DIY Fun on Pinterest {Link up}

As I mentioned last week, I am a crazy repinner, I rarely check the links and rarely even look at the pins until much later down the road. So this is a link up to get more organized, find awesome pins, and weed out the bad pins. 

This week the category is DIY for Adults, so basically any craft/DIY projects that aren't specifically for kids. 

Here are some fun things I've found:

[ Calendar Blocks Pin -|- Blog Post ]

[ Button art Pin -|- Button Art on Etsy ]

[ Playing Card Storage Pin -|- Blog post ]

I love card games, and I have a few empty wipe cases sitting around waiting to be used for something. This is something I think I'll have to do. 

[ Cookie Sheet Magnet Board Pin -|- Blog post ]

I need to find a stand like this! But I already have an old cookie sheet I can use when I'm ready. 

[ Postcard Journal Pin -|- Blog Post ]

I don't know if this one really belongs in this category, but it is my favorite. It's my favorite because I've been doing it since the first day of 2012. Although I was dumb, and didn't look at the blog post before starting. A date stamp would've made life so much easier, but I stamped each month with an actual stamp set that I had, and so far have not gone back to stamp the dates yet, because that'll take even longer. Plus the date stamp just looks better. I might go back and re-do them later on. 

I love the thought that years from now I can look at one card and see what I did on that same date for years. Very cool. 

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So join with me and revisit your pins, one board at a time. If you have a lot of pins, only go through what you want to. The goal is to get rid of any bad pins, get everything more organized if possible, and find 5 awesome pins to share with everyone on your blog (post the photos and links to the pins), then come back here and link up. And be nice and visit the person who linked up ahead of you, and more if you have the time. Visit the Pinterest Clean-Up page for more information. 

<center><a href="http://a-lifeofourown.blogspot.com"><img border="0" src="http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r564/These_Secrets/pinterestcleanup.jpg"/></a></center>

We will link up every Thursday with a new board category. I will list the following two categories below, so you'll know in advance.  

- Desserts and sweets - July 5th

- Child-related board - July 12th

"We need to talk"

[ via ]

Lately I've been feeling a little... meh... when it comes to my relationship. 

Yeah, give me a muzzle and shut me up, it's boyfriend stuff again. 

It's just that's it starting to feel less and less like a relationship. 

Most days, we don't exchange a word at all, if we do, it's straight to business and it's done. If I try to even just text 'talk', it's like he humors me for a minute, then it's one-word answers and I stop. I don't carry on a conversation with one word replies. He's busy, I get it. But he used to talk to me. Complain about work, ask about my day, anything. Now it's just... nothing. 

Then I've come to notice that we don't talk a whole lot anymore when we're together. He's got a slight addiction to his phone, so whenever he's over, he spends a nice chunk of time playing around on his phone, and I just play with the baby. Then we watch tv. That's alllllllllll we do. When we're not watching tv, it's because we have both of our children and they're running/crawling wild and there's not much time to sit, let alone watch tv. And even then, we're mostly just talking to babies instead of each other. 

I usually only see him twice, maybe three times a week. I always see him the day he has his daughter, and usually one night after work he'll spend the night (like 11pm until 11am, insert sleeping). And if I'm lucky, I'll see him one other day, usually the other day of the week that he has his daughter. So our time together is spent a) watching two babies, or b) when it's past my bedtime. 

When my daughter goes with her father, and you would think we could spend time together, he's either at work until 11pm, or he has his daughter. There's no quality time in there anywhere. It's not quality time if I'm half asleep. Or actually asleep. He rarely takes a day off from taking his daughter (which is great, don't get me wrong), and when he does, he'll spend the majority of the day "cleaning" as he calls it, which is a whole lot of watching tv and video games. 

He talks of all the things he wants us to do the next time we 'have no babies', but that never happens. The list is growing and growing, but we never do anything. I'm not sure we've had dinner outside of the house alone yet. We made it to the movies once, but I had to find a sitter twice, because the first time he cancelled last minute because his ex made him take his daughter. When he's off work early, the time is almost never spent with me, and if it is, it seems like we always have to be with other people. 

So to sum up, we don't spend any time actually alone together, unless we're sleeping or about to. We don't do anything outside of the apartment besides shop or take babies to the park. We watch way too much tv. And we barely say a word to each other, together or not. 

Again, don't get me wrong, he is a great guy and I'd like to think this relationship isn't going down the drain. It does have its wonderful moments when we're all playful and laughing and I just can't wait to see him again. But the rest of the time it's all blah, and I wonder if I'll even see him at all in the run of a week. 

Is it wrong to want to feel like there's something real here, more than once every couple of weeks? To feel like I'm special, and not just a way to pass the time? 

I'm just tired of feeling like I'm always waiting for it to get easier. It's not going to get easier. Soon I'll be working full-time, and we'll have less time together. He might get earlier shifts at work. We might someday live together. I don't want to always feel like I'm just waiting for things to be great. Why can't they be great now? They used to be. 

I know I need to talk to him, but I just don't know where to start.

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Ps.. Don't forget to come back and link up your Adult DIY pins tomorrow! 

Once upon a bridal shower

My close friend M's bridal shower was this Sunday. It was quick, low-key event, but there was great food and some entertaining games. And as always, it was great to see my friend since she lives about 5 hours away from me. 

She scored lots of goodies, then the day was over. Next stop, wedding rehearsal. 

Here are a few photos from the day. 

Me, the bride, and Sarah

The bride and her sisters

Me in my toilet paper wedding dress

M putting on her 'honeymoon outfit' blindfolded, which was just a bunch of random items

Still putting it on

Opening a few gifts

Me and the bride

Did you have a bridal shower theme? Tell me about your wedding shower, or one you'd like to have or throw for someone else. 

Silent Sunday: Bubbles!!

So... I babysat for my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend.

It's Saturday. There's never much to say on a Saturday, but this time around, I'm waiting for a baby to wake up to get this weekend going. I'm heading out to spend the night at a friend's place so we can head out to another friend's bridal shower tomorrow afternoon. It should be a good time. 

This week was a decent one. 

On Tuesday I went out of town with boyfriend and both babies to see an old friend of his who was home for a few days. I met a few nice people and some cute kids. As usual, the day flew by. 

Thursday was a day of work. It flew by as well, but at the end of the day I didn't have to pick up baby girl at day care because her father did, and was keeping her for the night. I used my time to clean the apartment a bit, then got a random message from my boyfriend's ex. She asked me to babysit her kids for a few hours and in the end, I decided what the hell. They were both asleep, never made a peep, and boyfriend came over to her place when he got off work. 

It was my first time actually talking much with her, and it wasn't awkward at all. Even though I know she has a bitchy side, she was really nice and funny. I didn't expect it at all, but I got paid for babysitting and me and boyfriend came back to my place. 

Friday was a rough day, since I had to pick baby girl up around the time she should've been having her nap. Her naps were all messed up, her meals were all messed up, and we had a pretty cranky day together. I was pretty relieved to get her to bed, and me not too long after. 

Hopefully this coming week will be a little less... cranky. 

Now, tell me about your week! 

Favorite Funnies from Pinterest and Future Link-Up

I don't know about you, but I am a serial repinner, which by my definition means that I just repin so many things for later use, without ever actually checking the link. Some things I repin, and later decide I'm not interested, the link doesn't work, the link doesn't provide as much info as I thought it would. But usually I discover great things. 

So join with me and revisit your pins, one board at a time. If you have a lot of pins, only go through what you want to. The goal is to get rid of any bad pins, get everything more organized if possible, and find 5 awesome pins to share with everyone on your blog, then come back here and link up. Post the photos, and links to the pins. 

We will link up every Thursday with a new board category. I will list the categories below, so you'll know in advance. For this week, I'm just going to share five pins from my LoL board. Cause you can't go wrong with the funny stuff. 

If you decide to do the same today, leave me your link and I promise to leave you some love. 

[ via: awesome grandpa ]

[ via: trapped ]

[ via: parking spot ]

[ via: wine ]

[ via: My bad ]

Upcoming Link-up Categories: 
- DIY for adults - June 28
- Desserts and sweets - July 5
(If you don't have a board directly related, feel free to link up something similar, like any DIY, etc)


Hope to see you next week!

Once upon a time, I met a boy

When I first created this blog, I was single, but living with my ex (my daughter's father). Crazy, I know.

Then I moved out on my own with my daughter. This blog was going to be 'single mom diaries' style. Boyfriend is kind of getting in the way of that.

I was single and living on my own for a little over a month when I got a message on an online dating website. By that point, I was mostly fed up with online dating, so I didn't pay much attention to the message, plus I was away visiting friends for the week. I was pretty indifferent about the message, and the guy, but I responded. It was probably a pretty lame response, maybe even showing my disinterest, but whatever the case, we both had daughters and easily fell into a conversation about babies and such.

For the first time in awhile, I was having an easy back and forth of messages with a guy I met online. Soon, I was checking my messages on my phone when I got up in the middle of the night with my daughter. Not long after that, we exchanged phone numbers and became Facebook friends.

Finally, we made tentative plans to meet, on a night that he had his daughter. The plans got a little messy when my ex cancelled his plans to take the baby at the last minute.

But we did eventually end up meeting and I went on a first date with a guy I had never met before, and his daughter. Hopefully that will stay as the strangest first date I've ever had.

For some reason, I wasn't too nervous about meeting him. Maybe it was the baby ice breaker. I didn't feel sparks fly or any kind of 'love at first sight' crap, but I don't believe in that anyway. But we clicked a little. Conversation was easy, and we stayed at the fast food restaurant long after we finished eating.

Our first date didn't end with a first kiss. 

When he mentioned getting together a second time, I mentioned looking for a babysitter and he said we could just watch a movie at my place. I soon realized that he was truly okay with the fact that I had a baby and she would always be around. 

Our second date was just a movie at my place, a bag of chips between us for at least the first hour before it was moved and he pulled me a little closer to cuddle. It was late by the time we thought he should leave, so I decided to wake up the baby for her middle of the night feeding in hopes that she'd sleep again until morning and give me some uninterrupted sleep time. To my surprise, he stayed for the whole feeding, even though it took forever because she was distracted by him. I finally got her back to bed and he left, sometime close to 3am. This time he kissed me before he left. 

And I was really starting to like this sweet boy. 

So I apologize that this blog might not really live up to its name. 

What I'm Loving...

I've been in such a good mood lately, and it's starting to wear off. I'm getting a little restless from too much time with just baby girl. After awhile I start to miss interacting with people who can say more than 'mama' and 'baba'. But at least she's adorable. 

So I'm going to list a few things I've been loving lately, in an attempt to bring back that good mood. 

I Love....

My morning coffee. Even more so, iced coffee season! 

This gorgeous dress I saw on Julie Ann Art. From the website photo, I never would've taken a second look at the dress, but seeing it worn made me fall in love.

These two marriage proposal videos I saw on Pillow Thought. They really made me smile. 

Finding and watching old episodes of Whose Line is it Anyway? I've missed this show too much. 

Thess photos that I got of baby girl when I did her 8 month photo shoot almost 3 weeks late :p

That it's payday.

Working one day a week to make a little extra moolah and get a little bit of  'me' time.

Being able to get to sleep before 11pm a few nights a week.

Going on walks with my little miss. (What I don't love? Her need to always pull her hat off.)


What are you loving lately?

A 75th Birthday Party

On Thursday my grandfather turned 75 years old. He's getting a little.. old.

We brought him to my mom's for a few nights (me and baby stayed too!) and celebrated his birthday and Father's Day both on Saturday. 

Getting to spend so much time with him, go on walks with him and take him shopping was all really nice. 

He had a stroke in November 2010, which left him fine physically, but mentally he can't really speak much and it's hard to get him to understand things we say. 

But it was fun to have an uncle and a few cousins join us, as well as my brother and his girlfriend. It's rare that the family really gets together. 

My uncle and my  babygirl, making a not-so-happy face

Grandfather and uncle

Brother with Charlie, the cat we love to hate

It was so nice to get back home and sleep in my own bed, but since Chloe had a crying fit from 10-11, and boyfriend came over, I got to sleep way too late and was still exhausted come Sunday.

So worth it to get to spend that little bit of time with boyfriend though. He told me he missed me, and I got to fall asleep in his arms which only happens when we're both super tired. When Chloe woke up around 3am, neither of us had moved. We lazed around a bit in the morning while the baby napped. He tried to tickle me. By the time he left, I was missing him already and he left me in a good mood for most of the day. 

Silent Sunday: Family Time

We've been visiting some family these past few days. These are a couple of photos from a quick trip to the park Wednesday evening. More exciting details to come, when I'm trying to be less silent. 

Last Silent Sunday: Rearranging furniture.

What the baby's been up to.

I had no intentions of this becoming a boyfriend-filled blog, but I guess that comes with not being able to write about him at all before. Either way, that's not all I'm about.

Oh that girl of mine. I have a crawler on my hands. It's pretty much the cutest, but most annoying thing in the world.

I was reveling in the ability to sit her on the floor with her toys while I tidied up or.. did anything really. Now she's on the run. Kind of.

She pulls the dvds off the shelf, she plays with anything that isn't her toys. She loves trying to pull herself up on the coffee table, which is only going to end in tears sometime soon. She doesn't leave the room or go anywhere yet, she just touched whatever she sees in the room we're in.

I have a major love/hate relationship with this crawling stage.

Still, she's just too darn cute.

Also, she's been driving me absolutely crazy lately when it comes to meal times. She usually eats breakfast like a champ, except for the one day we had to be up and out early to get her to the babysitter's house. Lunch and dinner though? Forget about it. Veggies are either completely boring or disgusting. Even things like sweet potatoes don't do it for her. Since she won't eat her veggies, she hasn't had too much fruit lately, but when she does she eats that okay. Girlfriend loves banana mango baby food. But mostly... she's just a pain to feed. She doesn't open the mouth, she spits stuff out, she looks away, she hits the spoon.

She was like this with her bottle for a long time - always pushing it away. She's never been an easy-to-feed baby. Which is unfortunately because she's such a little baby that the health department always wants to keep an eye on her weight.

Hopefully she soon opens up to veggies a little bit more. She can't stay on formula forever. Stuff's expensive.

And it was like I didn't really matter

[ via ]

We had our first... discussion?

Boyfriend stopped by on his way to work to drop something off that I left at his place. We were just talking for a few minutes about his friend probably moving out of town to go back home and such. 

And he's said it a million times, so this isn't new to me, but it felt different. 

He'd rather live where he's from, an hour away. When we first met, his ex was thinking of moving there because of the cheaper rent. He only moved here for his daughter, so obviously if his ex and daughter moved, he would follow. He told me that the first week we met, and although I felt no real attachment for him then, the words affected me a tiny bit. I didn't want to get to know him if he was going to leave. 

Obviously he didn't leave, I got to know him, fell for him. He mentioned how much he'd like to move a time or two since then, and while I didn't say anything then, once he had me pretty upset because of how seriously he was considering it. I lucked out, because in April he found a new apartment, moved there, and finally seems a bit happier about living in town. I'm finally not scared of him leaving.

But that doesn't change what he said. Just another situation where he's too honest for his own good. 

He said that if he didn't have his daughter he would move back there, visit me on weekends, days off and such. This idea, this whole discussion was hypothetical, because he has his daughter and she's not going anywhere, so he's stuck here. And then he left to go to work, literally seconds later, before I had a chance to even  react. 

Almost 5 months into our relationship shouldn't I at least mean enough that even in a hypothetical sense he'd at least give me a second thought before moving away? It bugged me. A lot. And I knew it would bug me all day if I didn't say anything, so before he got to work I sent him a text, saying how comforting it was to know that he'd move away in a heartbeat if given the chance. He explained that he used to feel that way, and sometimes in a lot of ways he still does, but he wouldn't want to give me up and I am his second reason for wanting to stay in town. And he apologized, and was great about it. And told me he's been thinking a lot about us living together someday. And it did make me feel better. 

But at the same time, every time I start to feel secure and think things couldn't get any better, there always has to be these little steps backwards. Then I start questioning his feelings and start wondering if I'm kind of alone in this. 

And I hate it. Cause I've never felt like this about anyone before. 

One Big Happy Family Sleepover Fail

It feels like it's always Monday. Every week just keeps flying by and it's always Monday. Recap day. And usually I can't even remember what I've done lately. And then I got so distracted I couldn't even finish this post until Tuesday. 

Hmm...

Friday was a gorgeous day. My friend Sarah and I took baby girl out for the afternoon. We walked around downtown and ate at one of our favorite spots. Baby girl seemed to be having a blast. We both went to bed pretty early since I had to work the next morning.

I had a super easy day at work. My phone was having too many issues so boyfriend dropped off his old Blackberry to me at work to be my new phone. I got to play with that all day, and still am learning how to use it but I love it so far. I never want to go back to a touchscreen keyboard. Ever. 

I was oh so tired, but let boyfriend come over after work. We ate some pizza, watched some tv and went to bed. The usual. He woke up around 7, and I tried to sleep but was awake until baby girl got up around 8:30. So I was crabby. 

He left to get his daughter and we met up at his place later on and took them grocery shopping. They played pretty good together most of the day. His daughter only trying to hit mine on the head with toys a good handful of times. He put the offer on the table for us all to spend the night at his place. Me, him, the two babies. I wasn't sure I wanted to try it at first, but I decided to put baby girl to sleep in his room (her playpen is always in my car anyway) and maybe take her home when I was ready for bed. 

Instead, we decided to try it. Baby girl kept me up for awhile, then his daughter made a noise that woke up my daughter, who cried and woke up his daughter. So I packed us up and left because I knew even if everyone else fell asleep, I probably never would. I went home and baby girl ended up sleeping right until morning. 

But... that being said we'd like to try again sometime, with a fan to block out some of the noise so I can at least sleep. And being able to just hang out with him without it being so late (since usually he works until late then comes over) was just nice. 

While I don't usually look forward too much to the days where we have two babies, I actually enjoyed it a lot. Normally I'd rather one baby at a time so it's not as hectic, but that's the craziness I signed up for when I started dating him. 

What I've Been Watching: Movies

Usually I watch way too many tv shows throughout the day/before bed. Kind of like background noise while I play with the baby or before I go to sleep. This past week or so I've been more into watching movies, which is a little unusual for me, but I've been enjoying it. Here's what I've seen so far: 

[ via ]

Dear John

Girl and guy meet, guy is in the army so he's leaving in two weeks and she's going back to college. Of course they fall in love, write letters, he ends up having to stay long than expected. It puts a strain on things. 

Wow, finally a Nicholas Sparks movie that wasn't completely predictable and didn't really depress me. I knew I'd enjoy the movie, I just figured it would end with me being sad. 

8/10

[ via ]

Remember Me

Guy has a bad experience with a cop, finds out he has a daughter and his friend convinces him to meet the daughter. I forget what their original intentions with her were, probably to get back at the cop, but either way they date, of course. She lost her mother, he lost his brother so they bond over that. 

Definitely not an ending I was expecting. It's a really easy movie to get into, and is really good once, but I'm not sure I'd watch it a second time. 

7/10

[ via ]

The Other Woman

I like Natalie Portman. In this one, she steals another woman's husband, they get married, have a baby, lose the baby. She's all depressed after losing the baby (of course) but takes it out on everyone, including the man's son from his former marriage. 

This movie was pretty sad. Only because I have a baby girl of my own so all kinds of sad thoughts were running through my head as I watched it. I liked the ending. Not the fairytale ending, but still kind of perfect. 

7/10

[ via ]

13 Going on 30

This movie I think is aimed at a slightly younger crowd than me, but it's just my type. 13 year old girl wishes she was 30, so boom she wakes up and she's 30. She finds her former best friend from when she was 13, but he's about to marry someone else. She finds out how horrible of a person she's been since she was 13. 

It's a cute, feel-good movie. The thriller dance-off is my favorite. I live for those super unrealistic dancing movie scenes. 

8/10


Have you been watching anything good lately? 

The Words Were Finally Said

I had a wonderful weekend. Made even more wonderful when I heard similar words come out of boyfriend's mouth last night. 

I left baby girl with a new babysitter (hello nerves) Friday night while I went to work. The babysitter was late, a huge strike in my book, but her and Chloe seemed to get along really well. I had my sweater on, about to leave work, when boyfriend walked in. He was just getting off work too, even though he was supposed to be done two hours before. He was a little stressed so he asked to come over, then met me back home with food. We were quick to sleep that night, and off he went to work again in the morning. In the same clothes. Kind of like a less dirty walk of shame. 

I did a couple of groceries during the day since we had supper plans that night. He made burgers while I made potatoes and we both tried to get baby girl to sleep. She wasn't having it, so she had late supper with us before I finally got her to bed. Boyfriend fell asleep on the couch on me, so we had another night of just tv and sleep. 

On Sunday baby girl went to her father's. I stopped by boyfriend's place on my way home to relax for a few minutes before I went into cleaning mode. His 17 month old daughter was there and blew me a kiss when I was leaving. I cleaned the apartment and rearranged furniture like it was nobody's business. 

When boyfriend dropped off his girl, he came to my place, and we picked up Chloe. She went to bed easily (for once) so boyfriend cooked some store bought cookie dough and we ate cookies and chips while we watched Dexter. It was a nice night, where both of us were in good moods and feeling playful. Sometimes it's so nice to just be with him. 

We eventually went to bed, and sometime in the dark, in the wee Monday morning hours he told me he thinks he's falling in love with me. I told him I thought so, too. 

It was a lie. 

I know I am. I've felt that way for awhile now. 

Since I have no other photos yet of boyfriend and I,
here's one instead of my cutie's new favorite sleeping position

Silent Sunday: Rearranging the Furniture Day