Lists. Lists. Leap Year Lists.

I love a nice list.... I list out everything.  If you go through my desk at work you will find a multitude of lists.  To do at work, to do at home, grocery lists, lists of bills to pay, blog ideas, things to buy, things to do, outfits, menus, activities for Jacob and on and on.    Because of my love affair with making lists the husband and I each wrote out Top 10 reasons we were marrying each other.  It was read at our wedding and is framed with all of our guests signatures.   I think the list I wrote is funnier than his, but he thinks he is funnier.  The problem is a lot of them are inside jokes so maybe we both are nuts.

In honor of my list loving self....here is a quick list of stuff that brought me joy this past weekend.

1. My son reading Dr. Seuss to me.  Resting my cheek on his musty little boy head as we snuggled in his bed listening to him read to me was by far one of my favorite moments of this weekend.  It may have a place in my heart and soul for quite sometime.  As a life long bookworm, sharing my passion with him and being present with him while he reads is truly a gift.

2. Shopping at the outlet mall and having a fun sleepover with some of my friends that I do not get to see nearly enough.  I am going to dedicate an entire post to that fun day. 

3.  The Oscars!!!  If there is any event that produces any more glitter and shine, please let me know!!  I love the dresses and Chris is a huge movie guy.  He goes to the movies all the time and does movie reviews on a television station.  Needless to say we look forward to the Academy Awards.    This year I decided to bring a little glitz and glam to the Barber house. Chris went to pick up the pizza and when he left I had on my PJs, no make up, and crazy hair.  The kids were both in comfy clothes as well, but when he walked in the door from getting dinner this is what he saw...

 That is right... Oscar Party.  I was not planning on having the boys dress up, but when Jake saw what I was doing he said he wanted to get dressed up with me.  It was surprising and fun to have someone be silly with me and get dressed up to eat pizza.   When Chris walked in the door the look on his face was hilarious and totally worth the makeup.   You will be shocked to know that Jacob and I are not actually holding a real Oscar *although I totally deserve one for some of the performances I have put on*  It is Jacob's soccer trophy. 

4.  Today I am pleased that the weather is so warm.  Last Friday I took the boys sledding and today we may go for a walk outside.  Gotta love the Midwest.

5.  I scored big at Hobby Lobby!  Ribbon and Tulle 50% off, Glass items 50% off.   The stuff I bought to decorate for the baby shower is all so cute.    I can barely stand it. 

6. Rocking it out on the treadmill and running for 75 minutes and not stopping.  I am going to own that half-marathon. 

7. Grady for some reason keeps flashing me his belly and then cracks up. He also shakes his bumper and gets down with his bad self all the time.   But who does not love a baby in sunglasses?  Really?  Not much cuter. A person has to be dead inside if these pictures do not make you smile.

Happy Leap Year!!!  Peace.

Day Date!!!

There are just loads of books, articles, advice columns and blogs about how to keep a marriage fresh and fun.  I love to read and I certainly love my husband.  I think it is important to have a loving marriage not just for our happiness as a couple, but also to teach my sons, by example, how to be in a strong relationship. 

One of the main pieces of advice that is consistent is to make time for each other to spend together as a couple with out the kids.  Well you don't have to ask me twice.  We would love to do that, but who has the time?  Between our activities as a family, the kids activities, and our own separate activities there just is not a lot of  that very special commodity.    We took matters into our hands and both took the day off work, planned well in advance of course, to have a day for ourselves. 

Our first activity was a drop off to Goodwill.  We know how to party!   We then had a challenge that consisted of each of us having $5 to spend and whoever found the most interesting stuff wins,    Chris won.  He picked up two fun glasses to drink out of, salt and pepper shakers, and a Snapple.   I was super boring with tissue paper, a shamrock, and a microwave dish.    He was a trooper and ran me all over so I could shop for the baby shower this weekend.  Then lunch and a movie. 

We had a nice fun day together being together and it included both our passions.....mine = shopping and his = movies.   The movie we saw today was Act of Valor.   It was very good and made me both anxious and emotional.  It also made me so very proud of the United States and the military.  

The hubby and I had a lovely day together it was nice to be able to actually finish a conversation we started and to enjoy each other's company.   I especially enjoyed have a chauffeur and shopping helper, but remembered why I quit having him actually shop in the store. 

I loved our little day date and the best part was that it was his idea.  Sorry ladies....  he is taken.

Freaky Friday: Recapp of the awesomeness of this week.

Is awesomeness a word?? If not it totally should be... starting now.  On Fridays I am planning on tell my readers, ie Kelly Shroyer,  what I discovered this week that brought me joy, glitter, side splitting laughter, a fully belly or just something new to me. 

Topping the list is an article/essay that I read in Ladies Home Journal on my way home from work.  As a bit of back story, I work an hour and a half away from where I live and ride in van with 6 other people that work in the same building.  Also the people I ride with  are 6 men ranging from 77-60 years old and one woman in her 50's.  I learn a lot in these car rides, stuff I never wanted to know about...mostly trains and politics, but that is an entirely different post.

I was reading the magazine when I found the essay titled, "Nothing Says Love Like a Big Metal Chicken" by Jenny Lawson.   The title had me already because I am a fan of the quirky and silly things in life and a big metal chicken is by definition both.   As I was reading the essay I was laughing so hard, but trying unsuccessfully to not make any sound.  The result was me in the back of van in the middle of snow storm with tears running down my face.  That of course made me start giggling more.  The more I read the harder it got for me to not laugh out loud.  It basically sounded like I was a crying baby seal duck.   Vince, the 77 year old, looked over his shoulder at me curiously and I just pretended to be asleep.  It is a long car ride, I find ways to entertain myself.  Making old men think they are crazy entertains me. 

 Without further ado the essay can actually be found at the author's blog!!!  Which of course I will be following immediately. The Blog is called The Bloggess.  Here is the  Link . To entice you further the chicken was named Beyonce.   LHJ  edited the Blog version down a little and subtracted the curse words, but it was still hilarious.  Who does not love a big  metal chicken?

Number Two is this Dude.....

  I did not really not know who Justin Theroux was besides the fact he is Jennifer Aniston's boyfriend and most likely is famous for something.  He made me smile this week when he was on the Ellen show.  Ellen and Jennifer teamed up on him and made him do a surprise breakdance.  He is 40 years old people!  It was funny and sweet and I loved the fact that he did it on the show.  To top it off, he was pretty good.  You can watch that here... Justin Breaking It... down  I liked it because it was him being silly and not taking himself serioulsy.   How boring are people that cannot have fun?   I personally try not to take very much seriously because life is just more fun.  This dude made me smile and for that he gets number 2 for this week.

Food is huge in our house.  I have an obsession with knowing what is for dinner, it can be quite annoying to some people I live with, ok it mostly just annoys my husband.   My wheel house in the kitchen in pretty small and I was told I need to be more adventurous in the kitchen.  Most men want more adventure in the bedroom.  Nope not my man, he wants it in the kitchen.    To add to the pressure, it needs to be healthy as we both watch what we eat using Weight Watchers.  I found an amazing shrimp taco recipe on cleananddelicious.com, courtesy of my favorite website, Pinterest.   I will make it again but will not have so much Cayenne Pepper because it was a little hot for me.  Not so hot that I could not eat it, but hot enough to need a glass of milk.  Check out this Yummy and easy recipe. Shrimp Tacos 

YUMMMM  OOOOOOhhh

There have been lots of other wondrous things that have made me happy this week and here is a short list.

1.  Texting with my friends.

2.   Losing a couple of pounds.

3.   Finding lots of cute stuff for 75% off at my local drug store.

4.   Getting a book in the mail that I am going to read and do my first review right here on this blog. 

5.   Treating myself to a sugar free hazelnut latte.

and as always....these people brought me lots of smiles, laughs, and joy. 

Have a great weekend! 



Dream Girl

Today I was thumbing through a baby magazine minding my own business and I saw her name.  It took the wind out of me and I was shocked at how just seeing her name randomly brought back the sadness that I thought had started to disappear.   The sadness also comes with immense guilt for having the sadness and the circle continues.  My close friends and family know that I have had trouble dealing with the fact that I do not have a daughter. The guilt comes in because I am in absolutely complete head over heals enchanting love with my two boys.   I mean look at them... For reals who would not adore these two guys?

Jacob 6--  Grady  1.5

 I named her, dreamt about her, planned tea parties, tutus and dance lessons.    Maybe someday we will try for a little girl or maybe we will adopt my pretty princess from China.  If I had enough money and could talk Chris into it I would do both!  Until then I have learned to love Hockey, video games, hotwheels, legos, and anything that has to do with wheels or balls.  I love that there is very little drama, (although I kinda like a little drama now and then), I will get to dance with the boys at their weddings, and help teach the men of the future how to respect and treat women.   When I am desperate for a princess I am blessed to have five amazing nieces and with two sisters preggers maybe more!  I try to keep them all the time, but their parents will not let me have their children.  They are selfish... :))))

I am very blessed with the men in my life.  This is a fact I am keenly aware of and thank God for every day and every night.  I do wonder if I should keep praying for my daughter or is that a slap in the face of what I have already been given?  At this point, maybe I should just pray to forgive myself for being sad and put the rest all in God's hands.

Future President of the United States?

It is President's Day and because I am lucky enough to work for the United States, I have the day off.   I had planned on a Mommy and Grady day.  ( He is my youngest -- 20 months)  We had a day alright.  Poor guy has had a fever for two days.



This is what Grady looked like today :(




This is what he usually looks like :)


 Our fun day turned into a relaxing day with plenty of snot kisses, snuggles, and when he started to feel better a tad bit of "re-direction".  That is my nice way of saying I made him stop messing with the TV, video games, anything electric or breakable.    Grady took a nice long nap so I had time to run, watch a movie, and finish the laundry.  Man do I know how to live!

When Jacob came home from school we talked about who his favorite President was and he told me it was George Washington.  Not a bad choice for a Kindergarten kid.  The problem was he started asking me about other Presidents...like who was the sixth president?  Ummm Yeah,  I did not know I needed to study for conversations with my six year old.  Thank goodness for Google.  We looked them all up and read them all.  How did people parent without the internet?  I am pretty sure my mom either made stuff up or told me to look it up as a way to teach me to find the answers myself.

Just because I know you are all dying to know what Jacob looks like here he is, I make super cute kids if I do say so myself.

 
We actually got into a pretty interesting coversation about George Washington and he even asked me a follow up question about the Constitutional Convention.  I reached far back into my memory reserves, thanked God I watched a little bit of the mini-series The Story of Us and explained away.   In the spirit of President's Day, I cannot tell a lie!  I may have made some stuff up, but I think I was pretty close to all the important parts.   The sad part is that I could have gotten really intellectual and given much more detail if he had asked me about the Hunger Games books or what I thought about Finn and Rachel on Glee.   I think I covered well and his limited attention was back to something much more interesting before I finished my re- telling of the Civil War.   I glossed over some important decades I am sure.  Maybe I SHOULD study to talk to my kids.   Jacob's interest really had me excited.  The daydreams that were going on in my head included the National Anthem being sung by me while my son was being sworn in as the President of the United States of America.

Will either one or both or them be the future President of the United States, I really do not know BUT  if they ask me I will tell them ABSOLUTELY.

I work out..

Today I did something that made it to the top 3 hardest things I have done.  You know when it is so hard that you have to have a constant pep talk stream in your head?  It goes something like this... " You got this Katy" "You can do it", "Don't stop now, you have done so much", "I think I am going to die", "This is ridiculous", " Why am I doing this?",  "Stop. It. You. Can. Do. It".   Before today I distinctly remember having this thought stream two other times.... while studying and taking the bar exam and giving birth to my first son Jacob. 

This afternoon I ran for 70 minutes on the treadmill or six miles.  This is not a huge deal for many many people. For me it is a huge deal.   I am not what people refer to as athletic.   I am the smart girl.  The dramatic girl.  Not the athletic one.  My brother is super athletic.  He won a Marathon last spring.  It was his second one EVER!!  (Who the heck wins a marathon???)  Anyway, he is a personal trainer and an avid runner.  My husband and I are in a fitness craze and want to run a half marathon so my brother made us a training plan.  Today was a long run.... a super long run.   I made it and it made me proud of myself.  I really want to finish the half-marathon with my husband and then maybe I can be the athletic girl. 

Who am I kidding, I mostly just want to be the hot lawyer mom and running burns a grip of calories. 

I am mildly obsessed with Pinterest.   The first step is to admit your problem right?   I am not just a pin it and forget it type of girl.   I have actually done a few of the ideas/projects that I have found on the site.  In fact, it has actually helped me plan a dinner party for my cook club and a baby shower for my best friend. 

One thing you should know about me is that while I enjoy a clean organized house, a wonderfully prepared meal, and all things gorgeous...  my skills are lacking.  I am pretty sure I am a rich socialite trapped in a small town girl's body.    So hosting the monthly cook club meeting for the first time at my house caused me to have a mild nervous breakdown and call in the help of the big guns.  My Mom and Step-Dad. 




I wonder if they like their Grandkids much??