granted Keith was driving super slow.

 Makes me so happy seeing her love the outdoors.

I want her to appreciate nature and be active her entire life.

We've already scheduled our next camping trip to the mountains in 2-weeks.

I'm hoping the early exposure to all these things makes her love it.

We cooked a great dinner tonight that I should have taken a photo of.

I'm getting better with my meal planning.

Tomorrow night I'm attempting Skinny Taste's spaghetti squash boats with grilled chicken.

Light, different and hopefully delish!!

Happy Sunday!

5 on Friday

I'm blogging from my phone and attempting to do my version of a Friday Five even though I won't be linking up anymore.

Here's 5 things I'm loving right now.

#1. Friends and Wine Tasting

I met up with my friends Katie and Sara last night for a big wine tasting at Arthur's  Wine Shoppe in the basement of Belk at SouthPark Mall. 

It was the Italian Festival tasting. $10 to taste 50 wines!!!

Yes, PLEASE!!!

#2. The US Team making a major comeback to win the America's Cup!!

You might recall that we got to see all the action on our recent trip to San Francisco. 

When we were out there the US Team was 8 to 1! 

In a week and a half they were able to win 9 races to win the whole thing!

Amaze balls!

#3. I cooked 3 nights this week!!

This was my favorite.

Crispy pork chops and roasted butternut squash orzo salad.

Delish!!

#4. Shelby moved to a new class this week. 

We were excited but truly miss her old teacher Miss Jessica.

Shelby is having a hard time adjusting in her new space.

Apparently she's not down with the afternoon teacher. 

The woman is nice as can be. The morning teacher believes its because Miss Hannibal is African American and Shelby hasn't had much exposure.

She's cries and cries when the other teacher leaves the room and its just Miss Hannibal.

It's so bad that a few days this week when I went to pick her up she was back in her old class.

She's going to have to get over it!!! For reals!

#5. Last but not least Shelby ate spaghetti for the first time this week!

For some reason this was super special to me. 

Brad thinks I'm a nut but I wouldn't even let her eat it at school until she had it at home first.

Anyone else like that??

It's the little things I love the most.

That's all I have for today. I'm excited about the LSU vs Georgia game tomorrow afternoon!

I plan to have Shelby wear her LSU cheerleader outfit for the first time!!

Go Tigers!!

Have a great weekend!!

A Big Pet Peeve of Mine

Now that I'm private I feel a little more freedom to write about topics that I might not when public.

One of them is a huge pet peeve of mine and that is:

 Parents who complain about their kids.

(especially in front of them)

I know that I have not hit the terrible 2's or 3's or 4's or whatever, but this is still something I'm pretty passionate about giving what it took us to even have Shelby.

It's something that totally rubbed me the wrong way when trying to conceive and even to this day.

It's just rude, selfish and inappropriate.

I understand there are hard times but in my opinion parents should talk about these things between themselves instead of making comments such as:

"I can't wait to get away from my kids."

"Oh, you have a 9-month old, I bet you couldn't WAIT to get out of the house!!"

(this was said to me at a blogger event and I was quick to put them in their place)

"Why did we have kids again?"

(then trying to laugh about it)

The worst comment ever made to me and Brad?

(And, when we were in the midst of crazy fertility treatments. And, it was made in front of the children who were old enough to understand.)

"I can't wait for you guys to have kids, so your life can be as miserable as mine."

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I know parenting is hard but when we were trying to get pregnant I SWORE to myself that I WOULD NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT MY CHILD IF WE WERE TO EVER HAVE ONE!

That is still my story and I'm sticking to it.

Maybe I'm different???

Am I??

Is it because what we went through?

Brad has never complained once and I don't ever see him complaining.

We take our jobs as parents as the best and most ultimate job we could ever be blessed with.

We treasure our time with her but appreciate our time away too, but I don't go around chanting to everyone that we're free?

We miss her but at the same time I know it's important for our marriage to have time for just the two of us.

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When we were trying to conceive and even now I question parents that complain about their children.

It's not judging it's just my personal question.

"Why did they even have kids?"

"Did they have them too early in life to appreciate them?"

THOUGHTS??

Shelby is 9-months

Shelby turned 9-months old while we were in California.

We were sad to miss such a milestone 'birthday' but she was in great hands with my Mom and Dad.

Getting the monthly pictures is getting harder.

I attempted before I left and was unsuccessful and my parents tried on her actual 'day'.

This was the best they got.

Her bow is way too far back but it is what it is.

At 9-months it's amazing how much she has grown!

She's so close to walking it's not even funny.

She's on the move and has really gotten into playing with all of her toys and is great at entertaining herself.

Her big word right now is 'DA!' but she's also making some 'B' sounds.

According to my speech pathologist friend, Katie, Shelby is off the charts when it comes to her motor skills and everything else.

We're SOOOOO proud and feel so lucky. 

We realize that there are a lot of other parents out there having to deal with developmental delays and/or disabilities.

This past week she got sick for really the first time.

Meaning, when I went to pick her up on Thursday at school they told me she couldn't come back the next day.

It appeared that she had pink eye in BOTH eyes.

I was slammed with work so Brad had to be the one to take the day off and take her to the doctor.

He did SUCH a great job.

She's had a terrible cold for weeks and they finally gave her an antibiotic and eye drops.

This was just after one day of the meds and a ton of rest.

Not too bad.

She seemed to be feeling so much better that I even took her to Festival in the Park with my friend Katie.

It's always crazy crowded but she did good and we even rode the carousel.

I think I had as good of a time as she did!!

BTW.. you might notice she lost her bow.

She's really not into them anymore.

I'm hoping she will grow some hair so I can start using the clips.

The day before Shelby got really sick she had her 9-month well visit.

She is generally really good but not this time and now I think it's because she really was feeling lousy.

This is her reaction when the nurse was simply measuring her!

DRAMATIC!

Baby girl is 20.7 pounds and 28-inches long.

She's wearing 12-months clothes already!

This was before any of the nurses came in.

She was all smiles.

They gave her one of her vaccines and 1/2 of her flu shot.

That flu shot was BRUTAL!!

I dread the other half of it.

When it comes to food and drink Shelby is doing awesome.

She has two teeth on the top and 2 more coming in.

The same with her bottoms.

She's already drinking formula out of a sippy cup.

Doesn't seem to bother her.

She's a master of the cup.

She's standing on her own and pulling up like crazy.

And she's done with pureed foods.

It's all real stuff now and she's a champ when it comes to eating!

She loves veggies and fruits and had eggs for the first time this weekend.

And, she's pretty obsessed with Buddy these days.

I'm not so sure what he truly thinks.

He's pretty taken with her too but check out this video from this weekend!

More life scoop tomorrow I just wanted to get this written down so I don't forget.

San Francisco Part Four - Marina Yacht Club and Cal Game

 Our original plan was to spend part of Friday in Napa lounging at our friend's country club pool - Meadowood - but we were all partied and wined out and decided to head back to the city.

We stopped in Marin County in the town of Tiburon for breakfast.

The plan was to eat at Sam's Cafe on the water but we were a bit early so we hit up a small cafe instead.
A few pictures on the water and we were off!

Before crossing the Golden Gate back into the city I insisted we stop at the Golden Gate Recreation Area to take pictures.

Everyone sort of grumbled because we were all hungover but in the end everyone was glad we did it.

This would have been the best picture if Brad's eyes would have been open.

We dropped Dean and Kathleen at their hotel downtown and we headed back to our friend's house.

Gosh, what an awesome place they have.

 It's in the Marina literally next door to the Palace of Fine Arts and they even have a backyard living space with a fireplace, bar and kitchen and chickens!
Their daughter Dylan, who is 2 1/2 is the cutest!

Awesome little play room.

Their den.

Kitchen and Dylan's kitchen.

Along with Cali Bear, the dog, who slept with us 2 out of 3 nights.

Dylan's super cute room.

Her first report card from the TuTu school.

Beth and DJ's room complete with rooftop deck where you can see the Palace of Fine Arts and the top of the Golden Gate on a 'non-foggy' day.

Cute or what???

They even have an awesome outdoor living space right in the city complete with chickens.

6 of them!

All whom have names.

Bears galore throughout the house since DJ played for the Cal Bears.

Beth and DJ are members of the St. Francis Yacht Club that's in walking distance of their house.

I've been going to the club for years even before they joined.

Another one my friends got married there in 2001 and it's always such a pretty view.

You can see both Alcatrez and the Golden Gate from there.

Kathleen and friends joined us.

It's all about America's Cup at the Yacht Club right now giving you can see all the action from their deck.

So fun!

Shelby even got a souvenir!

Beth and I have been friends since 1991 when we met at Miss Teen of America.

I was Miss Teen of Arkansas and Beth was Miss Teen of Washington.

For everyone that wants to make fun of pageants can go right ahead but I have one of my best friends because of it.

We were in each others weddings.

Palace of Fine Arts on our way to the Yacht Club.

We met up with the rest of the group that traveled in for the Ohio State vs. Cal game and then called it a night.

The next day was game day!!

We rested and hung out until time to go.

This was our first time to a Cal game in Berkeley.

I was pretty surprised just how much their Greeks party.

The DKE's had their own slip and slide!

Beth's husband, DJ, played for Cal in the 80's and is in their Hall of Fame, so he invited us and all of our Ohio friends to the former player tailgate.

Very well done!

I probably should have worn Cal colors but I get so much crap for that, giving that I'm LSU fan through and through, so I kept myself neutral.

DJ, our host.

Our Ohio friends, Dean and Kathleen, who suggested this entire trip.

We split up from all of our Ohio friends and went with DJ to the Cal Field Club.

AKA..

Hall of Fame.

Pretty cool.

Just like an NFL club but on the college level.

Food, drinks, bar.

TVs

Last but not least DJ's picture in the Hall of Fame!

What a great trip and it was great seeing some of our best friends!

It was jam packed and we were exhausted coming home the next day on our 7:50am flight!

Thanks to Dean and Kathleen for suggesting the trip, Beth and DJ for hostessing us and most of all??????

My parents taking care of Shelby!!!

We were SOOOO glad to get home and see our baby!!!

Now on to new topics!