sugar covered purple elephants & yellow aardvarks

Went to dinner with the fam tonight. We ate a a really yummy restaurant called Potato Patch. They throws rolls at you. For real. This guy comes out with a big pan of rolls and tosses them to you. It's this fantastic home-cooking place. They have big yeast rolls and sometimes roll guy throws muffins. Homemade muffins...Then every table gets an appetizer of fried green tomatoes and fried okra for free. Welcome to Texas, ya'll. I think I ate more carbs tonight than I will for the rest of the year. Three rolls, a muffin, fried okra, chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and mac and cheese. I kid you not. I stuffed myself to the point of physical pain. Ah carbs. How I love thee.

I'm going to start a brand new psychological program. It will be called retail therapy. I don't care if it seems irresponsible or dangerous to your credit. It's a tried and true solution to most of life's problems. There's just something about getting new stuff that is good for the soul. Everyone can sign up for the low, low cost of $812. It's a deal, I know. There's a goody bag included :)

While getting new stuff heals all wounds (screw time!), I think a lot about what I can do to make myself happier. It's hard. What I want to be happy is my husband. I want my life back. But I don't get that. So I have to find a way around it. I was driving to my hair appointment today and I had an epiphany. I can let go and move on, no matter how much it hurts, or I can keep holding on to something that's already gone. I don't want to let go. I don't want to be in this position. But I'm learning that life rarely gives you a choice. I wish it was as easy as just letting go. It's going to be more like prying my cold dead fingers off. I know my heart is going to break many more times before I come out on the other side, but I guess it's just going to have to hurt.

That was all kind of random. I haven't had a lot of time to myself since family has been in town, so my thoughts build up all day and then I just start making absolutely no sense because my brain gets everything jumbled up. But this post is actually for my Spoonful of Sugar. I'll get to it now. And quick cause I took my sleeping pill...

I found this darling little thing the other day and I just keep coming back to it. It's from Lil' Sprout Knits.

I have this strange urge to buy a whole elephant family. I just want to hold it. I've always like weird stuffed animals. I had a koala, a hippo, and a moose when I was little. Had to be different...I just have a thing for cute little outcast animals. The elephant is becoming more popular though. You know what cracks me up? Aardvarks. People are making a lot of aardvark toys lately. Is it weird that I know that?

My sister had the hiccups the other day and she said that her boyfriend always makes her do something like spell 'purple elephant' out loud and it always works. Something to try. You could do 'yellow aardvark' too. Just a thought.

Anyway, go check out the elephant store. You won't be disappointed. Do it whether you have kids or not. We were all kids once right? Who doesn't need a stuffed elephant to make life seem a little happier and easier. Answer: no one.

P.S. I always publish my post and then read it over to check for mistakes and stuff. I just realized that in my labels for the post I totally wrote 'crabs' instead of 'carbs'. That would have brought in an interesting audience...

spoonful of cuteness

I'm in a cute mood today. Cute things make me smile. My doggie is cute. Especially when she's shaking one of her stuffed toys around like a nutso. I read about this video in my People magazine. It's way cute. In fact, if it doesn't make you all warm and fuzzy inside, there's something wrong with you. Really; you should get checked out. Better safe than sorry, right? And I do have a degree in psychology. Trust me! (There's a scary thought...)

My niece is cute. Like the cutest kid ever. She's not really my niece...she's my BFF's baby. But she knows me as Aunt Chelle and short of being my own child, I couldn't possibly love her any more. Her name is Kaitlin Grace. I kind of picked the name. Probably not really, but it was a name I had picked for a baby girl. And of course me and Stace had talked about our baby names. Duh. Anyway, when she found out she was having a girl she asked if it was ok if she used that name. Like I'd say no.

We're trying to teach Miss K to say 'Aunt Chelle'. It's kind of a mouthful though. I might have to think of something else. However, she already points to me and giggles when someone says Aunt Chelle. That is the most heart-melting thing I have ever experienced. So I don't know if I want to undo that progress by confusing her with a new name. One little boy I used to babysit called me Mimi. He named his blanket Mimi. So stinking cute. But I might try Mimi with K. I don't want to scar her with multiple personalities though...I've clearly thought about this a lot. I was soooo glad I got to spend the day with K and Stace yesterday. I'm going to do that more often.

K's favorite words are 'no' and 'mine'. I do realize that these are every child's two favorite words at some point. But no, there isn't a child who has ever sounded more precious than when K says them. She was telling me 'mine' to something last night with her angry face on. So I grabbed her arm and said, "Mine!". She just looked at me all weird at first. I thought she was gonna get pissed. She doesn't like it when people argue with her. Then it was a big fun game. It was her bedtime though, and I got her all riled up. Oops! Sorry Stace!

Anyway, I so need to shower. Two and a half mile walks in Texas heat make that more necessary than usual. And believe you me, you don't want to tell my dog no when she's asking for her walk. No matter how hot it is...So, I have to shower. That means I have to get on with this Spoonful thing...

I got on a tangent about Miss K. She has a tendency to do that to me. But the theme here is cute. So, my Spoonful today is pinch-your-cheeks cute.

These owls are so, so, so precious! I fell in love the first time I saw them. They come from Snug N Luv. She sends you a DIY kit to make your own adorable stuffed owls. She's doing a contest on her blog to name the girl. The boy's name is Osgood. I kinda sorta picked that name. Another lady had chosen it and I seconded it. Hahaha. It was too perfect! She's still doing the contest to name the girl, so check out her blog at http://snug-n-luv.blogspot.com/!