Category Archives: Personal Stories

Today was full of work, frustrations, and a lot of cleaning. We tried to enjoy our weekend, which meant we woke up on Monday morning to a messy house, no groceries, & a “to-do” list longer than my patience. So I decided to clean. It’s what I do when I’m angry. When I’m sad. When I’m worried.

I know it doesn’t take any of that away, but it sure feels good to have a pity party in a clean house.

A few hours into it, I noticed Damian’s lips pouted in determined concentration.
Something he gets from his dad.
Then he just took off.

Sometimes cautious.
Sometimes {almost} running.
Some tiny spills.
Some wobbly steps.
Some very big smiles.
He’s been walking in little bits for a month, but today he just decided that he’s a walking man for good.
Just like his brother did four years ago.

These boys have a way of making us forget whatever it was that we thought was so important…

 Daddy came home shortly after the walking bonanza began & celebrated Damian’s achievements with us.
 
I will need to get used to the necessity of putting shoes on his little baby feet.
I love taking little walks around our neighborhood. There are lots of Grandmas who grow beautiful flowers & share their puppies with Damian.
 He just turned eleven months on Sunday. I want to weep and reminisce about the baby that I am losing, but I was so proud & happy for him… there wasn’t really room for that today. Those feelings will return & I’ll allow myself the luxury of giving them my complete attention. I’m sure there will be many tears & plenty of chocolate involved. ♥
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  • Katie Stratton - June 7, 2011 - 9:53 am

    oh my oh my. are we ever in the same boat! so many milestones along the way. this is one of the most beautiful ones.
    <3
    p.s. i'm so happy you started a blog!!

    <3

  • Andrea Dozier - June 24, 2011 - 11:06 am

    Thank you Katie, YOU are so incredibly inspiring! I really hope I meet you soon, I think we would be great friends 🙂

With a title like that, you probably expect me to go into detail about how I try to be a certain way but want to come clean & just be myself.

No.

This is all about the deep importance of faking it.

* Image via http://keep-calm-and.tumblr.com/

If you’ve been keeping up with my sporadic posts about my house, it is an ever challenging work in progress. It has definitely come a long way from when we moved in. I have to admit, despite it’s small size, it feels more like “home” than any other place we’ve lived together. I’m sure that has everything to do with my (sexy) DIY husband that has transformed most of it from tired & outdated to fresh & cozy. It was originally built in the 40’s to be a vacation house near the river & it’s definitely a charming little cottage. However, that explains the tiny rooms & non existent closet space. It was just meant for weekend visits, not a family of four.

This week I have been staying with my parents in Findlay while my husband has been tearing out the bathroom. He has cleared everything out, the tile walls, floor, & today he removed the bathtub. While I’m really excited about having a new bathroom, it’s been a challenge to not be able to work and spend another week away from him (this is week three out of the last four that we’ve been apart because he’s been traveling for work too). I am missing my  best friend! I am also quite obsessive about my work routine & it’s hard for me to “take the week off.” I worked some major overtime last week to prepare for this week, but there is always more to do.

After being an Air Force wife for six years, I would like to think I’ve got the single parent thing down pretty well. I’ve had a lot of practice. However, today my sons were especially a handful. It was one of those days where I could have stayed in my  pajamas & had a few extra Easter chocolates to escape the never ending demands of two active children.

Instead, I found myself forcing a shower.

Forcing a calico summer dress when I wanted to wear sweat pants.

Forcing contacts over glasses.

Forcing a walk around the neighborhood over a nap.

By the end of the evening, I was rewarded with a very sweet call from an encouraging husband & two worn out little “mans.”

I’d like to think everything I do is genuine, that I am just a pool of ambition & energy.
It just doesn’t happen like that.
Sometimes I just pretend I am the person I don’t think I can be.
After a little while, what started as pretending becomes skin & bones.
Smiles & laughter.
When we are in a haze, the best way to get out is to force ourselves to do exactly what we don’t feel like doing.

♥

 

 

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  • Jenifer - April 28, 2011 - 5:27 am

    What a great post Andrea, thanks for sharing! This is oh so true. Sometimes you just have to put a smile on your face and laugh, even if you don’t want to!

  • Sarah Bailey - April 28, 2011 - 6:48 am

    So true. I just love you and all your honesty.

  • Andrea - April 28, 2011 - 9:30 am

    Thanks Sarah! I don’t mean to always act like someone I am not, but that sometimes I have to be myself on purpose… if that makes an sense 😀

  • sarah - June 4, 2011 - 12:11 am

    i was in speech and debate in high school. we had to be dressed, ready, and AT SCHOOL at 6:00am. on a saturday.

    i wasn’t a morning person at all. i’m still not. but i’d just plaster a smile on my face until i felt like actually smíling. and it worked.

    eventually, the smile would be genuine.

My desk is located in the eat-in part of my kitchen. I’ve been very excited to transition it from being a clump in the corner to a space that reflects what I love. This past weekend we painted my editing “studio” with Martha Stewart’s Glass of Milk {white} paint. It always amazes me what a little paint will do to refresh a tired room.

I made a DIY Doily Lantern {sans the lantern part} I’ve been seeing so much on Pinterest. Here it is pre-balloon pop.
Still working out the kinks in getting it to keep it’s round shape. Any ideas would be awesome!

Rock & Kevin put together the Ikea furniture. I think Kevin is more help than I am with tools.

You can see what has inspired me on my Pinterest board here. I can’t wait to share the whole area when we are finished {“befores” too}… getting close! ♥

 

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  • Brancoprata - April 18, 2011 - 7:49 am

    This is exciting!!!! I love make overs, can’t wait to see the end result!!!

  • Michelle March - April 20, 2011 - 8:13 am

    How dare you tease us like this? Hehehe!

While I was getting ready for Kevin’s fifth birthday party & have found myself getting lost looking at albums of photographs. He has changed so much in the past couple years, I am barely computing how fast he is growing. We celebrated his March 23 birthday the way he likes it- lunch at McDonalds with Daddy and a trip to Gigi’s Cupcakes.
I have become obsessed with Polaroids and have been snapping away during his birthday week. It’s so easy to capture the moment without being fussy.

In the past couple years, Kevin has developed a few obsessions. The first one was Nemo. He loved anything that had to do with fish. Then he received a Thomas train for Toys R Us and there was train-mania going on around here. One thousand engines later, he is back “into the sea.” More specifically, what he coins “Ocean Animals.” His favorites are squid (he can name several types & identify them) & sharks.

I wanted to do something that reflected Kevin’s interests, but steer away from the colorful fish theme we did a few years ago. I tried to pull off a bit of a nautical party with squid & shark influences. I tried to keep everything simple & reusable as much as possible.

Rocky saw this idea for a watermelon carved into a shark on my Pinterest board, and decided he was going to make it. He bought a watermelon (they are a little small because they aren’t quite in season yet) & went to work. It was so cute to watch him create his masterpiece, Kevin & I were impressed. 😀

Rock said it reminded him of one of Steven King’s “Langoliers,” but it was cute nonetheless. The kids really liked the Swedish fish coming out of its mouth.

Since I was trying to focus more on gifts/decor that would last, (and not just get shoved into our tiny garage when the party was over), I decided to order all three of the “mans” matching screen printed squid shirts. They were another Pinterest find, but you can buy them on Etsy from DesignThreads. They responded to my e-mails quickly & sent my customized order very promptly. I was so impressed with their customer service & of course we loved the squid shirts!
Rock & I were really excited to show them to Kevin.

I found the colorful squid graphic on Etsy, designed them in InDesign, & used Kraft envelopes to send them.

I take full responsibility for being a mom who can not do it “all.” There are some pretty papers & twine that are untouched because I didn’t have time to make pom poms & bunting. I guess between cleaning the house, baking, working, & sometimes sleeping… a few projects didn’t get done. I scribbled an idea of what it might have looked like. 😉

My two little “mans” didn’t seem to miss any of the fluff I had imagined making…

Before Damian was born, Kevin came up with a few names for him. One of them was, “Ocean Diver.” We kindly declined his suggestion (sounded a little too much like Jason Lee’s son “Pilot Inspektor”). We weren’t really sure what he would think of the new baby since he was used to having us all to himself for four years. On the way home from the hospital he gave his approval when he quietly announced that he “sure loved his little brother Ocean.”

Ever since then the nickname has been something of a sweet reminder of how much he surprised us by welcoming his brother, instead of demanding the attention or resenting him. “Damian Ocean” kind of reminds me of “Danny Ocean,” one of my favorite movie characters. It has stuck. Plus I enjoy the weird stares I get at the grocery store when people hear me call my kid Ocean.

With the weather being a cold, winter day (at the end of March you never know around here), we knew we’d have to squeeze the party inside. I used my bookshelf to serve some of the treats & hold the favors. The grandparents & parents wrote little messages to the kiddos & took them home. This year I ruled out anything fondant & focused on making treats that people would enjoy eating. His cake was confetti (his choice) and peanut butter frosting. I also baked Nutella whoopie pies with peanut butter cookies. The filling was homemade whipped cream + Nutella.
These beautiful flowers are courtesy of Hooray Design! Cute, right!?

I found these wooden forks & spoons on Amazon (this way I can use the extra for Damian’s July birthday party). For dinner, we had fish that my husband and Father-in-Law caught on Lake Erie. Rocky breaded them & fried them with his homemade hush puppies. It was so good. I would have pictures, but I was too hungry to have the patience to photograph any of it. Prepping for parties is exhausting 😉

My inspiration for the cake was from Kevin’s squid drawings. I tried to replicate his style with white chocolate, but I think his are better.

I adore Bakerella’s cake pops and made them a few years ago for his third birthday party. This year I took the easier route & used an ice cream scoop to shape Rice Krispie Treat Pops. Every party needs some easy-to-eat portable treats.

Shark Tattoos… the kids enjoyed them! I used Kevin’s shark plaster mold set it to make white chocolate sharks as favors for the kids (rinsed & cleaned thoroughly beforehand).

I see this angle so often, he is always “reading” something.

My mom snapped a quick Polaroid of us at the end of the night. It was a busy day but so much fun to celebrate his fifth birthday with our family!

The funny thing about birthdays, is that often the birthday child is given something that leads to a new interest. I will throw out a prediction…

Dinosaurs for his sixth birthday party? ♥

*Photograph taken by Rock Dozier

 

 

 

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