Made in Richmond

Eating my weight in peanut M&Ms.

Taking a walk in the snow with my little guy.

Getting a little flashback of ridiculous adventures of my youth during a Christmas night party with old friends. (It involved catching an owl. Don’t worry, the animal control people told us to.)

Hearing JR say “I wanna do my ornament” each evening as he added to his Advent tree.

(Yes, his Advent tree is black.)

Spending evenings watching movies and not working (even if I had to pay for it last week…and possibly this coming week)

Watching my almost 100-year-old Grandma (her birthday is on Wednesday) have a nice little chat with JR.

Seeing my little boy enjoy his wonderful Christmas gifts.

(It takes everything I am to not pull these trains out for a little therapeutic building time during JR’s naps or after he’s gone to bed.)

Being left speechless.

(That is what you think it is. I don’t think I’ll ever need another gift in my life.)

I hope your holidays were filled with nice little somethings as well. I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

(Next up: JR now sleeps in a bed. The crib is in storage at my in-laws’ house. And I’m still crying in the corner.)

(All of these images were taken with Instagram, my new most favorite thing. If you have an iPhone and you’re not on it, get on it. My user name is ValerieCatrow. Let’s be Instagram friends!)

He takes counting very seriously. Also cheese.

For some reason, I’m especially emotional these days. I’m not sad at all (or at least I’m not most of the time) — I just feel like my emotions are always *right there*.

Having access to the Internet doesn’t help matters, and I keep stumbling across things (on my own or through links posted by others) that get me choked up. So I thought I’d share them all with you! After all, who doesn’t love a good happy cry?

April and Jeremy get married

Sergeant Santa: A tribute (ok, I edited this one, but it gets me every time I read it)

In which my entire concept of God changed when they were born

It makes me so happy to see my friends with their babies. I…I can’t talk about it.

Meeting Elizabeth Edwards

There. Now you can all be complete messes like me.

*UPDATE*
No, I am not pregnant. Just a sap.

This has nothing to do with anything, it’s just one of my favorite parts of Elf, which I will be watching pretty much on a constant loop until New Year’s.

(I promise one day I’ll post something other than YouTube clips. Maybe.)

I don’t know if I’ve ever shared this before. Even if I have, it seems appropriate with it being Veterans Day.

I made it about four seconds before falling apart (but in the best possible way).

(Thank you.)

You know, it’s pretty impossible to be in a bad mood when this song comes on the radio.

As soon as I hear those first few finger snaps, all is well with the world.

Your toddler rocking OUT to it in the backseat also helps. He even tried to do all the “Whooos!”

I have a thing about flash mobs: they make me happy cry. If you’re not familiar with flash mobs, they basically involve a group of people showing up in a predetermined spot to all do something at once. Just because.

When I say flash mobs make me happy cry, I’m not talking about the flash mobs where everyone decides to freeze or whatever. I mean the ones where a group of people decide to wish their beloved bus driver happy birthday and (most of all) the ones involving lots and lots of dancing.

I came across this one today. It was organized by a woman named Kim MacGregor to honor a friend of hers who had recently passed away. Be sure to pay attention to the faces of those not involved — that’s what really gets me.

Babies on the way (not mine, but I’m going to be pretty big fans of these two)

Band of Brothers (specifically Ron Livingston)

Mamaws

Healthy friends

A new favorite blog

What about you guys? It’s happy-share-time!

Ok, I know that he was performing this to benefit the victims of the earthquake in Haiti…but MY LANDS, Mr. Timberlake is quite attractive when he sings this:

(I know it’s cut off a little bit to the right there. I have no clue what to do about that, but you get the idea.)

(And my apologies to Kristin for 1) having to hear about this again and 2) for getting this song in her head. Again.)

So we just finished season 5 of Lost.

We watched the first two seasons via Netflix a long time ago, but I lost interest at the start of season three. Ross hung on for a bit but abandoned ship around the time the writer’s strike hit.

But, knowing that the show was almost over and that people were singing its praises once again, we decided to give a second chance. We’ve spent the last couple months starting from the very beginning (which I highly recommend considering all of the craziness that goes on with it).

After spending several weeks engaging in an intense study of Sawyer’s perfection the show, I’ve made several observations that I would like to share with you. Don’t worry, no spoilers here.

1. They love the “I’m pointing a gun at you and you’re pointing a gun at me and then a gun goes off but it’s neither of ours because someone out of the shot actually fired *their* gun and now you’re dead” trick.

2. When in doubt, blame Daddy.

3. Kate sucks.*

4. All conversations must begin with “Hello, _________.”

5. Just because you’re a main character does not mean you won’t die.

6. Kate still sucks.

7. They are really good at casting the younger versions of characters (ex: young Charles Widmore and old Charles Widmore)

8. What’s up with the eyeliner, Richard?

9. Hey, Kate, way to keep going with the sucking.

10. How is that damn dog still alive?**

*The character, not the actress. I think she’s adorable.
**I have nothing against dogs. He is also adorable. But really. SO MANY PEOPLE DIE, but chubby yellow lab makes it? And mysteriously remains chubby?