Other than that? I’ve been doing a lot of nothing. Today though (well, yesterday now) was one of my very best friends Lisa’s birthday. Sunday night we all went to Buca di Beppo in Palo Alto for her birthday dinner & it was super duper tasty. There were 18 of us & it was so fun to spend time with my friends. And eat my weight in italian food.

Today was her actual birthday & we were able to have lunch together. That was great because, well, I love her. I was happy to spend time with her on her birthday hanging out in the sunshine. Happy Birthday, my dearest Soft Pack. I love you more than I could explain.

I guess from there we will back up even further. I had a pretty chill weekend and even made a few strides to getting our company paperwork back under control. Sure, I need at least 12 more hours of uninterrupted work, but I am getting somewhere slowly. It helped that my Mom & Step-Dad had taken Hudson Saturday night, so I had most of Sunday to work since Scott was home & able to take the twins on himself. That was a win. My parents were also sweet enough to babysit so Scott & I could attend Lisa’s party without kids. That’s always awesome. Love my kiddos- but sometimes- a break is necessary. Nothing wrong with a few drinks with the adults once in a while! I appreciate getting out of the house so much more since the twins. When it was just Hudson I was able to get out a lot more. We’d go out several days a week. But, with three this young- I cannot leave the house alone with all three. I mean I CAN but as you know, it ain’t pretty.

Soooo that brings me back to today! It was the 24 SERIES FINALE. And yes, I’ve watched every season & pretty much every episode renders me completely useless afterwards because the suspense has my heart beat all crazy & I literally fret about the next episode. And now? It’s OVER. Jack, I’ll miss you! You are a man among men.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about how it ended, but I may have to come back to that because well, I need to marinate on that shit.

So, besides all that- my babies are GREAT. I discovered that not only does Hudson have that naturally curly moo-lay action happening, but he also has a natural MOHAWK which I can easily style & it is hilarious. He is SUCH a freaking character. This morning, I was so tired due to about 2 hours sleep last night & Hudson was so sweet. He laid in bed with me until NOON. Sure, we watched Wow Wow & Yo Gabba for like 4 hours, and I’m almost sure that makes me a bad parent- but it was nice because I dozed off a few times & he was safe sitting next to me & every so often would lean over and give me a kiss. (mmmmuuuuahhhhh.) He has also started this other thing that makes me laugh SO HARD. He makes this face. It’s like the “surrrrpriseeee” face, but he makes his mouth into this little O and it cracks me up. Scott referred to it as “the O face” but I told him he’d need to find a more appropriate name because he cannot request that Hudson share his O face with his Nonnie like he did last week. He also has this horse. It’s one of those horsies on a stick. I had one when I was a kid too. You stick the stick between your legs and then run around and pretend to ride a horse. Yeah, one of those. Anyhow, his neighs & makes a galloping noise when you squeeze it’s ear. So, for at least 10 minutes a day he stands next to it and repeatedly presses the button to make it make noise. Then? He dances, or rather bounces to the beat of the gallop. It is HILARIOUS & I will get a video up ASAP. Hudson just brings so much joy to my life. He is such a sweet kid. He is funny & interesting & engaging without even talking yet.

And Truman? He is BOUND to be a comedian. Like, the kid has comic timing. He is ALWAYS smiling & it’s always at such appropriate times. He giggles & chats constantly. Hudson did not chat nearly as much as Truman does. I feel like he will be an early talker but who knows. And his little face?! I cannot stand the cute, really. His personality is undeniable. I have never met another human being with such expressive eyes. When he smiles, you know it’s coming a minute before because his eyes smile so big. Oh, and he rolls over now. Stomach to back.

Sawyer is my little woman. Yes, that’s kind of an insult. lol. She is absolutely gorgeous. She gets prettier by the day. Her eyelashes are almost as long as Hudson’s are & she has huge blue (and it appears they might stay) eyes. But you guys, she is CRABBY. Like, she smiles but you have to work for it. She is just a judgey little woman. Which in itself cracks me up. I got a pedicure this weekend & there was a little girl & her friend getting pedis with one of the girl’s mom. They were maybe 6 or 7. I had a weird moment realizing how quickly that will be Sawyer & I- and maybe even ANOTHER little Brandt girl. Who knows!?!

I guess the last update would be on my hubs. He’s still here & still wonderful. I love this man something fierce.

Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning to yet ANOTHER week. At least this weekend is a long one!! ♥

But, alas- no one was banging down my door begging for my opinion on ANYTHING, let alone trying to send me free things to review & giveaway. So you know what I did?! I made my own! I remembered what a great response people had to my post about the felt food my sister-in-law hand crafted for my son’s 1st birthday and thought- that’s new! It’s different! People LOVED IT AND I’D LOVE TO BE ABLE TO SHARE THAT WITH THEM!

Then, after that I did get a few offers to review some items. And I JUMPED at the chance- even if the product wasn’t something I was passionate about. In fact- I have a new giveaway for every week for the next 4 or 5 weeks. Some, I solicited them for the review. Those are the products I LOVE to review. Others solicited me & I was lucky enough to LOVE the product!

I hate when I get offered a review and before I receive my product- 12 other totally related blogs have the SAME review. That’s lame because we are all pretty different mamas. I don’t WANT the same reviews that are going to be on 12 other blogs that week. I wish PR peeps and companies took the time to READ and find the perfect 1-2 blogs to review their product. Otherwise, it looks spammy.

I have a few GREAT giveaways coming up and a few that I am not so excited about. Don’t worry- all reviews I do will be honest. I am waiting to hear back from companies I have tried to solicit with hopes that they will give my blog a chance and I am lucky enough to already have a few in the works.

All I’m trying to say is: I’ve had a blogging epiphany. Giveaways aren’t cool unless you are spreading the word about something you are totally passionate about (save, cars, houses, appliances & vacations- I’ll review any of those whenever!). In the future, say- 5 weeks from now- will only be choosing to do giveaways and reviews that I am totally passionate about. I don’t want a review with a million entries if people are just visiting to get free stuff. I want to find new readers. I want these contestants to visit AGAIN. I want to share with my readers items I LOVE having in my house and want others who are of similar taste to enjoy as well.

(This isn’t hate on ANY of my upcoming reviews, btw. I just needed to get this off my chest going forward.)

We do. Only because I can get my phone, fax, internet & cable on one bill.

It’s not cheap but it’s more convenient then paying a bunch of different companies.

Anyhow, yesterday it recorded part of the Super Bowl for us because we got home a bit late and wanted to rewind & watch. Too bad it recorded the first 45 minutes with no sound and was going in & out of total and complete pixelation. LAME SAUCE.

I called them to complain and they said: Well, your bill was due 2 days ago so maybe that’s why. I was like “uhhh, except every channel except the Super Bowl works. Are you trying to punish me for being late by ruining the Super Bowl?” The less then courteous lady on the phone then “sent a signal” and the problem was fixed. Assholes. We missed 45 minutes of Super Bowl & commercials.

I hung up and sent payment online.

Tonight? Yeah we went out into the living room to watch 24, approximately 10 minutes after it started. We like to fast forward the commercials. SAME SHIT!! Totally pixelated and NO EFFING SOUND.

So, I need to cancel Comcast. I hate them & my husband is really sad because first it was football- but now they have messed with Jack Bauer.

He is a plumber. He owns his business and luckily stays busy enough for me to be a SAHM. BUT: What does he do when he returns home after a long day? Not much!

I don’t mind the cleaning and cooking and all that. I especially don’t mind because he doesn’t say anything when it goes undone for weeks on end until he goes to work one morning commando style and with no socks. THEN he requests the laundry get done. I cannot complain.

BUT BUT BUTTTTTT: My husband, DOES NOT plumb a darn thing in this house. My kitchen sink is clogged? Yeah, for MONTHS. My bathroom sink drain smells suspiciously like poo? He’ll get to it. My water heater that works 50% of the time? Yeah, after literally at LEAST SIX MONTHS of complaining that he needed to replace the thing- the water heater went out on CHRISTMAS!!

So, luckily, he IS a plumber and was able to rig some shiz to get us through the weekend- and is now replacing the water heater.

I was just sharing because A. I have been telling him this needed to be done for MONTHS and B. When people ask what my husband does for a living, and I tell them- they always say “oh, you’re so lucky! You must have a nice bathroom/kitchen/running water/someone to unclog the toilet!” And to that I say “NO FREAKING WAY!”

It is a literal LAW that whatever your husband does for a living he does not want to come home to continue doing it. Especially when that job includes manual labor for 10+ hours a day.

So, my water heater is being fixed- but at the last possible second at the WORST possible time, financially.

Gotta love it.

We will get home late Sunday and have Plans every night until the 26th. (My plan on my one off night is to RELAX!)

Anyhow, this has caused me to be realllllly stressed about all that must get done and the fact that my house has been a wreck for a solid week. It was REALLLY BAD.

This prompted me to try and get something done today- which I kinda did. Laundry is done, but not folded or put away and my bedroom/bathroom is SPOTLESS. However, to get this done, I had to spend much of the day with Hudson wrangled inside his crib or on the floor once I vacuumed. And he does not like being ignored so my cleaning soundtrack was basically a screaming child. Rad. I even tried to keep TV entertainment going today. But since COmcast only offers 4 on-demand episodes of Yo! Gabba Gabba! at a time, it’s safe to say Hudson has watched the Christmas episode 3 times today. Like I said- epic mothering fail. But seriously- Husband has gotten home no earlier than 7 every night for the last 3+ weeks. Sometimes 9. It’s awesome to be so busy but horrible to need help so badly and unable to get it. By the time he gets home and showered and walks the dogs, gets food etc it’s usually 9 PM and I am certainly not scrubbing the floors at that time!!

So, Hudson got to be babysat by the TV today. Hopefully tomorrow, when I venture to the rest of the house, he can be content to play in his playpen for at least an hour. I’m definitely cleaning much slower these days…. giant bellies really do get in the way.

I started listing some stuff on eBay this morning at like 6 AM because I couldn’t sleep. I got through a few items and I will keep listing all weekend. I’d really appreciate everyone facebooking, myspacing, twittering, blogging my eBay link if you have the time so I can get more exposure for my items!

You can check out my stuff here.

Anyways if you get a chance to check out what is for sale you should. I had to rescue a few designer items from the pile after discovering I have a baby girl on the way. I can only imagine how happy it would of made me if my Mom had owned Chanel handbags! So, now I have to save a few for little Sawyer. But, I am still getting rid of some Chanel, Dior, Chloe and Tiffany’s items which should all be listed by the end of the weekend. Also selling random baby stuff and basically just a random mix of stuff. Even stuff that my sister in laws were going to sell at their garage sale for super cheap! I rescued those items and listed them!

It’s this really interesting website, which of course you must pay for- but if you have kids that get an allowance? It seems like such an interesting idea. At $30.00 for an entire family regardless of the number of kids- it could be worth it to teach your children an amazing lesson.

Money Management is literally one of the things I worry most about getting right with my children. Clearly, I am thinking ahead as Hudson is not even 10 months and Truman & Sawyer are still a-cookin’, but this website looks so great.

I think I was very lucky to be raised by parents who are “good” with money. I have always aspired to be like them in regards to money management, but, to be honest it’s HARD. I worry I won’t be able to teach my children the same values that were taught to me- and even worse- sometimes I am unsure if I can even live by those values!

Anyways, if you have kids that are allowance age- check out the site. It’s pretty interesting.

I found the site through babble and in the interview with the founder he also hints that chores and allowance should not be related. It’s actually a really cool concept. Chores are chores- not paid. Allowance is their spending/saving/giving money. Adults don’t get paid to do housework- why should kids?

I don’t know where to start or if it’s even interesting to read- but whatever. Hudson is sleeping so I’ll go for it.

Friday we headed to Tahoe with Lisa & Harley for The Chetnin wedding. This in itself was a feat as Lisa and I ran around allll morning in preparation and Scott and I had to tear ourselves away from our little man for our very first overnight trip. We got on the road after a few stops around 4 and it took about 5 and a half hoursssss to get there. Which we can mostly contribute to the baby bridge closure and the gridlock on the San Mateo bridge- causing us to drive all the way to the Dumbarton and then back up to 80. A clusterfuck, but the traffic was never bad. We just had to take a Verrrrrrryyyy long route, unfortunately.

Scott and I spent most of Friday night awake because we both missed Hudson so much. I know it’s silly but it is soooooo hard not being with you kid every minute. Even when he is fussy and crazy I still want him right there. It’s a very hard thing to adjust to.

Saturday morning I woke up BEFORE bottle time and realized, again, that my little guy was not there. I couldn’t fall back asleep so I got up and read magazines with Lisa’s mom while she made an AMAZING breakfast and everyone else slept. We basically spent the day laying around before heading to Northstar for the wedding.

The wedding was beautiful and if I had had a wedding it would have been very much like Boris and Lee’s. Lee looked amazing and it was great to see so many old faces and meet new ones. I didn’t take too many pictures because we were chatting allllll night but when I unload my camera I’m sure to have a few. They also had a photo booth which was super fun, except Scott and I are apparently retarded and all our pictures were so gross. We didn’t do any redos since it was a very popular wedding attraction and the line was always long.

Sunday we left Tahoe by 7 AM and were home by 1030, I think. That was GREAT! I was so excited to see my Hudson!! I didn’t want him to forget his mama! It was so nice of my mom and stepdad to watch him all weekend. They are really great grandparents! They hung out with us for most of the day while Georgie helped Scott clean out our loft for the construction of the kid’s room! Then we headed to Jeffrey’s for dinner.

Monday, Scott, Hudson & I walked over to Starbuck’s for coffee (well, I get hot chocolate) and sat outside for an hour having family time. It was fun as always. I know a lot of you know how great doing nothing with your family is!! Nothing I love more. <3

When we got home John came and started work!! We now have a giant whole in our wall! YAY! Then we ordered pizza and Steph and Favio came to hang out too. Good times. Steph even took me to the store since the Jetta STILL isn’t fixed!! Hopefully Scott will take care of that today!!

This morning has been very stressful so far. I woke up just KNOWING things were gonna be hard. Of course, I immediately threw up for the first time in a while. Then, my hunny brought me my new favorite Starbuck’s drink (Venti NF 1/2 chocoate Zebra hot chocolate) and they had made it a zebra MOCHA and of course, A. I hate coffee and B. even if I loved coffee- I’m prego!! Boo!!! I didn’t have the heart to send him back after such a sweet gesture. There are of course other less trivial stresses this morning, but the blog is not really the place to vent business related items.

I guess that’s the weekend in a nutshell. I’ve got a ton planned this week with my next free evening being Friday!! Oh man!!! I can’t wait till the weekend!

just to tie in everything. I suppose I will just be asking for IKEA & Lullaby Lane gift cards for Christmas, Hudson’s birthday, Scott’s birthday AND my birthday. lol. Maybe then we’d have enough for HALF of what we need!!!

Last Wednesday was Chipotle. We tried something new and ordered ONLINE with their super snazzy online ordering system, that I was totally impressed with at first. Order placed and I got a confirmation email saying the order would be ready for pick up at 6:50. It was probably 6:35 at the time. Super easy- super stoked. We even paid with my mom’s card online so she wouldn’t have to be present to pay.

Scott even offered to go get it, which is something he normally would not offer to do by himself. (I know it’s weird, but food pickup is super out of character.) So, he went, by his lonesome to get it.

Too bad when he got there they said: “Your order was never received!” So Scott called in a panic trying to order food for 4 very specific tastes in a cafeteria style Mexican place with a line forming. This is like his nightmare. He ordered the food, paid cash and brought it home.

THEN they FORGOT my chips and Guacamole which was basically the mainframe of my meal. I usually get rice, beans, lettuce and cheese on the side and make nachos. AND we paid for them, clear as day on my receipt. Scott had also ordered guac on the side for himself. $1.95 and NOT in the bag.

To say the least at this point Chipotle was looking pretty lame.
I figured I’d call in the morning and speak to the manager.

THANK GOD I DID!
They had A. Charged my mom’s card almost $40.00 for the online order that was never received. B. Have the best customer service policy EVERRRRR.

Abraham, the manager informed me that I would get two gift cards. Both for three TIMES the amount I was out. $40.00 meal we paid for online and never got? $120.00 gift card!!! $6.00 worth of chips and guac that we were shafted?! Another $18.00 in Chipotle.

THAT, my friends is fine customer service. Good times.