The Blog got a Facelift!

My blog had some recent plastic surgery; don't judge it (I'm lame, I know. Deal with it). It has a fancy pants new summery layout and some new pages! I created a favorite post page that lists some of my random favorites, vacation posts, milestone posts, mommy posts, etc. It was a fun page to create because it's always fun looking back on memories of the past. I have been writing this blog since 2011, so there are a lot of great memories documented throughout! I have no clue if my readers view my posts through the blog itself or through email, so if you never visit my physical blog you should swing by and take a look.

We had a wonderful weekend with our sweet girl. We all went to the park Friday afternoon, stayed in most of Saturday due to the rain, and made our way to her favorite park on Sunday. She went down the big kid slides at the park completely on her own. She's so big and brave, it's amazing. The funniest moment was her going down a swirly slide; she went down so slowly it was hilarious. She just had this look of awe on her face because I think even she was impressed by how big she is. It looks like our days of going down sliding boards with her are over, whomp whomp.

Guys, she's getting so big and so smart. Here are some of the amazing things she's doing lately:

• She loves showing off that baby belly of hers. When you ask her, "where's your belly?" she promptly raises her shirt and points at her belly with such pride. She's obsessed with belly buttons, which is a bit odd, and loves poking both her belly button and our belly buttons. Goof!

• She loves pointing out dogs and cats. A lot of her books have cats in them and she loves flipping through to find the cats; once she finds them she points at them and yells TAT TAT! Whenever we're out and she spots a dog and yells DAH DAH! and tries to hug and kiss them. Adorable!

• I learned yesterday that she can say the word yellow, or in Caroline voice, "LELLOW!" We were reading a book and I pointed at a yellow page and said yellow and she matter-of-factly echoed, "lellow" like it was no big deal. Of course I freaked out excited and she looked at me like I was a looney toon.

• She knows Ellie's name and loves calling her (EYAY is kind of what it sounds like). Ellie is undoubtably her best friend. Caroline hugs her, kisses her, reads books to her, and Ellie is so good with her. Wrangler is still a jerk to Caroline, but we're working on his manners. Both of the cats are wonderful with her, even Tollie!

• She's a dancing machine these days. She looks around for her toys that play music and dances to them. I sing to her during diaper changes so she can clap along and "sing" with me. She sings in the backseat of the car, too. The lyrics to ever song are either "BABABABAAA" or "LALALAAAA."

• She gives fantastic hugs and wonderful "kisses." Her kisses are basically her drooling on us and going "MUAHHH" because I think I accidentally taught her that ever kiss involves going "muah!" Hopefully she grows out of that before she starts dating ;) She even tried kissing my parents over webcam this weekend by going "MUAHHH." Sweetheart.

• She is obsessed with "nakie baby time" (bathtime). We usually bathe her after dinner and the word "nakie" cannot be spoken until dinner is over. When she hears the word "nakie" she toddler-runs down the hallway straight toward the bathtub and begins trying to strip her clothes off. IT'S SO CUTE, YOU GUYS. She loves baths and would spend all day in there if given the choice.

She's doing so much more, too, but those are some of my favorite things!

20 Random Things About Me!

I saw someone else do this on the interwebs, and figured it would be a fun change of pace for my blog. So, here we go... 20 random facts about me, complete with random images from around the interwebs.

1.  I really do not like caramel. The strange thing about this fact, is that I think I liked caramel as a kid. I have no clue when I started disliking it. I'm not even sure if it's the taste I dislike, or if it's the consistency. I also dislike taffy, and other ooey gooey icky nasty things like that. The husband loves caramel and knows that if he buys a treat with caramel, I won't go anywhere near it.

Ma'am, would you like caramel on your cheesecake?

2. I truly, truly love being a mom. I know this is a pretty obvious one, but it's oh so true. Before I became a mom, I had never held a baby, changed a diaper, or really even talked to a baby (fact is, they scared me, and I still don't know how to properly speak to other people's babies). But, I was so excited to be a mom and everything came very naturally to me. The moment she was suctioned out of me and thrown onto my chest was the first time I had held a baby.

3.  I am a rather tall lady standing at 5'10". I have learned to embrace my height and love being tall. However, when I was younger I hated being tall. I had hit about 5'9" by the sixth grade and, trust me, there are no sixth grade boys even close to 5'9". My pants were all too short for me because I was about a size 0-2 and nothing but legs. I had to wear boy sweatpants in gym class. I used to hunch over in the lunch line to be the same height as my friends. I'm in the back row of pretty much every elementary school class picture. But, as I stated above, I learned to love my height and discovered that "tall" sizes in pants are my best friend.

4.  I am terrified of Paula Deen. The woman has crazy eyes. When she was in the news recently, and her face was plastered all over the internet, I was so sad. When I see her face on the cover of her magazine in the grocery store, I recoil in horror. I am sure the woman makes an amazing batch of cookies using her secret ingredient, butter, but the fact is she freaking scares me.

5. My taste buds have changed post-pregnancy. I used to love sushi and I now find it gross. I tried to eat it once a couple months ago and was just disgusted. I also used to LOVE hummus, but haven't enjoyed it since pregnancy. It's just not tasty to me anymore. My sweet tooth has also disappeared, which is a good thing. I'm still trying to lose that extra bit of doughnut weight!

6.  Everyone knows I take a lot of photos. However, I think everyone would be shocked when they saw how many photos I store on my computer. I have hundreds of folders, separated by year and event, which take up tons of memory on my computer. I have tons of photos, but they are SUPER well organized, so they're easy to find. Sadly, a lot of the original versions of my early college photos were lost in computer crashes. There are probably a ton of fun pictures that were forever lost (including the photoshoot of the pickle jar from sophomore year).

Guilty.

7.  My husband and I are very strange when we are around the house together. I'm sure this goes for every couple, though. We have voices for every animal, and we often carry on conversations with the animals, and the animals even have conversations with each other. We also tell each other we stink and try to come up with crazy things the other smells like (I often, according to Josh, smell like Fran farts... Fran is my disgusting ex-roommate from college). I feel all of our weirdness is being passed along to Caroline who, like the dogs, has a specific voice and often carries on conversations with her parents.

8. One of my newly found pet peeves is how much new moms judge the decisions other new moms make. I have noticed a lot of "judgey" moms online, and it drives me absolutely crazy. When Caroline was first born, I frequented baby message boards to see what other babies were up to and learn some tips and tricks from fellow moms. I was a lurker and never commented, but it gave me reading material during the 12am, 2am, 4am, and 6am feedings. However, I had to stop reading them because of the "judgey" moms. "Oh, you give your baby formula? You must not care about their health." or "Oh, you're going back to work? You must not love your baby." or "Oh, you're using premade baby food? You are obviously a lazy piece of crap." Ugh, there are clearly moms like that on Facebook, too, just not as straightforward. Every mom has a unique parenting style that works best for them and their baby. Judgey moms are the WORST. Grr at all of them. Women need to stop being so hard on each other. (this fact turned into a rant, bwhahahahahaha!) Exhibit A: this blog post which is perfect.

9.  In case you couldn't tell from my blog title, I love coffee. However, this was not always the case. I didn't like coffee until college, and even then it took a while for me to like actual coffee and not just the fancy flavored stuff. At ODU, part of our meal plan was "flex points" which could be used at different places around campus. I was always wasting time on campus between classes, and started getting treats at Starbucks using my flex points. It started off being just frappucinos, and then I discovered the latte, and then I discovered the amazingness of coffee (although, I'm not a big fan of Starbucks coffee). Now you know the story of the love affair between Kaitlin and Coffee.

10.  I loved college, but the first week or so was rough. My roommate, whose farts were so fondly mentioned above, hated me and was just plain rude and disgusting. I didn't really make many friends the first week (the two friends I did make that first week had transferred by the time second semester started), which was pretty rough. However, as I was eating one of my many solo meals in the dining hall, a tall boy from New Hampshire sat with me and the rest is history. I'm sure I eventually would have found a group of friends at ODU, or perhaps I would have remained lonely until I made my Outback friends, but I'm glad Josh sat with me (obviously) because we met some great friends together.

11.  I like Tallahassee and dislike Tallahassee at the same time. It's a gorgeous place to live and not freakishly crazy like the rest of Florida (considering we live ten minutes from the Georgia border, we are not in the heart of Floridian craziness). It's a growing city and we get awesome new stores monthly. We recently got a DSW, Sephora, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Home Goods. We are soon getting a Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, PF Changs, and Bass Proshop. I also love the house we have here and am really proud of it. However, it's too freaking far away from everything! It's expensive to fly in and out of the airport, driving anywhere entails a trip down I-10 or the "Twilight Zone" as Josh and I call it, yadda yadda yadda. I love my city but wish it wasn't so isolated and hard to get to.

12.  I am so super awkward in certain social situations it's ridiculous. If I know everyone around me I'm totally fine and relaxed. If I'm at a party with a bunch of strangers HOLY COW do I get nervous. And if I don't have anything to hold (like a drink or, my new favorite option, a baby) I feel even more awkward because, seriously, what do cool people do with their arms? Am I supposed to cross my arms? Put my hands in my pockets? Let them hang lazily at my sides? I do not understand! I'm terrible at small talk with people I don't know. I mean, if it wasn't cliche I could easily begin every awkward social encounter with, "wow, how about this weather?" I just don't understand how social butterflies know how to properly engage strangers. I'll never be good at it. But, like I mentioned above, bringing Caroline along helps! I have something to do with my arms and if conversation starts getting awkward, would you look at that, someone needs a diaper change BYE! Google image search "socially awkward penguin" and it pretty much describes my thought process.

13.  I have terrible vision and want, no need, Lasik. I don't think Josh understands quite how bad my vision is because he has absolutely perfect vision. Let me tell you how bad my vision is. I usually don't wear contacts or glasses in the shower. Usually Tollie joins me during shower time and hangs out somewhere in the bathroom, so I talk to her during my showers (as noted in the fact above, she often answers my questions in "Tollie voice"). I once (okay, more than once) got out of the shower, put on my glasses, and realized that Tollie was not in the bathroom at all; I had been talking to a gray sweater. I cannot even tell the difference between a cat and a sweater. Seriously, they need a Groupon for Lasik.

14.  I truly do love food. I am not sure how I made it to number 14 without blurting out this very important fact about me. Josh makes fun of me for how excited I get about food. Husbands just don't understand! I love eating at new restaurants, trying new recipes when I find the time, and, well, I just really love food. If I could afford to try a new restaurant every night I would. I should have become a food critic, for real. A good meal is just very exciting to me, especially when matched with a delicious beverage!

15.  I don't curse much and when I do I think it shocks people. However, that completely changes when you put me behind the wheel of a car. Good lord do I have some road rage. Anyone who knows me would be shocked by some of the words that come out of my mouth when I'm driving. People are just SO FRUSTRATING, guys. I have toned it down a lot now that I have a baby in the backseat who is probably absorbing everything I say. That doesn't mean I'm not calling those stupid drivers every bad word possible in my mind. Ugh, so much RAGE.

17.  As clumsy as I am, this one will come as a shocker: I have never broken a bone or had to get stitches. We think I may have broken a toe while jumping off the swing set barefoot as a child, but it was never confirmed as broken. I did land myself on crutches while in high school after I tripped up the stairs at home, but nothing was broken. Oh dear, I hope I didn't jinx anything by adding this fact.

18. I hate, hate, HATE when people use poor grammar. Some of the statuses I see on Facebook make me want to cry. Do you know what really makes me upset about them? The majority of the poor grammar I see on Facebook comes from elementary school teachers. These are the people teaching our kids the fundamentals of English, and they don't know the difference between your and you're. I wish it was socially acceptable to correct grammar on Facebook. Oh, and don't even get me started on the people who use "ur" instead of your, or "r" instead of are... it's not that hard to type the few remaining letters that make you look like you have a brain.

19. My baby is goofy and I love it. Yesterday, Josh picked her up to go to the doctor (she has a double ear infection, whomp whomp) and the daycare teacher told him Caroline is "goofy" and "not like the other babies." Apparently, when all of the other babies are quiet, Caroline sits in the middle of the classroom and busts into maniacal laughter. Some parents would probably be worried about their other kids being categorized as, for lack of a better term, weird. However, I think it's great. I'm weird, my husband is weird, our friends are weird, yadda yadda yadda. Normal people are boring. Weird, goofy, "not like everyone else" people are freaking awesome. Therefore, my baby is freaking awesome!

20.  I was a math nerd in high school (took AP Calculus and AP Statistics), which led to me getting a math based scholarship to ODU. I'm sure they were shocked when I used that scholarship to become an "Occupational and Technical Studies" major. What is that? Fashion Merchandising. A lot of people think this means all I did in college was make clothes. Nope. Not one clothing design class was taken. I took a lot of math based classes (no actual math classes though thanks to my AP credits), tons of business classes, a lot of marketing classes, a good deal of art classes, and a lot of merchandising classes. It was such a fun major, my classmates were awesome, and I would recommend it to anyone. However, unless you're moving to NYC there really aren't many fashion merchandising opportunities out there.

Disclaimer: I apologize for any typos, but my computer is starting to freak out so I don't want to risk scrolling up to reread this.

Any lurkers?

I'm curious as to if this blog has any lurkers. I am a lurker of many blogs (classic creeper Kaitlin). Judging from the amount of page views I get per entry, I'm assuming there may be some anonymous readers out there (otherwise, I have very dedicated fans who like to read my entries over and over and over again).

For example: My blog has had 28 pageviews so far today and had 40 pageviews yesterday. My entry from yesterday about sleeping through the night has received 17 views.

If you're a lurker, can you leave a comment on this entry? You can leave it anonymously if you're a classic creeper like me; I have no way of knowing who it is :)

If you feel like un-creeping, you can like me on facebook, which is totally not anonymous but is definitely the easiest way to follow my blog.

I'm sure nobody will comment and I'll look like a goofy loser, but I'm posting this regardless! I'm just a curious little blogger lady.

Fess up. Anyone doing the creep?

New layout, guys!

I changed my layout in honor of the bay-bay! Thought it was cute :)

Those are my deep thoughts for the day; stay tuned tomorrow for my "I HATE MONDAYS" blog ;)

SLACKAHONTAS

Thank you, mother dearest, for calling me out as a SLACKAHONTAS. I am, indeed, a SLACKAHONTAS. I am incredibly sorry to everyone for being such a SLACKAHONTAS. I space out and forget to update. Oh, dear. I contemplated starting up a new blog completely, as I find it fun to start these from fresh. HOWEVER, I just can't abandon my coffeeholic tales.

Life update? OOKAAAAY.

Tuesday was Valentine's Day! We did a "no presents allowed" Valentine's Day, and opted for a nice dinner instead. WELL, we failed. I made him a card and bought him a heart shaped piece of fudge with a nerdy plastic label which said, "U R 2 COOL." I broke the bank at a whopping $1.98 for this gift. Oops ;) Joshua surprised me at work Tuesday with my present. He was apparently thinking to himself, "What would Kaitlin like? Well, Kaitlin likes Chinese food. She needs chop sticks; CHOPS STICKS!" He did a fancy pants Google search to locate chopsticks in Tallahassee, and BAM, got me some chopsticks.

Behold, my chopsticks:

In honor of my new chopsticks, we got some Thai food and a bottle of wine and had a nice dinner at home :) I tried to use my chopsticks to eat my Pad Se Ew, I truly did, but after two bites I opted for the fork. Fail boat, guys.

Sooo, since I last posted, we have had visits from Josh's dad and Josh's mom, at different times. Both were quite lovely! Josh took a trip to St. Petersberg to clean out his grandparents' garage, and now our garage is super duper cool, filled with tools I have no idea how to use. NICE.

You know what's exciting, you guys? I purchased a plane ticket. 

Who? ME

What? I plane ticket, goofs.

Where? VIRGINIA!

When? May 17th-21st

Why? Allison is GRADUATING!

OMG I am so excited. SUNDRESSES! Yes, I get excited about the opportunity to rock a sundress. Winter, go away. I actually found a store while we were waiting for our Thai food and I now want everything in it. Literally. It's like someone stole my dream closet and stuck it in a store. NAKAMURA, it's like a mini Anthropologie in a boutique setting. Visit and I will take you. Oh yeah, and it's like a quarter of the cost. Anywho, YAY PLANE TICKET.

We have been grilling a lot - lots of steaks, burgers, and chicken, mmm. The other night we grilled chicken and stuck it on salads with lots of yummy veggies. Tasty and healthy!

The four-legged children are all doing well. Ellie is now queen of her crate, and we're testing to see how Wrangler does staying in the bedroom with her instead of being locked in the bathroom. So far, so good; and it's good incentive to keep the bedroom clean so he doesn't eat anything :) The cats are their usual mischievous little selves, of course!

Hmmmmm, so I MISS EVERYONE. I wish we could all take a private jet to a beach somewhere and lay out with umbrellas in our drinks while chatting mindlessly about life. Aaaaaaaah, that sounds nice :)

Happy Friday, friends!

A certain Jessica Bond has complained that I haven't been blogging. Sorryyyy.

1) My work computer SUCKS and not much can be done on it. If I could blog at work, I would, but I can't.

2) This website basically does.not.run. on iPhones. Soooo that option is out!

3) I've been watching TV and movies with the hubby a lot this week.

Soooooo, oopsies my bad sorry oh my gosh I'm sorry oh so sorry!

Anywho, nothing has really been going on down here. Work has just been kind of bleh and slow this week. Joshua has been super busy at work this late; we kept planning lunch and poor boo was always either still in court or with a client, and he worked late almost every day this week (still at work now, rawr!). 

He brought me flowers this week. Allow Parker to model their beauty. Ooooooo Aaaaaaaaa!

I have made some successful meals this week! A yummy (healthy!) pasta with olive oil, spinach, tomatoes, and sausage Sunday night. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we fended for ourselves since Joshua was working. And last night, Thursday, I made an Alice Springs Chicken knock-off (Josh's favorite dish at Outback!), which turned out great!! I paired it with homemade fries (yes, I cut up the potato myself, skills) and asparagus. Definitely being added to my recipe book!

Mom, you'll be happy to know, I just washed the tablecloth. Yay :)

I got us cupcakes after work today! We've both had long, bleh weeks, so we deserve cupcakes. Mmmmm!

No plans for the holiday weekend - eek! I hope to be productive around the house, cook, drink beer on the deck, NOT get sunburned again, andddd relax :)

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. LOVE YOU GUYS <3

Jessica: UPDATE YOUR BLOG, HO

My mom and my BFF (yes, I just actually used that term, I am in fact 12), have been reminding me to update my blog, and I have been such a slacker.

My bad.

It has been the week of the headaches, beginning on Saturday where I spent over half the day in bed. And now it has carried on to today, where I am still nerdy four eyes because the headache has still not stopped. Oh, the wonderful things that go along with being a girl. TMI? Yes. True? Yes.

We leave for the beach tonight! WOOHOO! Much needed break from this work week. People are annoying me and it will be nice to get away! And to get a tan. And nerdy souvenirs. And pictures.

The truth is, life has been normal with nothing exciting to talk about! I did get a new laptop. Sadly, this blog is being written on my poor excuse for a computer at work. I'm surprised it hasn't frozen on me yet.

It's time for my lunch break. Why did I choose to start typing this right before my lunch break? It's not like I can minimize it and finish it after I eat, seeing as I whined about work earlier.

I miss everyone back home! I want to visit soon, just need an excuse (and dollar dollar bills, y'all). Who wants to donate to the "Kaitlin wants to visit fund"? Coolthanksbye.

I promise a more exciting post when we get back from the beach!! Filled with fun things and pictures, weeeeeeeee!

This has been random ramblings of Kaitlin in an effort to please everyone by blogging. Truth is, I'm hungry (my life motto) and it's my lunch break.

Hope this blog shall suffice for now :) LOVE YOU ALL BYE BYE LOVE YOU! BYE <3

My first fan club letter.

Jessica Bond has requested that I answer the below questions. Ahhh, this shall be a treat! Jessica Bond, I have decided to spice up this entry with a little photo montage of our friendship. Enjoy, woman, enjoy!

Q: Do you eat out more than you cook? Or do you cook more than you eat out?

A: Well, sadly the answer at the moment, is we probably eat out (I count carry-out, too) about as often as I cook. But I have made a vow to cook more. We only ate out once twice weekend, so we are off to a good start. Tonight, we were going to make sloppy joe's, at the request of the hubby, alas, he has to work late. I am cooking for myself tonight, and making my specialty: pasta with olive oil and feta! Sloppy joe's will just have to wait until tomorrow.

Q: How many children would you like to have?

A: Well, I have three feline/canine children already, but I am assuming this question is referencing human children. We would like to have two human babies. Perhaps eight, if I somehow end up being like octomom. Oh, that would be crazy. I could be on a trashy reality show, and you could watch me and scream JERRY, JERRY, JERRY! Because three of my kids would be named Jerry. It's hard to name eight kids, I'm sure, there would have to be some repeats. BUT, if I do not become an octomom, two is enough, please.

Q: I intend to stay at my current job for _________ days/weeks/months/years,etc.

A: FOREVER! Just kidding, hellz to the no. More like, a couple years. We'll kind of see what life brings us and where it takes us.

Q: I will get a new cat or dog in the near future.

False-ish. If one desperately needs a home, we'll take it. But, two cats and a dog are good for now! I do want a puppy though, a golden retriever or a chocolate lab. Speaking of cats and dogs, our Tollie is sick right now (she's your goddaughter, Jessica Bond), and has been quarantined in the upstairs bathroom since Friday. You need to send her a Get Well Soon card.

Q: Have you had a hangover since being in Tallahussy?

Umm, I believe so, but a mild one. Silly pub crawls, so much brewsky. We started at a cupcake place, where we had a beer, then went to another place, and another place, and another place, and another place, and I do believe there was another place. The "hangover" was gone by noon though, so it was an amatuer. I was eating grilled cheese (no lie) that afternoon! Good news, though, I didn't get any butter on my clothes!

Q: Are we penpals?

Well, Miss Panda, as president of your fan club, I have sent you a card. As the almost-Mrs.-Nakamura, you have sent me a save-the-date. So, if that constitutes as being pen pals, then yes, yes we are. I also enjoy texting you when I mean to text my husband. Jessica Bond and Joshua Brian look awfully alike. So, in that respect, we are text message pen pals! And we chat on GChat, so we are GChat pen pals!

Q: Do you like answering my questions?

YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES!

Q: Will you be pregnant at my wedding?

Well, I went to a lady doctor and said, "look, I really need to give birth on October 15, 2011 at 6:30pm. I have a friend who is getting married, and I really need to steal her thunder." So, I will show up to your wedding 9 months pregnant, on. the. freaking. dot. In other words, no, I will not be pregnant at your wedding.

The first post is the sweetest.

Well, good morning everyone! Welcome to my attempt at blogging. Josh and I have decided I need a hobby and, hey, this is a start, right? This blog is a way to keep everyone up-to-date on life in Classy Tallahassee (or my life as a Talla-hussy, as Jessica likes to put it). I'm going to try to be good about updating! If you don't want to have to check every day to see if I updated, there is a nifty little "stalk me by email" option at the right of the page. So, it just gives you another method of stalking me. You're welcome.

Life is Florida is great. Of course, I miss everyone back home, but I am really enjoying finally living the married life how it should be lived (together!!!). We have been cooking together, having our famous deck beers together, and making big kid purchases together (a weed whacker was last week's purchase, and a grill is our next big purchase). We're both doing well at our jobs, which is always nice. Josh won his first jury trial this past week, which is huge for someone in criminal defense, and I am getting a lot of compliments at my job. We both have our own offices with doors and windows; hello, adulthood!

So, let's see, what have we done this weekend? Friday night we were lazy and ordered pizza (for him) and Chinese (for me), and hit up the Redbox. He chose Due Date. It was decent. We still have an agreement though, we hate Zach Galifianakis. Saturday, we had our morning coffee, hung out around the apartment, then got milkshakes at Steak and Shake (I am trying to become a coupon clipper, and they have some mighty fine coupons). Two meals and two milkshakes for under $9.00. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. We then went to Springtime Tallahassee (downtown festival) and walked around, working on our tans. Then we came home, got Josh's car washed, had our deck beer, and watched my movie choice (Never Let Me Go. Most. Depressing. Movie. Ever. Ever.). And now we are at Sunday, no clue what we're doing today! But, mom, I will be cooking dinner.

I do believe this is all for today. I will leave you with a picture of me and my milkshake. Tasty, tasty!