The Girls' First Fire Alarm!

"*The floor! The floor! The floor is on fire...* no really, we need to come check your dance room to make sure the floor isn't on fire!"

So the girls got to experience their first (thankfully false) fire alarm the other day, however the end scenario was kind of funny... so I thought I would share!

I do Zumba classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and the girls go to child care in the building while I'm at class as well. Monday seemed like a normal day, until 15 minutes before class was to be over - the building fire alarms started going off. The instructor went to turn off the music (because in Zumba we get LOUUUUUD) - and everyone started looking at each other to figure out what was going on, a few seconds later someone finally asked if we should go out in the hallway to figure out what was happening... and asking which exit door we should use.

At that point, my Mommy instincts kicked in and without turning around to respond to anyone I scooped up my things (conveniently placed next to the room door - I think I may subconsciously take this spot in the room for exactly this reason - I dunno??) and was the first person out of the classroom door running towards the stairs to get up to child care. I could hear the instructor behind me saying, "Well, I guess we're going that way." (LOL... also funny after the fact!)

I wasn't necessarily in a panic, but I was on high alert - because we didn't know what the situation was and whether it was a false alarm yet or if something was in fact going on in the building that we needed to evacuate from. I high-tailed it to child care, where a number of parents were also there getting their kids - and workers were trying to figure out how many arms they had available to carry children out whose parent hadn't gotten up there yet. I scooped up Cupcake, who I spotted right away and happened to be right near the half wall near the entrance to the child care room...

Then I realized that Peanut was still in one of the swings in the baby area! One of the workers behind the wall was going over to get her out right as I was coming into the room - and I pointed to Peanut as she pulled her out of the swing, letting the worker know she was mine & I would take Peanut as well to  free up her arms to gather up other children. All in all, it probably took less than 2 minutes to get up to the child care and get the girls out of the building... so I think that it went well as an alarm for preparedness.

I grabbed our stroller that was parked right outside of the child care - while holding both girls- and wobbly pushed everything & everyone outside, thankful for other kind gym members that were holding the exit doors open for people carrying children out.

We stood outside for a minute, I helped the girls get their jackets on and stowed them away in the stroller... after only a few minutes it was determined it was a false alarm and we could go back inside. After getting back into child care, I waited for a minute because I knew they would want to do a head count to make sure all of the kids were accounted for - and gauged the girls' reaction to the alarm... (The visual alarm system was still going off, but the noise part was silenced.) They both seemed fairly disinterested in the whole alarm thing and more preoccupied with getting back to playing with toys and/or getting back to their swing. So I re-signed them in and went back to class to finish up the end of class.

After being back in class for only a few minutes into the first song, maintenance arrived with a ladder and plunked it down in the middle of the room! (While we are still dancing.) He started fanning the fire alarm in the ceiling, and shook his head saying, "Yep." As he got down off of the ladder, he jokingly told the instructor to take it easy on us - because it was OUR ROOM that set the fire alarm off!

Apparently, a combination of the heat from the room and dust in the fire alarm vent had triggered the alarm and they had to get up there and clean it out during the class following ours. So I guess the Zumba ladies are so hot... we set the fire alarm off!

Hope you enjoyed our little anecdote from Monday... thanks to my hubby for telling me I should share - it is kind of a funny scenario for the girls' first fire alarm!

Time to start shopping for a new diaper bag!

... Because I officially need a diaper bag for two children! :)

Natalie Elizabeth arrived at 6:26pm on Friday November 18th, and we are both doing great! Although I don't know that it will be her "permanent" nickname, an appropriate name for her right now is Peanut - because she was a tiny thing (relatively, compared to her 8lb, 6oz & 21 inch older sister) at 6lbs, 11oz & 19 inches!

We're hoping to be home later today. I opted to stay the extra day to not have to rush through the tons of appointments that you have to do before you can leave all in one day - but of course the downside to that is that I was up early today since I'm feeling good, am now sitting here in full makeup & hair done, and will spend the rest of my day just sitting around waiting for people to pop in... wondering when we will be able to leave!

(Tip that I learned this morning: You know you're in good enough health to leave the hospital, when you take your hair straightener into the bathroom to plug it in... only to realize, duh. There are no plug-ins in this bathroom because you're in a hospital - and if you're feeling well enough to primp, it's probably time to go home.)

For the mommy blogging crowd out there (but keeping it G-rated for those more interested in beauty & handbags than mommyhood, ha ha!) - delivery went exceptionally well, in my opinion. Instead of having to be induced as planned for Friday morning at 9am, I ended up starting to have contractions on Thursday night and started going into labor on my own! (Which after my previous induction, is more exciting than it sounds.) I, of course, am a wuss and not a huge fan of being in pain - so I opted for the epidural mid-day on Thursday and by dinner time she was ready to arrive! She came really quickly after I was ready to push and either due to her small size/sheer luck/or just knowing what I was doing this time around - I was surprised at how great I felt afterwards. Even with minimal sleep for two days, I felt energized and way more perky than last time around!

So now the real adventure begins... mommyhood times two. Reality will set in once I get home, Cupcake will realize that cute little "squawk-y cat" that she visited yesterday isn't going anywhere... and that will be our new norm. Toys will be nabbed, fights will ensue, temper tantrums will be thrown - but all in all, I'm thinking it could be fun. I will be sure to keep you posted. ;)

Auntie Deb showing Cupcake her new sister

My handbag collection: Louis Vuitton

Actually not my whole handbag collection... but just the Louis Vuitton pieces. I haven't taken updated pictures since October, so my videos and pictures are slightly out of date - but until I can get new videos made and new pictures taken... I thought these would do.

Louis Vuitton became my brand of choice after I had Cupcake, as it just seemed like the most durable (and baby friendly) option. Prior to that I was deeply immersed in all that is Balenciaga, and while I still enjoy looking at bbags, they are just aren't as practical for my life right now. (That doesn't stop me from wanting a Pourpre GSH Part-Time though.)

I need to carry one purse a day with me, and only so much time to use the ones I have.... so I've narrowed my collection down considerably from what it used to be. Besides, the only places I go in a day are usually the post office and Target - with the rare special even thrown in, so I really don't have a huge need to have a massive collection right now. That being said, I do occasionally miss some of the bags I've parted with and wish I would have maybe kept... just a few more of them.

In any case, these are my most recent videos and pictures for my Louis Vuitton collection, I don't have any pictures of all of the brands together.

Showing my collection through video all started when one night I got the urge to try taking a video with my new cell phone I had at the time (a LG KS360, which was the European version of the LG Neon released a few years prior to when it was available in the US) - I just took it to show on a forum as a part of a bag collection thread, and never dreamed it would get as many hits as it has. Today it has over 32,000 views.

LV Bag Collection Video from 2009:

This is the updated bag collection video that I posted at the end of 2010:

And the LV accessory collection that I uploaded around the same time as the bag collection video from 2010:

I've also done a few "What's in my bag" videos on You Tube, as well as some handbag reviews - which I'll upload in a separate blog post. Just thought since my main love is bags - that it was time I shared some of my collection with you!

Here are some recent pictures in October 2010:

Collection as of October 2010 (2011 update in parenthesis): Damier Hampstead MM (sold), Damier Trunks & Bags Cles (sold) Damier Neverful MM, Brea MM Rouge Fauviste, Palermo GM (sold to get PM size), Montorgueil GM, Damier Toiletry 15, Rouge Fauviste Business Card Holder, Rouge Fauviste Zippy Coin Purse, Framboise Agenda (sold), Tapage Bag Charm, Luggage tag, Map bandeau in Cassis, Comete bandeau in Violette, Sarah Wallet in Violette, Large Cles in Violette, Monogram Pochette, Monogram Affiche Mini Pochette, Affiche Bag Charm (sold)

Favorite:

Louis Vuitton Brea MM in Rouge Fauviste

Most of which I still have - with a few deletes as noted in parenthesis, but a few additions as well:

Added: Palermo PM

Added: Azur Totally MM

Added: Leopard Bandeau in Marron

Added: Leopard Bandeau in Blanc Corail

Added: Violette Vernis Cosmetic

Hope you have enjoyed my LV handbag collection look book! I'll try to blog in the future a post with the other brands I have as well!

Cleaning out the closet, and why it's so cleansing...

A few weeks ago, I decided that it was time. I needed to clean out my closets of all of the old clothing I had stashed away in there - that no longer fit, shouldn't be worn, or just wasn't appropriate for my "Mommy life" now. (Which if it wasn't appropriate, it feel into the first category anyways and didn't fit any longer!)

I had been carrying around with me an extraordinary amount of stuff, moving from house to house - taking up the majority of our extra closets with clothing I had worn in college, used for my pre-Cupcake professional life, and things that were just smaller sizes than I am wearing right now. I had shoes, suits, shorts, jeans, shirts, coats... an endless list (basically a full wardrobe!) stuffed into our guest bedroom closet and a closet in our extra bedroom. I wasn't ready for an episode of Hoarders just yet, but when I really got to thinking about it, I couldn't figure out why I had kept so many of these clothing pieces in the first place. (And paid to move them multiple times!)

So I set off on what turned out to a week long clear out (that truth be told, is still a work in progress) to go through the items to sort through what need to go straight to the donation pile and pull out the things that were (shamefully) only worn once, a few times, or... still had tags on them that could be tossed up on eBay to see if there was any interest in them. As luck would have it, the same day I checked into eBay to start listing things, I found that eBay was running a free listing fee special, where the listing fee was waived and you only had to pay the final value fee if the item sold. (Which these days still ends up being 30%.) And I was able to clear out alot of casual wear, that had been sitting around unused for almost a decade.

For the professional wear, I'm looking into donating the better pieces to the organization Dress for Success. Which is a non-for-profit organization that now has locations across the country, and donates career wear to economically disadvantaged women to wear to job interviews. They have a number of locations and probably may even have one local to you.

I think especially in times like we're in right now, with high unemployment rates and a continually rough job market (I unfortunately know more people personally, that have been directly affected by the economy in the past six months, either laid off or have had to take a pay reduction, than in the previous two years) organizations like Dress for Success can be a great help to those in need by giving them one less burden to figure out while getting back into the job market. And while I'm generally a person that is always focused on consumption and the acquisition of all things material - I like to remind myself occasionally that's there's more to life than acquiring pretties.

So the closet clean out continues, but I realized an amazing thing when I was in the middle of it. It was fantastic! It was cleansing! I am ridding myself of all of these extra "things", that I had been stowing away for an unknown reason, and I don't need them anymore!

I imagine that this project will continue well into Spring, with me putting the final items that I come across into our annual HOA yard sale or donating to our local Salvation Army. It's worth the work though, because at the end of the clear out, my hope is that I'll have more storage room in my closets, a more defined wardrobe in my own closet, and be carrying around a lot less baggage.

So we just got back from shopping...

... and you know it's been a fun day when you can make that statement!

We started out getting ready for meeting friends for lunch by playing around the house... and trying on the new Easter bunny ears that Nana sent in the mail to Cupcake.

It wasn't long before she decided that she wasn't amused with them...

So she decided to see if she could stand up and shake them off...

But to no avail... finally she was victorious by just tugging on a rabbit ear and pulling! And they became a toy... just like everything else in the house these days.

So after playtime, we headed to the mall to meet friends for lunch and had some quality girl time!

And while we were there... we picked up a few goodies for the Giveaway too!

And after discussing it with a our shopping buddies, I decided that I would make a few changes to the giveaway, since I'm so excited about getting it started! The first giveaway will start when we hit 50 followers on the blog or 50 'Likes' on the Facebook page. Which ever comes first. We also tossed around some ideas for future giveaways as well!

I've also posted additional information on the Giveaway page, and you can always contact me if you have any questions too.

All in all, it was a great day. Cupcake was tuckered out by all of the fun!

So Happy Thursday to you! Hope it was a great shopping day for you as well!