Thursday, November 28, 2013

Itty bitty

I am ever so grateful for my itty bitty family and it didn't take thanksgiving to tug the thankfulness out of me. All it took was a spur of the moment trip to Starbucks last night. We went out to lunch in a cozy Olive Garden and pigged out on pasta. They even had the lights dimmed so perfectly while Lola napped. After our bellies were filled, we crammed into our itty bitty car and blasted The Lumineers and after a few street lights we ended up in downtown. We bundled Lola up all toasty and rushed into Starbucks. The atmosphere was just so perfect for the kind of night we were having. The dim lights followed us and the leather arm chairs were screaming our names. All the people in the coffee shop were so conservative and here we were having screeching contests with the shoosh and snapping picture after picture.

Image and video hosting by TinyPicImage and video hosting by TinyPic So what I'm really trying to get at is that I'm grateful for the little things and especially the little person and the kind of tall person in my life. I'm grateful for coloring out of the lines a little bit. I'm grateful for lights that aren't always so bright. I'm grateful for that gummy smile. I'm grateful for the kisses we share at red lights. I'm grateful for our itty bitty family and our itty bitty life that we are living. I know I take it for granted sometimes, especially when I want so badly to color in the lines, but I love our messy crazy lovely life. I wouldn't change it for anything.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

A New Companion

I've never been one to make New Years resolutions. I mean who really keeps them anyways? I know it's a bit early to be exchanging New Years commitments, but when I started this blog I intended on just using my iPhone camera to express my photos to all my readers. It's just easier than lugging my digital camera around everywhere I go. I can snap pictures freely without a second thought. But as I venture through other blogs I see all these beautiful crisp photos that really tell a story, an intimate story. Photography has always been a major part of my life, I picked up my first camera at a very young age and since then I fell in love. It's a hobby of mine that is very sentimental to me, but something I never disciplined myself into taking seriously. It always seemed like such a task to whip out my camera unless it was a special occasion, so when I got my iPhone over a year ago it was like a little piece of heaven in my pocket. It's not enough though. My passion for photography is too strong, so although it's not New Years yet, I'm making a commitment to myself that bringing my camera everywhere will just be like second nature to me. So I wouldn't really call it a resolution, I would call it building a new companionship with my trusty ol' camera.

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Monday, November 25, 2013

The 52 week Project 1/52

Now that introductory week has come to a close I've decided that I need to start off my blog with a bang! I've scurried my way through numerous blogs, but one of them really stuck out more than the others. A 52 week project that takes me on a photo journey of baby each and every week. I take handfuls of pictures of Lola on a daily basis, but really zoning in on one picture of growth every week intrigued me. So as new blogger, I've decided to take on the challenge and at the end of it all a book will be made of these topsy turvy weeks.

































*Her first bath time sitting up, being all grown up and stuff. Making me melt. 

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Meet Our Apartment

We have lived in handfuls of rentals by now.
 The first was the summer after we graduated high school. I'll never forget that house for it holds some of my most precious memories with Ryan and our relationship. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about them. Sleeping in until 4 in the afternoon, filling the house too it's capacity with friends and family, never having a bed to sleep on, lounging on the back porch with the bamboo discovering each other, and the golf course down the street. 
After that it was Baycove, it was the largest apartment I've ever seen and we lived with his four brothers and his sister and all three of her kids. It was a full house, and we finally got a bedroom of our very own!
Packing up the moving truck again (or should I say bread trucks) and we arrived at Park Place. A three bedroom now, and living with his same two brothers. Living with roommates can be exhausting. Agreeing on anything was a timeless battle most of the time. We tried to spruce up the apartment as much as possible, but it was a lost cause. So instead we decked our little bedroom and turned it into a studio bedroom, mini fridge included.
It was June of 2012 when we moved out on our own together. Park place had the cheapest apartments in the area so we packed all our stuff and moved into a 800 foot one bedroom apartment. The apartments are old and they need a lot of work, but we made do with what we had on love and creativity. That's another home that I will never forget. In fact, all of these places I call home. Anywhere is home when I spent it with Ryan. The memories are glued to the walls and in our case, carved into the bathroom drawer. 
When I found out I was pregnant I wanted Lola to have her own bedroom, and I wanted more space. So trusty ol' park place gave us some good deals on a two bedroom two bathroom apartment. So a month before she was born we moved into our home sweet home. This has got to be one of my favorite apartments so far. It's extremely spacious and it was like an open canvas for us to decorate. We have accumulated so much stuff over all this time, from thrift stores, garage sales, and ikea adventures. All of it, along with paintings I've hand painted and photographs, is scattered throughout. I believe color is such an important aspect in a home. It can really set the mood for each living space. I chose warm oranges and red for our living room and my obsession of sunflowers and leaves added in. The kitchen is a deep purple and bright green which gives me an earthy feeling everytime I cook. Lola's bedroom is one of my favorites, it's so cheerful and crisp. I became obsessed with the color Peach when I was pregnant, I hated the classic pink that people associated with baby girls. So her room turned into a fairytale of peachs, greens, turquoise and greys. Our bedroom is still in the works, I'm currently sewing new sheets for the bed and painting some things to add some color to walls. For now, I have my very own sewing station that is organized to accommodate all my sewing projects and any other crafts. Oh and of course, our mini herb garden on our window. 
Welcome to our place, take your shoes off and get comfy!

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Meet the Cat Children

People say that dog is man's best friend, and that may be so, but I have three furry family members that prove that cats can be man's (or should I say women's) best friend. Today I'm going to introduce my fuzzy four legged babies.
About three years ago, Ryan and I decided that getting an animal of some sort needed to happen. Birds were just too noisy, dogs were too much maintenance for our busy lives at the time, and I'm highly allergic to hamsters or any other rodent for that matter (learned that the hard way). I've always been a cat person, because I grew up with them. Never have I owned a dog, and would even know where to begin when it comes to caring for one. Cats get such a bad reputation for being stuck up, too skittish, or just downright mean. But the day we stepped into the pet store to find just the right cat, all those accusations went out the window.

Meet Jebidia

There were cages upon cages of kittens and older cats, some snoozing and some craving attention from the other soon to be cat owners. I looked down and upon my surprise there were too tiny all black kittens, one with green eyes and one with bright orange staring back at me, mewing. There was a sign taped to the cage stating the store was having a "black cat special" and the cats were "marked down" to a little bit cheaper than the cats surrounding them. As I was reading I overheard, a little girl pointing at the tiny black kittens and begging her dad for them. He looked her right in the eye and said that never would he ever have a black cat in his house and that bad luck would spread. I stared blankly at them as they walked away, and threw an eye roll in as well. Who really believes that junk anyway. I looked at Ryan and I said this is the one I want, pointing at the black kitten with yellow eyes. We wanted his twin brother so badly, but we're unsure about our ability to care for two animals in a tiny apartment that we shared with his two brothers at the time. So we toted Jebidia home.
Now that Jebidia is three years old, he is a whopping 17 pounds and he's very long so although he is hefty, it's pretty evenly distributing through his body. He is our panther and honestly THE sweetest and gentlest animal you will ever meet. When we come home from any of our daily adventures he meets us at the door with head nudges. He can be a bit goofy too like when he tries to fit into anything compact even though he is so large and when he licks our hair thinking we are cats too. He sleeps with me every single night, either on my head or literally spooning with me. He is our gentle giant.



Meet Zeus

We caved the next day. All I could think about when I brought Jeb home was his green eyed brother staring back at me when we scooped Jeb out of the cage. So the very next day we went back and brought home Zeus. And it was like a mini reunion. The brotherhood that they share is irreplaceable, it's absolutely adorable that still to this day they have each other's backs and they are the best of friends. The first few months were so hard because they were identical, but as time went by their personalities starting shining through and we always knew the difference. (Especially because Zeus is the slim one) yep, that's right Jeb is the fat twin :)
Zeus has a very peculiar personality, very very sweet, but polar opposites to Jeb. We always call Zeus "the intellectual one." He's just very sleek, and sly. He's extremely friendly, but I'm pretty sure if Zeus was a human being he would be like Albert Einstein or something. He's very territorial though of his surroundings and of us. Always marking his scent on everything and everybody.

Meet Wednesday

I think it was about a month or two later, that my friend and I were shopping at the pet store and it's like a ritual to us that every time we walk into a pet store we have to go admire the cats. We were walking down the line of cages when my eyes did a double take at the smallest little grey kitten in the entire world. Now, I have always always always wanted a solid grey cat. No clue why, but I always see them on products or commercials, but never in person. She was so tiny and after a phone call to Ryan begging him for this little creature, I was walking out the door with her. The first few days were rough, she didn't know what to do with these two black cats staring back at her. So she hid, and she hid, and she hid some more. Until Jeb and Zeus found all her hiding places and she was screwed. All they wanted to do was meet her and accept her as their little sister, but she wasn't too sure.
Now things have completely changed. Wednesday might as well have been from Jeb and Zeus's litter. They protect her and take care of her and she trusts them probably more than she trusts us. Ryan is her favorite though, she's a daddy's girl. She can be a bit prissy sometimes, but don't let her fool you she can hunt down a lizard in the house in a heartbeat, and won't give up until it's dead. Oh I forgot to mention that she is the size of a kitten still and she's three years old. How cute is that??

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Meet The Shoosh

You're all probably wondering what a "shoosh" is. She is more of a who than a what, and her actual name is Lola May. The nickname shoosh came about her first week on the planet. If you know me at all, I nickname just about anything with legs. Even my cats have nicknames. Shoosh doesn't stand for anything and it's definitely not short for her real name, it's just something that popped out of my mouth one day when I was holding her itty bitty little self.
Lola was born on July 5th, 2013 just shy of having an Independence Day baby. Which would be extremely accurate because her personality screams independent already. So she's only about 4 1/2 months old, but growing quickly. You will definitely being hearing many updates on her little life and milestones as times goes by. That's what being a mommy blogger is all about isn't it? The joys. 
A few milestones so far,to keep you guys caught up:


She is growing up so very fast before our eyes, and I'm not going to sit here and act like it bothers me so much. It will someday and I'm going to eat my words, but right now I'm reveling in every little moment and inch that she grows. I can't wait to see what each day brings and it excites me that in only a few months she will be calling me momma and I'll be teaching her sign language. She is our world and I love being her mommy and I am so grateful that I get to stay at home with her everyday and experience her experiencing life. It's not always what it's cracked up to be though. There are those days here and there, but we get through them and I couldn't ask for anything more. 



Sunday, November 17, 2013

Meet Ryan

Since this is my first week being a blogger, I decided the best way to kick it off is to introduce my teeny family to you guys. I'm going to start with the person that I like to call my mountain. Well, he's not actually a mountain, but he stands tall and sturdy and holds me all together. This mountain man (not literally, we live in florida folks!) is my favorite person on this whole damn planet. His name is Ryan, and he is actually my own personal breadman. But no, seriously, he is the dough raker at the moment and coincidentally he is a bread delivery man for brands like Nature's Own, Sunbeam, and Tastykake. He has 6 brothers and 1 sister a few nieces and nephews here and there, and some soon-to-be sister in laws. So as you can guess our lives can be a little bit hectic and family is a huge deal. Although our lives can be madness and any average person would have run themselves straight into a wall at times, Ryan lives in a bubble of peace that he floats around in when things are slightly off.
Four years ago, I was a senior in high school and my life was a blur. I had no direction and I could see myself crumbling at the fingertips. When I met Ryan my world smiled a little bit brighter and things weren't as blurry. We balance each other so beautifully. I could talk to him for hours about crazy stories and dreams to make his mind run rampide. And he could make me laugh like it's nobody's business. We've been through hurdles and hoola hoops, and made it through so many transitions and life altering experiences and the love we have for one another is left unaltered. He's the breeze that's always behind me keeping me going and I'm the sun that always lights the way.

Oh, and did I mention he has two different colored eyes? Yep, he's a keeper.


Friday, November 15, 2013

Welcome

I've always been extremely curious about people that blog. The word blog has always sounded so intriguing to me and I've had my fair share of starting blogs and never keeping up with them. I do, in fact have had a livejournal (for all you oldies out there) for over 6 years. I love my livejournal because it's my hidden corner of the internet where I dump all my thoughts.
I wanted more than that though. So here I am, starting a blog and sticking to it this time.
My name is Amanda, I'm 21 years young and a mommy of a little "shoosh" and three furry babies. I live in Florida in a cozy apartment with my favorite person in the universe and the daddy of our "shoosh," Ryan.
I came up with the name of my blog because mornings have always been my favorite time of day. The sun is waking up and gazing through the trees, coffee is brewing, the air feels still and the morning bird are chirping. After high school, I spent a good two years of my life waking up whenever I pleased. Sleeping in until the very last minute before work, or sleeping in until my eyes wouldn't stay shut anymore. Now that I'm a mommy, the choice isn't mine anymore :) and it doesn't bother me one bit. She is actually the reason I started this blog. I wanted to share with the world my own personal joys of motherhood and the craziness of it all. I wanted to share recipes for the moms and dads out there that we're looking for ways to spice up dinner time. I wanted to share my organizational tips and tricks I have hiding under my sleeves. Most of all I wanted to share a cup of coffee with my readers so they will always seek out my blog and have A Morning With...me :')