First {Unofficial} Official Day

Today is my first official day of being a housewife. Technically I have been off since Monday, but with Mama Grace here it seemed like I was supposed to be staying home and laying by the pool with her, why it would be any other way?? I am still not sure if today would count as my official first day because we had to wake up at 6:20 AM to bring her to the airport. Waking up when it's still dark outside wasn't exactly on my my list of things to do as a housewife. Although I am amazed at how much longer my day is, how much more I get done, how much more energy I have and how much of the beautiful quiet morning I miss when I sleep in. Of course this has a completely different effect when I need to wake this early and work, in that case I am pretty much drained the entire day. For some reason it's a lot easier to get through the day knowing you have nothing to do but enjoy the day. Amazing how it works out at that.

Another reason I don't really count today is because I am lonely. I go through this every time (every time meaning the two times she has visited) Mama Grace visits. I finally adjust get used to stop complaining about deal with the fact that my family is far away and then she visits. I love having her around and we have so much fun, then she leaves and I am back to square one. The sad-lonely-I-hate-being-so-far-away-how-many-more-days-til-we-move-back square. Not sure

what adjective I would use to describe my mood when she leaves ...pathetic ...sappy ...childish ...silly. Probably all of those things and more combined. At least I realize how pathetic I can be, that's the first step, right? Is it bad that I get sad looking out the window because I see where we had dinner, I get sad when I open the fridge and see her Diet Coke, I get sad when it's super quiet in here, I get sad when I go to the pool and see where we spent our days, when I go to shower and I see her shampoo and her razor or when I get out of the shower and realize I can no longer use her Chi straightener and I am back to my cheap one that rips my hair out (tears may have been flowing after this realization). I know, I know, the way I am acting you would think she died or something hence why I realize this is a bit on the pathetic side. Last time she left I cried all day (don't know why I just admitted that...), whenever I saw something that reminded me of her visit my eyes would fill up and the tears would come, this time I notice things that remind me of her and it makes me sad, but no tears. If that's not growing up I don't know what is.

So my day isn't completely normal yet, I am adjusting to being back by myself today. Soon enough I will get back on track and into the swing of things. I could not be more thankful we have 54 more days until we move back close to family. Nothing is better than being home and knowing where you belong. I can't wait to have the best of both worlds--be close to family AND have my own place and life with Mr. B. Can. Not. Wait. But I have no choice, so I will wait.

Instead of wallowing in my boo-hoo-Mama-Grace-is-gone-what-will-I-do-with-myself attitude my day has consisted of:

A healthy dose of caramel, chocolate, and coconut for breakfast.

20 minutes of determination and horrible depth perception. This down comforter IS going to fit in there. I might not be able to put the lid on, and it might not be close to fitting in there, but it is in there, I am too lazy to find another place for it and it does fit....just not all the way.

40 minutes of deflating the air mattress, rolling it up, more depth perception problems, de-rolling, deflating extra air that was stubborn and not coming out, rolling again, more depth perception problems, de-rolling, rolling again, sweating, stuffing, determination, stuffing, finally got it, leaving it for Mr. B to do from now until...forever.

Today also doesn't count as my first because Mr. B is home early. He brought home a gorgeous bouquet of flowers (ridiculous that he feeds into this "depression" of mine? possibly. But all the more reason why he is perfect for ME), it's a b-e-a-u-tiful day outside, 80 and sunny with the perfect breeze. So I've got my sun block oil on, bathing suit on and ready to enjoy the day by the pool, without Mama Grace, but with my man. I guess it won't be that hard to enjoy this day.

Favorite Baby Names

Poolside. Sun. Tan. Out to eat. Concert. Strawberry Shortcake. Fried Dough. Sleeping in. Family. Mama Grace.
The past few days have consisted of these marvelous things. Believe it or not, these things take priority over blogging. Not sure how I made it through with all the delicious food, the company, the sun and the perfect glow to my skin, it really was not that hard. I do have many pictures and posts to come. I am sure my leave of absence was noticed by all, you may have had some withdrawals and I send out my deepest apologies, but don't worry Mama Grace leaves early in the morning and with my new job as a housewife I will have plenty of time to embellish on my life that I am sure you are all dying to know about.
Side note: Did anyone see House last night? It was pretty funny, it was about a blogger.
Anyways today over at The Undomestic Momma it's Top 2 Tuesday. This is my first time doing this, how could I resist not joining in on the subject of top baby names?? I have had baby names planned since I was a little girl and I can not wait to one day put a precious little face to these names.


Top Girl Names:(Most of the names I pick sound beautiful until you put in my last name. Once Smelser is added it just doesn't quite have the same ring to it, hopefully over time I will be able to look past that minor detail. All the girls names I pick have Grace as the middle name because it's my maiden name, I love it, I miss it and I haven't thought of any other middle names yet. It's on my list of things to do and will be taken care of in these days of unemployment.)
I am in love with Layla Grace. This is my number one girl name right now, I fell in love with this name when I heard of this little angel. At such a young age she has touched so many lives. She passed away this morning, please keep her family in your prayers through this difficult time.
Also love Ella Grace. When Smelser is added, my parents were quick to inform me that her nickname may be "Ella Smella", it's okay, that's cute too?
I have also always loved Ryleigh Grace
Top Boy Names:
Andrew James
Owen Michael
Jackson Brady
Time will tell if Mr. B and I will have enough babies for these names. A girl can hope :)

A Day in the Life of the Smellies...

Every Friday over at Kelly's Korner is "Show us your life", if you haven't been to her blog go check it out!! Today's theme is "What's your typical day like?" I already posted for today (feel free to read that one too! Unless reading two of my posts in one day is too much to take in- I completely understand), but thought I'd join in on this one too since no one everyone seems to be asking me how I keep up with my extremely exciting and fun-filled life! Is the suspense killing you?? This one is extra fun because after today it will no longer be my typical day!! I am so excited for what my new typical day will be like! So in honor of my last day...

A day in this life on a Friday....

7:30 - Phone goes off, Colbie Calliet "Bubbly" (have had it for 2 years, hoping it would make me feel bubbly in the morning. it's getting old), press snooze twice

7:45ish - Wake and get ready for work

8:05ish - Leave for work

8:15 - My long day begins

8:30 - Feed baby

9:30-11:00 - Baby naps, I clean up house (sweep, dishes, toys, laundry etc), watch my shows (Regis & Kelly, Bonnie, The View), check blogs and write a post

11:30-1:00 - Feed baby, eat lunch, play with baby, watch What Not to Wear

1:00-2:30 - Baby naps, watch DVRed shows (16 and Pregnant, Oprah, Ellen), browse craigslist for anything and everything

2:45 - Wake baby (always a bummer) and head to carpool to pick up other child

3:00-5:50 - Help with homework, play outside, play games,

5:50 - Freedom

6:00 - Get home and go straight to the bathroom (I hate going at the house where I work so I usually hold it all day and really have to go as soon as I walk in. TMI?)

6:00-7:00 - Make Mr. B and I dinner ( I have the meals planned, so it's usually prepped and ready to go. Weeknights are usually simple meals because I'm exhausted)

7:00-9:00 - Eat dinner, talk about our days, watch reruns and new shows

9:30/10:00 - Go to bed (bedtime may or may not be similar on the weekends too- we are that fun)

11:00 - Usually when my mind finally decides to stop replaying my day, thinking about things to do, things I want to do, things I wish I did, shuts down and allows me to drift into dreamland.

I hope this made your Friday that much better and you were able to handle all of the excitement. I am sure my new days will much more interesting. I wouldn't mind if it's something like...

10:00 - Wake

10:30-5:00 - Read Bible, work out, watch shows, lay in sun

5:30 - Make dinner and be the most cheerful serving wife

10:00 - Bed

Life will be rough.

A New First

Mr. B and I experienced a new first last night.

Something we had to warm up to because eventually it was going to happen.

Something we thought we had 8 months to prepare for.

Something that was kind of fun for me and brought back memories.

Something that was extremely awkward for Mr. B.

Something like "I can't talk, this is way too weird" might have been whispered from Mr. B.

Something that involved nothing, but sleeping.

A sleepover with Mama Grace.

I am not sure what exactly constitutes as a sleepover, we weren't even in the same room. Totally different rooms: Mr. B and I slept all the way in dining room and Mama Grace slept way over in the living room.

We slept a whole 10 feet away from each other. Except I am really bad with perception and measuring and I have no idea what 10 feet really looks like, so give or take a few.

Once I'm a housewife I will have time to figure out how to put those arrows in the pictures just in case you don't understand what exactly I am talking about. This picture definitely needs that in order for you to figure out location. It might be especially hard to comprehend due to the lack of arrows, so once again, try your best and just pretend.

This picture is taken from the living room where Mama Grace slept and way over there, where there is empty floor space by the dining table, is where Mr. B and I slept on an air mattress.

You might think it's strange that we chose to have a sleepover rather than sleep in our own bed. I just miss my mom that much.

Or my Grammie and Aunt flew in for a visit last night and we decided to give them our bed since we would be waking early for work. We built up the courage to have a sleepover with Mama Grace knowing it was just a one night sacrifice as they will be staying in a hotel the rest of their stay.

I love my mom and I do miss her, but our sleepover years (specifically sleepovers with my husband involved) are over.

In saying that, at the expense of a free weekend away with my family, we do have one more sleepover to look forward too in October. This will be even more awkward fun because it will also involve Papa Grace, Sister Grace and Brother Grace.

So we will ease into this one night at a time.

On a different note:

It's FRIDAY!!! AND MY LAST DAY OF WORK!!!!!

Whatever Wednesday

Last week I came up with this ever so creative title/theme and said "today I'm just going to write about whatever comes to my mind because it's a rainy day and I am tired." Well today it's another rainy day and I am tired, so here we go....

So so so so excited I have made it half way through my last week of work!

I am so excited that Mama Grace has arrived in Florida!

She sent me this picture while she was in line to board her plane. Parade of wheelchairs=flight to Florida. She said there were more than this, but she didn't want to make her picture too obvious.

Have you ever seen so many wheelchairs?? She counted at least 8.

I really wish I could be home with her instead of working. I was jealous this morning when I had to wake up early and leave and she got to sleep in and spend the day relaxing. Three more days and my time will come!

As I mentioned before in my previous Wednesday post, I am reading a book called And Nanny Makes Three (yes, it's about 200 pages and I'm still reading it and going on about week 4 now) and I read that there are some nannies who have a job where the dad sometimes stays home. He stays in his room and is either watching tv (loudly), sleeping or occasionally watching tv with the nanny (that's not awkward). He is sometimes loud and wakes the sleeping baby. He doesn't offer to take the baby while you go to carpool to get his other child (who doesn't love to sit in a car for 45 minutes with a baby?) or offer to get the child at carpool while you stay home with the baby (this is his day off why would you expect him to do that??) He doesn't let you leave a little early and sometimes even lets you out late. If I had a job like that I would not be repeating to myself every few minutes "three more days, three more days..". If I had that job I might be especially bitter today since they are aware that my mom is visiting and hanging out alone at my apartment today, but obviously I'd much rather be here so it's not a big deal. Besides of course, that was a story of other nannies experience so I have nothing to worry about...

That was really hard to write in the tense like it wasn't really me. I think I messed it up.

There was finally a respectable mom on 16 and Pregnant. I think she is one of the youngest ones (only 15) and she seemed to be one of the most mature...as mature as you can be in that situation, I guess. So many of these girls think they are still entitled to be teenagers. They understand they are teen moms, but choose to take those as two different roles- sometimes a teen and sometimes a mom. Honey, it doesn't work out that way. So anyways, this girl chose to keep the baby, she seemed responsible, she didn't give her mom any attitude or expect her to raise the baby, she took complete care of her daughter, she is now home schooled so she can be with the baby and she realized and accepted that this is her life now.

Regis and Kelly is definitely now on at 10AM everyday, I have chose to accept it. It might work out nicely with my new housewife schedule.

The 5 finalist of the Beautiful Baby Contest are so adorable.

I'm excited the Olympics are over and my shows will resume. Tonight is American Idol, The Middle (hilarious show mostly because it's basically about my family) and Modern Family (also hilarious).

Jessica Simpson is on Oprah today, but Tenley is on Ellen. Gah, which one do I choose?? I went with taping Oprah because I can watch Ellen online. I can only tape one because a)if I tape both then we can't watch another show on TV and that's right when the kids get home from school and I wouldn't do that to myself and b) it's not my DVR.

We chose American Idol over Lost last night. Very hard decision. American Idol isn't on hulu though so it made the decision a little easier. Have you noticed the tough choices I have to face on a daily basis? So we can't wait to watch Lost tonight. Although I will admit, I really enjoyed the first few seasons a lot better.

I am looking forward to eating at all the yummy restaurants while my mom visits.

Looks like some good movies come out next weekend. Pretty bummed about that, Mama Grace loves going to the movies, her last visit we went to the movies three days in a row. I also love the movies, is this an inherited trait? It's so tempting because the theater is literally across the parking lot from our apartment complex, you can walk there. Our theater serves funnel cake, how unique and divine is that?? The movies are so stinkin' expensive these days so Mr. B and I don't make it over there too often so it's a highlight of Mama Grace's visit. There's not much out right now, but we might see Shutter Island. Not sure if that will be too scary for me. Has anyone seen it??

It's another cold day here in Florida. Yuck. Cold meaning cloudy and 52.

I am excited for the Strawberry Festival this weekend. They have the most delicious strawberry shortcakes (fingers crossed they even have good strawberries with all the cold weather we've had!) and we are seeing Darius Rucker on Sunday night. Hootie, baby.

Which reminds me, we are visiting my great-grandpa this weekend and he likes to go to Hooters. Oh boy.

I just got really hungry. The kind where you need to spit out your gum right away because you feel like you're going to throw up. Possible sign it's time for breakfast. Or lunch. Not a huge breakfast fan, not that I don't like eating in the morning, but I like lunch food better.

Enjoy your Wednesday!!

So long Lil' Hustler

Mr. B has a t-shirt. Actually, he has many t-shirts, but there is one shirt in particular that you will not find me wearing when I am too bloated to wear my own shirts. In fact, you won't find him wearing it any more either...Operation Get-rid-of-nasty-old-yellow-pit-shirt= Success.

I am pretty disappointed in how these pictures came out, they were with my phone and the lighting was bad. They totally don't do the justice in proving the complete nastiness of this shirt. You may have to use your imagination a bit. If I knew how to be creative and put writing and arrows to draw your attention to his additional detailing to the shirt, I totally would. I don't know how. Just pretend.

The innocent, but completely disgusting shirt.

Pretend there are arrows pointing to the stained armpits and

the black permanently stained dirt marks on the front.

After many unsuccessful attempts of begging Mr. B to throw the shirt out, I finally had to take matters into my own hands. One day I was home alone and doing a load of laundry. As I threw some clothes in the washer, I came across this oh so lovely shirt. There we were, in the little laundry room, alone. Just me and the shirt. I am almost positive I heard it screaming to be thrown out, so of course I had no other option but to do so. I proudly took the shirt and put it in the trash. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty proud and accomplished with this defeat.

No arrows needed here.

Fast forward a couple weeks. This weekend as I was doing the laundry. I noticed a wrinkly, white, yellow pit stained shirt crumpled in a ball sitting on top of the dryer, underneath the pile of towels. Oh no he di-n't!! Oh yes he did. Okay then, is this how it's gonna be??

GAME ON.

G-R-O-S-S.

Little did I know, when Mr. B brought the trash out that day, he must've noticed this prized possession (note: he never paid for this shirt, his friend got it for free and gave it to him) sitting in the trash. Let me remind you, this shirt basically forced me to put it in there. I had no choice but to do so. Although Mr. B is the most wonderful husband, at times he can be a bit stubborn (unlike me of course!). If he really thought out this situation he would've washed the shirt himself and put it in the closet, but he didn't. Clearly a sign that this shirt is not supposed to reside in our apartment.

As we were cleaning the apartment for my mom's arrival and I found the wretched shirt, I ever so slyly placed it outside in the trash. I am a competitive person and I was determined to win. This shirt was going to be gone. forever.

I quickly went outside and took these pictures. I would've feel terrible if I didn't capture our last day with this shirt. Maybe even felt the need to remember the day victory was mine.

The trash man came last night. And as far I can tell, I have won. I will gladly say...

So long Lil' Hustler.

Thanks for being so good to my husband, but it time he has moved on.

MIGHTY Monday

On Friday I might have seen some dark clouds rolling in so I decided to head to carpool early to beat the rain.

I might have been 5 seconds too late.

There might have been a complete downpour. Cats and Dogs would be an understatement.

The baby and I might have been SOAKED.

5 minutes later (the time I usually leave), it might have looked like this.

I might be a genius.

I might be ecstatic that today is my last Monday working.

I might say "this is my last {insert day of the week}!!" every day this week.

I might be smiling because it's the last time I clean someone else's house and the last time I do their laundry.

I might also be super excited that my mom flies in tomorrow night.

It might have worked out perfectly that I now don't have to work her last few days here and when Mr. B has spring break.

It might still be windy and cold (50s-low 60s) in Florida and I feel bad for those here on vacation.

This might be what I get for saying I hated Fl and it was too hot. But that was 3 months ago and around Christmas time, give me a break. I take it back.

I might have thrown fits and complained when I was a little girl until I was 20 years old when my mom made us clean the whole house when company was coming over. I never understood why every nook and cranny needed to be cleaned.

I might have protested that it's just a lie to everyone, the house is never that clean and they will love us anyway regardless of the sticky-God-only-knows-what-that-is-and-how-long-that's-been-there spot in the fridge.

Mr. B and I might have spent the weekend cleaning our apartment for when family visits. This might have included my everyday cleaning like the pantry, the fridge, the bathroom cabinets, the shower liner and the closets.

Our apartment might always look that clean, but just in case we occasionally miss a spot, a good deep clean every once in a while might be a good idea.

I might be really bummed, I just found out I missed the new show The Marriage Ref last night. Looks like a funny show.

I might not be a fan of change. This morning when I went to watch Regis and Kelly (love beautiful baby week!) it was Fox News Good Day Tampa Bay. Umm...do they know that they are completely messing up my day and I might not know what to do with myself or how my day will go on? Regis and Kelly is now on at 10, which is the same time as Bonnie Hunt. It was hard enough adjusting to Ellen being on at 4 down here instead of in the morning like in NH. To switch this on me too is just too much.

I might be able to look past it though because it's my last Monday and that's all that matters!!!

Happy March and Happy Monday!! 5 more days til Friday!!

Special shout out to Mr. B's wonderful Aunt Tracy for being my 50th follower and taking care of my dislike for odd numbers :) Thank you!!