Blue Steel

And this, my friends, is what happens when your mother is a fashion blogger.

(Yes, we're still alive. Just busy living.)

*****ACTUAL CONVERSATION*****

Justin walks upstairs and notices that I've been looking at a leopard print skirt online. I'm sitting on the couch.

Justin: SO, let me guess. You went shopping today and bought a bunch of stuff and hid it in the back of the car hoping I wouldn't notice but they didn't have something in your size so you came home to look it up to see if you could buy it online.

Me, mouth slowly dropping open: HOW DID YOU KNOW!?

No, seriously. He got every possible detail right. I think that's when you've officially been married for far too long.

The Story of the Stockings

I don't know if I've told this story on the blog and quite frankly, the way this month is playing out it's probably the only post this poor space is going to get and should be a good one. It's one of my favorite stories to tell at Christmas because it puts things in perspective and it's the reason for one of my favorite traditions.

Rewind eight years ago. Justin and I were destitute newlyweds. He was working two jobs and going to school because my immigration work authorization hadn't come through and we had next to nothing in the old bank account. Of course, Christmas was looming and we were stressed over that. I think Justin's *big* present that year was a magazine subscription. Like seriously, we were poor.

Not that Christmas is all about the presents and the money, but we all know what stress can do to the season. I tried to act like I didn't care and had fun decorating my tiny tree. We didn't buy enough ribbon and didn't have the money to buy more, so the ribbon didn't go all the way around the tree -- we just wrapped it back and forth across the front and made do.

One thing I was really bummed about that year was the lack of a stocking. I could handle minimal presents, but in my family, the stocking is one of the best parts of Christmas. My mom went all out and stuffed them so full that the presents would spill out onto the floor and everything was wrapped, even a pack of gum. The stockings are easily my favorite part of Christmas and I was sad that it just wasn't in the newlywed budget.

I was talking to my mom a couple of days before Christmas and I mentioned the fact that we'd be going without stockings and she wouldn't have it. She called me a few hours later to let me know that she was wiring money down to me so we could go buy stocking stuffers for each other and I was so excited.

We received the money on Christmas Eve and since we only had one car, we had to go to the store together. We split up with our carts and arranged to meet back at the car in an hour. I still remember ducking through aisles to try and avoid Justin as I loaded up on all of the usual stocking stuffers and then trying to hide them from each other as we piled the bags into our Jeep Wrangler.

Anyway, it was such a simple and tiny thing... I mean, I think we spent $50 a piece, but those stockings made my first Christmas married and away from home so much more familiar. I don't remember what Justin got me that year, but I remember that I had a stuffed stocking on Christmas morning.

Now, we don't have to scrimp at Christmas time like we once did, but we still reserve stocking shopping for Christmas Eve. We always head down to the store in one car early in the morning and do the same routine, arranging to meet after an hour and sneaking bags into the car while the other isn't looking. It always helps me to remember to be grateful at Christmas time, to slow down and remember that a lot of the time, it's the small things that count. I think about being poor newlyweds and how happy we were with a four foot tree, a few yards of ribbon and full stockings.

Anyway, this is one of those stories that I'll tell my kids (when they're old enough, of course) so I wanted to have it written down somewhere. For richer or poorer, as long as we have a few dollars to fill up each other's stockings, we're doing OK.

Uncharacteristically Crafty

Easiest. Project. EVER.

I was hoping to spruce up my house for fall but I really don't have any fall decorations. It just seems like a lot of work for me because we go all out with Christmas stuff and I really don't want to do it twice. But still, my house looked a little plain.

My mom was in town and went to the store and came home with a few big pumpkins. I was like ooh, I'll just put them on my big table and be done with it! But it still looked a little too plain.

Finally I dragged out the glue gun and some ribbon and a few sprigs of greenery and did a little doctoring up. Then, I plopped the pumpkin on a cake stand and all of a sudden my house looked ready for fall.






Good enough for the month until I can take out CHRISTMAS STUFF! Eeeeeeee!

A Change!

I usually post my "Jae's Book Club" posts every few months, but these ones got away from me. Then my awesome friend Nathaly was like "You should post them on Pinterest" and I was like DUH OF COURSE! It makes so much sense because not only can a keep a cleaner list, but I'll link to a place where you can buy the books directly and everyone's happy. I'm right in the middle of a massive stack of books, but I've posted the few books I got through during the summer. You can find them all here:

Jae's Book Club

Don't worry, even those without Pinterest can access. That way no one has to go clicking through all the past posts for book recommendations... I'll post the rest there too in list form.

Does that work!? Enjoy!

Oh yeah...

SHe poses her own pictures. I had to tell her to tone it down.


Better.

Addison had her first day of school like, three weeks ago and it would probably pretty special if I recorded it somewhere.

I would like everyone to know how brave and super non-emotional I was during the entire process. I am a robot. I have no feelings.

Did anyone believe that? Please?

K, so I totally cried. BUT ONLY because she was taking the bus. Something about seeing her tiny frame climb up the bus stairs just got me. I was never a bus student so I was consumed by thoughts of what the bus was like, if other kids would be nice to here and where she would sit. I even arranged for an older girl in our ward to sit near her and make sure she got to her class OK. Of course, I didn't need any of it, because Addison is social to a psychotic degree and by day two, she had a "best friend" to sit with. Her "best friend" also now likes to show up at our house unannounced, without telling her parents where she's gone, but that's a story for another day.

Three weeks in, she still loves it. She comes home ravenous and tired and Andrew has a mild coronary every time she walks in the door. I'm into this new early waking/get Addison to school/work/gym/lunch routine and I feel ever-so productive. And ever-so tired. But mostly ever-so productive.

Of course, she's also playing soccer and I have stuff going on and my house is a mess. But like, totally blogging productive.

At First...

Sometimes, as a mom, you're not so quick on the uptake. Too many brain cells burned during pregnancy.

At first...

I thought it was very sweet when Andrew ran to me with a wet cloth and told me he was cleaning. I thought it was even sweeter when he began cleaning our leather couches with said cloth.

And then, as I caught the distinct smell of urine, I realized he'd used his own special water to wet the cloth.

For those who are as slow on the uptake as me, I mean his pee.

Special times.