OMG ...

Anyone singing Usher's new song?  Cause I am.  "Make me wanna say, Oh Oh OhOh Oh Oh Oh my gosh" but that's not the reason for the title.  I missed a blog post yesterday.  What the HAY?  Probably because I was out shopping and lunching with my mom and grandma being a fantastic stay at home wife (SAHW) and cleaning my house from TOP to bottom, organizing every nook and cranny, although I have no idea what a cranny is, and baking a fantastic meal for the Mister to have ready to come home to.  Okay, maybe I just slept in, cleaned the bathrooms and went to dinner before enjoying THIS fantastic work of eye candy for 2 hours ...

But whatever it was, it was so important that I didn't blog.  I swear, you skip a day and it feels like you've been gone for 10.  BUT have no fear bloggers, I'm BACK.  I will, WILL I tell you, keep up my blogging now that I'm a SAHW because really, what else do I have to do?

How 'bout lets go back to Eclipse shall we?  No like literally, I want to go back.  Today.  And see it again.  It was, hands down, my favorite of all three of the Twilight movies that have come out to date.  Except for *SPOILER ALERT* when Jasper starts talking with a Texas accent.  All the sudden.  After three movies of no Texas accent?  I do realize we haven't heard him say more than 10 words in the last 2 movies combined, but I'm pretty sure I would've recognized him having a Texas twang.  Which he does about midway through the movie.  And then it doesn't go away.  No matter how many times I screamed in my inner dialogue "GO AWAY TEXAS ACCENT JASPER!" it didn't ... but the rest of it?  SQQQUUUEEEEAAAALLLLLLLLL.  Like I said.  I'm going to have to see it again.  Or 20 times, whatever.

Next, it's Wednesday, which means time for 2 things. The first being ...

Today's topic is ...

'I Wish' .... I had Neiman Marcus as my personal closet and could shop from it daily.

{Hello lover.}

Oh how I really do wish this.  Especially if this would include purses and shoes.  I DIE.  I'm not sure much else needs to be said.  Neiman's = style perfection.  Period. 

The second thing that Wednesday means issssss ...

Bumpdates!

How far along:  19 weeks!  I know, I know, you want to see the V diagram ...

Among other things, it looks as if our baby has perfected the art of yoga this week ... along with still floating around with that dang jellyfish ...

Maternity Clothes:  As a matter of fact,  my mom just HOOKED ME UP with some maternity clothes awesomeness.  I'm not going to lie.  I love that full coverage stretchy belly thingy ... I'm sure it has a name but it's escaping pregnancy brain at the moment.  You know, these things ...

{I know, shexy huh?}

Sleep:  Well, when you don't have to go to work at 8am, sleep's pretty dang good.  Thankyouforasking.


Best Moment of the Week:  I'm pretty sure it's going to be Friday at 11 am when we find out FOR SURE what this little muffin is.  I have several friends that are HOPING they were wrong and say "um, SURPRISE, it's a girl" because they think it'd be hilarous.  I don't care, as long as we see a healthy baby in there, I'm happy.


Movement:  I'm feeling him MUCH more this week.  Lots of little thumps from our little thumper this week.  Mainly mid morning and mid evening.


Food Craving:  The Fat Fairy has temporarily gone on vacation and the Fruit Fairy is teaching me her healthy ways.  I like her healthy ways ...


Gender:  I'm still sticking with boy.  No matter how funny my friends think it'd be if I had a girl ...


What I'm looking forward to:  Feeling these little thumps and kicks more frequently.  Which I think are going to be a given.  Baby daddy was a soccer player from elementary through college and I'm thinking this kid's going to take after him.  AND for the Mister to be able to feel them on the outside of the belly!


Weekly Wisdom:  God is in control of EVERYTHING.  Nothing comes as a surprise to Him.

And last but not least, I wanted to say THANK YOU all for the incredible, uplifting, encouraging words you left me on Monday.  You girls REALLY are the BEST!!!  I'm totally giving you all a virtual fist bump, or high five, whichever you prefer.  And welcome to my newbies, I'm looking forward to getting to know y'all (virtually of course) through your blogs, comments and emails!

Soooooo, that's it for today loves!  I don't have a bump pictures (ducks head from rotten fruit being thrown) but next week I'll be 20 weeks and will have another cute sticker picture to post!  And it'll be a good one because none other than my blog designer, good friend and GIFTER of the stickers, Kelly, has offered to take the pictures FOR me!  No more "arm extended" pictures of the belly.  WROO HOO!!!

Happy Wednesday loverlies!!!

At The Movies - Prince of Persia

 I have been meaning to see Prince of Persia for a while now.  But for some reason, I always ended up seeing something else.  Well, I finally saw it, and I'm glad I did.

This one is from the producer who brought us Pirates of the Caribbean.  It stars a very hot and buff Jake Gyllenhaal, as a free spirited Persian prince who finds himself battling an evil conspiracy to unleash the sands of time.  The prince must join forces with a mysterious princess from a mystical empire to protect an ancient dagger - the key to releasing the magical sands.  If the dagger gets into the wrong hands, it can be used to turn back time and rule the world.

Prince of Persia is one of those fairy tale type adventure movies that takes us to different times and distant lands.  When this type of movie is done well, we can immerse ourselves in the magical story and enjoy the ride, without trying to tease apart the possible from the impossible.  And Prince was done well.  The special effects are excellent, the many action scenes are well choreographed and smooth, and the actors have good chemistry.  Sure there are some cheesy lines, and some corny scenes, and a certain degree of predictability.  But isn't that why we love fairy tales in the first place?  Because while times may be tough, and there are certain lessons we must learn the hard way, good always triumphs over evil, and there is a happily ever after. 

This would be a good one for the whole family.  Even though there are a good number of fight scenes, there is very little gore.  Great for a matinee on a day that is just too darn hot and humid and sticky to be outside without dehydrating and burning to a crisp.

How to Shape Your Brows

 Eye brows frame your eyes.  They are very important.  Yet shaping your brows is extremely difficult.  I have read countless articles and forum posts about what NOT to do.  We naturally notice, and comment on, poorly shaped brows.  But how the heck do we get our brows off the DON'T list?

Here is everything I learned about eye brows in my quest to tame my own bushy brows.

To determine where your brows should begin and end, as well as where they should arch, you will need a chopstick, or pencil, or straw.  To determine the START of your brow, hold up your chopstick from the bottom edge of your nose to the inner corner of your eye.  Your brow should start where the chopstick touches transects your brow.  Similarly, hold the chopstick from the edge of your nose to the outer edge of your eye, to determine the END of your brow.  Use your chopstick to indicate your brow's ARCH by holding it from the edge of your nose to the middle of your iris.

When shaping your brows, the most important thing to remember is that the part of the brow before the arch should be one thick line.  That is, if you draw a line at the bottom of your brow, and another line at the top of the brow, those two lines should be parallel.  Since my brows are quite thick and bushy, I use brow scissors to trim the top of the brow to give me that straight shape.  A common mistake is to over-pluck the bottom area in an attempt to emphasize the arch.  This leads to the 'comma brow', where you get a bulb at the inner end, and then a thin brow from there.  I sported one of these for quite some time.

Past the arch, your brow should taper.  It's best to just follow your brow shape here.  I usually don't mess with this part of my brow.

Also remember these brow shape guidelines when you're filling in your brows.  Sometimes our brows just don't grow all the way to where they should on the ends.  So use a pencil or an eye shadow that matches your brow color or is slightly lighter, to lightly feather in any sparse areas.

Accept your brows for what they are.  Some people have naturally high arching brows, others don't.  I have almost no arch to my brows.  And the more I tried to fight that shape, and the more I tried to give myself an arch, the worse my brows looked.  About a year ago, I stopped fighting it, and went with the flow.  It took forever for my brows to grow out.  But I'm so much happier with their shape now.

We hear this over and over.  And yet we still are tempted to make this number one brow mistake. We pluck and we pluck.  STOP!  Don't do it!  Step away from the tweezers.

I was recently watching GossMakeupArtist on youtube talk about the way we unnecessarily age ourselves.  Over-plucking was near the top of his list.  He also made a very good point I never considered before:

 Ever notice that the princess has nice full brows, and the evil queen has over-arched, super thin brows?  

So next time you're shaping your brows, remember that you're the princess, and not the evil queen!

Post added to:

Quick Kitchen Tip: Preventing Fruit Flies

Having fruit flies in the kitchen can be such a pain.  They can be especially bad in the summer months, because they like the heat and the humidity.  But there is a way to prevent them from ever coming into the house in the first place.

When it comes to fruit flies, bananas are your worst enemy, because in the supermarket, fruit flies preferentially lay eggs on bananas.  When you bring your bananas home, the flies hatch, and you have a problem.

The easy solution - rinse your bananas thoroughly when you bring them home from the store.  Voila!  No more pesky flies.

A Little Change on The Fulmer Lane ...

HEWWO ladies!  Well, I'm currently sitting at home.  In my jammies.  Reading all of your blogs.  Why you ask?  Am I sick?  No.  Did I break my leg?  No.  Am I playing hooky?  No.  Life in the Fulmer Lane has had a few curve balls thrown at us.  The reason I'm comfy in my jammies at home reading all of your blogs is because, unexpectantly, on Friday I was laid off from my job.  Which is definately not what we were planning on happening.  On one hand, we haven't bought baby furniture, bedding, anything for the nursery.  But on the other, I completely trust the Lord and know that His timing is perfect and that He knows what He's doing.  Jeremiah 29:11 says ...

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

And I truely believe this happened for a reason.  We were pretty much sure I was going to stay home and not come back after the baby was born and were trying to figure out when the best time to give my resignation would be and how to handle that situation and I believe the Lord did it for us.  So for now, I have PLENTY of time to catch up on your blogs, write daily posts (not that I didn't do that already) and prepare for the little one to get here.  As for this week, I'm looking forward to seeing THIS tomorrow night at 9pm ...

{Shoot, I don't have to work the next day, I might even stick around for the midnight showing!}

And then FRIDAY finding out for SURE if we're having a little boy like we think!!!  CANNOT.WAIT.

So until then ...

I hope y'all had wonderful weekends!!!  Now, I'm off to be a productive housewife ...

New Fall Shows I'm Intrigued About

 The last installment of the TV week series.  I looked up the new shows that will be coming up in the fall.  Here are a few that look interesting.  We shall see...

Body of Proof

Dr. Megan Hunt (Delany) was in a class of her own, a brilliant neurosurgeon at the top of her game. But her world is turned upside down when a devastating car accident puts an end to her time in the operating room. Megan resumes her career as a medical examiner, determined to solve the puzzle of who or what killed the victims. Her instincts are sharp, but she's developed a reputation for graying the lines of where her job ends and where the police department's begins. It turns out her career isn't the only thing that will need to be rebuilt; Megan's family has taken a backseat to her ambition, and now she's discovering there's a lot of work to do when it comes to dissecting her relationships with the living. - ABC

Criminal Minds spin-off

 

Forest Whitaker will play the dynamic, mysterious, and charming father figure on the spin-off, who will take the reins as leader of the new group of profilers who work outside the FBI bureaucracy.  Look for it to start mid season. - CBS

Friends With Benefits

An honest look at the complexity of finding "the one," and the things one must do to survive along the way.  And when dating is hard, it's good to have friends around who are easy. - NBC

No Ordinary Family

 The Powells are about to go from ordinary to extraordinary. After 16 years of marriage, Jim and Stephanie's relationship lacks the spark it once had, and their family life now consists of balancing work and their two children, leaving little time for family bonding. During a family vacation set up by Jim in an attempt to reconnect, their plane crashes into the Amazon River. But this is where the fun starts for the Powells, as they soon discover that something's not quite right. Each of them now possesses unique and distinct superpowers. But saving and savoring their family life will be equally important, as they try to find purpose for their new powers and embark on a journey to find out what defines and unifies them. The Powells are a totally relatable family who happen to be a little bit amazing. - ABC

Love Bites

Irreverent and poignant, Love Bites pulls back the curtain to expose modern romance - in a way you've never seen before. - NBC 

The Whole Truth

 Kathryn Peale, the product of a New England background and a sheriff father, is the Deputy Bureau Chief in the New York State District Attorney's office. Jimmy Brogan, born and raised in Hell's Kitchen and a friend of Kathryn's since their days at Yale Law School, is one of New York's rising criminal attorney stars. Buoyed by their respective teams, these evenly matched lawyers—each with a strong streak of competitiveness, a fervent belief in their clients and an equally intense passion for the law go about creating two different stories from the same set of facts. As this up-close, behind-the-scenes look at the legal process mirrors the excitement of a championship match, it becomes evident that truth has nothing to do with innocence or guilt—at the end of every trial, the only thing that matters is what the jury believes. - ABC

What say ye?

TV Week - The Best of the Worst - Reality TV

Let's face it - reality TV is trash.  But it's also a bit irresistible, isn't it?  You know you shouldn't, but you watch it anyway.  TV's guilty pleasures.  I'll show you mine.  Will you show me yours?

Ok, your turn...

TV Week ends tomorrow with New Shows I'm Intrigued About.

H204K9 Water Bottle - Part Deux

 

Meet our replacement H204K9 water bottle.  I got one of these bottles a while ago, and the dogs loved it.  And I loved it.  And I reviewed it.  And then someone adopted it as their own.

Well, the nice people at H204K9 sent us a new one.  And I got to choose from all of the available colors.  Of course I chose pink.

I have been using this bottle for the girls for over a month now, and I absolutely love it.  So check out The Friendly Pooch for a more thorough review and pics from our latest dog park and hiking adventures!

Have a good weekend everyone!  Get out there and enjoy the sunshine.  And don't forget your water and your sunscreen!

Warning: There Are A Lot of Cross Throughs In This Post ...

HAPPY FRIDAY lovebugs!  I've never been SO excited about a Friday becausssseeeeeeeee ... MY MISTER COMES HOME!  I know, I know I feel kinda bad.  I have kept a secret from y'all (because I don't like to broadcast over the WWW that I'm home alone every night) but my Mister has been gone since Sunday.  Yep.  He had to leave ON Father's Day.  Boo.  Hiss.  Snarl.  Tear.  And let me tell you, I've MISSED him!  I'm SO ready to have my baby daddy home with me tomorrow.  I have, however, enjoyed having my snuggle bug (Koda) sleep with me every night.  Daddy doesn't allow Koda to sleep with us, but he's "okay" (i.e. he knows about it) with it when he's out of town.  Apparently Koda's a fidgety sleeper.  Something I wouldn't know since I can sleep through natural disasters, bombs being dropped, heavy construction anything.  ANOTHER reason I'm excited it's Friday is because, exactly a week from today we find out if our little love IS, in fact, a sweet baby boy!  I will make a prediction.  Next week will be the longest.week.of.my.life.  Get ready for the whining and complaining of how long and drug out next week is going to feel.  It may or may not be a reoccuring theme and I'm going to go ahead and apologize.

AND, since it is Friday (woop!) it's time to play ...

And today's topic is ...

Favorite Celebrity Couple (that didn't make it):

Do we REALLY even have any question about this one?  Um, HULLO ...

I mean, let's not even bring in the fact that their children would be so genetically superior to anybody the world had ever seen.  But mainly, because I.love.Jennifer.Anniston.  As in so much that I have a girl crush on her she is one of my favorite actresses for sure.  And then Brad went all crazy and was put under a spell "fell in love" with a real life vampire not a hunky one like Edward Angelina Jolie and messed it all up.  I'm still holding out that someday, after Brad wakes up and thinks "I chose a vampire HER instead of Jen?", that they'll get back together.  And make beautiful babies.

On another note, I realized today that y'all had probably never met "Curly-Haired Katie" and I thought you should be introduced ...

{Don't mind my freakishly smaller left eye.  Don't worry, if you don't look directly at it, it won't harm you ...}

That's right.  I have naturally frizzy curly hair.  You haven't met her because I don't let her out too often being that my Mister is more of a fan of Straight Haired Katie.  But it's SO much easier when I'm being lazy running late and when it's so friggin' humid outside I look like Carrot Top really hot outside that I resort to the curl from time to time.  So, Curly Hair Katie, meet my bloggy friends.  Bloggy friends, meet Curly Hair Katie.  She says nice to meet you.

Next, I wanted to show y'all my proud, albeit slightly crazy, new purchase ...

Yep.  I'm starting yoga.  Did you catch that?  STARTING.  As in, for the first time.  While pregnant.  This should be amusing.  For myself and all members of my household.  Koda has never laughed in his puppy life but if ever he was going to, I fully expect it to be the first time I do my pregnancy yoga video.  They say it helps with labor.  Well after this humiliation this better make the kid shoot out into the nurse across the room's arms without me even knowing it.

Besides that I'm a big fat bag of notsointeresting today.  Anyone doing anything fun this weekend?  I'm just planning on hugging on this guy ...

Which sounds like a perfect weekend to me.  Happy weekend loverlies!!!

At the Movies: Killers

I have to interrupt TV week to tell you about this movie I just saw.

Tonight was one of those spontaneous movie nights.  Because sometimes it's fun to see a really late movie.  Too bad we had already seen all the popular picks- Sex and the City 2, Robin Hood, Letters to Juliet, The A-Team.  So we were debating between Prince of Persia and Karate Kid (hey, don't judge!), when I came upon Killers.  This sounded like an action/lots of guns kind of movie to me, so I never paid any attention.  But tonight, for whatever reason, I clicked on the title, and read the synopsis, and decided to go see it. 

Jen (Katherine Heigl) is on vacation with her parents after a break up.  When she gets there, she meets Spencer (Ashton Kutcher), who is everything she (and every girl on the planet) ever dreamed of - handsome, confident, and incredibly sweet.  They fall in love, get married, and live a quiet suburban life.  The only problem is that three years into their marriage Spencer finds himself in trouble.  People start trying to kill him.  Assasin people.  It turns out that Spencer used to be a spy and a professional hit man, and he never bothered to tell his wife. And when the truth comes out, Jen has to decide if Spencer's love and their marriage were ever real.  That is, if the assassins don't get him first.

I don't know how I hadn't heard of Killers before.  I somehow missed the previews, or there weren't any.  But I'm glad that I went to see this movie.   It was really funny.  Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl had great chemistry and are both masters of the quirky humor.  There were so many awkward moments between Jen and Spencer - funny because they were such dorks, and because the dork in all of us can relate.

Killers is not an Oscar contender.  It is not deep.  It will not blow your mind and make you think about life's deeper purpose.  But it was a lot of fun. It's the kind of movie where you just sit back and enjoy being entertained.  And I also have to tell you that even though I'm not normally an Ashton fan in the looks department, he was really hot in this movie!   I guarantee Killers will make you laugh.  Maybe even a lot.

  The comedy and the guns in Killers is enough to keep your other half entertained, while the romance is so sweet and real (read: quirky and dorky) it will melt your heart.  So it's a great date pick.   

Anyone else heard of Killers?  See it?  What did you think? 

Buddy the Lab Needs a Good Home ...

I know, I know, I NEVER post twice in one day, but this is important friends.  Y'all know how much of an animal lover I am and dogs needing homes always touch my heart, especially labs.  Please read the story below and contact the woman in the email if you are interested.  And if you'd like to help by either posting a link to this post in your blog (especially you Texas bloggers) I would greatly appreciate it or if you'd like to forward the email around, comment on this post and I'll email you back the forward I received regarding this little guy.  Let's not let him go to a shelter!!!

This is an extremely sweet lab guy, who we've been calling Buddy since he literally walked up to my son in our driveway 2 weeks ago. We did everything to find his owner, to no avail. I've contacted a bunch of rescues and shelters up here in Dallas, and everyone says they're full, some don't respond at all. Lab Rescue of North Texas actually responded that they would help, then never got back in touch with us, and won't return my emails. So now I'm reaching out for help outside of our area.

The problem is this, poor Buddy is having to live in my garage because I have 4 dogs, and 2 of them do NOT get along with new dogs. It's not fair to Buddy to continue keeping him in the garage, especially when all he wants to do is be with people. I feel so terrible, but it's the best I can do for him here.

I've sent out countless emails over the last 2 weeks. I had 2 people that were interested, but they both bailed before they even met him. One woke up the morning she was supposed to meet him, and decided the timing wasn't right for her. The other decided to take one of his mother's dogs instead. I had a third person meet him, and actually took him home, but Buddy, an intact male, was WAY too interested in his wife's chihuahua, and climbed over their 6' fence. I tried explaining that getting him fixed should take care of those problems, but he claims his wife had a fit and would NOT let Buddy stay.

My husband keeps asking why we can't just take him to the county shelter, which I obviously have no interest in doing. But I can't help thinking maybe he would have a better chance there than with me. In my garage.

I'm at my wits end. Buddy is a fantastic dog, and we would keep him if our dogs would permit. He's extremely friendly, playful and good with kids. He is very well-behaved, does great on a leash. My son was actually able to skateboard with Buddy trotting along perfectly beside him. Never pulled him off once! So he would be a great jogging partner. And even though he's a large dog, both of my kids (10 and 8 years old) can handle him easily and walk him by themselves. He sits on command, and responds very well to correction, so I think he'll be easily trained. He has a small football that he likes to play with, and when he wants to play, we will go get it and bring it to you in hopes you will play fetch with him.

This is a great dog who deserves so much better than my garage. Ideally I would like him to be taken in by a rescue, where I know he will be neutered (which will hopefully take care of those certain instincts and fencing climbing), given shots and just overall cared for. And rescues do a good job screening potential adopters. This guy has been through enough waiting for a chance at a forever home, and I want him to have the best shot at finding one. I don't know what else to do myself, so if you could send this on to anyone you think may be able to help, I would so appreciate it.

We live north of Dallas, but we're traveling to Austin Thursday night, so we could potentially bring Buddy with us. Either way, he needs to have somewhere to go by then.

Thanks again for any help, or even advice at this point,

Jami

Jami Cagle

PH 972.431.9214

jcagle@jcpenney.com

or

Hope Weaver

nickiione@aol.com

Let's try and get this little love a new, permanent home!!!

TV Week - Returning Shows I'm Excited About

I've enjoyed my stroll down TV memory lane.  But now back to the present, or more accurately, the not too distant future.  I'm looking forward to catching up with these favorites again in the fall.

What will you be watching this fall?

TV Week continues tomorrow with The Best of the Worst - Reality TV.