It's official

Well first off we had our first Mardi Gras this year! The kids made out like bandits! They scored tons of great throws. Once that Alice received was a stuffed dog the size of her! But more on that later. While we were there Miles had two interviews and landed two offers. We accepted one. The other one they said if things change to please let them know. Awesome right?! So in less than a month we are moving to New Orleans! The Lord has placed this on our hearts for several years now and we know it's finally time to make the jump. I might be able to return to work. My grandmother is coming with us and has agreed to watch Alice so I will not have to place her in daycare. So we are in the process of securing a rental out there with the help of an amazing real estate agent. If you need a recommendation let me know he is the BEST! So yes I might be MIA a little while longer but be prepared for for lots of great tips on moving to another state and I'm sure there will be things I've learned NOT to do as well!

Well that's it for now.
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Self love

It's official my ten year high school reunion photos hit the website. Miles are are made the cut. There are two pictures of me on the website. One was the group shot. The other was the last on the page me and Miles. There were two pictures of us taken this way. One was at the table towards the beginning of the night. The one they posted was as we were walking out of the door.My hair had lost it's curl, I was tired, my boobs hurt because I needed to go home and feed Alice. I had forgotten my earrings that night. And while I might not have felt the best in this picture it actually doesn't show. What does show is my little chubby face.

When I first saw it I was beyond upset. Really? This photo why couldn't you have posted the one from earlier in the night when I was more alert and my hair was in the right place. And the next thought do I really look like that?! I had been seeing myself in the mirror and thought I look ok, I look fine. While it's great to see a picture of yourself every now and again because it can show you what you might look like to others you do have to remove the self hating filters.

Of course my face was a little chubby, I gave birth to Alice less than 2 months before hand. While I did not swell as much with Alice as I did with Rob I still had the normal extra fluids. Did I have some extra baby weight? Yep, I'm currently sitting at about nine pounds more than before I got pregnant. But as I mentioned yesterday going through my Grandmother's pictures has taught me a lot. And as with anything new you have to practice, practice, practice to get it right. It's the same thing with a new train of thought. In fifty years from now when someone else is going through my pictures (because I swear yes one day I will actually print them out...) no one is going to think my cheeks are a little chubby. How do I know this. Well a few night ago I was sorting those pictures I keep talking about. I found one with my grandmother, her sister, and a cousin. I was asking for her to identify people I didn't know (her sister and her cousin. I never meet my grandmother's sister as she died way before I was born.) Her reply, "that's my sister, enter cousin's name, and me before I lost weight." "Lost weight?" "Yes I lost a bunch of weight right after that." I had seen the pictures of her weight loss after and to be honest I could see she had lost weight but I didn't think she needed to. After her "weight loss" she had a 19 inch waist. 19 people. In high school (I should say I came into my body in my college years or as a friend who was a senior when I was a freshmen said so kindly after seeing my and my freshmen 15 "Damn Bella you grew ti*s and an a$$!") when I was no more than 118 lbs I still had a 24 inch waist. Let's put this into perspective people. That character (not the actress mind you, according to Chacha) Vivien Leigh's waist was 21 inches during the filing) Scarlett O'hara's waist was a 18 1/2! But I digress. I couldn't see the weight my grandmother felt she needed to loose and I'm sure my children and grandchildren won't either.


There is one last point I want to make here. This is not going to be directed just towards Alice either. If you go through life saying how much you hate the way you look. What will your children think? Not only of you, but of themselves. View it from there yes. To your young children you are the most beautiful person they know. So you are causing them to change the way they view beauty. So if you were beautiful and they thought they were beautiful too what are you leading them to think now?.

I truly believe one of the most important things you can do is love yourself. I know it's not easy to let those negative voices go but we have to. It's time to put down everything else and view yourself through your child's eyes.

Time for a paradigm shift.

The past week or so I have been helping my grandmother sort through all of her photos that are not currently in albums. Our Christmas present from here this year will be albums for all of her grandchildren (ok maybe not all but at least the six of us who stay in pretty consent contact that were raised at some point down here around her.) of our childhood. Going through all of these pictures has helped to restore some long lost memories, introduce me to relative I never had the chance to meet and really helped put my childhood into perspective.

Let's just say I didn't come from a perfect family. "Oh really, who did?" one might ask but that is another point for another time. Growing up I heard my mother over and over again say how she hated getting her picture taken. Because my mother worked to support us we were basically raised by my grandparents. As a child (I have no recollection of this but I have been told it more times than I can count.) that my mother worked three jobs to keep my older brother (Dale) and I in diapers. That being said i didn't see her a lot. And do you know what almost every picture I found of her she just didn't look pleasant. I don't mean just her weight, almost everyone in my family minus me (I can say right now I am working off baby weight but normally fall in the healthy BMI range thank you kindly!) and my younger brother Chico (I swear not everyone in my family has odd names) seemed to struggle with weight issues. There are even photos that she is hiding from the camera. And you know what I learned from her behavior. Granted at some point in my photos you can see the start of my teenage rebellion. But after that you can see where I didn't want to be in photos. I too made faces. And why? Well I'm not sure. But it's time for a change. It's time for me to smile at the camera even if I do have to loose the baby weight.

I do not want to teach my children to hide from the camera. Rob loves getting his picture taken. He makes the my most goofiest smile and says "Cheese" then race over the see the picture right after you take it. Alice is too young to understand what is going on. Miles doesn't seem to have an issue with getting his photo taken either. So why should I? Granted I know I am not a super model and will probably never have the lifeguard body I used to. But I'm ok with that. I need to be ok with the person I am. The world today does enough hating on us. We have to love ourselves first. We need to teach our children to love themselves before we send them into a world that will try to tear them down. What better way then to teach them to love the photos of themselves. I saw a couple of photos of myself where I didn't know I was getting my picture taken and I loved the way I looked. There were a few that i knew the camera was on my and it was for a special occasion, one being my cousin's wedding. In my head i knew she was spending a lot of money to have these photos taken and I wasn't going to be the one to ruin them because 1. it was an honor to stand there near her because we aren't that close. (My uncle and my cousins moved to Az when I was a few months old. I only used to see them every couple of years.) And 2. she wanted to see happy people at her wedding years later. And you know what you can tell my mother didn't want to be in those pictures. I looked great! My husband saw those photos for the first time the other day. It was right before we started dating. He told me how beautiful I looked and how he wished I would smile like that for our pictures. Thankfully I didn't let the whole i hate having my picture taken ruin our wedding photos.

So ladies I beg of you. If you don't like the way you look you can change it. And no I am not talking about TLC's unpretty ("You can buy your hair if it won't grow; you can fix your nose if he says so; You can buy all the make up
That M.A.C. can make.") Yes there is the whole diet and exercise part of things but I am really talking about loving who you are. It does not matter if you are 110 lbs or 310. If you don't love yourself at 310lbs you aren't going to love yourself at 110. So celebrate, take your picture proudly. Teach your children to love themselves too!

That's all for today ladies.

Inaugural Entry

"Hello everybody!" (Picture it [ok so the picture it voice sounds like Sophia Petrillo from the Golden Girls. If you don't get that then I just dated myself] in the Grover voice) How can someone have two references of such opposite extremes. Simple I'm a mom who was raised by my grandparents.

Well I guess it happened. I got bored and started another blog. I know every time I start a new one I swear I am going to stick with it. Well I do plan on going back to a couple of my other ones I have attached here and revamping them. While I will not commit to posting everyday I will post as often as I can as to what I see fit.

So what is the deal with this blog you might ask. Miles (my husband for those of you who are new here) and I have officially made the decision to move to New Orleans most likely with in the next year. We have an official goal of before our son Rob starts kindergarten. So new name and new look but same ole me! Still Southern through and through. New Orleans is a big move for us. Miles has extended family there. Me, well not so much, my family is mostly in Savannah and Valdosta (obviously minus my immediate family here.)

Exciting news I gave birth to our daughter in April. She's a beautiful healthy little girl that has her daddy wrapped around her little finger and I think her big brother is falling for her too.

So come along as I go through the crazy ups and downs of life and moving with two children and trying to make new friends in a new location whole learning more about me. Please feel free to comment as I would love to learn more about ya'll too! Take care everyone and God Bless.