Lazy Sunday Funday

Happy Sunday Funday!

We got a new toy: the iPad 2

The hubs had been wanting it for quite some time.

Today is a lazy day for us, but we were super disciplined and made it to the 9:00 mass. 

9:00!

Bow chicka bow wow.

i WILL!

Man, I've been in a deep-thought-cave for the past few days!

{Well, they were good deep thoughts, but holy moly!}

It must be Babe #2 continuing to sling shoot my hormones every which way.

Anyway, here are a few things i WILL be doing sooner rather than later.....

* i WILL be wearing red lipstick {even though the first time was a disaster. Hello, red teeth. And upper lip. And then-boyfriend-Chad's white shirt}.

* i WILL be getting Carter's hair cut {on Wednesday to be exact}.

* i WILL be placing myself on a walking regimen, much like how life was during Carter's pregnancy (let's hope it improves my down-in-the-dumps 'tude}.

* i WILL clean out my purse/baby bag. That thing is atrociously filled with McCafe receipts.

* i WILL buy myself some flowers at the grocery store next time I'm there {peonies, peonies, peonies, peonies!}.

* i WILL try to stop complaining about how horrible I feel when Chad comes home from work {well, maybe a few complaints here and there, but sheesh! It's exhausting to be such a complain-o-machine!}. 

* i WILL continue Carter's adorable quest to count to number five! So far we are at three :)

* i WILL be enjoying the awesome rack of ribs I got for Chad to bar-b-que tonight. 

Woohooo!

* i WILL be taking a trip to Disneyland and taking more perfect pictures like this one.......

And it WILL be wonderful!

Goodness sakes!

Goodness sakes, I say! 

I'm on a Let's-Get-Serious kick! I don't know what's come over me! 

Don't worry, though. This one will be super short. 

Super.

I've been thinking about the word ambition for the last couple of days. Now, when I think of this word, various images come to mind of people climbing the corporate ladder, kicking-butt in a board room, and not resting until the job at hand is done. 

But what does it mean to be ambitious when you're main priority is to raise a healthy, happy family? I know the obvious answers:

"Well, your ambition is being focused on the day-to-day tasks of raising a well-rounded family, duh."

- or -

"Your ambition in life now is to send your kids off into the world on the right foot."

- or in the words of my husband - 

"Your ambition switches from the external (work environment, monetary gain, etc.) to the internal (achieving satisfaction and fulfillment through your family)."

The answers are endless. 

I guess I have no well thought out conclusion to this one, it's just an open ended thought.

What do you think?

Here is a list of my current ambitions:

*Raise a happy, healthy family

*Contribute any way I can to the growth of my family (in every aspect)

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

There are obviously way more than just two ambitions I have in life, but those ones seem to paraphrase them all as of right now.

I'm linking up again today! Woohooo for Casey!

What do your relationships do for you? - Yeah, it's another deep one

In my daily creepin' around the ole' internet, I found a wonderful little lady named Ashley, who's obviously quite adorable in her style, but even more awesome because one of her posts has to do with a topic which has been swimming around my head for the past, oh, four years.

What could eclipse my attention for so long, you ask? Well, it's a semi-deep topic, and since rarely do I write on here about deep topics, I stayed away from it. Anyway, the title of her post was,

"What do your relationships do for you?"

It goes on to feature a little quiz you can give yourself, and based on the answers you receive, you can either choose to make a change in your life, or recognize the fact that you have an awesome inner circle. 

So what did this post mean to me?

Well, most of us have, at one point or another, dated a weirdo. Most of us have also, at some point, been friends with someone who sucks the energy out of you either because you're trying to keep up with that particular person, or because they are simply a whirlwind of the wrong type of personality. It's just the facts of life. People enter into weird relationships for various reasons, but the point is, why does one stay friends/romantically involved with such people? 

Here's some back story as to why I've been thinking about this topic for so long:

In my tender youth, {okay, okay, I'm still quite youthful, but I'm talking high school here, people!}, I always thought it was a great idea to try to fix the people who needed some fixin'. Although I secretly prided myself for possessing this quality, why was I trying to fix people who couldn't be fixed by me? It just wasn't possible. They had serious life issues, they acted out because of those issues. Basically, it was always over my head, but I tried to ignore the fact that I was surrounding myself with quite a few weirdos {I don't say "weirdos" in a derogatory sense, I just mean that they acted "weird" on many an-occasion, and that sort of behavior earned them the label of "trouble makers"}, because I felt like I was their beacon of light, or something, because I would make them laugh and treated them without judgement. I never really considered that hanging with those peeps sort of brought me down, because they were so wrapped up in their own insecurities, they couldn't function normally in society. 

{I didn't technically "surround" myself with weirdos. I had my close group of awesome girlfriends, who were real go-getters, then on the side were my friendships with said weirdos.}

Anyway, of course I dated one or two of these bad boys, during which time my parents were going nuts {what happened to our baby who loved pink?}, but once the final break up happened, I decided that I wanted a boyfriend who was an upstanding member of society. Someone who had parents who were proud of him, someone who was fun and spirited, someone who actually loved life, someone like me! {I sounded outrageously conceited right there, try to ignore that......I'm trying to get a point across!}

Anyway, I found him: Chad!

What I'm saying here is, what do your relationships say about you? What sort of people do you want to surround yourself with? Are they people who build you up, or are they people who are warped into Bizarro-World, and bring you down? 

{I'm not saying that people with insecurities are bad people, because we all have insecurities. I'm talking about people who act out negatively because of those insecurities, who ultimately affect your life in a negative way. Of course everyone should help one another in overcoming difficult life problems, but are they problems that are beyond your help?}

Anyway, I hope to get this point across to Carter and Babe #2 when the time is right, because it's one of the most important lessons I have learned as an adult. I can thank my positive, wonderful, optimistic husband for showing me that!

Wow, that was a LONG, LONG, LONG post. Geeze. But I'm serious! Surround yourself with people who are positive, and actually bring something to the table, not people who remind you of The Grinch. It's important!

Some positive people? Of course!......

My man :)

My very young baby, at that point :)

Some of my lovely ladies :)

Yep, him again :)

Instafriday -- Some structure around here!

Today's the grand day where I have decided to link up with another blogger, therefore creating some semblance of structure around these parts during nap time! Once I get my act together, hopefully I will be doing the same thing on Wednesdays for the fabulous What I Wore Wednesday blog-o-land extravaganza, but as of right now, let's just start with Instafriday! 

The rules are that the pictures uploaded have to reflect my week, but only through the lens of a phone! That means no awesome cameras, for all you folks with awesome cameras, a club I'm sadly not apart of as of right now. Anyway, let's get going!

The week started off with a little bit of grandma-and-grandpa's-house-backyard-playtime with cousin Tessa

{Funny story: I forgot to pack Carter a swim diaper, and his regular one blew up like a balloon. I mean, it was massive, poor little dude}

My Babe in his favorite position while he watches mommy cook fiddle around in the kitchen

Some relaxation time at the lagoon......much needed, thank you very much

Holy smurf! My Babe has gone missing and this showed up in my stroller!

{On the way home from the mall, he proceeded to give me a paper cut with that thing.....Thanks, Build-a-Bear team!}

My first official instagram! Isn't it glorious?! Hopefully my future Instafriday posts will be full of these babies. Anyway, that's a jewelry dish my mama passed down to me when I got married to hold my wedding ring and bands......Aww, to be sentimental!

Here's where I'm linking up at!

{Is it weird that I'm sort of nervous??}

No camera, no fun

I've done my best to try to place a positive spin on my missing a camera, but it's official: as much as I love my iPhone lens, a mom's just got to have a legitimate camera on her at all times.  

Seriously.

It's sort of depressing! Here I am, witnessing these precious beyond all precious moments, and the best picture I get is grainy at best. At first I thought that solely using my iPhone was a good thing, since it's always on me and I can just switch over to video super easily, but now my positive outlook has taken a sharp turn towards This-Really-Is-Not-Funny Land.

Why don't I just go out and buy myself a cool little camera, you ask? Because I'm done with those semi-cheap point-and-shooters! I want a nice, beautiful, high-powered, awesome, paparazzi-style, barrel of a lens type thing! All of my point-and-shooters have died some horrible death within 2 years of my ownership {which, I swear, has nothing to do with my abilities as a caring camera owner! I took good care of my last one, and it went on the fritz in less than 18 months! Ridiculous!}. 

So anyway, I'm bummed as of right now.

Oh yeah, and did I mentioned that I experienced morning sickness yesterday? MORNING SICKNESS! I'm in my second trimester! What the heck?! Cut me some slack!

Too much?

Man, I have sounded negative lately. Someone come and shake me back to all my pre-pregnancy optimism! Where has it run off to?

Oh, Giada

Hi Giada,

It's me, Nicole. I was just watching you on the Cooking channel, and I wanted to ask you, how on earth did you get to the point of actually enjoying the process of cooking? I'm sure the fact that you really know what you're doing helps, and also that your last name is "de Laurentiis," but why must the prospect of stepping foot into a kitchen with every intention of actually turning on the stove be such a bother?! Please send me your cooking-good-vibes, after all, my maiden name is "Paplia," so that should count for something, right? Maybe our ancestors hailed from the same 'hood? Why do some Italians get the I-can-cook gene, and others don't? Not fair, world!

Much love,

Nicole'

PS - My husband thinks you are very pretty and fun to watch, so I would appreciate it if you could just tone down your awesome cooking skills, since you're making me look bad around here.

Kidding!

What would I do without your awesome skills? Also, what would I do without a husband who smiles at everything I place in front of him? 

What can I say? He's a trooper :)