I'm still here...

I realize it's been over six months since the last time I've blogged. I contemplated on whether or not I wanted to delete this thing or keep at it. Still undecided, but in the mean time here is a brief recap of what's been happening with our crazy family...try to keep up!

Most importantly, In May Cameron finished his first year at VCU's Brandcenter! Seriously that was the most difficult year of both of our lives. Cameron was gone 7 days a week and I felt sorry for myself for a solid 9 months..no joke. Cohen was sick non-stop we had moved to a new state, smaller home, and our Branch while we like it, it sure as heck wasn't the Maple Grove Ward. People are friendly but everyone in the Branch is super busy. It took me a good 6 months but I finally settled into a good routine of going to the gym with the kids and making some friends.

At the end of May we moved from our the 1900's School house loft to a new home. We love all the 3+ bedrooms and the basement and bonus room.
--Why did we move? Basically we kept having this mold coming through our walls (the joys of having a 100+ year old brick walls..) Cohen had non-stop respiratory issues for almost 5 months straight, and even though the property management insisted it wasn't mold they came to "repair" aka bleach the spot and repaint 3 times, we finally said enough is enough. We moved into the new house and magically Cohen hasn't had any issues ever since. We have our happy chubby Cohen back to his normal self.

About 2 weeks later / the first week of June we made a temporary move to Atlanta, Georgia. Cameron is interning as a Strategist for Coca-Cola from June through the end of July. He works in their Content Excellence Group and works exclusively on strategy for Coca-Cola Traditional (diet coke, coke zero, traditional coke) His team works only on the international markets (US is it's own market) and he's had a chance to work with a lot of international Advertising Agencies and most of his co-workers are from London ( I love when he comes home and tells me stories in a british accent ) It's been an awesome experience and if he happens to land a job with Coca-Cola it's likely he will do quite a bit of international travel (hello sky miles, I've missed you!) and working for such a huge Brand like Coke is pretty much an amazing opportunity in itself. My husband is amazing, I make no secret of this.

After we finish up here in Atlanta we are headed to Charleston NC to spend a week at the beach with Cameron's family and then we have 2 weeks before Cameron starts his second year at BC. Second year will be a lot less stressful and hopefully less busy. But we shall see, if I survived last year surely I can survive another (not unscathed of course).

Jack will start ALL DAY pre-school next year 9:00am-3:00pm. I'm incredibly nervous about it but he is so excited and already so bright. He is so ready for this. The program he got into is amazing (so I hear) and it's done through the school district here in VA.

This will be our last year in Virginia as we will be on the move again in May. Who knows where we will be. Cameron has some interest and connections with Widen Kennedy Ad Agency in Amsterdam (Yes, the Netherlands) But he may very well receive an offer from Coke and we could be back in Atlanta (which I love). I've felt geographically displaced for the last 3 years, so at least that won't change right?

Cohen 6 Month Stats

We took Cohen in for his 6 month stats today. He is a healthy growing boy! A few fun facts about our little guy...

-He loves to laugh, and not just giggle, a BELLY laugh.

-He really loves his brother Jack, and if he's not in view of his brother, he grunts or whines until he can see where his big bro is.

- He started to roll over at about 4 1/2 months and is now working on an army crawl.

- He hasn't been the biggest fan of solid food. We are working on it, he's just now starting to eat cheerios or puffs, but he still hates rice cereal,oatmeal. We jumped to stage 2 foods and he has tried banannas, sweet potatoes, apples, and pears.. sweet potatoes and apples are his preference ( I don't dare say they are his favorite, we trick him into eating every spoonful of anything right now but he gags less on these)

- He was sleeping a few 10-12 hour stretches at 4 months however this cold/cough he's had for about 6 weeks on an off has really messed him up, he's up every 4 hours or so now :( but I have faith he will settle back into his good habits.

- He has pretty much outgrown his dairy issues however I'm still careful with how much dairy I eat . I still do Almond Milk (it's yummy), and eat cheese sparingly, but I'm dying to delve back into my greek yogurt love.

- As far as nursing goes, he still prefers to nurse exclusively and with him being sick I wasn't giving him a bottle too often (I'm also too lazy to pump)so he pretty much hates a bottle, but within this last week he has taken 2 so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm hoping to start weaning around 9 months but we need to get him eating some real amounts of food on a regular basis and then I will feel better about the weaning.

- He has the most delicious chubby dimply legs and buns, and his big brother will often tell you he loves Cohen big chubby legs (the boy is smart).

He's a whopping 17lb 15oz (75%) 28in tall (95%) and 17 1/2in head (90%)

Overall he is a pretty happy baby and brings an unbelievable amount of joy to our family. He is often the object of our admiration when we snuggle as a family. We love our little Coco.

A little something I like to call Single Parenting...

Lately I've become TERRIBLE at blogging! I reach the end of the day and I'm just way to beat to do much of anything except sit on the couch and watch Netflix. The past 4 months have been incredibly crazy for our family. A good-long term crazy, but a not so good "now" crazy...does that even make sense? Cameron has been rockin' it at VCU's Brandcenter. Let's face it, I've always known my guy was pretty amazing but he is pretty much an All Star. He has received numerous recommendations for internships (which include Nike, The Limited Group to name a few) and is at the top of his class of Creative Brand Managers. I love hearing all of his stories about campaigns they are working on, how they are going to pitch them etc. The world of Advertising is seriously so fun, and I'm not really even a part of it! I can guarantee this guy is going to have his pick at some pretty amazing Clients or Agencies at the end of these two years, HE WAS BORN TO DO THIS! But on the flip side of this, while Cameron is incredibly passionate about all of this it takes up an unimaginable amount of his personal and family time. Whoever told us to expect 60-80 hours a week apparently was doing the bare minimum. Cameron's days pretty much go something like this...don't be alarmed...

M 8:00am-9:30pm at school, come home/continue to work or research fall asleep about 2am

T/W/TH/F 8:00am-6:00pm come home help with bedtime- 8:30pm back to the Brandcenter until 12am or the occasional 2am when a project is due

Saturday 8:30-6:00 and occasionally get him the rest of the evening.

Sunday sleep in until 8:30 get to church by 10am out by 2:00pm..meeting at school from 6:00-10/11pm

This is pretty much how our semester has gone, he has even had a few nights where he goes to bed at 4am and is back up by 6:30... The man NEVER sleeps, it's pretty sad actually.

He rarely complains and when he does it's not because he dislikes the work it's because he misses us. Next semester is suppose to be more intense and in order for me to not go into a deep depression of single parenthood I've decided to spend a month or so in Arizona. I'm super sad to leave Cameron and take the boys with me. I'm not the kind of wife who overly misses their family ( don't get me wrong I love them ) but wherever Cameron and my boys are is where I will ALWAYS want to be first and foremost. But at this point I need the help and a little break. Parenting two little ones on your own with nothing more than a couple of hours a day of help and basically no real weekends has taken it's toll on me! I get very little me time! I take the boys everywhere I go, grocery shopping, all appointments, let's face it, I can barley use the restroom without feeling like I need to rush to make sure Jack hasn't overly loved his brother to death. The only reason my hygiene is still good is because I shower at the gym everyday, otherwise I guarantee you I would be dry shampooed and body sprayed to death. I may sound like I'm complaining, because I am a little but I really am super proud of Cam and so excited to see all of this hard work pay off....

Thanksgiving on the Beach!

Yep you read right! Cameron has been gone SO much this semester that we decided we would spend Thanksgiving away from home and away from the temptation to do homework or projects that seem never ending. We drove the 1.5 hours to Virginia Beach stayed in a beachfront hotel, ate seafood as our thanksgiving feast, saw the lights on the boardwalk, and went to bed at 8:00pm! We woke up the next morning and rented a surrey bike and strolled the beach in the 67 degree Sunny weather, it was GLORIOUS. It was the most relaxing and very much needed thanksgiving break! Cameron joked that that one night he slept more than he had in the last week (he gets to bed around 3am and is back up by 6:30!) More on that on another post...

Awareness...

My friend Barb out here in Richmond recently was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She is 28 years old and otherwise completely healthy and in great shape. She underwent a dual mastectomy this past week and thankfully they were able to remove all the cancer but she has a long road ahead of her. With that said, to all of my friends in Blogland, PLEASE check yourselves today! The only reason she gave herself an exam and found this was because her husbands cousin was also diagnosed recently at the age of 29... do you catch where I'm going with this? They were both under 30 and cancer isn't bias to any certain age group. She is incredibly brave but any extra prayers you could shoot her way would be great.

Pintrest Love!

I have been obsessed with Pintrest! I have a slew of crafts on my "to-do" list but I have tried a handful of recipes. I had to share these two that we had last night, they are delicious and healthy! Perfect for a sick husband and a wife who needed to satisfy a sweet craving.

Cauliflower soup ( I made a rue with 1/3 a stick of butter and flour to make it more creamy...the soup is otherwise guiltless 0 WW points w/out the rue) served with some crunchy french bread, yum!

Triple Berry Crisp (via Becca's pin!) SOOO GOOD

My new Job

This past weekend a friend reached out to me about a potential job opportunity, and well to be honest I did something I never thought I would do. I am usually totally skeptical about the independent consultant people, you know what I mean, the tupperware sales, gold canyon, sensy, mary kay, avon...you name it I'm usually not a fan. But When this friend told me about JEWLERY AND ACCESSORIES $5! I had to hear more and see if this stuff was hideous.. Boy was I wrong! Paparazzi jewelry is not only cute and trendy, it's also crazy affordable! I'm a totally frugal gal and this stuff is awesome. So I became one of "those people"! I'm super excited to throw my first preview party! I didn't invest in a ton of inventory because I wanted to get some girls together and get their opinions on styles they like and think would sell before I sink money into these beauties. But I'm so excited to have something outside of my everyday mommy duties, and I think it will be so much fun! Now I just need to make sure I don't hoard all the great jewelry for myself....I do need to sell this stuff (repeat 3x's daily).

Check out my new website paparazzirva.blogspot.com (under construction a little so don't judge) to see some of the great pieces and find out more about the company, I'm not trying to recruit so don't get the wrong idea, but if you want more info I'd be happy to tell you all about it (only $40 to become a consultant!)