Don't do this while pregnant.

Don't go dipping your crunchy roll in excessive amounts of soy sauce.

You WILL puff out like a balloon, and your body will hate you for it later.

Don't get mad at your husband for providing you with too many pillows on the couch after you specifically said to "Grab me pillows to prop my feet up! Why are you laughing?? This HURTS!"

You WILL look back on those snippy comments and think to yourself, "Okay, was that much intensity really needed?" No, no it wasn't.

Don't think that just because you had restful night sleeps with your first child, you will enjoy that same luxury with your second.

You WILL be irrationally angry in the middle of the night for assuming such a thing, and acknowledging the fact that a pulley system would be more efficient in the process of rolling over will not help you reach your relaxation goal.

Ay yi yi.

ANNOUNCEMENT

drum roll:

SMALL BUSINESS MONTH IS COMING BACK IN THE FORM OF

SMALL BUSINESS DAY

EVERY.SINGLE.TUESDAY

starting on

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15th

{a week from tomorrow, folks!}

Here's the deal:

link up your post about WHATEVER YOU WANT, as long as there is at least a sentence regarding 

SMALL BUSINESS!

{do you know what that means?}

- you can elaborate on those goals you wrote out a few weeks ago! -

- you could promote the new goodies in your shop! - 

- you can just add one teensy, tiny little sentence in there regarding your money-making skills, and you're set! -

Going forward, any giveaways/small business wonderfulness hosted on my blog will always take place on Tuesdays, because we want to surround ourselves with all that is fabulous about SB.

This is an extension of what Small Business Month was all about:

- to network -

- to share advice - 

- to surround yourself with other amazing women like yourself! -

{Are you excited?}

Because I sure as heck am!

a PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY Small Business Day button to come!

Linking up:

and on a sidenote,where do you all link up on a weekly basis? I want to find more fun linky parties! 

Randomness

{1}

{There I was during my first pregnancy.....You know, just in the living room}

Uh....NO!

Can you believe this? Well, that's what I should be able to do by the time I hit 40 weeks if I keep up my new favorite thing to do on my non-Purebarre days:

{I bought this baby when I was pregnant with Carter, and yesterday was the first day I actually did it from beginning to end!}

The reason I never did it when I was pregnant with Babe #1 was because of the actual counting down of kegel action WHILE WE WERE WORKING OUT! Creepy! But now I am a mature woman in the midst of her second pregnancy, so I decided to give it another shot, and you know? 

The group kegel-ing wasn't as creepy as it had once been! 

So do you not want to be my friend anymore since I've discussed kegels in conjunction with working out?

{2}

{Come back to me, chic clothing}

Pencil skirts and heels, ME MISS YOU!

In the words of my husband on the couch last night: it's the little things.

Don't worry, sexy-vintage-Nicole! You will make a come back soon, and then you'll miss being pregnant!

Ahh, the cycles.

{3}

{ob.sessed}

ONCE UPON A TIME.

This show is no joke.

Watch it on Sunday and then email me immediately so we can discuss. 

Writer's of LOST, I knew you would never lead us astray!

Instafriday!

This week = family time to the max,

{just the way I like it}

We sang, we danced, we loved, we laughed, we walked, we swelled {well, one of us did at least}, we chatted, we did it all. It was just one of those great weeks, even though mommy was exhausted for the majority of it. 

Anyway, let's get our Insta on!

 {Hello, Balboa Fun Zone, I've lived here my entire life, and this was only the second time I've come to see you}

 {The Christmas decor that I'm pretty sure is on display 3-6-5}

 {You know, it ain't bad living here, it ain't bad}

 {My Babe exploring}

 {The men of my life}

 {The book Carter thought would be cool because it has a doggy on it - a "boo," actually - until he discovered....}

 {......that it was pictureless. Mom? Mom? Boo? Boo? Ahh, my little love bug}

 {Chad the other day informed me that Carter knows exactly which utensil things go with the mixer, and at first I was little perturbed, thinking thoughts like, "how come my baby is messing with electronics," but then I realized that if I store them at his height, they're basically free game. Well, the other day he showed me just how genius he is. My babe got the mixer out of the cupboard, opened our drawer of bottomless kitchen utensils......}

 {.....and correctly positioned both of them!!! I have birthed a genius!}

 {While I was on babycenter.com the other night finding out exactly which crazy fruit or vegetable Babe #2 can now be likened to - which is a head of cabbage, naturally - I went off on a I-need-to-do-some-research-regarding-Carter kick, and found out that play-doh can be used to tune those fine motor skills, so off to Target we went! Yes, I was having more fun than he was, but hey! It's a process, man!}

{This is so one of those you-will-only-appreciate-this-if-you're-apart-of-my-family types of pictures, but look at cousin Tessa's PIRATE FACE! She's a scally-waggin' lass, that one, a scally-waggin' lass!}

{and last but not least, my piece of heaven arrived!}

So there you have it! Just another week of Cisneros's follyin' around, full of pregnancy ups-and-downs and what have you. This coming weekend will involve me raking blogs for fun DIY's and a lot of down time.

Woohooo!

Linking up here, once again!

winna winna chicken dinna!

Yippee for LOTS of WINNERS!

Honestly, thank you so much for entering, y'all, and supporting Small Business Month! 

It was quite the whirlwind, and I'm so glad that I was able to meet SO MANY wonderful, amazing, accomplished, go-getter women! I can honestly say that I loved every minute of it!

Anyway!

Enough from me!

Let's take a look at our winners!

Casey from Casey Leigh: Melissa from Lover of Dance

Jenna from The Duty Family: Ashley from Mommy.......A Work in Progress

Frank from Faces-by-Frank: Alli from Life on LeRoy

Amanda from Royal Daughter Designs: Kassie from K plus J equals love

Emily from Nap Time is My Time: Aimz from Aimz how do you do it?

Breena from The Photo Mommy: Sarah from The Fontanot Four

Jen from Sunny Vanilla: Chelsea from Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles

Kenye from Glow Kouture: Cerrisse from Smitten 4 LIFE

Stephanie from Stephanie Linn Photography: Aimee Lee from Adventures of an American Abroad

CONGRATULATIONS, LADIES!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

{really quick though, if you'll indulge me}

I really don't feel like I adequately thanked everyone for participating in SBM.

I was really nervous before "launching" it, I guess you can say, and I'm can't tell you how happy it made me that so many people responded to it! To be honest, towards the end I got a little bit burnt out, but once I feel like I've gotten my "breath" back, I'll be back in the Small Business mindset! 

Anyway, I will of course inform everyone once I've made my mind up as to what I'm going to do moving forward, but in the mean time, thank you so much, once again, for your support and your amazing advice!

It.Has.Been.Amazing! 

{woohooo!}

and really quick, could you vote for me?

thank.you

Awkward and Awesome!

LETS.GET.ROLLIN.

AWKWARD

{the pancake thin cookies a made a few batches ago}

* My laundry day outfit on Tuesday. Let's just say it involved a dress I once wore to a wedding......along with some leggings.........and maybe a bedazzled undershirt from the depths of my closet......

* Realizing that my awesome maternity jeans are borderline too small. What was that? Why yes, yes it WAS quite a blow to the ego.....Boo hooo!

* The fact that I still have not touched my eyebrows. This was in the awkward category three weeks ago so....yeah....there haven't exactly been any improvements in that department.

* Noticing the first signs of swelling. Please, ankles and feet, stay dainty. We have ten more weeks to go.

* That movie Hall Pass. For the first hour we were watching, I had this disgusted look on my face, and then I just wanted to shoot somebody as it progressed. Yes, there were funny parts, but it was just one of those gosh-darnit-some-married-men-are-just-disgusting! Chad said it was a big, fat NEVER-DO-THIS-IF-YOU-WANT-TO-KEEP-YOUR-WIFE-AND-YOUR-DIGNITY, to which I said, YEP, YOU'RE DARN RIGHT ABOUT THAT, HONEY-BUNNY!

* Being tired. All. The. Time.

AWESOME

{me trying to be artsy with my man}

* Attending one of my good friend's baby's first birthday party! It was so much fun!

* Finding out that I've kept it pretty tame in the weight-gaining sector. Woohooo!

* Seeing a client today who had her baby three months ago telling her that YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL SHE WAS EVER PREGNANT! Girlfriend is tiny. TEENSY tiny.

* Carter finally eating grapes!! I wonder when he will start believing us when we say, "It's yummy! It's yummy!"

* Babe #2 performing wonderfully at his/her doctor's appointment!

* Chad always being the one to fill up my car. Love that man.

* The fact that we are officially in the month of November! This month I'm going to try to be super crafty during nap time, since last month my  nap time hours were consumed by Small Business Month, which was amazing, but I miss my ole' sewing machine and yarn wreathes! 

* Waking up this morning at 5:00 and realizing that I still had another hour-and-a-half to sleep! Wednesday is my one day per week that I have to wake up before the kiddo, and I usually am traumatized by the obnoxious noise sounding from my iPhone, but this morning I woke up easily and with a bit of a start, even though it was still dark out! Cheers to me, and to all you non-morning people, who somehow find it in you to wake up before the dawn!

* Chad realizing that he registers tomorrow, instead of at the end of the month. Yay for a new after-work schedule! 

* The laundry being done.

*The pulled pork my man made. He is a genius.

* Carter scratching my back, and bouncing back and forth between 3 word sentences, and 4 word sentences! Woohooo!

Mommy......I love God, and I love Santa Clause.

Inspired by Cupcakes and Mudpuddles.

So a few days ago, during my daily perusing-o-blogs, I came across one of the sweetest posts I have ever read, and guess which few, tiny words the entire story was based upon?

Just a short sentence spoken by her young, precious son:

"Mommy....

I love Jesus,

and I love God,

and I love Santa Clause."

After reading his sweet thoughts, and the way his mommy responded, I just sat there sort of dumbstruck.
That's how I want us to be.

{Not in an I'm-jealous-of-your-home-life type way, but}|
I want us to WANT to go to church during that difficult let's-just-get-ourselves-out-the-door period on Sunday mornings.
I want Carter to WANT to learn and absorb what is taught in Sunday school, a responsibility I know which falls upon Chad and I to teach him how to want.
I want us to be EXCITED.
I want us to be thinking about how nice it is that on Sunday's we get to be together as a family, instead of me thinking about how difficult it is to get us ready and on our way.

I know all this is achieved through good parenting and great examples, but man, it can be hard sometimes. 
Every Saturday night, when I'm lying there on the couch with my man watching a movie or playing Scrabble, I start thinking to myself,


Okay, church tomorrow. Should we do the 9:00 or the 10:30? Ay yi yi, I hope we all get ready smoothly without me snapping at everyone. I hope we actually get out of bed pre-9:30, because if not, sayonara church getting-ready-time, aka sayonara church-going.


See what I mean?
It's more stressful than anything else,
and I don't WANT that.

Anyway, it makes me think back to when my parents hauled all three of us kids to church EVERY.SINGLE.SUNDAY.

How did my mom do it without becoming a monster either on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings?
It's tough to motivate a crowd you feel would rather be watching football because who can blame them? Sometimes that's what I would rather be doing too.
And I hate writing that because it's something that should not be a tough thing to do!
So I'm going to really make an effort over the next few weeks, something I haven't done for the past few Sundays. Lately I've had the attitude of
well, if it works out, great, if not, that's okay, just say a few extra prayers and enjoy the day,
which I don't think is a necessarily bad thing, but still, it's not where I WANT to be.

So there's my semi-vent regarding our Sunday activities.
If you've been around these parts for awhile, you know I rarely touch upon serious subject, because as per yesterday's post, my mind just doesn't go there during nap time.
But today was different, and I'm glad I went there.
Ahh, what a nice feeling!


Linking up here: