A Must Read!

Have you read Stephenie Meyers book, The Host? I read it years ago and reread it a couple of times too. It's different but so good! I remember being confused during the first few pages when I was reading it the first time but once you read through it makes more sense. Then, reading it over and over again, you pick up on more things. This really is a great book!

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It's going to be a movie and I am just so excited to see it! I lost my copy of the book and I've been dying to read it again so I just bought another copy off of Amazon and started reading it again last night.

Here is the movie trailor!

When Daddy Watches Me...

I get to hang out in here!

When Mommy watches me,,,,

we take lots of pictures!

Sometimes (when she has showered and put makeup on) Mommy takes them with me...

But most of the time I am constantly amazing her with my awesomeness and general cuteness so it's me she takes pictures of. Here I am reading some books and hanging out with my bestie, Jexi!

Life is good!

Everything Emily: 7 Months

Emily is seven months old now! She is officially closer to a year old now than a newborn. Sad! We love our little girl but it is so bittersweet that she is growing so quickly. I try to soak up every stage she is in, while she is in it. This is such a fun age!


Size: She wears nine month clothing and wears size three diapers.

Sleep: Basically the same as when she was six months old. She is going to bed a little earlier these days and has sometimes let me put her down for a couple of hours at night. Baby steps ;).

Eating: Emily still nurses every 2-3 hours. She can go a little longer now without eating but we enjoy breastfeeding! I've also given her a few new solids. She seems to prefer banana over everything else but she does enjoy apple cinnamon Graduate's puffs! We cheated and gave them to her a little early.

Playtime: Emily loves to look at books now! It's fun to read to her throughout the day. My mom and dad have bought her a bunch of books. Her favorite right now seems to be "I Like Myself". We put Emily in a baby swing at the playground for the first time a few days ago and she liked that. She rolls around all over the place and can get what she wants that way. She also loves to watch other babies/kids. She is very observant and allert. She also loves dogs! She is constantly reaching for Jexi and my parents dog, Tyler.

Learning: She is slowly learning how to put her puffs in her own mouth. She has done it a couple of times. I have been practicing having her sit up but she can't really do that yet without support. She started being able to turn herself around in her activity seat. Rolling is a breeze for her! She is great at reaching for things/people she wants.

Date Nights and Sincerity

Michael and I decided to use Mondays as our day of the week to go on our dates. Last week we found a local Mexican restaurant that was cheap and delicious. Plus it is so close, which is convenient. This week we wanted to try out Chili's lunch special. It's only $6.00 for half a sandwich, soup, and fries. We both got the turkey sandwich and sweet corn soup. Yum! If you are looking for a good deal on lunch places, I recommend Chili's.

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After lunch we had some time to spare before our movie so we went to a furniture store in the same parking lot. They had such great deals, we couldn't believe it! We could have gotten a whole living room set, plus the lamps, side tables, coffee table, and the rug for about the same price we got just our couches for. I hate missing out on deals!! Next time we have the extra money to spend, we will be going back there for more furniture.

Then we went to Barnes and Noble to get a book for me to read. I just finished reading Something Borrowed and then Something Blue by Emily Giffin. I wanted to get her next book called Baby Proof.

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We then went to go see True Grit. We have been hearing how good it is so we were excited to see it. I thought it was a pretty good movie and Michael said it was good but that it was built up too much in his mind from people talking about it and so he was expecting something a little better. All in all, it was fun to see a movie. I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to movies. If I enjoyed it then I'm happy!

-Shelley

P.S- Thank you for all the support in my last post. When I got that anonymous comment, it really made me feel like a failure but it also made me angry that someone thinks that I need to talk about hair in my "nether regions" (haha, Wendy) and how religion impacts my sexual life in order to entertain you. Yes, I love the blogging community as a whole. I enjoy reading your blogs whether it be about family, celeb gossip, fashion, or whatever else is out there. But this is my blog and I will only write about things that I feel comfortable writing. If I happen to get more readers and comments, great! Who doesn't love that? But if not, I am okay with that too because I know that I am staying true to what I started this blog for in the first place. For me. Thanks!

My Mostly Relaxing Weekend!

My sister graduated on Thursday!! Doesn't she look so pretty and smart? She graduated with honors. We are so proud of her!

It's too bad Brian (my oldest brother) couldn't be here with us!

After the graduation we went to dinner at Buca Di Beppo. It was really fun. It was a relief that we were all getting along...let's face it...my brother Steven and I can bicker like a couple of kids. But it was actually nice to have fun together!

Brian was on the phone for part of the meal.

Check out this food!

On Friday night, I treated myself to a massage at Massage Envy. The first time you go, you get an hour massage for just $40.00. I need it really badly because of sitting at a desk all day and carrying heavy bags and such. Anyway, let's just say I have been having a lot of headaches lately along with tension in my shoulders and knots in my back.

I had someone really good who was very thorough and told me things I never knew before. Apparently I have had some congestion in my sinuses that could be the cause of my headaches. She worked that out. She also worked out a bunch of scar tissue from around my shoulder blades due to sleeping on my sides and showed me stretches I can do to counteract it. There's more, but yeah- she could tell a lot from massaging me and then told me about it and I found it really interesting! I have thought about going into massage therapy for work...but there are just some people in the world I would rather not touch, thank you!

Then I went to Ross next door and found a few new dresses I have been searching for for church and work! Yay!

On Saturday I was so productive! I went to get my pants hemmed finally, got my oil changed...

...got another cute summery skirt with a shirt and cardigan to match, gave Jexi a bath, cleaned up around our apartment, spent some time with Michael before he left for work...then I went to see Kristin at work!

This is her first job that happens to be the same building that I had my first job in! It used to be a Dairy Queen! She gave me 20% off of my yummy ice cream with lots of toppings! I ate it in the car since I brought Jexi with me. She liked the strawberries.

Sunday I read the Hunger Games practically all day. I've read this and the second one, Catching Fire, before but the third book of the series is coming out in August and I needed to refresh my memory! They are such great books. I highly recommend them!

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On Sunday night I went over for dinner at my parents house for Father's Day and played a couple games. (Our family is big on games.) As I was gathering my things to leave, I hadn't put Jexi back on her leash yet and my dad opened the door. Normally that's not a big deal because she stays next to me all the time, but she bolted. I threw my stuff down and got down low and called for her to come back and she just looked at me. I started to panic. I went out on the patio just in case she didn't want to come back in the house, but would come to me. It worked- she came back. But it scared me to death. I keep hearing all these stories about the coyotes in my parents neighborhood. They come snatch up little dogs like Jexi right in front of the owners. Or a car could have hit her in the street or she could have just kept running. So many things could have happened so I was obviously so relieved when I got her back. But it really shook me up. My dad felt really bad, but it really wasn't his fault. None of us thought she would run. I just love her so much and would be absolutely catatonic if something like that happened to her.

BUT....something that DID cheer me up was this package I got in the mail!!

April from Dot...dot...dot... hosted a Girly Summer Swap and I thought it sounded fun so I signed up! I was matched up with Amanda from Life According to Amanda and you can check out what I got her too! Thank you so much Amanda! I am wearing the earrings today and they are so cute! I put the jelly beach candle in my bathroom and the lotion smells so good! The gum looks delicious and I put the scented thingamajig in our closet. :-) And I thing the other thing is a loofah?? I have never seen one like that before! I'm excited to use it! Thank you! Mondays are always rough, but wearing my cute new earrings is brightening my day!

Happy Monday!

P.S- Michael is working up the courage to do a guest post on here sometime soon! I'm excited!

Eat Pray Love

I'm in the middle of reading this book right now. I kept hearing about it (most on Oprah) and was curious about what all the fuss was about, so I purchased it to find out. So far, I'm enjoying it but it's also making me want to travel! After giving up the life she thought she was supposed to want (being a wife and living in the suburbs...next stop is having a baby- which she didn't want, even after she turned 30), she gets to go on a year long journey to Italy, India, and Bali. She finds herself. She lets herself enjoy life instead of living a life where she was not happy and struggled with depression. In my opinion, I feel sad that she didn't want some things that I feel bring happiness (family and stability) but I can also respect her for wanting something that would bring her joy.

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I'm looking forward to watching the movie that comes out on August 13th, starring Julia Roberts. We all know that most of the time movies based on books are not as good or enjoyable, but this one looks like it will do it justice. Even the author, Elizabeth Gilbert loved the movie! She said it was great that she could watch herself as Julia (hello! Who wouldn't want her to play them in a movie?) but she also got to see her journey documented in film. She said she didn't take any pictures while she was there because all she did was write about it!

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