Vacation adventures part 1

It's been a while since I have been able to post here on the Motherbird. My family went on a vacation to the East coast and attended an amazing wedding. As soon as we got home I had 2 days to create some Halloween costumes for Alex and to wear to our favorite party of the year!

I am amazed by the people who are able to travel constantly, whether for business or personal. We find it very stressful and disrupting. although we are always happy to see our friends and family we fell a bit anxious and worried throughout the trip. Part of this is because in 2011 our house was burglarized while we were out of town for ONE night.  Having your house vandalized is the worst, knowing some person was in your home. Scaring your poor cat and going through your things. We were so fortunate that nothing irreplaceable was taken and that no one, including the cat we injured. None the less we are no nervous to leave our home unattended. I am so grateful that my friend Kooj was willing to disrupt her life for a week and take care of our house. Thank god for friends. Having someone here settled our minds as much as possible.

My husband and I are creatures of habit, we like our schedules and beds and shows. However sometimes you gotta get away, see family and attend the ceremonies of very important people. We were fortunate to start our east coast vacations with a trip to a good friends family farm house. An amazing house with lush surroundings. No cell or reliable internet service. No radio or television. just 3 days of talking, eating and being with our child and friends.  The farm house is one of my favorite places ever, mostly because it reminds me of my summers in Oil City P.A at my grandparents house. I love that small town country living, at least for the short term.

We stare our festivities on the shore with a little Co-ed bachlorette party for the bride to be, Meg. 

 The boys enjoyed some frog hunting in the pond.

 Gorgeous view off the dock

 Nothing like cake and tequila to send a girl off right.




Our second day included a impromptu hay ride across the farm to the neighboring Emu and Llama farm .

We scored an Emu egg which I scrambled up one morning. It was pretty weird, mostly yolk. 

City boys being able to run freely!

We were able to take a few nature walk/carries and got plenty of fresh air!

HAHA Kid is so sick of the camera.

These wonderful people are the Bailey's, our host for the weekend and Andrews BFF's family.

It was great to spend some time just connecting with  my son. We are so busy all the time bustling here and there, that it was great to just run around with no plans or schedule. We finished our days at the shore and drove directly to Alexandria for Megs wedding, which I will talk about in my next post. This was pretty much our first family vacation since Andrew was born and it was really fun.

Hope everyone else has had a good fall. Also hoping that this house and all our friends and families properties on the east coast survive hurricane Sandy.

-MB

Beautiful fall Colorado day.

 

I have been feeling very stressed and overwhelmed lately. So I have been trying just to hang out at home with my kid and relax. We have been eating lots of Chili and Popsicles( typical CO weather allows this). Watching Thomas and just hanging out. Here is a photo dump for you! 

 Kaya is such a glorious dog. He loves the sun!

 HAHAHA!

Here is my Outfit of the day this week! Sometimes I wish I could wear this to work!

 

Head to toe :

Sweatshirt-stolen from Alex in "03

Sweatpants: Walmart, bought when I was 9 months pregnant. yep still wearin 'em. 

Happy Friday-MB

Guest Blog. Put Your Gremlin in Fabulous Shoes

Today I have my very first Guest blogger. This amazing lady has been one of my best Friends for many winters. We have seen each other through some crappy situations and shared some wonderfully happy moments. I hope you enjoy and hear her lovely message.

A guest post by Heather Hodgin

Put Your Gremlin in Fabulous Shoes

Some call it Taming Your Gremlin, others call it loving yourself.  This would be the time for me to tell you the clever thing I call it, but nope… I have no such clever name. However, I am ready to address this hot topic! It’s time to be nicer to ourselves and a great way to start is with positive self-talk. Did you know the average woman thinks over 36 negative thoughts about her appearance every single day? That’s over 252 negative thoughts every single week.

Now, to be fair I am an extreme optimist, but what if just for today we flip the switch? What if our self-talk could be more positive? What could we accomplish? Would we take better care of ourselves and be empowered to meet our goals? I am definitely not advocating ignoring or trying to squash negative feelings and emotions because those are very important too. As super awesome human beings it is our right and responsibility to check out this world in all of its colorful glory. However, I would be willing to bet if we as beautiful intelligent women embrace ourselves and learn to turn those 36 negative thoughts or self-talk into something positive and constructive then we would be generally happier, healthier and better for all of the people who count on us every single day.

Besides being an optimist I am always looking for the tactical. So, of course I am including a little list of tips and tricks to get this fluffy pink ball of happiness rolling down the road:

·         Awareness

o   Catch yourself in the act! You know when you do it. When your self-talk turns negative evaluate it…

-  What is your evidence for and against your thinking?

-  Are your thoughts factual, or are they maybe interpretations?

- Did you jump to negative conclusions (this always reminds me of “Office Space”)?

-Are your thoughts actually true?

·         Reframe

o    Every situation has lots of different vantages. It’s up to you how you look at what you bring to the surface with self-talk. Now that you’ve caught yourself doing it, change it around…

- Are there other ways to look at this situation?

- What else could this mean?

-  Can you switch this thought to be positive and/or constructive?

-  Is this situation as bad or dramatic as you are making it out to be?

-  What is the best thing that could happen?

-  Is thinking this way making you feel groovy or supporting your goals?

- If your negative thoughts end up being true (bleh), what are some little things you can do to solve the problem?

·         Practice and Repeat

o    Anything worth doing (well almost anything) requires practice and repetition to improve. Do it, do it and do it again. When you get tired of doing it, take a deep breath, pause and then… Well, you know what to do.

This is not just another thing for your to-do list ladies, this is a call to action. You are fabulous, gorgeous creatures with infinite possibilities. Get out there, put on an outfit that makes you feel stunning, love yourself and do great things! For all of you fellas, I think you are pretty cool too, but this one is for the ladies ;)

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/positive-thinking/SR00009

http://www.womenshealthsa.co.za/daily-beat/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2010/challenging-negative-self-talk/

My Outfit of the Day and IAPOMS

I love this outfit so much! It makes me feel completely fantastic and stylish, but also really comfortable for a casual Friday at work.

The jeans are from Gap’s Perfect Boot collection in the darkest wash I could find. I have worn these jeans to death, but they are my favorite go-to for weekends, casual wear or pairing with a sparkly top and heels for a night out on the town.

The shoes are cute little neutral flats from Jessica Simpson’s collection. I generally wear flats at work because I feel overwhelmingly silly in heels when working with people decked out in combat gear or firefighting ensembles. I like the neutral tone because it makes my legs look extra-long when I have them out and about.

The top is my favorite part of this outfit. It is from this year’s American Rag collection. I picked it up at Macy’s and if I could have I would have bought the collection in its entirety. I like things that have a little something special about them. The flair at the waist and the lace detailing on the back are divine.

I am a size 6 and I am proud of my size!

I'm starting with the man in the mirror.

I am not even sure where to start with this post. Just to warn you I may ramble, curse or get off track.

Yesterday an old high school friend, and current Facebook "friend" posted something on Facebook that they saw as an appropriate response to this video of a news anchor defending herself to a bully that sent a nasty email in regards to her weight.

 I am not exaggerating when I say that what this "friend" had to say was so completely vile and disgusting that I was literally sweating with rage. Not only was I angry but I was truly disappointed that someone I had known for nearly 20 years and held on high regard could say something so absolutely offensive and asinine.

I am going to share a small expert of this post, that has since been deleted from Facebook, with you so that you can "get the gist" of what this man had to say...


"the caloric intake of a lady who wants to lose weight is only about 200 calories per day in difference. one or two cokes a day and a lady could lose a pound a year for life"
"You want to stay in bed so you can be nice and chubby. In order to stay chubby you commit to NOT exert yourself, NOT run, NOT sweat, NOT work to burn the energy you have taken in. EVER."
"Fat people suck"

This is a very short expert in a 12 paragraph rant. He feels that fat people are offensive, lazy and I guess happy, Being fat? As if fat people only stay fat to offend thin people. He also commented in the 110 comments that followed this post by saying that only women who were, or are "fluffy" seemed to care to defend the news anchor and fat people in general.

 I was fucking MAD when I read this, not for its absurdity, or its offensiveness, but for the fact that there may be even ONE person who could read this and feel bad about themselves.  Because the truth is NO ONE has that right. It is not this man's or any other persons right to judge how someone lives their lives and treats their body. Would someone say such flippant things about a drug addict? An alcoholic, a gay person, a Jew, a Muslim?

The truth is yeah they would. I have overheard so many nasty comments over the years. In fact in my younger years I was pretty hateful myself. Thanks to a few straight forward yet well meaning people I straightened up. I care. Anything that isn't comfortable to a person is fair game. Fat, skinny,  Mentally challenged, transgender. people say terrible things and as much as we wish we could stop them we can't. We just can not do it. A new mean person is born every minute.

So what can we do? WE can keep our heads up. We can confront as many mean people as we can. We can stand up to them like my friend W.T stood to me in high school and began to help me see how much of an asshole I was. (Thanks wit) We can be body positive. We can volunteer. We can offer support. We can be grateful for the things surround us and make us good people.

And most of all we can so the thing that I wasn't completely able to do last night. We absolutely Can Not sink to their level. For every nasty thing they say, we say 2 positive things back. No name calling, no retaliation, no negativity. They may deserve it, but that karma is theirs, not ours. It wont be easy but I myself am going to try. For my son, for my husband, for my fat friends and my skinny friends and my one transgender friend. And most of all for myself. So I can sleep easy every night.


This is my song of the day, its old and its cheesy but I love it and today when I heard it on the radio I really and truly felt it. 

-MB

OOTD and IAPOMS

 I really love my new Calvin Klein wool sweater that I got off Groupon a few weeks ago. I resisted the urge to wear it all week so that it would be clean today as today was the first really cold day we have had this fall! I heart this sweater so bad because it is super soft, warm but not hot and totally professional and appropriate for work.

I wore this on my blog with a pencil skirt already, but today it was worn with a different pencil skirt, So is OK, yes?

 

Big fan of this knee length skirt, I have had it quite a while, It is from way back when Issac Mizrahi had a small collection at target.

Head to toe:
Sweater: Calvin Klein, via Groupon
Skirt: Issac Mizrahi via Target
Shoes: Naturlizers, DSW
Clutch: Thrifted


This skirt is super cute because of the little kick flip in the back!

And although you can't tell in these photos hot little slip attached!

Thanks for the photo bomb Kristin! Crazy broad!

This is a short post because I am working on one that is very important to me and hits close to home. I hope to have it finished tonight or tomorrow.

In addition to that I am linking up with the Nearsighted owl weekly "I am proud of my size" link. because I am. Proud of it.

 

Have a great night kids! Love -MB