Marketing at its finest...

So - I'm driving to work yesterday morning - when I nearly drive off the road because THIS pulled up beside me and later cut in front of me.  OK - I work in marketing - so I understand - but really?  Seriously?  It's genius in a way... but at the expense of me nearly driving off the road?  C'mon....

Life Changing Lasik!

 So - I totally forgot to blog about my Lasik surgery I had done in January!  I posted a lot about it on facebook - but since I am no longer a member of the facebook family, I thought I should document it on my blog as well!  

I guess I don't have much to say about it really - except it is AMAZING and LIFE CHANGING and WORTH EVERY PENNY it cost.  Just the little things - like being able to see the alarm clock as soon as I wake up in the morning... and being able to sit underneath a fan without my contacts drying out... and being able to shower and see the shampoo bottle and not worry about losing a $50 contact in the meantime... and I CANNOT wait for this summer when I can splash with Parker in the pool and ocean and not even worry about getting water in my eye and losing my precious little contact lenses!  

The surgery lasted less than 5 minutes - the entire process was less than 15 minutes.  From the second I sat up in the operating chair, I could see the clock all the way across the room!  I nearly peed my pants I was so excited!

Here I am about 2 seconds after I chewed up my Valium pill (so it would take affect faster than swallowing it!)  Goodbye nerves - hello happy land!  (And hello last picture EVER taken of me with glasses on!)

 Chris was able to sit right outside my surgery room and see the entire surgery - 

all blown up on a flat screen tv!

 I started to experience a little bit of pain soon after the surgery numbing drops wore off.  However, I went back to Whitney's house, took a little nap, and when I woke up, I had NO MORE PAIN, and my sweet sis brought me some Chick Fil A noodle soup - YUMO!  I spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV (from WAAAAAY across the room) and freaking Parker out by scaring him with my cool retro glasses on!

 Napping the pain away.......

  I had to wear these things for the next 3 nights to protect myself from scratching my eye or rubbing them.

The end!  If you are on the fence about having eye surgery - but really want to have it done - talk to me because I will talk you into it for sure :)  Honestly - the most amazing experience of my life.

Vegas Baby!

 The week after New Years, I went to Las Vegas to work at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas.  I am not really a fan of Vegas - I guess going for work days that lasted more than 10 hours and walking the Las Vegas Convention Center (probably about 20 miles a day - I really don't think that is exaggerating) - I only got glimpses of Vegas driving down the strip a few times a day to and from the hotel.  So - Chris is truly going to have to twist my arm to drag me there again - but I have a feeling it's something he's set on one day.  We'll see.  :)  I'd rather go to the beach!

I actually didn't gamble at all while there - except with my bosses money :)  Here I am at the "picture taking" machine in our hotel, New York, NY.  

Yes - that would be parts of a roller coaster you see on top of New York New York - crazy!

 Walking around CES for 4 days before the show even opened - I was able to get a little glimpse of a few really cool things.  Here are the stars of the new movie, The Green Hornet, being interviewed at the Sony booth the day before the show opened.  And by Sony booth - I mean - this "booth" was the size of a small city.  Not kidding.

 I'm sure a million people I know would have loved to have been there. I'm just not really into electronics so it wasn't as cool to me as it probably would have been to a lot of people.

 Flying out of Vegas - it looks SO small from a plane!

 The mountains leaving Vegas...

 Parts of the Grand Canyon - now THAT is something I'd like to see one day.

And Two Shall Become One...

When I found out I was pregnant last year, I wanted to start documenting what I was feeling and I decided a blog was the best way to do it. Well, I didn't really want to announce to the world JUST YET that I was PG so I started up a little "private" blog called the Hull Baby blog.  After I had told most of the people I wanted to find out from ME, I made the Hull Baby blog public so I could share all my PG adventures with the bloggy world! 

Well - for 7 months - I did a REALLY good job at updating both blogs... the Whole Hull was strictly devoted to our house building adventures and "Hillary and Chris only" stuff and the Hull Baby blog was strictly devoted to pregnancy stuff. 

THEN - Parker was born!  And I obviously have a really hard time finding ANY time to blog about anything unrelated to Parker.  Believe me - I have SO many random things I want to blog about and I think about them on my horrific commute every morning mostly - but I just don't have time to type it out.  So - anyway - I was getting tired of seeing my Whole Hull blog just sitting there - neglected and abused over months of not being updated.  SO - I saw this little tab on my blog the other day that said "Export and Import Blogs"  so I took a stab at it and VOILLA!  Both my blogs are now ONE and are under the Hull Baby name. 

I'll still keep the Whole Hull around in case one day I decide I want to pull it back up - but - for now - the Hull Baby will be the only blog in the Hull family... very fitting considering after you have a baby - your life revolves around baby and your life is baby baby baby... which I wouldn't change for anything!!!  Thanks for being readers by the way - AND don't forget to "Follow" me - click the link to the right. 

XO-Parker's mommy

Show Me Some Love!

Okay - so I know I made ALL of you email me a few months ago and tell me if you read my blog - and since I think I have decided to NOT make my blog private afterall, I want you to show me some love for not making you sign in every time you want to see what the Hulls are up to!

Click on the FOLLOW link below and let me know that you follow me :)

XO-Hillary

PS - changed my format a little bit (thanks to K8 for the note!) - hopefully it's a little easier to read now.... :) let me know if not...

Blogging Blunders....

I MISS BLOGGING!  So much! 

I actually stopped breast feeding Parker the week of his 6th month birthday and ever since then - I have seriously not had any free time to blog!  Whenever I would nurse Parker, I always had at least 30-40 minutes of "me" time where I would prop my lap top next to him on the couch and update the blog.  Well - I thought I would have so much more time on my hands when I decided to stop nursing - and that is not the case!  Parker is SO much fun right now and when he finishes his bottle, all I want to do is PLAY with him and take advantage of the FULL 2 hours I have with him in the evenings!  (And just to update - Parker is SO much better on formula than he was on breastmilk... his acid reflux has pretty much diminished and his fussy spells are fewer and farther between!)

So - sorry to all my avid readers :)  I had no idea how loved I was until I started to get calls and emails wondering where in the world my blogs have been!  

Trust me - I miss it so much and I plan to find time every evening before bed to blog for a few minutes.  It's a great "OUT" for me and it's also REALLY important to me to keep my blog up - more for Parker's sake.  I LOVE going through my mom's old picture albums, my baby book, and I even found one of her diaries once and I just LOVED going through it and reading her stories.  I pray that Parker will appreciate this one day :) 

So - be aware - I am about 3 weeks behind so a lot is coming in the next few days! 

XO-Hillary

6 Months

October 14, 2009

Dear Parker,

Today is your six month birthday. 

I think back to last August (2008) when I found out you were in my tummy and I remember crying for nearly a week straight.  In fact, I cried so hard the day I found out I was pregnant with you, my cell phone completely broke because it was so tear-logged.  I had to rush to go get a new phone!  If only I would have known how incredibly awesome life would be with you, my reaction would have been MUCH different.  But I didn't know.  I was SCARED!  Your daddy and I had only been married a little over a year, daddy was still in school, we didn't feel grounded yet at all, we were renting a tiny home in Smyrna, we didn't have any money saved up,  and we did not think we were fit to be good parents yet!  I knew that one day I would want to be a mommy, but I did not think I was old enough, mature enough or good enough to bring a life into my world. 

I questioned God a lot those first few days I knew you were inside my tummy.  I had a friend at church, Lori, who had been trying to have a baby for YEARS and she had gone through so much to try and have a baby.  ALL she wanted was to be a mommy.  And here I was, crying and upset that God had chosen to give you to me - with no trouble at all - and here was Lori - who was ready and willing - and He hadn't given her that one void in her life yet.  (Quick update on that - Lori gave birth just a few weeks ago to a precious little girl!)

Oh, Parker, if only you could realize how much you changed my life in an instant.  A few days after we found out you were only 8  months (which ended up only being 7 months!) from joining our lives, I began to realize what a true blessing you were.  I handed my life, your daddy's life, and your life over in God's hands and told him I trusted him fully to take care of us.   And did he ever!  The few things we were most worried about - after we handed them all to God - were taken care of - above and beyond what we could have imagined.

Just a few MINUTES after you were born!  We called you Rocky for the first few hours because you looked like you had been in a boxing match!  And you had been!  With my PELVIC BONE!  :)

A few months down the road, we found our PERFECT dream house that we could afford to build - and thanks to our wonderful family - we were able to scrape up enough money to find a way to afford it.   Child care - which was a CONSTANT worry for us and how we would ever be able to afford it - was solved in an instant when your incredibly generous Aunt Whitney and Uncle Doug offered to share their nanny with us.  Our cars - which are both nearing their 10 year birthdays - have been HANGING in there with no major repairs needed.   And our 3rd dog, Harlee Jane (who we had been fostering several months before we found out you were coming) was adopted out to an INCREDIBLE home and family. 

Just me and you, bud, hanging out just an hour or so after you were born!  Mommy was SO tired!  And you were so sweet!

God had EVERYTHING planned out perfectly for us - I just had to re-learn (like I do so often when I forget) to fully trust him and give everything to him in order to allow him to bless us with our OVER FLOWING blessings. 

Looking MUCH better the day after you were born!  You went from 'Rocky' to 'Super Baby Model'!  I posted this picture on my facebook page and I got SO many comments from friends who just said you were absolutely the most beautiful baby they had ever seen!  I must agree!  :)

Parker - you are the best thing that can possibly come from two people.  You are a perfect creation and you honestly make my life more wonderful and more enjoyable every day.  As soon as I walk into your nursery every morning and see your PRECIOUS smiling face looking up at me, I can't help but fall in love with you more and more every moment. 

I had no idea it was possible to love another human the way I love you.  It's almost like I can come a little bit closer to understanding God's love for me - his perfect creation - his child.  And it makes me want to give my life to God every day - in never-ending praise and thanks to him for GIVING his son up - to allow him to die on a cross as a punishment for my sins that I comit every day.  How heart-wrenching to even think of giving you up - ever - for anyone!  For any reason!   To know that God's love is so much bigger than what I feel for you - is amazing. 

This was taken the day after we took you home from the hospital - which was also your daddy's 28th birthday!  You snoozed the entire time in your bouncy seat.  Today - at 6 months you BARELY fit in your bouncy seat! 

Parker - you have AWESOME role models to look up to.  I pray you turn out to be just like your daddy, your Hoppy and your Papa - all of who are incredible Christian men.  I pray that you will follow in their footsteps always. 

I know that you won't always be perfect. And I know that you will disappoint me time and time again - but you could NEVER do ANYTHING to make me love you less. 

You are amazing.  And I thank God for you EVERY day.  I love you.

Love, Mommy

Killing time....

I am sitting  here - listening to the rain hit the roof of our house - trying to stay awake until 11:30 so I can register on Herbal Essence's web site so I can get a free bottle of shampoo.  Turning into a coupon-er has made me a bargain queen and I just CANNOT pass up an opportunity to get something for free - espsecially crappy shampoo that I'll use because I got it for free! 

So - what else should I do besides BLOG! 

There has been one thing in particular I've been meaning to blog about - but never seem to remember when I'm blogging - which is normally done while I'm feeding Parker or pumping... lovely I know... or in this case... waiting to save $3 on crappy shampoo :)

GOING PRIVATE.  I go back and forth and  back and forth on this ALL THE TIME.  I even got really close once and asked all my friends who read my blog regularly and would want to be included on the "list" of people who can still read it with a password and log in name to email me or comment on the blog to let me know!  Then I never got around to doing it... there were about 50 or so people who replied and I was THRILLED that that many people read it! And I am glad to say I'm not the only one who has struggled with this....  Some of my bloggy friends and I have chatted about this before.  Part of us wants to protect our families, our babies, our privacy - from the outside world and WHATEVER cooky people are out there that could be reading into our life.  But the other part LOVES the fact that you can share memories and life situations with other friends that you don't necessarily know very well. 

For instance - a girl name Terri moved into a house about a block away from us when we lived in Smyrna. 

Another mutual neighbor told me I HAD to meet this girl because she reminded her so much of me!  I didn't think much of it - I was pregnant, in the midst of packing up my house, working full time, blah blah blah - I wasn't really interested in meeting some random girl who I probably wouldn't see again after I moved anyway!  Well - a few weeks before we were moving, I had dinner with my sweet friend Hollie and she was telling me about this girl named Terri that moved a block away from me and she was awesome and I should totally get to know her.  Uh huh - you guessed it - it's the same girl!  So - that night - I decided to stalk this Terri girl to see what she was all about and why everyone said I should get to know her!  So - I found her on facebook and sent her a message and asked to be her Friend... which she accepted by the next morning :)  (I'm glad I'm not the only social networking addict around here!)  While checking out her FB page, I saw her BLOG link!  YAY!  I was super excited!  I read all about her - and we had SO many things in common and all our  mutual friends were so right!  I needed to meet this girl!  Well guess what - I didn't even meet her until AFTER we moved and now I am so sad I didn't meet her sooner.  ANYWAY - the point being - we have such a sweet little friendship.  It's fun to relate to each other in so many things that we are going through together (pregnancy, infants, baby boys, etc...)  and I would have never been able to form this friendship if it weren't for her BLOG!  That WASN'T private! 

Ok - 9 more minutes to kill time - which I'm glad because I have another bloggy friend I must talk about...

The Keight Case.

 I met Keight's now husband the first or second week of my freshman year at Georgia Tech and I kind of became friends with this whole little group of girls and guys and we all went to CCF throughout the week together.  I think Jesse and I even had a class together - I think it was Political Science - not sure to be honest.  Anyway - I think that is when we became friends because we would study together.  I think that's right - I may need Jesse to confirm that.  EITHER WAY - we became friends my freshman year through CCF and through a class we had together.  Well - I left Tech after my 3rd year to go to Kennesaw State University and my 4th year of college - I studied abroad in Salamanca Spain for 3-4 months.  Jesse was also in Salamanca during the same time I was there, but he was doing some mission work for CCF.  He and Keight were just dating then - but she came to visit him for a short while.  And Chris also came to visit me for a week or so (this was also the same time when he proposed to me in Paris) but while Chris and I were eating at Burger King in the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca (I think that's where it was) we ran into Jesse and Keight and I met Keight!  Okay - that is the ONLY time I have ever met Keight - and I was sure that she wouldn't like me because while I was a student at Tech - I had it FIXATED in my mind that all athelete girls hated my guts.  I lived in a dorm with (I think they were basketball players) over one summer there and I was scared to death of those girls.  I have no idea why I though that - but anyway - I was sure Keight probably hated me too.  But ANYWAY I also found her blog through Jesse's FB page a year or so ago when we were both preggers and I totally fell in love with her blog.  Likewise with the Terri situation - Keight and I were preggers at the same time - had kids only a month or 2 apart and we have so many things in common. Over the past few months we have bounced advice off one another through e-mails and FB messages and blog comments and it has been SO fun to talk about all the things we are experiencing similarly.  ALL OF WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED if her or my blog were private! 

Okay - it's 11:30 and I just tried to sign up for my free crappy shampoo and aparantly I can't read a calendar because the deal is over.  Bummer.  Oh well - at least I got to write about these few random things I've been thinking of lately :) 

So - anyway - this is my dillema.  I love meeting new people through blogs - it's fun and totally random and I honestly think that God led me to meet Terri and Keight through their blogs!  They are both super Christian girls who deal with the same issues I deal with every day.  And it's just NICE to know there is another new mommy out there who loves to kiss her baby boy's bottom, too... and it's NICE to know that you're not the only one who is experiencing double digit jean sizes for the first time and totally hating it... and it's NICE to know that you're not the only one who got knee fat as a side effect from pregnancy! And it's NICE to know that it's OKAY if your marriage is struggling every now and then - especially after a baby.  It's NICE to know that you're not the only one who struggles with her quiet time every day - especially after baby. It's NICE to know you're not the only one who dreams of being a back up singer for Carrie Underwood and having her legs and her hair.  Helloooo!  If that doesn't sound like God's intervention then I don't know what is :)  Just kidding - but not really - but really - but not really :)

And as a side note - as I was finishing up that last sentence - my sweet Buddie came into eye shot of me and peed on the floor - right in front of me.  This dog and his pea-sized bladder are driving me nuts!

GOOD NIGHT!

Wishful Wednesdays

My sweet friend, Terri, started Wishful Wednesdays and so I thought I'd join in on the fun.

First of all - Parker is doing MUCH better.  His waking up and screaming incident only happened the one night and he has been pretty good since then.  Something is definitely bothing him - his nose is a little runny and I am SURE I can see a little teeney weeney speck of tooth coming in on the bottom.  I know it's got to hurt.  So - thank you all for your thoughts and prayers :)   But Parker is much better and is wonderfully healthy :)

My wish this Wednesday is that our precious and sweet Jack Russell, Buddie, would be happy again.

Ever since we had Parker, Buddie has been somewhat of a sad little doggie.  He doesn't get played with near as much, he gets near to zero exercise, he gets nowhere NEAR the amount of attention he has gotten the past 4 years of his life with us.  He definitely is loved just the same, but it's just a different type of love.  In fact, most people would look at how we treat our pups and think that our dogs are the most spoiled rotten dogs ever - but we hold a pretty high bar at how our sweet little pups need to be treated.  And ever since we brought his attention stealer (Parker) home, he has just been sad.  And all this sadness has caused quite a bit of issues for the poor little pup - bladder issues, not eating issues, restless night issues.  We keep praying that Buddie would just snap out of it and come to love this new life.  Jack, our lab, has done a FABULOUS job at adjusting.  He LOVES his nap time - he naps all day long.  He doesn't really like to play ball or fetch or tug or anything.  He just likes to nap in your lap or next to you if Parker is in your lap.  He likes to lay next to Parker on the floor and nap.  We always joke that at night he's just so sleepy from sleeping all day - so he sleeps more.  Jack is the PERFECT dog for a family with a baby.  Buddie on the other hand is in DESPERATE need of attention - as much as possible.  He is also in need of EXERCISE as much as possible.  And I worry that these jealousy issues with Parker may turn into something worse. 

So - Chris and I are back and forth EVERY DAY about what to do with Buddie.  On one hand, we say we need to do the RIGHT thing and find a GOOD home for him where he can run and play.  On the other hand, we are totally selfish, and want to just keep him to ourselves forever.  He is such a precious dog with a precious personality and we have so many awesome memories of him over the past 4 years.  I truly love my dogs and I want what is best for them - but I would TRULY be so, so, so sad without Buddie. 

Welcome to parenthood, mommy!

I knew it would happen... I know I shouldn't be suprised... but I still am!  Parker has been SO healthy for the past 5 and a half months of his life and I have been toting my head high - blaming it all on the fact that he is only fed breast milk and mine of course has super natural powers that keeps my precious boy from getting sick! 

Well, it happened.  Sunday afternoon began with a slightly runny nose... Sunday evening began with a fussy feeding... and Sunday night at midnight started with the most gut-wrenching screams coming from my little boy's bedroom.  We had only been in bed for 30 minutes or so - and I honestly really wasn't sure what to do.  I was still in the hazy twilight sleep and part of me just figured he woke himself up doing a dance he likes to do in his sleep with his feet - but another pat of me was FREAKING out because Parker has NOT woken up in the middle of the night since he was about 7 weeks old. 

After walking into his room to give him his paci - which I was SURE was all he needed - his gut-wrenching cry turned into a very, very different cry than I have ever, ever heard before.  I scooped him up to check all the "vitals".  Clean diaper - check.  Fingers and toes and "other" body parts clear of my long stringy hairs wrapped around them (this happens more often than you can imagine.) - check.  Check his temperature - check - no fever!  WHAT IN THE WORLD!  All this time - his terrible cry I've never experieced before was getting worse and about 3 seconds into checking his temperature for the 2nd time, dada comes to the rescue. 

I felt hopeless.  I knew that breast feeding him would probably solve the problem immediately, but it was not time to be fed yet (still 7 hours away!) and soothing my baby with food when he's not even hungry isn't really a habit I'd like to begin. And I knew once he finished snacking (if he even would), he would probably still be in pain with whatever was hurting him!  I knew he could probaby smell my milk though - and it wasn't helping the situation - so I backed away and let dada do the consoling. 

I stood at the doorway watching them and as tears filled my eyes I watched my sweet husband console his precious son in only a way a dada can.  I had never heard my precious son cry like that before - and never before had I felt so helpless.  After 20-30 minutes, dada was finally able to put him back in the crib without hearing his terrible scream and he came back to bed.  I think I got about 20 minutes of sleep because I was basically STARING at his video monitor by my bed all night long.  And every waking moment was spent in prayer to my sweet Savior that Parker was OK and that he wasn't in any pain.  He woke up only 2 or 3 more times and each time was consolable with just a paci in his mouth and back to sleep he fell - but oh my goodness.  That precious, precious child. 

Of course I realize how TRULY blessed we are - EVERY SINGLE DAY - to have such a wonderful blessing in our family - but I never realized exactly HOW MUCH I loved him until I saw him physically hurting and there was nothing I could do to help him. My heart PHYSICALLY ached for him and I wanted so badly to make everything better for him.  I wanted to magically KNOW what was wrong and make it all better for him.  I am very able to admit that I really have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to parenting.... but never before had I felt so stupid and vulnerable for having no idea what to do.  This is one of the big lessons of being a new mommy.. I don't and won't know all the answers.... ever.  "Welcome to parenthood, mommy!"

Am I still pregnant?

OKAY - I seriously have BAD BAD days of where I cannot eat anything healthy! Today was one of them.... It's like I still have this hormone in me that thinks I'm 9 months pregnant! Here is the list of what I consumed like a fat kid today...

1) 2 pieces of jelly toast
2) 12 (YES A DOZEN) donut holes
3) 2 egg rolls
4) 1 plate of chinese food
5) chips and black bean salsa
6) 2 pieces of 3 day old pizza
7) peanut butter cookie dough

My poor child! Let's just pray that not ALL of this junk is carried on to my child through my milk.

White Water?

No - we didn't take Parker white water rafting.... but we definitely have had a case of WHITE WATER last week...

We began noticing some really strange white particles in our water one day last week. I thought maybe it was a fluke so I dumped the cup out and filled it up again with ice from our ice machine and water from the little dispenser on the fridge. Still white stuff floating around. I gave up and just got some water from our faucet which was totally clear and fine. The next evening, after taking a sip of water and realizing it tasted funny, Chris looked in his cup and his water was completely white with white stuff floating around in it. We did realize that if you just got water and no ice, there was no white stuff in it - so we decided we'd look into the ice machine that weekend. Well - Sunday rolls around and we still hadn't really figured out what the deal was... and then it hit me. I am storing about 150 bags of frozen milk in the freezer... maybe... just maybe... a bag could have fallen into our ice machine and is causing our ice to be made with breast milk! Chris looked at me like was a complete GENIOUS and took the ice machine out of the fridge and there it was.... a full bag of frozen breast milk in our ice machine. YUM!

So - next time you notice white particles floating around in your awesome, clean Atlanta water.... it may just be breast milk :)

OUR WHITE WATER...

THE BAG STUCK IN OUR ICE MAKER

POOR MILK BAG...

Do these look too tight honey?

Sunday morning - we are rushing to get ready for church - and my sweet husband looks at me and he then hears the most dreaded words to any grown man..... "Honey, do these pants look too tight on me?"

My sweet friend Terri had blogged about wearing her jeans after pregnancy - and I must say - all day yesterday I was thinking about blogging about the absolute wonderful feeling of putting on pre-pregnancy jeans - 3.5 months after having a baby. Never had tight fitting jeans felt so REMARKABLE!

So this is how it went down...

I wake up 7 to feed Parker - (Okay - maybe I let him sleep about 30 minutes late so I could too... I know.. bad mommy!) - So I feed him around 7:30 or 7:40 and then play for a little bit. Well before I know it, it's 9:30 and we still hadn't eaten breakfast and Chris was still sleeping. So, I wake Chris up to play with Parker while I make us some 'home made - made from scratch CREPE pancakes' YUM!

Well church begins at 11:00 and we are a good 10-15 minutes away from church and I suddenly see that it's 10:00 - Parker is still napping, I am still in my PJs - no shower - and the kitchen is a mess! Well - I rush through a quick clean up so I won't have a heart attack when we get back from church and I run up for quick shower. After hopping out of the shower and brushing out the 5 handfuls of hair I pull out every morning (love those post-pregnancy hormones making all your hair fall out!) I run to the closet to see what I can throw on that does not need to be ironed.

Well - our closet is huge people - like 16 feet long - and ALL 16 feet of it is my clothes - Chris has the short side of it - about 4 feet long. So - about 13 feet of these clothes have NOT fit me in 300 days. About 3 feet of the clothes were ones I could comfortably fit in. Well - I thumb through my short area of clothes and then I look up thinking it would be a great day to wear my super comfy elastic banded maternity jeans. Then I see them.... my super teeny Big Star designer jeans that I wore practially every day before I got pregnant. I had done the UNTHINKABLE a few weeks after Parker was born and tried them on just for giggles... and was NOT giggling when I could NOT even get these jeans OVER my KNEE FAT I had accumulated during pregnancy - UGH! I bunched them into a sloppy ball that day and threw them to the top of my closet rack hoping I would one day not hate them as much as I did that day.

Well - there they were. My super cute, low wise, NON ELASTIC waisted designer jeans. I slowly reached up and grabbed them out of the giant ball they were still in from several months ago. I shook them out and I heard the "Dun dun dunnnnnn" in the back of my head. I lifted my left leg and stepped into them. They actually got above my knee fat this time... I then lifted my right leg... still good to go. I began to lift them up... and they just kept coming. I shimmied a little bit through the hips... but then within a matter of seconds they were on.

MY. JEANS. WERE. ON. MY. BODY.

But.... there was still one more test. There was a really cute little button that had a big star on them that desperately needed to be buttoned. Before I attempted, I looked up to see my Bella Band was in near sight so that I could keep the jeans unbuttoned just in case they wouldn't button. Well - no Bella Band in its usual spot... they were down on the floor in the dirty clothes pile.. DARN! So I start to pull the most wonderful fabric of my favorite jeans together in the front.... and.... THEY BUTTONED! And they zipped! NOW.... HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALEEEEEEEEEEEEEELUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I SWEAR I heard them singing! Loud and clear! I bent down slowly to make sure I wouldn't rip the precious fabric and no ripping.

Now - I have never experienced what some may call "muffin top" before... and I was now. But I decided with the right shirt, the muffin top would not be noticeable and it really wasn't all that bad anyway... just a small pooch of extra skin/fat that stuck out the sides a little bit.... I found myself staring in disbelief in the mirror... then I looked over to my sweet hubby in the closet getting dressed for church. And he then heard the words that I think every grown man dreads in his life... "Honey.. what do you think of these jeans... do they look too tight?" He looks at me for a second and I can see his wheels turning... "How can I answer this and not get into trouble - fast answer, fast answer Chris - FAST ANSWER! HURRY! TIME IS RUNNING OUT BEFORE YOU GET A SOCK THROWN AT YOUR HEAD! HURRY!" He very quickly answered, "No hun, those looks great!" Whew! He passed the test and OFF we went to an INCREDIBLE church service at Mountain Lake Church and I loved EVERY second of it in my awesome NORMAL, NON ELASTIC jeans!

WHOOO HOOOOO!

Now we just gotta work on that muffin top.......

Going Private...

Hey Friends! Both of my blogs are going to go private. If you want to be included on the list of people who can still read it, just let me know! :) Email me at hillaryhull@gmail.com or comment on this post and I'll make sure you can have access to it. Thanks! --Hillary

DOUBLE CHINS :)

Last weekend, Mimi and Papa came to stay with us! The entire family had been in Waycross the week before, but Chris and I opted to stay home in order to get some MUCH needed rest and to keep Parker on his AWESOME schedule of sleeping through the night that we VERY much LOVE :) Getting off schedule for us means losing lots of sleep.... Not good :)

Here is Parker with the stuffed puppy my manager at Ruth's Chris got him! How cute! I SO wish I would have gotten a picture of him with this 2 months ago - Parker was SERIOUSLY so small - you could barely see him when he was cuddled with the dog!

Saturday night, we went out to CINCO with Mimi, Papa and my sister and her family :) This is me and Kayley Lane - the one thing she and Parker have in common is the double chin! I never thought double chins would be so precious!

Mimi and Papa with Parker inside the Gelato place!

The Appenfelder Family!

Us with the Hulls :) Yes - I am totally burnt in this picture... Chris and I went to the pool for a few hours BY OURSELVES on Saturday while Mimi and Papa watched Parker James. Well - it was 3:30 and we were only going for an hour and I guess I remembered to put sun screen on my face, but I did not on my chest, arms, legs. And yes - I paid the price of stupidity. Ugh...

Oh and I just thought this picture was hilarious... this is all the milk I have pumped and saved in our freezer since April. Now that my milk supply is getting on the low side, we are having to reach in and use a few frozen bags a day! I am SO glad all that pumping is finally paying off! I was organizing it in our freezer last night so that we could be sure we were using all the oldest milk first. And it is seriously piled 10-15 stacks high here - unbelievable...