New Motherhood Part 2

 Image Via Stephanie Rausser

Okay so I got quite a few responses from my post on being a new mother and I like it.  The most common threads from the comments:

1. Never getting to do what I want when I want to do it

2. I can't take a nap when I want

What I want to know is when did you take naps before kids?  College maybe?  I guess that is one of the drawbacks to waiting to have kids cause I haven't taken a nap in years unless I took a day sick off of work.

As requested,  now I want to know the top reasons why being a mother is so great.  You could sway me either way so you better make it good! 

I love this post on Rock Star Diaries just shared today about her baby learning her first word. Now that to me would make it worth it! Check it out.

New Motherhood

 Image via Stephania Rausser, ps her work is amazing.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Today I am thinking about new moms and babies.

I love it when I run into a new mother and I ask her how being a mother is going and she gives me this total look of panic and then continues to tell me how hard it is and gives me tons of advice on waiting till I am ready to have kids and to never let anyone pressure me into it. I find this refreshing and so true.  This situation has only happened to me twice out of I would say 50 close women in my life.  So many times women feel it is their job to always be put together, they can handle anything, and that being a mom is the...

Best thing in the world
Their calling in life....and they weren't complete before
They don't miss their jobs one bit
They love spending every second with a pooping and crying machine
etc.

So today I ask "What do you miss most about your life before you had a kid (s)?" Come on new moms I know you read my blog,  I have ways to track you so out with it.  No more blog stalking, I want a response.

Happy Friday

Hey friends, what are you up to this weekend?  I think I'm itching for another road trip adventure day.  We have had lots of those lately.  Been to places like...

 

Estes Park, CO

Grand Lake, CO
 
Fort Collins, CO

Also, Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs as seen HERE.

Paul and I love road tripping.  Check out our Fall trip back East last year.  We went from DC up North in NY to Canada through Quebec and down into Main, Massachusetts, etc back home.

Tell me about your most favorite road trip or better yet post the link so we can all check out your photos!! Happy Friday.

Embracing the Small

Yesterday I wrote about turning 29 and the stigma society puts on age and beauty.  I discussed my insecurities about having a small chest and asked what everyone thought about plastic surgery.

I found this great article by Hallie Seegal titled Letting it All Hang Out: How I Made Peace With My Small Boobs

I remember the first time I made a step in the right direction of making peace with my small boobs and it was when I saw Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.  You know the scene where she goes to Matthew McConaughey's character's house and she wears the tiny little white tank top.  I remember thinking, Kate Hudson is beautiful and look how small her chest is.  I keep hoping she never gets a boob job. 

Anyways, I liked Seegal's article so much that I am posting it here on my blog...

Last January, I stopped wearing a bra. I haven't put one back on since.

I don't remember buying my first bra. I just know that at some point around age 12 I started wearing one -- long before I "needed" to. There wasn't much to support, as friends in my 8th grade dance class informed me, joking that they could cut an apple on my chest. It wasn't funny then, but I suppose I can laugh about it now since I just bought my first cutting board and I don't see much of a resemblance.
Over the next 10 years, as I graduated from high school and college, I also graduated from a kitchen accessory to a solid A, while clasping a bra around my chest every day in between. 

Then, seven months ago, I had a brassiere epiphany. After waiting just a little too long to do my laundry, I ran out of bras. I could have forced myself to head to the laundry room right then, or worn the less than fresh Cosabella number I'd worn the day before, but I realized the only visible difference for me between wearing and not wearing a bra was a bulky bra line. So I didn't wear one. Yes, I went braless.
Sure, my boobs had a bit more point to them than before, but that's how they're made to look, right? Other than that, nothing terrible happened. No chafing, no slips, no perverted stares directed downwards. In fact, when I confided in my friends that I was bra-free, they admitted they couldn't tell. I suddenly thought, what if I could be this free all the time?

It was as if I had finally opened my eyes. That was that. Since then, it's just been me and my small boobs, hanging out together. And I'm happy.

I wish everybody else could be happy like this too, but today it seems we women are more insecure with our size than ever. Today, large breasts wield tremendous power, and the truth is we -- women -- are partly to blame for supporting that status quo.. This past year alone, 300,000 women put themselves under the knife for breast augmentation surgery. 300,000 women felt that unhappy with their bodies. For what? Certainly not for ourselves, as one major risk of the surgery is losing the best thing your breasts give you: sexual pleasure. To add insult to injury (literally), last month the FDA issued a new warning. Ladies, while the loss of sensation may be lifelong, your silicone implants may not be. According to a new report, at least one-in-five women will need her implants removed due to serious health complications. These are complications that far exceed the perceived problems of having small(er) breasts: Implant rupture, scar tissue hardening, breast wrinkling, and in the most unfortunate and rare cases, anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Let me repeat, removal due to these complications isn't a one-in-a-million chance. It's one in five. 

Do women not know the risks involved, or do we just not care? I believe it's the former, not the latter, because you know what else has a one in five risk? Smoking. In the United States, one in five Americans die each year due to tobacco use. The difference is that while massive nationwide campaigns are shifting our impressions of smoking towards taboo, breast implants haven't lost their sex appeal... yet.
So ladies, this is my appeal to you. Don't hold yourself to ideals of epic proportions. Let's just all hang out, together.

Being a Girl and Turning a Year Older

 image via Stephanie Rausser

I just turned 29 on Sunday. It was a fantastic Leah & Paul day filled with a long bike ride, brunch at the Huckleberry in Louisville, CO, an afternoon matinee of Horrible Bosses (check out its trailer HERE), and then a classical violin concert at Chautauqua Park Amphitheater in the evening. I decided I needed a little perverted, the movie, and a little culture, the concert, on my birthday.

Turning 29 has me thinking.  I am going to be 30 next year (shouldn't that have been obvious).  I know, I know that is still so young, but somehow to me I thought I would be a CEO or Executive Director by 30 or maybe a college Professor.  I also thought I would have a kid by 30.   I guess I have a lot to accomplish this next year.  Paul always said he would be retired by 30, so I think he has a really busy year ahead of him as well.  He just needs that million dollar idea.

Did you ever see the movie 13 Going on 30? I guess I feel the same way as that little girl and that at 30 I would be thriving and running the world.  I guess that is societies way of telling us how to believe.  This leads me to my next point.  My friend Jo at Little Jo Home posted this great article called How to Talk to Little Girls , by Lisa Bloom, that I think is spot on and really has me thinking.  Please read it, but the skinny of the article is about we as adults can interact with young girls so they realize that their minds and accomplishments are more important than their appearance.

"Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. It sets them up for dieting at age 5 and foundation at age 11 and boob jobs at 17 and Botox at 23. As our cultural imperative for girls to be hot 24/7 has become the new normal, American women have become increasingly unhappy. What's missing? A life of meaning, a life of ideas and reading books and being valued for our thoughts and accomplishments."

The article made me think about how I have always been self conscious of my chest.  It is quite small. The funny part about it is that its not like I chose to have a small chest, or blonde hair, blue eyes and only being 5'4".  God made our bodies the way he made them. I remember always being so self conscious in high school and at swimming parties.  I still remember high school health class and the teacher talking about pectoralis major and a boy yelling out "Leah has pectoralis minor!" (thanks brad curtis) and the whole class laughing.  Thankfully I had a speck of self-esteem or a statement like that would have crushed me for a long time.  For years I have considered getting a boob job.  I don't know how I feel about them.  The jury is still out.  I don't like the idea of changing who I am to fit societies view of what makes a woman sexy.  Paul finds me sexy just the way I am. But sometimes I see women with a hot body and think "Damn, I want boobs like those."  So there you have it.

What is your opinion about plastic surgery, boob jobs, and botox for cosmetic reasons?

Happy Birthday Love of My Life

Dear Paul,

Thanks for being you. Happy Birthday.  I didn't get you anything by the way, but I do appreciate you letting me buy things I like, like towels.  Please read HERE about how this lady dealt with the fact that her husband wouldn't let her buy towels.  Funniest story ever I promise. This will help you to realize that you need to pick your battles

Dear Sam and Shari,

Thanks for learning about and reenacting the birds and the bees so Paul could come into the world. Much appreciated.

Love,

FREE Giveaway

So you want to learn how to sing like your most favorite pop, indie, rock, folk, broadway, r&b star ,well here is your chance to actually learn something that will improve your singing voice. Win a FREE thirty minute voice lesson, a $60 value, with Leah Stone at Charlie Pants Music and you will be amazed at what you can learn in one lesson. Lessons are done via Skype so you can live anywhere and win this contest.

Here is how you enter to win:

1. Like Charlie Pants Music on Facebook by clicking HERE and liking the page. www.facebook.com/charliepantsmusic

2. Copy and paste this paragraph including link below on your Facebook wall...

I want to win a FREE voice lesson with Leah Stone at Charlie Pants Music. Charlie Pants Music is a Speech Level Singing Studio owned and operated by Leah Stone. Sign up for lessons in singing, guitar, songwriting, and stage performance. Lessons are done via Skype so anyone can take lessons with her. How cool is that? http://charliepantsmusiclessons.blogspot.com/2011/07/win-free-voice-lesson.html


3. You can be entered in twice if you blog about the studio & the contest, and make sure to link to the studio website www.charliepantsmusic.com and facebook page www.facebook.com/charliepantsmusic.

4. Write on Charlie Pants Music's facebook wall saying why you want to win and (a link to your blog post if you posted) and a winner will be chosen at random on Friday, July 8, 2011.

Good Luck and happy singing!

7/8/11 update: Congrats to Sophie Thomas for winning the free lesson. Thanks for playing.

Posted by:

Leah Stone 

Certified Speech Level Singing Instructor

Charlie Pants Music

801 809 1258
www.charliepantsmusic.com

Skype Name: leahstone17

charliepantsmusic@gmail.com 
facebook.com/charliepantsmusic

How Was Your 4th of July

 

 Yesterday Paul and I finished reading the Hunger Games Series, went swimming, had some friends over for a little BBQ, and went hiking up Chautauqua in Boulder, Colorado so we could watch the fireworks go off all over the valley.  It was beautiful and magical and the weather was perfect. 

So I have 2 questions:

1. What did you think of the ending of Mockingjay from the Hunger Games Series?
2. What did you do for the 4th?

Have a Great 4th of July Weekend

Hello Lovelies.  I hope you are doing something great for the holiday weekend.  Paul and I wanted to drive home to visit family, but thanks to Jack's fiasco that wont be happening.  Jack is doing fine by the way.  He thinks he is fine and that he didn't just have surgery and get 28 staples in his belly.  He is way too hyper for his own good and I can not wait to be able to take him to a dog park for like 2 hours and let him run until he can't any longer.

Any plans for the weekend? I want to go to the Colorado Music Festival to hear the symphony play patriotic music at Chautauqua in Boulder.

Maybe you should go see an awesome concert like I did this week. HERE
Or make a yummy citrus Stella cake. HERE
Or how about these yummy cookies pictured above by the lovely Martha Stewart. HERE 
Or try one of these 23 mouth watering burger recipes found at Sunset Magazine HERE
Or maybe do a really fun bike race HERE and HERE

Whatever you do please be safe & don't drink and drive.