Sometimes I’m lucky enough to go to new places in Orange County. (FUN!!)

Everyday I deal with a lot of poop. Not the theoretical ‘this sure was a poopy day’ more like, ‘if I have to change one more poopy diaper I’m going to scream’.  (POOP)

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I was invited to Bel Bambini to see the launch of their designer clothing section. Super cute clothes by all sorts of designers. The store has really great mock baby room set-ups and is a great place to get some inspiration for a new little one’s nursery (fun). As we are unloading the car Tess had a huge blow out (poop). With almost all the wipes and a new outfit the crisis was averted.

We head on into the beautiful store and Cora is lounging in one of rockers, as she moves her feet I notice she left some mud on the foot rest. Upon closer inspection, I discover this isn’t mud.

Yep. Dog poop.

But remember the blow-out from minutes before? The one where we are down to the last wipes. Two to be exact.

Blarg.

My Hubby takes Cora Jane for clean-up with one wipe and a jazillion paper towels (and dry heaves).

I’m standing off to the side of the soiled chair, trying to make eye contact with any store employee while digging in my diaper bag for napkins, hand sanitizer and the LAST wipe. And a lady from around the display looks at Cora Jane leave and freaks out over audacity of ‘these people’ to leave the mess. I walk the two steps to her to say that I’m doing my best to get everything cleaned up. She tells me she is the designer of the chair. The designer!!! And I’m thinking my daughter just got dog poop (except I wasn’t thinking poop) all over this chair and of course the designer is here. Said designer calms down after discovering I didn’t abandon the mess. And tells me she designed the chair to be cleaned up with wipes. Sure enough it cleaned up great!

We got to explore the new section of the store and my kiddos got to play with their blog friends. I use the term ‘play’ loosely because this is what they were doing…

One of the booths in the store was a company called Box of Play. Loved them! You know how your kiddos play with an empty box for hours? Well Box of Play has large environmentally friendly stickers for the boxes to make them into something. i.e. an egg carton into a piano or macaroni and cheese box into a camera. I think this is a great idea!

Bel Bambini featured my gift giving guide for 1-year-old boys on their site. See..

The only thing missing? An Eli’s Lid of course!

This week I was invited to see the new Whole Foods Market in Laguna Niguel. Wow that store is beautiful!

(Below is a pic of the wall made of old carpet… felt like particle board and me in front of some tile placed vertically subway style. Super modern and clean looking!)

I was tempted to ask all those construction workers to bee-bop on over to our new place and get some work done. Cuz I’m just about to go crazy with all the projeccts. Crazy. CRAZY.

I’m pretty stoked about the new store though. Not because we are super healthy or super Green. Because they are going to have free cooking classes. FREE!! (FUN!) One they mentioned was cooking in bulk. I need that. I hate strongly dislike cooking. I’m hoping to get a bunch of friends together for a few of the classes. Any locals interested? If we have enough peeps, maybe they can hold one just for us? (I haven’t asked or anything but ya never know.)

The kids were unexpectedly with me, but they did great OK and had a lot of fun. Plus I caught this picture in front of the store and it makes me giggle. We had to leave a little early though because someone had a full diaper (poop).

If you are a local (or have a Whole Foods near you), be sure to fan them on FB to hear about all the events specific to your store! Click here for Laguna Niguel FB page.

Remember how we bought a house?

(Squeeeeeeeee!)

And that it needed A LOT of work.

We’ve been working.

Every night till the wee hours of the morning. So I’ll share a bit of progress… (but more details will be coming when I have more to share!)

The stairs were yucky. Now they are beautiful.

See that horrible colored banister?

It’s been stained into lovely.

By me.

We are doing the tile diagonal.

Cuz we’re crazy like dat.

And I spill paint.

Cuz I’m crazy like dat. (Not really – I’m listening to a book on tape and in another world)

We’ve been eating a lot of fast food and my weight loss as halted. Does it bother anyone else that one place has a sourdough sandwich, jalapeno poppers, fries and teriyaki bowls? I was sick later. Luckily I haven’t gained but I’m really looking forward to being in my future house eating my bad cooking again.

We were lucky enough to borrow a paint gun from our friends and I’m in the process of repainting all the cabinets. It’s a LONG process. There have been tears and pleas with my husband to just use the credit cart and hire it out. But I should be done next week. YAY!!

This is the face of a girl who thought she would get the cabinets done in a weekend. Then the reality hit and I’m going on week three. THREE!!!

I know I’m complaining, but we really are mostly smiles. Especially when I look at my camera roll and see the pictures my littles are taking on my phone while I’m distracted with drawers. The pictures give me perspective. This is a wild/busy/stressful time for my hubby and I but we are creating a home for our children.

Our home.

And they are making memories of their own.

In a few years (which will be here in the blink of an eye) I may hear them talking about how Mom (Because I’ll be Mom not Mommy by then. Boo.) sprayed herself in the face with the paint gun (yes, that happened) and how Dad carried a toilet down the stairs and… who knows what treasures they are adding to their precious lil’ memory banks.

While my nights are spent at the “new house” my days are still filled with kiddos AND Eli’s Lids. Part of the awesomeness of being the mom in a mom & pop shop means I can work on my biz at home while my eats-extremely-slow daughter finishes her lunch… in her bikini.

I’ve been bagging up our three new colors and we’ll be coming out with them next-ish week.

A few things will be changing around here. But not too much, so don’t worry. And of course in a couple of months we’ll be launching something new.

But I can’t tell.

I’m mean like that.

Happy Friday Friends!!

So thankful for you.

REALLY!