Simply Hil

I found heaven.  We installed this baby a couple of nights ago and the relief it has brought is so very welcomed.  Thanks goes out to our neighbors for lending it to us for the next few months. Never again will we attempt to get through a summer without A/C or at the very least, ceiling fans.  I'll just have to hold my breath and close my eyes when the power bill comes later this month. Now, if you'll excuse me... I'm going to go push play on my brother's playlist  (have you listened to it yet?  do it, you'll love it) and just sit in front of it for a while.

We had the ultrasound today. I couldn't sleep all last night out of anticipation.  I was nervous/excited/scared/hopeful/anxious all at the same time.  I prayed long and hard last night that today would be a good day.  That we would find out we can continue to move forward with hope.  That we would have a healthy baby. Today was a good day.  Our little baby is healthy .  Words can't express how much just typing those words means to me.  Tears flooded my eyes as I saw it's perfect little heart on the screen.  Four chambers.  Two valves.  All working perfectly. The miracle of life truly is just that... a miracle .  Never again will I take a healthy baby/pregnancy for granted.  My heart is full of gratitude tonight. As for the gender... Boy or Girl? It's a BOY! Little Guy couldn't be more thrilled to have a brother (it is after all what he requested).   We are all very excited to have another boy added to the family!

Today our Summer Music Playlist comes from the one and only Shepizzle , also known as Jon my brother. Jon has always been the music guru in the family.  I remember playing air band in the basement when we were little to Queen, Steve Miller Band, Led Zeppelin, etc. My favorite memories, though, were when we had to share a car in high school and he would blast Bob Marley during that last stretch of school just to get us in the mood for summer.  He would also play Rush, using my head as a symbol while playing one of Neil Peart's drum solos. Jon is always introducing me to new, unheard of music, and I love him for it.  I'm so excited he agreed to be our guest blogger today.  Take it away bro: hil asked me to put together some tunes as a summer playlist and the following is my best attempt. there should be something for everyone but mostly it's just music that i will be listening to this summer. stay close :: delorean malerina :: shugo tokumaru sa...

Hello all.  I have been away in paradise for the week.  My parents house is always such a wonderful retreat and if I'm being honest, I'm a bit sad to be back in our little apartment.  However, it is so good to be back with the hubs again.  We missed him lots. My camera was dead the whole week, so all the pictures that were taken are currently sitting in my mom's memory card.  If she is able to figure out how to email them to me (which she will be able to, because she is awesome like that) I'll have to share a few.  My heart is heavy tonight, and has been for the last few days.  News from a dear friend has reminded me of life's difficult trials and abundant blessings.  I can't help but think about why such awful things happen to such wonderful people.  My prayers and thoughts have been consumed with her and her sweet family. I do have some fun things planned for this week.  I am currently writing a couple of guest posts and have an aw...

{Father's Day Eve activity} To Jer who is my best friend, the father of my son, and the best man a family could ever ask for. Thank you for being so hard working, caring, happy, loving, playful, talented, strong, dedicated, faithful, righteous, trustworthy and hilarious.  We love you and appreciate all you do for us.  I can't tell you how it melts my heart to see our Little Guy follow your every move.  He wants to be just like his daddy, whether its by eating the same thing as daddy, dressing the same as daddy or playing golf like daddy.  I am so grateful he has such a wonderful example to follow and hope that he does turn out just like you.   Thank you for being so wonderful.  Happy Father's Day.

An oldie, but a goodie . The hubs and I go around quoting this cute little cheer every so often. It makes me smile each time I see it.  "One more time!"

The winner of The Dainty Petal's giveaway chosen by random.org is: Jenny B  who said:  They are ALL darling!!!! I LoVe LoVe the Purple rolled rose clip :)  Congratulations Jenny and be sure to check out the new matching earrings for that cute purple rolled rose clip.  I'll forward your info on to Stefanie so that she can get your prize to you! Thanks to everyone who participated. p.s. Do you like The Dainty Petal's design ?  I had a fun time putting it all together for Stefanie and think it turned out fun and fresh.  Have a great weekend!

I love music in the summertime.  I always laugh at people who have their windows down and share their music with the whole world as they drive.  However, I do enjoy driving with the windows down and my music up every now and then. There's just something special that happens to music in the summertime.  I have therefore decided to create a Summer Music Series where I will be putting together fun mixes to enjoy throughout the summer. To start out, I wanted to do a country mix.  Country isn't everyone's favorite, I realize this.  In fact, Jon , if you are reading this please feel free to just skip this post as I do not want to trigger any gag reflexes.  But in my defense, country music is the heart and soul of this country and with the 4th of July coming up, I thought it was only fitting.  I have liked country music when liking country music was cool and when it wasn't.  I suppose I can get away with it since I live in a somewhat rural part of t...

:: I have this picture on my desktop.  It reminds me of that one nice day we had about a month or two ago and makes me anxious for this rain to go away.   :: Today looks promising! :: I love that he is wearing a pink Dora swim diaper.  One of those things that he will say "MOM!!  What were you thinking?!?!?" when he is older. :: I'll tell him I was thinking I didn't want him peeing in the pool. :: This was in my brother's backyard.  I want to get a pool for our backyard but worry about the 10 other families that could be peering out their windows at us.  Ahh... apartment life. :: Our neighbor's dogs bark nonstop.  I have considered going and buying bark collars for them all and sneaking over there in the middle of the night.  There are three of them.  They are all huge.  And they all bark.  All the time. :: Actually, it would be cheaper to just open up the gate and let them run free... :: I went to choir practice yesterday. ...

Happy Thursday evening, it's almost Friday!  I was too excited for this giveaway that I had to post it tonight instead of the scheduled time for tomorrow. Allow me to introduce you to my new favorite shop .  Stefanie (who happens to be my sister) is the master mind behind The Dainty Petal and her shop is full of adorable handmade hair clips and headbands for old and young girls alike. I drooled over the pictures she sent me of her new creations and even put dibs on a few that I fell in love with.  These are just what I need to make my hair go from double drab to triple awesome. Stefanie is generously giving away this adorable Three Rolled Roses in Yellow clip: To enter to win, leave a comment telling me which clip is your favorite from her shop  on this post before midnight Thursday, June 17th.  Please be sure to leave a way for me to contact you in case you are the winner.  The winner will be announced on Friday, June 18th. For extra entrie...

A little Peaches and Herb for ya'll. The man is back folks. He was gone ALL WEEK last week and pulled into town on a big ol' travel coach (did I really just call it a travel coach... must be because of the book I am currently reading. apologies. I meant bus.) last night around 6:30pm.  Little Guy started laughing giddily and uncontrollably when I told him it was time to go pick up daddy.  We both missed him terribly.  He was gone for a business convention and was exhausted by the time we pulled up to our apartment.   Proof: We went to bed at 9. It's always so much more fun when he is around.   Proof: Little Guy would ask when daddy was going to come home several times a day and would cry at night because he wanted his daddy home.   I pretty much did the same thing, but my pity party involved a tub of nutella and some graham crackers as well. We are so excited because we are reunited, eh heyyyy....  Sorry, didn't mean to break into song there....

I took little guy to " How to Train Your Dragon " yesterday.  Let me just start by saying it is a great show!  I enjoyed every minute of it.  The story is wonderful and the lesson it teaches is inspiring.  It is a good one for all ages (minus a few scary scenes with fighting dragons). When we got to the movie theater, we were the very first ones there.  They had to unlock the doors for us.  We were only about 15 minutes early, and I wanted it to be that way so that Little Guy could get all of his exploring done before the movie started.  We got our tickets (Little Guy was free  which was an extra bonus!) and made our way to the concession counter. We forked out $8 (ouch) for the biggest bucket of popcorn they had.  I wasn't about to run out of popcorn and have Little Guy wanting more half way through the movie.  We only ended up eating 1/4 of it, but it was a good safety cover.  Luckily, we were able to put everything on some gi...

In an attempt to entertain Little Guy today, I promised to take him to the "Dragon Movie" aka " How to Train Your Dragon ".  His uncle went two weeks ago and happened to mention it to Little Guy on the phone.  It is all he has been able to talk about ever since.  "I want to go to the Dragon Movie wike Jon and get big popcorn," he would say randomly several times a day.   Besides that, the weather is a little on the gloomy side, so I'm desperate and taking the (hopefully) easy way out. This will be Little Guy's first movie ever in a movie theater.  I don't know that he has ever sat through an entire movie at home... but I'm hoping that being in the theater with a huge screen in front of him will keep him entertained for at least half of the time. I am hoping a few things happen with Little Guy at the theater: :: that he will share the popcorn bowl... I'd hate to spend $500 on a bowl of popcorn only to have him hog it the whole tim...