Last Blog Post.....Of 2009

Our Christmas Countdown is almost complete. The gifts are wrapped, and we are ready for the holly jolly to descend upon our home.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy (and safe!) New Year.

I'm going to pour myself into family activities and find some time to rest my spirit. I hope you do the same! See you next year!

This Fat Gig Is About To End

I'm kind of over being fat.

I've been fat before, and it didn't bother me nearly as much as it does this time. Probably because I was the thinnest I have ever been in my whole entire life right before I got fat this time.....well, I'm sure I wasn't thinner than I've been my whole life....I was thin, not skeletal and scary....so I should say, I was the thinnest I've ever been in my whole entire adult life. That sounds better.

I was a size four. And some of those size fours were baggy, people. I had muscle definition. I had hard, tight abs. I could sit on my ass with my knees drawn to my chest and my knees touched my chest....with no flabby belly in the way. I liked it.

But now I'm fat again.

So fat that I've even gained weight since Savannah was born. That's actually pretty lame, I know. I have reasons excuses. I've been depressed. I've had anxiety issues. Serious adjustment and growing pains. Things I didn't really share with you because...well....I didn't. But I've been comforting and calming myself over the last six months with baked goods. Lots and lots of brownies, people. And ice cream...that wasn't always low-fat. I deserve a ruler slapped across my fat ass. Only that sounds a little too much like a bad porno, so never mind.

But here's the thing. It's Christmas. Like I'm really going to get on track right now, when some of the yummiest treats of the whole entire year are shoved at me everywhere I go. Call me weak, but I can not resist the gingerbread. Or the peppermint bark. Or whipped cream on hot cocoa. I am a Christmas glutton.

Really, how much can I possibly gain in the next week?

Don't answer that.

When Christmas is done, I have the KettleWorx program to face. I'll tell you all about it another time, but let me say....I cried while previewing the system. I quaked in fear and covered my eyes because it looks scary, people. Well, not scary scary...I'm sure the PR people who sent it to me wouldn't appreciate me calling it scary....so I'll say...it looks very very very challenging. It looks like it will make me have some difficulty moving my legs for the first few days. I'll keep you posted.

But I'm ready. Well, give me a week. I'm ready but not yet willing. The allure of Christmas goodies is stronger than my will to be thin right now. So I'll stuff myself into a guilty mess this next week...then it's on like Donkey Kong ya'll.

And I'm a little scared.

Our Magical First Christmas

I met my husband just days before Thanksgiving. Our first date was actually the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, at a Cracker Barrel. Signs...there are always signs, my friends!

I knew, after that first date, that I loved this man. I know that sounds hokey. I know people say it takes time to love someone. To them I say, "You can't understand and believe in something until it's happened to you". We're fond of saying it wasn't love at first sight...but love at third sight. I saw a friend the next day and started tearing up as I recanted our date. She knew; I already loved him.

Falling in love with him made that Christmas the most magical. Everything about the holiday season was intensified three fold, because I was sharing it with him. From picking out a Christmas Tree for my apartment, to Christmas shopping. From snuggling up to watch The Polar Express for the first time, to dancing in my apartment to Christmas Must Be Tonight. It was simply...magical.

One weekend he stayed at my apartment while I pulled a closing shift at Starbucks. When I returned and walked up the sidewalk, my apartment windows glittered with twinkle lights. I stepped inside, and my favorite Christmas music was playing on the CD player...not a light on, except for the glow of the Christmas Tree. When I walked into the bedroom to change out of my espresso-scented work clothes, what I saw took my breath away. My bedroom window overlooked a screened-in patio, and he had strung lights all around the patio and placed my spiral Christmas Tree (the one we still have in our yard today) in the middle. It was the most beautiful sight, and I got a little misty, thinking of him doing all this for me while I was at work.

This will be our fifth Christmas together. We've added a couple kids to the mix, and moved around a bit. But that man still makes Christmas the most magical time of the year.

Walking

I took the kids on a walk today.

I know that seems fairly mundane, and certainly not blog fodder for most of you. But it's kind of a big deal.

I haven't taken the kids out of the house, by myself, ever. Not once, in the almost-seven-months Savannah has been on this Earth, not once have I ventured out of doors with both of them.

Obviously with no car, I'm limited in outing-opportunities. Factor in the hell that is Southeast Georgia (80 degrees in mid-December, anyone?!) and it's been too easy to stay inside the house.

I could blame it on the fact that my husband told me about a scary dog he encountered in the neighborhood one day. A dog he was certain was going to attack he and Aiden. But that was over a year ago.

I could tell you that our strollers are all buried in the spare room under piles of heavy boxes and kitsch. I could tell you it would be too Herculean of an effort for me to even get the strollers outside, nevermind the children.

I could tell you my husband planted a seed of self-doubt in my mind by asking me on more than one occasion if I could really handle both kids by myself in public.

But today? We went for a walk.

I lugged the double jogging stroller out of the spare room and through the house, knocking over a few things on my way. I heaved it out the door and set it up, and plopped both kids in it.

And we walked.

What's Going On At "I Like It A Latte"

Current Giveaways:
Build-A-Bear Holly & Hal Christmas DVD (ends Monday)
Jimmy Dean Sausage SIX winners! (ends Tuesday)
$25 American Express Gift Card (ends Tuesday)

Current Reviews:
Stampin' Up and Build-A-Bear
Hellmann's Real Holiday Helpings
Helpful Toy Websites
Leap Frog Text & Learn
Tips For Ski Season
get born Magazine

Coming Up:
I have more giveaways coming up this week!! Stay tuned to I Like It A Latte as we get closer to Christmas!

600th post.

This is my 600th post.

I didn't even realize it until I opened my handy dandy little Blogger window and saw I had 599 posts. Hmm. Well that's interesting.

I started this blog back in 2006, after discovering my friend Victoria's blog. I had never even heard of blogging before, but it looked like she was having fun. And as a very new SAHM, I thought it'd be a pretty nice outlet.

Then I abandoned my blog for a few months.

Then I came back and meandered around for a long time. Ultimately I headed in the direction of food blogging. Do you know how DIFFICULT it is to be a food blogger? Oh, I can cook and bake with the best of them. But good grief it's so much more than that! Photography, the ability to create your own recipes, to make posts about food somehow interesting (Peabody has the monopoly on that).

So I decided to just write whatever I wanted to write, and things took off from there. I wrote and wrote and slowly carved out my comfortable place. My blog became my virtual coffee shop, where I met my friends and relaxed and chatted and caught up on each other's lives.

Then PR came a knockin. You mean I can get free stuff?! Just because I blog?! What started with a free bottle of body wash has grown into such an entity that it required me to create an entirely separate blog to handle it all. It's a very fun perk of blogging that I never expected to happen!

As my blog audience has grown, and requests have started coming in for me to write elsewhere, I've really struggled with time management. This blogging business can completely take over, if you let it. And, sadly, some bloggers have allowed it to do just that. They get burned out and end up deleting their blog because they can't handle the stress. When, realistically, all they had to do was learn to say no. No to the PR pitches that weren't interesting or relevant. No to the requests for writing assignments that didn't fit in their schedules. No to the Blog Conferences they couldn't afford to attend. Just say no!

While sitting in a session at the Type-A Mom Conference this Fall, Robin made a comment that stuck with me. She said that at some point you have to walk away from the laptop, because otherwise you won't have a LIFE to blog about anymore. (Naturally, she said it much more eloquently than that). This business of blogging can be fun....it can be a great thing! But it's not as great as my family. It's not as great as my quiet time. It's not as great as sleep. Over the course of the last 600 posts I've had to constantly step back and evaluate just how much of my time is poured into this blog, and tweak things until I find the perfect balance. And that balance isn't static! It's always shifting and changing, and I'm always reevaluating and adjusting!

So if I could give any advice to new bloggers, as I sit here on top of my 600th post......don't lose yourself and your life to your blog! Especially now, at Christmas time. I know the PR pitches are coming in fast and furious. I know some of us are providing Christmas for our kids by doing those product reviews. But pace yourself. Don't miss out on holiday festivities with your family because you're "behind" on your blog. Go play in the snow! Build a gingerbread house! Refresh your spirit! Trust me, your blog will still be there, and you'll be a better blogger by focusing on what truly matters!

Christmas On The Outside

We don't let a silly little thing like having a small house stand in the way of our Christmas Spirit! We even made the stoop of our one-bedroom apartment glow. So, 700-square-feet? We can do a lot with that. About six-thousand lights worth of a lot!We added these snowflake lights this year. They're the only lights that "move", and they twinkle down like falling snowflakes. There's my Charlie Brown, every year.
This year we made a wreath with lighted peppermint candies. I had these lights on our tree last year but they didn't quite look right. They are PERFECT on this wreath on our front door.
We also added an outdoor Christmas tree this year. This was our inside tree last year, but when we inherited my Mom's tree, we decided to move this one outside. We bought a ton of red ball ornaments in various sizes about a month after Christmas. I think we paid about $0.50 a box? So no more than a few dollars total. I'm really happy with the way it turned out!
I'd love to see your Christmas lights! Leave me a link in the comments if you've blogged about them!

What's Going On Around Here

Are you as crazy busy as I am? Two more weekends until Christmas.....and so much yet to do. Here's what I've been up to lately:

Check out my guest-post on the Graco Heart to Heart Blog! I'm discussing how celebrations change once you have kids, and I'd love to see your input!

Current giveaways:
Moving Picture Books DVD (ends Dec. 10)
iTunes Gift Card (ends Dec. 9)
Bryan Sausage (ends Dec. 9)
Ecostore store credit (ends Dec. 9)

Current Reviews:
The newly refreshed Holiday Inn
Trident Gum and Smiles For Kids

Coming Up:
I'll be hosting quite a few more giveaways on both blogs, so keep your eyes open! I'm trying to get everything rushed through and posted so winners can receive everything in time for Christmas.
And I still need to show you our crazy, insane, 6,000+ Christmas light display!!