Why I Blog

Seems like every once in a while I ask myself this question.  More because I have had people ask me and I know many other people probably are thinking the same thing but afraid to ask.  When I started this blog it was because I was a newlywed.  We were one of the firsts to get married from within our circle of friends so there wasn't anybody who can relate.  I started looking online for groups on thenest.com to join and chit chat with other woman about their experiences.  That's when I learned that most of the woman on the boards had blogs so I decided to check them out.  I started following blogs and was just a reader for the first few weeks, then I took the plunge and decided to write about my life.

I never was worried about  sharing my life with strangers because I have control of what I share.  The amount I share on my blog is what is comfortable to me, which I have learned is not comfortable with other people on how they view it.  I have had many people come to me and say things as "you're sharing your private life to strangers".  I can see where they are coming from, but they also don't understand the blogging community.  Yes, I share my life with my strangers.  I am OK with that.  I don't need you to be OK with that.  But then again, you share your life on FB and let's face it, about 75% of your "friends" are pretty much strangers to you too.  So same difference?

The best thing about me blogging is the community I am now a part of.  I have grown up with fellow bloggers where we all started out as newlyweds and here we are now as parents.  We've been through the same journey together and I have made some really great friendships along the way.  Everyday I talk to a group of girls that I became close friends with through blogging.  Literally, we group chat every day and I love them so much.  They are all amazing.  If it wasn't for blogging, I wouldn't have their positive friendships in my life and let me tell you, I would be missing out.

I guess there is no real answer to why I blog.  I don't do it for the sponsorships, for the free swag, for the conferences... I do it for me.  I blog because it makes ME happy. I blog because I want to share my experiences with other people.  I blog to make people laugh.  I blog because it helps me in figuring out who I truly am. I blog because I love to write.  I blog because I speak more openly.  I blog because I want to be part of the community.  I blog just because.

Why do you blog?

Things that happen before a big storm hits

I am pretty sure you have heard about this "historical blizzard storm" that is going to hit the North East Tuesday.  Well, I live in NJ so we are smack dab in the middle of it.  But what cracks me up about these big snowstorms is what people do before.  Sometimes I feel like people believe the world is ending. Here's a list of what has been going on the past two days by neck of the woods:

• People run out and buy bread and milk.  I get the bread, but what people don't realize is that with big storms like these, the power going off is a big possibility.  So all that milk they buy can potentially go to waste.  What they should be stocking up on is water... which I barely see people do.  
• People run to Home Depot to buy shovels and salt and then throw a big hissy fit when they are sold out.  WE LIVE IN THE NORTHEAST.... you should be prepared BEFORE JANUARY with shovels and salt.  So, get your shit together. Yell at yourself for waiting till last minute and not at the poor Home Depot representative. 
• The weather people get CRAY CRAY.  This is like the best day ever on the job for them.  The pure excitement you see out of meteorologist is pretty amazing. This is what they live for. 
• Everyone will post pictures of the snow all day long.  Not going to lie, but I have done this as well... but for me is to show all of my blog friends who don't experience it to see. LOL
• The news channel blow the storm out of proportions 95% of the time.  So far, I  have heard that our area will get somewhere in between 18 to 36 inches of snow.   Everyone says something different. 
• Jobs close down and every adult feels like a little kid jumping around saying we have a snow day. Then the reality hits when they have to grow up again and go outside and shovel a gazillion inches of snow. 
• People get bored and cabin fever... so they either eat all the emergency food they bought within one day or make love which results in 10 months from now a boom in babies being born. 
• Someone will fall on snow/ice every 3 seconds around the northeast. 
• Kids make the snow days so much better because they are so happy and anxious to play that as an adult, you ditch the shovel and play in the snow for a little bit as well and relive your elementary school days 

In all honesty, it's suppose to be pretty craptastic here.  So for all my Northeast bloggers, I pray you and your families are safe during this storm. 

Have a great couple of snow days! 

It has been 6 years since....

6 years.
6 years.

I keep repeating that in my head over and over again. It has been 6 years since I became a blogger.

I can't believe it.  I look at this little space on the internet that is mine and am amazed at how much this blogging gig has impacted my life.  From my very first post, my main goal was to make people laugh.  To this day, it is still my main goal.  From getting no comments and knowing abosulutely nothing about blogs to making lifetime friends and having an amazing support system from my blog family.  I guess it's safe to say that this blogging business is a perfect fit for me.  I am sure not all of my friends get it, but I get it and that's what matters.

I love writing and never realized how much I loved it before this blog.  When I come on here and post, I do it for myself.  These are my memories that I am willing to share with anyone out there who can relate.  I choose to do this because it makes me happy.  That's all I need.

So thank you to my blog family for always supporting me and being there.  To all of my blog friends, I am so grateful to have you in my life.

Happy Friday bloggy peeps.  Now, let's get this work day over with so we can get this weekend started.
Woop Woop.

Because a confess sesh is all you need sometimes

Thank goodness for humpday confessions coming back thanks to the lovely Melissa!

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I confess...

I try to justify why I should have a glass of wine.... every day of the week. 

I am way too excited for this 3 day weekend coming up.  I need the time to reboot after this week. 

I really need to stop cracking my knuckles.  It's such a bad habit.  

I had about 10 Hershey kisses for breakfast the other day.  And then I wonder why i'm fat. LOL.  But it was totally worth it.

I am excited to see family that I haven't seen in a while on Thursday, but sad that a funeral is what will bring us together.

I can sometimes make myself feel isolated when I shouldn't.

I am scared of what this year will bring.  The unknown is freaking me out. 

I hate the feeling of not "being part of something".  

I give way too much of myself into whatever I am doing when I don't have a guarantee that it will be worth it.

I am way too anxious for the next two months coming.  I am hoping that a decision I had made is the right one... and if it wasn't, I will be kicking myself in the ass for the rest of the year. 

Instead of grieving, We will celebrate life

Because of Him

Death has no sting

The grave no victory

Because of Him

Guilt becomes peace

Regret becomes relief

Despair becomes hope

Because of Him

We have second chances

Clean slates

New beginnings

There is no such thing

As the end

Because of Him

This week my family and I will go through a grieving process as we say goodbye to my great uncle who suddenly passed away.  Nothing makes it easier.  It hurts. It will hurt for a while, but I keep reminding myself to be a pillar for my family.  To remember that the love we have for him that hurts us now is the same love that we have that will allow us to let him go and move forward with life.  We will never understand why this happens. But it does.  It's part of this wonderful thing we call life.

I pray to God that he is by our side as we mourn and that he uses me to be strong for my little cousins whose grandfather is gone.  I need to be a support system for them as they are more vulnerable.  They need me, and I will be there.

Thank you for all the prayers and kind words.  As I always say, this blogging community is so much more than just bloggers.  You have seen our ups and downs and are my friends who support and rally with me.

Thank YOU.  It does not go unnoticed the support you give me with open arms.

If any of you are going through a tough time and would like me to keep you in my prayers, please do not hesitate to let me know.  I am a firm believer in the power of prayer.

That moment when you realize you are a mom

You would think that giving birth to a child would be the moment you realize you are a mom, but in my case it is not.  Let's rewind to Wednesday night....

Hubs and I are sitting on couch relaxing after we had dinner.  I just finished feeding Sophia her 10pm bottle and have her in my arms to lull her to sleep for the night.  She started to fuss and I figured it was gas.  Then I hear and feel the rip of farts she is so gladly letting out.  I am thinking, "oh good, she is farting which means she is getting the gas out."  I am actually telling her good job for farting!  One thing I didn't have to worry about was a gassy belly during bedtime.  Mind you, she is already changed in a fresh diaper and fresh pj's.  She continues to let out some farts and then I smell it.  It being poop. Of course Sophia would poop in a fresh diaper, she DOES THIS ALL THE TIME.  But I am glad she pooped while still awake and not when I put her down.  I get up and go to change her and I see it... poop on the back of her pj.  I tell the hubs "crap, she has another blow out!"  I tell hubs to hold her so I can try to take off her pj instead of laying her down on her back. I start to unbutton and roll it down then I realize that there is a LOT of poop.  Like way too much poop for a little baby to even produce.  Hubs and I are looking at each other and I am trying to think of how to clean all of this poop up.  I tell him it's so much poop.  He then suggests to spray her down in the sink.  So we move over to the sink, take off the pj which has a mound of poop in it and take her diaper off.  She is now crying kicking her legs all over the place while the hubs is holding her over the sink.  I take the sprayer and start to hose her down and THE POOP DOES NOT COME OFF.  I'm laughing at this point because what else is there to do?  So then I run to get wipes so I can try to wipe it off over the sink.  Mind you, she is screaming bloody murder.  After about a gazillion wipes, fresh diaper and fresh pj's.... Sophia goes down for the count.

It was a shit show in our house. Literally.

I laugh because I know this won't be the last time we may be hosing baby girl down.  Also, who would have known how comfortable I would get cleaning someone else's poop.

And that's the moment I realized I was a mom.

Dedicated to my best friend who just had her baby!

My best friend who since Freshman year of college we always showed up half hour early to class...
My best friend who I studied abroad with in England and had the time of our lives...
My best friend who listens to me vent...
My best friend who will bring me back to reality when I have gone freaking psycho...
My best friend who is the most amazing person ever...
My best friend who I consider as a sister...

was just blessed with a beautiful baby girl on Monday.

Words can't describe how elated I am for them.  To have gone through so many life changes with her, it's crazy that here we BOTH are as new mamas.  Through our clubbing days, are working our asses off days, our being single days, our being married days and our being pregnant days... it's here, the time that we both embark on the new journey of parenthood.  Can I just tell you how grateful I am that we both get to experience this pretty much around the same time?  To know that I can talk with her now and she will totally understand and vice versa makes this whole parenting thing a bit easier, especially when I lean on her as one of my rocks in my life.

I was able to visit them in the hospital yesterday and Gabriella is gorgeous.  She was wide awake when I went to visit and we just stared at each other because I couldn't take my eyes off her.  I am so proud of Raff and Tony for taking this new part of life with confidence and stride.  They may be exhausted already, but Gabriella has the best parents anyone can ask for.  I can't wait till our baby girls have play dates!

To Raff, I know you will read this and I want you to know I love you and am so dam proud of you.  You will be the most amazing mother to your sweet girl.  Enjoy this new time as a mama, through all the stress, exhaustion, happy moments, frustrating moments.... all the moments.  I will always be here for you the same exact way you were there for me when Sophia was born.  Welcome to motherhood.

We survived the holiday season with a baby

It's official, we have survived baby's first holiday season.

It may not be as bad if she was a tad bit older... I can't image when she's a toddler how the holiday season is going to be.  But we made it.  We had a great Christmas and wonderful New Year.

For Christmas, I had the task of cooking a pernil (pork) since my parents went on vacation during Christmas.  I was super nervous to make it and praying it would come out decent.  My sister made a ham... i think as backup. Ha!  But I am super proud to say my pernil came out FANTASTIC.  That baby slow cooked in my oven for 6 hours and it was worth every last bite.  We had a great dinner at my sister's house and ended the night watching movies.

But let me tell you, I understand how they say Christmas is totally different when you have kids.  Truth is in this picture right here:

A photo posted by Kenya (@kenyagiggles) on Dec 12, 2014 at 6:54am PST

Her face cracks me up.  She was so happy just looking at the wrapping paper!
And of course we had to take the obligatroy picture by the tree.

A photo posted by Kenya (@kenyagiggles) on Dec 12, 2014 at 3:53pm PST

Sophia pretty much slept through Christmas.

A photo posted by Kenya (@kenyagiggles) on Dec 12, 2014 at 2:31pm PST

Christmas weekend we headed on a road trip to DC to visit our dear friend.  We booked a hotel room for the night and our road trip was a success.  It was exhausting but we did it with a 4 month old taking the 3 1/2 hour drive and we made it out alive.   I ended up working Mon-Wed so for new year's eve, my mom cooked dinner.  Sophia stayed up through midnight because she was not missing the party.  Plus, when you have a party dress on you MUST stay up.

"Where's the pageant at?" #babylifewithgiggles

A photo posted by Kenya (@kenyagiggles) on Dec 12, 2014 at 4:55pm PST

A photo posted by Kenya (@kenyagiggles) on Dec 12, 2014 at 4:57pm PST

Then promptly 10 minutes after the ball dropped, she was out!  Poor thing must have been so tired she slept for 9 hours that night.  Hubs had to work on Friday so it was a perfect opportunity for Sophia and I to visit to she can meet everyone he works with.  Off we headed to his office and she was great UNTIL the blow out happened.   I smelled poop and of course Sophia would poop when we are out.  I pick up her to go and change her and when I turn her around I see a poop spot on the back of her shirt.  Immediately I go to the hubs and tell him "She had a blow out!".  Thank goodness for extra clothes packed in diaper bag but let me tell you, I was sweating bullets.  I was just glad I saw it before anyone else did. So after Sophia's outfit change we said our goodbyes and headed home but Sophia had some emails to take care of before we left. LOL

A photo posted by Kenya (@kenyagiggles) on Jan 1, 2015 at 11:23am PST

I enjoyed being home with Sophia for the 4 day weekend so much.  But glad to get back into a routine again.  Next long weekend I have to look forward to is Jan 16th when we will be away.  Can't come soon enough.

Happy New Year! How was your holiday?