is your glass half-full?

"Retreat? Like hell! We're just advancing in another direction"- Oliver Prince Smith

i'm a firm believer that no matter what life throws at you, the way you handle it is simply a matter of having the right perspective. 

recently, adam and i have had to make quite a few decisions about our family, our lives & our future. when this stuff comes up, we try and help each other keep a decent outlook on the situation and we have a little story that helps us do that.
(this may not be the word for word story so please, a little latitude)
back when the chappelle show was in its prime, the star comedian dave chappelle went awol. everyone remember?
he went on a retreat to africa and at one point, he spoke to a local man about his lack of creative control on his show, the sudden influx of fame & money and all of the issues in his life that caused him to pack up and head across the atlantic ocean. the man listened and after he was finished, the man said "dave, i just want you to know something. I ate a dog for breakfast"

so while making enormous decisions that impact our family and the rest of our lives are hardly a barrel of laughs, at least i have adam to look at me and say "honey, at least you didn't eat a dog for breakfast"

like i said, it's all a matter of perspective. 

adventures of raquel & reed: part 4

I haven't posted in over two weeks and I'm literally forcing myself to do it now. it seems like all I've done lately is work (my job at the radio station and then my new marketing internship) and I'm not sure that anyone wants to read about that right now.
I have had a few times in the last few weeks where reed and I have had some time to do fun things together and I thought I'd focus on those. 

reed and I caught up with robyn and ellie a few weeks ago for some yolo midtown and reed opted for something from the bakery rather than the self-serve frozen yogurt.

clearly, he thought it best to just dive right in. 

that's pretty much the best face ever. 

we've frequented a few memphis redbirds games so far this season, a summer favorite of reed's. he doesn't so much care that baseball is happening as much as he likes rockey redbird, the playground and the food.

and here's a throwback picture of one of his first meetings with rockey. note the crazy faced woman in the crowd.

back in the day, adam and his older brother andrew had a fort in their parents back yard.

reed has since claimed it in the name of thomas the tank engine.

during yesterdays trip out to Collierville to register for this years St. Jude Dream House, reed fell in love with the boys room set up in the house.

just in case anyone thinks i have adam locked in a basement, we did manage to sneak away a few weekends ago for a movie and lunch, our first date in a few weeks (and come to think of it, we haven't had one since) and of course, we saw Thor.
(side note: 5 days until X-Men First Class,  19 days until The Green Lantern, 47 days until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II and  54 days until Captain America. it's going to be a summer of nerd movie heaven for me & adam).


adam with mjolnir (thor's hammer).

and lastly, and in related movie news, i saw Bridesmaids with robyn last week and it was pretty funny and definitely not a chick flick. 

happy memorial day weekend everyone :)

And Baby Makes Five

Yesterday my dearest friend, Heather & her husband Ryan had a gender revealment cook out to unveil and announce the gender of the newest addition to their family.

they're already parents to these two handsome fellas, who are Reed's BFF's for life:

Buchanan (Buck) Bates & Theodore Earl 
Buck is 3 and will be 4 in September. Theodore is 2 and will be 3 in December. 

Heather & Ryan are mine and Adam's best friends as a couple. Honestly. Ryan was a groomsmen in our wedding and Heather would've been a bridesmaid if she weren't so ridiculous. with Buck ten months older than reed, they very graciously let us experiment with parenting by babysitting baby Buck, always doling out parental advice without being condescending like the women in the grocery store who like giving out assholish unsolicited advice on how to raise my child.
we love them. very much. 

Anywhoo, for those of you that don't know the concept of a gender revealment party (i thought everyone did until I told my friend Megan while she was in town and she questioned the sanity of the practice) it's where you have a cake and when you cut the cake open, if there's blue cake, it's a boy and if there's pink cake, it's a girl.
here is Ryan & Heather's cake:

aside from looking amazing, it was also delicious. 

since I found out that she was pregnant, my money had been on baby number 3 being a girl. I predicted a boy with theodore and I'd been right so I felt pretty confident in my gender pick. Adam disagreed with me but where's the news there.

here's heather with an inside slice of the cake:

it's a tiny picture but it's definitely pink so it's a girl! 

proving, once again, that adam should stop betting against me.

Ryan reacting to the happy news that he's finally getting a daddy's girl.
heather told me afterwards that the only reason she was disappointed in finding out it was a girl was because that meant Ryan was right. Ah, maturity :)

with buck, reed & theodore constantly running around, playing in mud, sword fighting and the like, a little girl will be nice to have around. although knowing that pennel blood, she'll probably kick their asses in sword fighting at some point.

but BIG congratulations to heather, ryan, buck & theodore on the sweet baby girl!

and this has nothing to do with the above post but how bout them Memphis Grizzlies!! Grizznation!!

taming the chaos

about three times a year (fall, spring & summer semesters) i have to do what I call "taming the chaos" of my family. for my fellow students out there, it's always challenging to coordinate a work schedule, a school schedule, a social life, perhaps a greek organization....it's hard. or at least it was until I became a mom/wife/student/intern-turned-producer whose husband has a full time management position.

i'm not whining. trust me. I know how fortunate a young family is to be employed, educated and still have some time together, particularly in this economy. 

actually, i'm bragging. 

my dear friend Nathan has long since been a strange combination of impressed & petrified of my organizational & time management skills that have only been more finely tuned since becoming a mother. 

And I wanted everyone else to share that mixture of awe and fear.

nathan & I looking a little bit like siblings. 

which is only fitting since his girlfriend (ellie, the best friend) & my husband look exactly like brother & sister. 

see what I mean?

anyways, in the face of all of that madness, i've found that i thrive in the situation and my organization skills are pretty top notch as of late. 

just to be a little bit more specific, here are the many elements of scheduling that I have to organize:

Adam's Work Schedule. 

i have to do my best to keep him as the opener most mornings (as that is where he is a rock star) while i work on a morning radio show. 

i also have to do my best to arrange around adam's weekly game night which is ever changing due to two of the players being university professors and another being a PhD student. 

Reed's Child Care Schedule. 

in case anyone doesn't know, reed is 2 and a half now. 

he goes to a parent's day out twice a week for about five & a half hours a day.

we love it, he loves it. he really thrives in the social interaction. 

however, sometimes life starts before the 9am drop off time (life like a morning radio show maybe?) and that's when creative scheduling comes in handy. 

My Class Schedule

the longer i'm in school, which who's really keeping track (please nobody keep track), the harder this piece of the puzzle is to manage. 

the higher division classes are harder to schedule because there are fewer of them, particularly in a program on the smaller side like journalism. 

my 1st semester back after having reed I took 15 hours. 

I stacked my classes primarily on Mondays & Wednesdays and then had 2 classes Friday mornings. 

this fall, i'm looking at 1 class monday/wednesday/friday, two classes mondays & wednesdays, two classes on tuesdays & thursdays.

Oi with the poodles already. 

The Morning Show

 this one is probably the most fun & the hardest to work into my life. 

adam opens every morning at Starbucks, save for his 2 days off a week (if that). 

he gets there at 4:30am. I have to be at the radio station at 5am. 

we have a small child. 

see the problem?

but i love it, so I tame the chaos. 

and in case you're wondering why dear Nathan has ever been scared?

it's my desk calendar. 

(complete with a color coded highlighting system)

the above + my iPhone are my biggest lines of defense in the war against disorganization. 

what keeps you organized? 

and would you like lessons in the art of arranging your life via color coded highlighters? cause i could teach that class. 

Kids Say The Darndest Things

If you're reading this blog, it's clear that you already know how hilarious I am.
Did you know that my comic abilities were hereditary? I wasn't sure there was a gene for being funny but it's been proven over the last few weeks. Side note: Adam could possibly claim some credit for reed being a funny little guy but let's not jump the gun here. The kid already looks exactly like him.

 Am I wrong?

here's some proof that my little man is pretty damn funny.

 After discussing how Ellie & Robyn are sisters and Buck & Theodore are brothers: "Mommy, I don't want a baby brother, I want a baby sister. Now!"

About his newest friend, Ryan, my friend Alexis' daughter: "We need to go see Ryan. I need to tell her that I love her."

While we're sitting at the bar at Starbucks waiting for Adam, an older lady came up to reed & introduced herself as Robyn: "Hmmmm. No, you're not Robyn. Mommy, where is Robyn?!?"

After apparently watching a little too much Thomas the Tank Engine: "Take me back to Sodor at once!" 

Sitting at his Thomas activity table: "This is my nice, quiet place. Mommy, hush."

Now, I realize that other people aren't going to find reed as adorable and charming as Adam & I do but even those people that aren't quite into kids have to admit that he's pretty cute.

I have some mom followers and I have a few followers with much much younger siblings- do the kiddos in your life say hilarious things? Tell 'em to me!

You've Got a Friend in Me

Two posts in one day! How impressive. Well, I'm impressed anyways.

When I was a young lass, I fancied myself as a guy's girl. And while I can still hang with the boys with the best of them, after six years of all-girls school, three years in my sorority and four years of working at a female dominated tanning salon, I have realized that I am indeed a girl's girl.
And while I often mention my lady loves, we are all incredibly busy and it's a treat when I get to see any of them.

I manage to see my dear Robyn the most out of my fabulous group of girlfriends lately, due to a similarity in scheduling and also since reed is marginally obsessed with her and always wants to go see her. Sadly, her little sister and my best friend Elspeth & I sometimes don't get together unless our resident party planner Molly plans an event. Despite our penchant for talking on the phone pretty much daily, I miss her.

So today before school kicks off, we decided to have an Ellie & Raquel (& Reed) day. 

 We kicked off our day with an adventure to Collierville to show Ellie where her Television & Culture class is since they hide that campus from you for some reason (and for those attentive readers, yes I did take the same class from the same teacher in Collierville last semester. She's ridiculous). Afterwards, we had lunch at the Germantown Chili's due to the random chance that Ellie had a gift card.


But the true excitement of our BFF date was once we got back to my apartment. Reed went down for a nap, Adam retired to our bedroom to play a video game and Ellie and I turned into 17 year old girls.


In the midst of getting our impurities out via face mask.

I should preface this with the fact that elspeth & I are a teensy bit obsessed with face masks because they are so heavenly. if you can't see the bottle, this one was Alba and it felt fabulous, hence the excitement on our faces.


the after shot.
We took this picture ourselves because Adam is not a photographer and his turned out even worse. but trust me, our faces felt great, especially after the help of a little Proactive Green Tea moisturizer. And look how pretty Ellie is with no make-up!

It was a wonderful way to end winter break.

Ladies, go call all your best girlfriends and tell them you love them. Personally, I'm too lazy to pick up the phone so Ronni Jupson, Robyn Haire, Ellie Haire, Megan Wilson, Molly Foreman, Heather Pennel, Amanda Drescher & Lori Tenney: I love you all very much :)

It's the New Year, but not the New Decade. Got It?

I hope everyone has enjoyed the first few hours of 2011 and had a lovely end to 2010 (side note: is this the year we start saying twenty-eleven instead of two thousand eleven?) 

This year Adam, Reed & I rang in the New Year at The Pennel's with the Pennel family themselves, the Pritchett's and Allen. It was decidedly a step-up from last year where we watched Ice Age 3 and Adam fell asleep at 11:30pm and Reed was thrilled to have Buck, Theodore & Leila.

Generally, I don't make New Years resolutions anymore because they're rather grandiose and I set myself up for failure. However, after hearing my friend Heather's new year's resolution, I think I'm going to take a crack at it. Heather's resolution is "to be more sparkly" which is probably the most fab thing I've ever heard. So in keeping with the idea that low pressure resolutions are the way to go, here we are:
 

To wear more headbands & earrings.
I look fabulous in headbands when I put a modicum of effort into my hairstyle and every girl needs a good pair of earrings now and again.

 

 To drink more water and less coffee.
I do pretty well with the water thing but I could always do better. God knows I need to cut back on coffee. 

 

To work out more. Inside the gym and out.
I want to work out, not because I feel like I need to lose weight, but to feel better and have more energy. 

 

And lastly, to play more and worry less.
It's too much pressure to clean house and stress over school, constantly. Sure sometimes, you have to but not to the point where you can't enjoy playing with your kid. 

 

What are some of your new year's resolutions?

the Christmas Wrap-Up Part 2

As is our usual custom, Adam & I split our holiday time between our families, spending Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with his.

This year, my brother David hosted Christmas at his & my sister-in law, Dara's, house. It was lovely, reed thought the Christmas tree was a thing of magic. And luckily, Dara is a photographer and we got lots of wonderful pictures from the day's events.


Playing with his Christmas Ho's (& Gordon).

Me & my sweet little nephew Luke.


Father-Son talk about the art of opening presents. And don't ask me why Reed insisted on putting his hat on.


David's really excited, apparently.

It looks like I'm weighing in on the opening presents lesson.

Isn't my husband sweet with the babies?

For Christmas Day, fewer pictures were captured, or if there were more pictures, no one is being real speedy about putting them up on Facebook. Largely, this was due to the Flip video camera that my father-in-law Jerry received from Andrew & Nicole and we were far more focused on taking videos.

While both dinners were delicious, I'll admit I was looking forward to dinner at Andrew & Nicole's a tad bit more. Last year, Andrew got a deep fryer and we had deep fried turkey. This year, I pretty much demanded another serving. To say it was delicious is putting it mildly, it's a little like heaven. Normally, I exercise a bit more self-control when it comes to the fried food but once a year can't kill me. Right?
A big thank you to Adam & Andrew for the delicious turkey.

As far as presents were concerned, Reed made out like a bandit, especially thanks to both sets of his grandparents. The major theme of his gifts were Thomas & his friends, with a few segues to the Toy Story characters and some Lego sets. I have a feeling he's getting on board with this whole Christmas thing.

Did any of my awesome followers give, recieve or eat anything of note during the holidays? Do tell. 

 And with that, I say Au Revoir to the Christmas season.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...Break!

I think you already know what I'm going to say. Obviously, I've neglected my blog.
There were times where I could have updated it but for the sake of sanity and not having total sleep deprivation, I decided to take blogging off of my list of things to do and stick to being a momma, working, and studying for finals/writing papers. Oh and not letting my house fall into total disarray.
However, as of about 15 minutes ago I turned in my last paper, all of my finals are over and my fall semester has officially come to a close. Well, all except selling all the godforsaken textbooks back.

In my absence from the blog world, life did go on for the Hinson family, slightly beyond school and work.

The most important of which is the food. Adam and I went on a few date nights, the first of which was at Old Venice. Sadly, we went with friends and I didn't feel comfortable asking them if I could photograph their food. The second was a happy just for me, Adam treated me to sushi at Sekisui Pacific Rim and a matinee of Love and Other Drugs. Sushi and a naked Jake Gyllenhaal. Do I have the best husband ever or what? 

My Spicy Salmon Rolls with Avacado :)

Adam got California Rolls because he's scared of raw sushi. I ended up eating most of them.
I treated him to a burger after the movie.

And lastly on the topic of food, my dear friend Heather & I had a play date with our boys and, after a long day of school, she made me lunch. Isn't she adorable?

In case you can't tell, that's a peanut butter sandwich, baked lays, grapes and spicy pickles.

And here's what reed is up to:

Reed managed to find all things Thomas in BookStar within 2.5 minutes.

He became his father. At least I don't have to worry about him being the 16 year old dad on the 2020 version of 16 & Pregnant (he'll at least wait til 24).

And wait for it....

And then he joined the teeny tiny Village People.

Celebrate my return to my blog. Seriously. Have a party with really good food and cupcakes and then invite me. It'd be kind of lame if you didn't. Next up in the life of Raquel, Adam & Reed Hinson....Christmas Shopping! Stay tuned.

the adventures of raquel & reed: part 3

for someone with Mama in the title of their blog, I don't talk about little man reed as much as I should.
I've been thinking about changing the title of my blog, especially since I'm a married lady and this blog has been more about my life than reed's, but that's really not the point (but if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in a comment).

while I am definitely not one of those parents harboring any illusions that anyone reading this blog is half as interested in my child's goings on as I am, there are some pretty adorable pictures and reed is definitely one of the cuter children out there.

So here are the continued adventures of raquel & reed...

 

 

putting on his sunglasses getting ready for the day :)

playing with Thomas at breakfast at Cafe Eclectic.

drinking milk with his trains & mommy at daddy's Starbucks.

Target! reed's 2 and he knows the word so that should tell everyone how much we frequent the establishment.

reed's treat for being so good at the park: organic chocolate milk at daddy's Starbucks.

the crazy hat ate reed's head :)

And now sweet little reed is slumbering away, Adam has been snatched up by the closing shift and I'm home alone with only my blog (read break-in-homework) and my iTunes to keep me company.

 

But sadly, the laptop battery is dying and I'm too lazy to get up and get the power cord. Goodnight all. And don't forget about the blog re-do title suggestions :)

What It's Like to Be a Wife: Day One

the wedding is over. check my facebook for pictures.

Adam & I are now married.
He is my husband, I am his wife. I am Mrs. Hinson.
I assumed, since literally nothing of our daily life would change, that being married wouldn't really feel any different. Granted, I'm only about 22 hours into this, but it does, in fact, feel different.
But what is more interesting, to me, is the wedded bliss thing that has, however momentarily, clouded our usual line of thinking. (the same thing happened after we got engaged- we didn't have a single fight for about 6 weeks)

Exhibit A
"Honey, wherever you want to eat tonight is totally fine. You put all the work into the wedding and this is your treat."
Okay, Adam can totally be the sweetest guy in the world but the man has strong opinions about food. Not only did he suggest sushi (I love it, he's not a fan so I don't eat it that often) but he asked our sister-in-law for a recommendation to a nicer place than usual.
It was his wedding night too but he made sure dinner was a treat for me :)

Exhibit B
I woke up this morning at 6 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I reached over to Adam's bedside table for the remote to catch up on our DVR'd shows. Adam stirred and I asked him if he wanted me to watch television in the living room: "Nope, I'm not going to ask my wife to watch television without the warm blankets we have in her"
Yeah, a week ago my ass would have been on the couch.

Exhibit C
At 9 am, I was bored and hungry (not bored enough, however, to get up and cook something for breakfast) so I woke Adam up and asked him to go get breakfast with me.
Normally, this is a sin against nature. Adam wakes up at 4 am nearly every morning so if happens to be capable of sleeping in, he really isn't to be woken.
Married Adam, however, rolled over and told me he'd love to as soon as he brushed his teeth.

It seems like I'm making unmarried Adam out to be a jackass (which he wasn't) but it's funny, marriage didn't seem to be a big deal to Adam. It seemed like he figured we were more or less married, but we should probably make it official for reed.

However, it seems as though Adam is pretty pleased to be a married man, and honestly, I couldn't be happier that the wedding is over and that I am his wife.

Now we get to go pick sweet little reed up from school. And yay, no more wedding blogs :)

A New Addition to the Family :)

I'm a few days late but homework took off and we had a lot going on this weekend.

My brother David and his lovely wife Dara welcomed their first child this week.

Lucas Keaton Holdford
Born on September 1, 2010 at 8:05 am
7 pounds, 11 ounces. 21 inches long.

If you can't tell by the picture, he is absolutely perfect. As I'm writing this, I miss him. 

But I'm trying to remember that he's Dara & David's baby and I don't get to steal him whenever I want tiny baby snuggles and kisses.

Luke, or Wuke as your older cousin Reed calls you, welcome to the world. You have a crazy but wonderful family and we all love you more than words can express :)

talking to sweet baby luke

reed said hi baby wuke. i was a little bit excited.

with both of his grandpa's

Excited Uncle Adam. Isn't he adorable with babies?

Happy Sunday Funday Everyone :)

reed's second birthday :)

Okay, I know. I said yesterday (which would have been Monday) and it's definitely Thursday. But before all my blog friends are mad at me, Reed's school has been closed for the last week and will be closed for another week so Mama Mondays came to a halt and left all the chores, errands and coffee/blogging dates to after Reed is sleeping. 

Onwards to Reed's Second Birthday :)

Reed's m&m birthday pancakes. Thanks Daddy :)

 Fireman Reed!

Daddy & Reed on the Police Motorcycle.

Climbing out of the tree trunk. Silly boy :)

Helping Daddy fly the plane :)

Playing with his presents from Aunt Nicole & Uncle Andrew.

Adam reading the leapfrog book to Andrew.

Uncle Andrew helping Reed dunk :)

Reed's Elmo Birthday Cake.

Reed's Memphis Jersey from Uncle Andrew & Aunt Nicole!

So Happy Birthday Reed! Mama loves you so much :)

And for anyone that's interested, here is mine & Adam's wedding website. Check it out, sign the guest book! 

Police Women of Memphis here I come :)