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Thanks all!  

Cassie

I said all that to lead me to this.  I made her a bottle, got myself a cup of coffee and was barely ready to start my morning.  As I was feeding her in the living room on the couch, I was browsing the TV guide.  Yeah.  Not a whole lot to choose from on TV at 4:00am.  Pretty much a bunch of infomercials and stuff that I wouldn’t even let my cat watch, but after I browsed all 9,000 channels, I finally came across one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE movies, “The Newsies”.  This movie /show/play is just one of those movies that can uplift me at any state.  I have seen it at least a bizillion times and wouldn’t mind seeing it a bizillion more.  I jam out to the soundtrack on my iphone in my car, in the shower, while I cook…anywhere!  ”The Newsies” has a way of taking me back to my childhood.  When I didn’t really have a care in the world and wanted to sing and dance all day.  The days when I came home from school, played some video games with my brother, and had a family bicycle ride around the neighborhood.  Sometimes we would even head to the beach.  (I lived 5 blocked from the Pacific Ocean in California- yes I miss it).  Watching that movie just makes me want to “Open the gates and sieze the day” (one of the songs in the soundtrack).  It also makes me want to break out my old posters of Christian Bale too, but that’s besides the point.  It’s just my favorite movie.  It’s my feel good movie.  I think I can honestly say I love “The Newsies” better than “Grease”, which is almost insane to even think about, because for years I was obsessed with that movie and it’s soundtrack also.

And there I was…watching my favorite movie, with my favorite little human drinking my (new) favorite beverage.  It made getting up at 4:00am much more bearable.  I sat and thought of a post that my fellow blogger friend, Alison had recently written called “Notes To Self: The 3am Edition” and what she says is true.  Waking up with your baby (in her case, a newborn) in the middle of the night isn’t a sacrifice, it’s a privilege.  They aren’t going to need you forever, so soak it up now.  It’s very easy to get lost in life and forget the little things that we take for granted each day.

So for the last  nearly 8 months, among many other lessons I’ve learned being a mother, I’m reassured every day that time is oh so precious and flies by oh so fast.  That’s the bittersweet truth.  And when waking for a 4am feeding, 3am feeding, midnight feeding… take it all in and enjoy every single sleepless moment.

What’s your favorite movie of all time?  What does it make you think and feel when you watch it?

Enough said

Then Friday night we had a little graduation party for my brother, Alex. My dad and step mom, Jackie, usually always kick us out of the kitchen when they come to visit (and no we don’t stop them) and I’m ok with that! They are far better in the kitchen than Justin or I, so I will never stop them as long as they want to cook. There were cold cuts subs, tuna subs, pasta salad, potato salad, fruit tray, chips and dips and a few cases of choice alcoholic beverages. My mom brought her famous “New York style” cheesecake which everyone devoured. Alex had a few friends come over to help celebrate and that was nice. Annaliese allowed us all to have some “adult time” and napped for a few hours in the evening and still slept through the night when everyone left to go home. How nice of her Friday was also my mother-in-law’s birthday. She came to celebrate with us all over Alex’s graduation and we surprised her with a few gifts and cards and made it a partial joint graduation and birthday party.

Saturday came and my dad, Jackie and I took Annaliese and went over to a Tastefully Simple party at Jenn and Ashley’s house that Jenn was hosting for a mutual friend, Sierra who just became a consultant. There was so much food and a good many people there to help Sierra and Jenn out. Annaliese had fun too! After we left there, we came home to change and headed with my brother and Justin out to meet Justin’s Aunt Karen and Uncle Mike and his mom, Elaine for dinner. My mom stayed at our house to watch Annaliese. We all went to the Shippensburg University Luhrs Center to see the oldies groups The Platters, The Coasters, and The Drifters perform. It was a great show! So very different from what music is today. My husband and I have so many common interests but music is definitely a huge one. We love oldies, classics, jazz and pretty much anything that’s not modern. I’m not saying that I don’t own a few Lady Gaga songs but my preference is still classic rock, what I grew up to. Anyway we had a great time, and this was part of our gift to Elaine, Alex, my dad and Jackie, since their birthdays are all in June.

My dad, Jackie, Elaine, and Alex

On Sunday, Annaliese and I had a scheduled photo shoot with Yarnell Photography which is a local photographer in our area. They had put a status on facebook that if you “liked” their status they would randomly choose a winner of a free “Mommy and Me” shoot for the month of May for Mother’s Day. Lucky me! I won! I was so happy to have won this shoot because Justin and I have wanted to get Annaliese’s pictures done for a long time. We intended to have her newborn pictures done by Yarnell Photography, but due to the loss of my Yiayia and soon after that, the loss of Justin’s father, we had lost the momentum to get her pictures taken professionally. Then time flew by and she is 6 days from being 8 months old already! Anyway, here are a few of the pictures that were taken and edited by Yarnell Photography. They are really amazing and do great work!

My dad and Jackie left to go back home to NJ after we got back from getting our pictures taken. It’s always sad to see them drive away and I’m usually down and depressed for the rest of the day. Which I was. But knowing that we will be in NJ to visit them for Father’s Day weekend is a little better than not knowing when I’ll see them next.

It was a perfect weekend with friends and family for nothing but good reasons and good fun. What more can you ask for? Oh and I forgot to mention that Monday, Justin had off work. We had planned to take Annaliese swimming for the first time, but the weather hasn’t been that great and it only got up to about 70°, so that wasn’t really a good temperature to go swimming in. So we stayed home. Annaliese took a long mid day nap so we were actually able to relax and watch a movie together! I know, shocking right? Mommy and Daddy time during the day? On a weekday? That’s almost unheard of! But we enjoyed our relax time and watched The Muppets, yes it was my choice, but we both enjoyed the movie, regardless of what Justin says. Hehe!

And that concludes our long and busy weekend. I’m actually amazed that I was able to blog today! I hope to blog again soon! Hopefully sooner than later! Well off to feed the little one!

What did you do last weekend?

In honor of Memorial Day being last weekend, I’ve been playing around with a few apps on Instagram and came up with this patriotic picture. 😊🇺🇸

Truthful words spoken from my fellow blogger friend on a day when I was venting on Twitter about missing the time I used to take just to write a little blog post.  But for the past 2 months, I’ve been pretty busy living.  I’m not upset about that in the least.  I’ve been having fun living my life!  Of course I still update the occasional Facebook post or tweet here and there, but haven’t really had a chance to sit down and write freely.
Here’s why:

“The Girls” – Jessie’s Bachelorette Party

I’m privileged to be the Matron of Honor in my best friend’s wedding on May 19, 2012.  So of course before she ties the knot, there had to be a “last night out” and a bridal shower!  So the other bridesmaid, Gretchen (who happens to me one of my good friends) and I had been working on the plans for both of those special and important events.  It’s bittersweet that they have come and gone, but the next and final event is the wedding!  Only 11 more days!

We got legs!

I also turned another year older on April 4^th, so I am officially in the last year of my 20’s!  Ironically, my husband’s birthday is 2 weeks after mine on April 18^th, so we had to celebrate both dates with a night out each.  For my husband’s birthday, his brother and his brother’s wife decided to get him his dream dog as a birthday gift and gave him/us a 4 month old bulldog pup, we named Otis (after Otis Redding).  That was exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time.  He’s a sweet puppy, such beautiful coloring and markings, but definitely a stubborn, bull-headed (living up to the name of the breed) chewer.  Being a stay at home mom to a 6 month old and trying to train a puppy not to chew, to go outside for all potty breaks, to not eat the cat we’ve had for almost 3 years and that human babies are not able to play yet was more than a challenge.  Unfortunately after only a week of having him here, he had jumped up on my daughter and my husband and I had to make the best decision for our family and have him taken back to his brother’s house.  We’ll still be by to visit, but it will be hard.  It’s already been almost a month since he left and it still hurts because he was quickly loved and became part of our family, but the timing just isn’t right for us to have a puppy.  The show must go on…
My dad and step mom came to visit from NJ last weekend for Cinco De Mayo!  (No I’m not Mexican, but I’ll take any reason I can to have some yummy Mexican food and a margarita)  We had a great visit with some great food and although the visits are few and far between, luckily we will be able to see them again soon when they return for my brother’s graduation of the police academy on May 31^st!  I also did a 5k for the first time in 7 years with my sister in-law and that was fun!  I walked and jogged the whole thing, but I enjoyed doing it!  It gives my sister in-law, Jenn, and I some time to hang out together, but it was a good fundraiser for breast cancer.  We’ll be doing other 5ks again I’m sure.

Jenn, Me, and Nicki before the 5K

With all of the birthdays, doctor’s appointments, dress fittings, “holidays”, and other events…it’s been pretty crazy around here.  But I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Plus my little girl is growing so fast!  She is 3 days from being 7 months old, she can sit up by herself now, she has cut two teeth, she is clapping and laughing around the clock and with the HARD challenge of mastering the “Ferber Method” (letting her cry it out), after only 6 nights of this method she has been sleeping through the night and sleeping 10 hours!  It was very, VERY hard to do, but knowing that it was best for her to learn that she can’t always fall asleep in mommy or daddy’s arms was a good lesson for her to learn.  The nights she would wake up, I would go in her room (because daddy was sleeping so he could get his rest to do his hard job at work the next day), make sure she heard me and saw me, patted her back or rubbed her belly while she was lying down without picking her up, and stayed for about 30 seconds and then left.  I returned every 5, 10, 15… minutes until she realized that she wasn’t going to be picked up and she eventually put herself back to sleep.  Some nights I would only have to do this 3 times and she would put herself back to sleep.  One time I only had to go in her room once and she was back to sleep in 10 minutes.  The other nights she would cry for an hour to an hour and a half and it seemed like I was torturing her because she just wanted to be held.  But it was worth the sleepless nights and testing of my motherhood skills.  I just hope that the sleeping through the night continues.

My Little Ladybug

On another good note, I won a photo-shoot for my daughter and me for Mother’s Day!  I am so grateful for this opportunity because she has never had her pictures “professionally” taken and these pictures will mean so much to me.

Hopefully I’ll get back into blogging again after the wedding.  I still have to finish writing my Matron of Honor speech and rehearse because I’m not all that great with speaking in front of a lot of people.  Wish me luck!

So until next time, I’ll be living life so that I’ll have much to blog about later.  :)

I gotta say, I love our continual coffee collection! Thank you, Coffee Cow!

I just love this little girl! Had the best birthday with her and my sister-in-law then hubby took me out to eat seafood! First birthday as a mommy! Here’s to my last year of my 20′s!

1)  Gas prices are always on the rise. *sigh*  Since this was taken 31 days ago, prices have gone up to $3.99 a gallon for regular!  Highway robbery!
2)  Cantaloupe is one of my favorite fruits!
3)  We live on a pretty busy street but I happened to capture a peaceful moment on the road.

4)  The necessities.  Baby monitor, touch lamp, and lotion for my extremely dry hands this season.
5)  My little cutie always smiling away!
6)  In the fifth hour making my mom’s famous Chicken Squares.  (I’ll post the recipe another day)
7)  I always wear my wedding rings.  …except when I do the dishes or give Annaliese a bath, then sometimes I forget to put them back on.  Oops!

8)  This is the window in the kitchen.  I love watching the squirrels, birds, bunnies, chipmunks and sometimes even raccoons stop by and play.  Makes doing the dishes a lot less painful
9)  I have yet to purchase a pair of red pumps, but mark my words “I will.”
10)  …But until then I have these fabulous and loud silver glitter pumps that I’ll be wearing for my best friend, Jessie’s bachelorette party in 2 weeks!
11)  I talk to both of my favorite people in the world, everyday.  *swoon*

12)  One of our forks edited with 2 apps.  First one used is called ToonCamera.  The second, WordFoto.
13)  One of my favorite signs in the world.  The universal sign language for “I love you”.  Thank you to my hand model, aka my husband.  I love you, baby!
14)  I was at a red light and looked over and saw these clouds.  They were like mile long grey stripes in the sky.  It was awesome!

15)  This is my best friend Takia’s car.  It’s name is Sunny Jo.  She names all her cars
16)  A case of sunglasses at a store called Body Central.  Loved this store!

17)  My new Hoops & Yoyo cup that Jessie got me for my birthday!  It talks and I love it!  Hoops and Yoyo go way back for my group of friends.
18)  This is my favorite place in my house (besides my bed where I dream of sleeping).  This is where Anna’s bedtime story takes place and where we feed her and rock her to sleep.  This is usually the place where I reflect on my life and everything I am grateful for.
19)  We had just gotten back from an evening family walk and Anna was very talkative.  So I perched her on the armrest of the couch and her and daddy just talked away.  It was so cute and funny!

20)  Before Annaliese my monthly subscription showed up in my mailbox I read all of the celebrity gossip in People magazine.  After Annaliese my monthly subscription is Parents magazine.  Got to read up on what others have gone through being a parent and how that may or may not affect my parenting with my kids.

21)  Inspired by the great Rachel Ray, I decided to try her recipe for rosemary chicken and garlic potatoes.  This dinner was very easy to make and it was delicious!
22)  Here is our kitchen sink.  Usually always full of dishes and bottles, but for your viewing pleasure, I at least did the dishes first.
23)  This is a picture frame that we got as a baby shower gift (and have yet to use it, so in case you’re wondering…that’s not my kid).  It has the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” on it.  Very cute!
24)  This is our 19.5lb cat, Sammie Samurai.  He seems a little intimidating but he is really lovable and really good with the baby.

25)  Strawberries n cream oatmeal.  I love oatmeal and pretty much eat it for breakfast 8 days a week.
26)  My house is a music lovers house and this is a shot of our baby grand piano.  I can’t play anything but “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, but hey!  It’s a start!

27)  My name is Cassandra, but you can call me Cassie.  This is a mug that a good friend got me for Christmas one year.  I’d say it’s pretty accurate.

28)  Yep, here’s our trash.  Not a pleasant thing to take a spectacular picture of.  Moving on…
29)  My daughter is obsessed with her feet!  If she’s laying on her back at any moment, she will soon have her feet in her hands and making way to her mouth.  I think it’s adorable, but someone who is grossed out by feet (yes even baby feet) may not feel the same.

30)  Justin and I used to play games all the time and realized that since with a baby we haven’t had much time to do so, we made time and went out and bought a new game to play.  Had a blast playing this!
31)  If I’m not trying to fall asleep in bed, I’m reclined on our oh-so-comfortable couch, usually with a sleeping baby on my chest.  Yes, very relaxing.

Well there you have it!  A daily photo for a whole month.  And now that I have my iphone , I’ll be keeping up better with the photo a day via Instagram @callmecassie and Twitter @Call_Me_Cassie.  Until next month… Make memories!

My daughter, Annaliese. Age: 5 months. Loves looking at herself in the mirror.