Being a single mom means...

Means that I now have to put gas in my own car. No people, I had NEVER had to put gas in my car before in my 28 years of existence. Crazy enough for you? lol! I actually had my brother in law come with me the first time to teach me. I am now proud to say that I put gas in my car once a week and it doesn't even scare me anymore!

Being single also means I have to manage my own finances, YUK! I always hated it, and was more than happy to let my ex take over when we merged our finances. So far so good, I haven't missed a payment on anything, or let my account go in the red yet, let's hope I can keep this up!

It means I have to get up super early in the morning on the weeks where I have Noah if I want to have time to do my hair and make-up, because once Mister Noah is up, let me tell you, there is no getting ready! We seems to have found a morning ritual that works for both of us, which basically means that I get up at the crack of dawn every morning, get ready and only wake him once I'm pretty much ready to go. That way I only have to focus on him and getting him ready. I must say, he's pretty cooperative so far, please stay that way for maman!

Being single means I spend my saturday nights sitting alone on the couch now. Every.single.week ends. I really have to make friends with more single ladies or I might go crazy! How am I supposed to meet new people if I sit alone at home all the time?

Also means that now I know who my real friends and family are, which is not much believe me. Funny how someone can be your best friend one day, then when you are not with your spouse anymore, wouldn't give you the time of the day. What? Was I a better person because I was with him? As much as it hurts, I guess I'm better off now, I don't need people that love me only if I'm with a certain person, you either love me or you don't in my opinion.

Stay tuned for my next post '' The ups and many downs of Online dating''

Miss Shoe is back!

So, I've been going through some pretty drastic life changes over the summer. And neglected my blog just a tiny bit....

But I'm back! Only now, along with my regular subjects, I will also be blogging about life as a single mom, the ups and downs of dating, and why men suck :)

I hope that you will enjoy my new subjects, my old ones, and keep following me, even if I've been an awful blogger in the last few months!

Thanks for following me!

What a great long week end that was!

Sorry I've been a slacker lately, I've just been busy!

This week-end was our spring cleaning week-end! We got to clean everything, top to bottom! It sucks when you do it, but what a great feeling once you are done.

My mom had came over for a few days to take care of Noah while we cleaned, which was a huge help. We were fast enough to get everything done by the end of the day Saturday so we got to enjoy the rest of our week-end, woot!

Sunday we attended my cousin's little girl's baptism, and at night we made a little bondfire in our new firepit, very relaxing.

But the best part of the week-end was without a doubt, the beautiful, WARM weather. It was actually in the high 20s all week-end, very nice.

It was nice, but also quite warm, so we decided that we can't go through another summer without central A/C, so we are now shopping for a heat pump, woohoo!

Here are some pictures of Noah in his wagon for the very first time!

So, this whole anomymous thing...

Is making my blog pretty boring! What's a good blog without pictures!? So I decided to share pictures! Besides, my little man is so darn cute, what kind of mother would I be if I didn't show off pictures of him!?

So here's my little Noah, this week-end



Family picture on Mother's Day



So did anyone do anything fun this week-end? For us it was pretty low-key, Friday it was an at-home date night with hubby, Saturday was cleaning most of the day, then I had a presentation at a client's house at night. Got back around 9pm and hubby had invited my sister and husband to try our new firepit. Sunday is ALWAYS a family day in the Shoe Household, had my sister over again for dinner and then we watched the Habs get they ass handed to them by the Flyers...better luck Tuesday!

My name is Mademoiselle Shoe, and I'm an addict

I'm addicted to scarves! I just love that trend, it just dresses up the most casual outfits. Also if your wardrobe is limited, like mine is right now, if you wear a different scarf, it feels like a whole different outfit! So, I went a little overboard, my collection is now up to 20 something different scarves, and the number keeps going up, everytime I go to the store I get a new one! or two!

I just can't help myself, most of the time they are under ten dollars, so I'm like, ''oh what's 7 bucks?!'', ''oh, this one is on clearance, $2.99, score!!!'', so that's how you end up with 3 hangers full of scarves!

My husband doesn't get it, every time I get a new one he tells me, that I already have tons of them, but it's not like I'm buying the same ones, I buy different ones, to go with different outfits! Men! They don't understand fashion.

Anyone has an addiction? Please share them and make me feel like I'm not that crazy lol!

Almost a year already, really??

I'm planning my little man's first birthday party! I'm excited and sad, all at the same time. I'm happy because , I looooove to plan parties, I'm proud of how big and strong my baby is getting. But I'm sad because it means he is not a tiny baby anymore, just seems like yesterday that he was just that little not-even seven pounds baby, and now he is almost a toddler! How did that happen so fast?!

So about the party, I chose to do a jungle theme, and I'm trying to keep the guestlist short, which is pretty hard to do since we have so many people involved in our lives and most importantly, in our little boy's life. I guess it's a good problem to have lol!

Now I need to find a jungle themed cake design to give to my baker!

Random thoughts

- Why is there a light in the dryer? I mean really? Oh right, I forgot, it must be for those nights when I decide to curl up in my dryer with a good book....

- I truly believe the world would be a better place if the Handi-Snacks would come apart easily, without having to use scissors every time. I also have to admit, I try to rip them apart with my hands every.single.time, to this day I have never succeeded, maybe next time

- I only buy lottery tickets when the jackpot is super high, like 40 millions, because you know, with a new baby, my maternity leave almost over, I could NOT use 10 millions...

-As I'm typing this, I'm watching a real estate guy installing a for sale sign on my neighbors lawn, they are an older couple, with no kids, and they are kinda weird. I'm hoping they sell to a mid-twenties couple, with a kid same age group as my son, and with a mom that is a stay at home mom, oh and if she could have an addiction to shoes that would be just perfect. What??? You have to ask for a lot to get a little!

Went to see ''The Back up plan''

So instead of going of for dinner like we had planned, we choose to go for a movie instead. I convinced my husband to go see the new romantic comedy ''The Back Up Plan'', starring Jennifer Lopez. We both really enjoyed it, well, me more than him of course, but it was very funny so he liked it too.

It was a cute story, just a sit back and relax kinda movie, which I needed! I really like Jennifer Lopez as an actress, she's always cute and picks nice romantic comedies. Her co-stars was pretty easy to look at too ;) I rarely really laugh out loud for movies but there was quite a few scenes that actually made me crack up :) Especially since most of the movie is about being pregnant, and of course I could relate all too well to most stuff!

So no one will be nominated for an Academy Award for that movie but I still recommend it to everyone who wants a relaxing movie.

I give ''The Back Up Plan'' 4 shoe stars :)

Here's the trailer

I did it!

Wear high heels for an outing with the baby that is! Woot!

I packed the baby, my purse, put the heels on and off we went, I even had to park far at my accountant's office, but everything went fine! Aside from accidentaly kicking in the gravel a little with an open toe shoe, it worked just fine. I don't think I could do it for an outing where I have to walk very far but at least I can rock the heels on shorter outings.

So for all the high heels loving mamas out there, it is possible to look stylish, even after a baby.

Oh and a little bonus, I got checked out by two cute guys in suits, yay me!

It breaks my heart

It may sound silly to some of you, but it totally breaks my heart that, since I had my baby, I can't wear my heels anymore. Such a nice shoe collection, going to waste, right in my closet.

Of course nothing says that you can't wear heels once you have a kid, but when I go out with him, I just feel like I have enough to juggle, without having to worry about twisting an ankle on top of that!

I used to be known for my high heeled shoes, and now I wear flats 99.9% of the time. I think I will make that this month's goal, to be able to go out in heels again! I always managed to look half decent when I have an outing,(meaning I just don't look like a homeless person, nothing glamourous) even if it's just to the grocery store, but always in flats.

Now that my little boy is in a big boy carseat, I don't have to lug around the infant carrier, and I have eliminated the diaper bag from most of our outings, I just have a diaper and wipes in my purse at all time, so now that I only have the baby and my purse to carry, I will attempt to do it in heels, I'll keep you ladies posted on how that goes!

Finally ! We saw the sun today!

After 2 weeks of rain, cold, and wind, it finally happened, the sun came out! I got to go for a nice long walk with my little man, my friend and her little man. It felt great to finally get out of the house and get some fresh air, without having to practically run to the car to avoid being soaked.

I don't know about other people but I'm the kind of person that is affected by the weather tremendously. If we get more than one or two days of rain in a row, I get almost lethargic! I swear, all I want to do is sleep, I don't feel like getting dressed in the morning, no workouts (ok this one is not just because of the weather...), no cooking, no cleaning, but as soon as I wake up one morning and see the sun, I'm on top of the world! I could clean, workout, do all kinds of stuff, there is no stopping me! Aren't there parts of the world that get no sun for like 6 months out of the year? I would NOT do well in those places! I would be in yoga pants, eat canned stuff, and live in filth! I bet my husband is also glad that we don't live there haha.

My new shoes!

I've been eyeing these for about 2 months now, stopping in to say hi everytime I was in the mall, practically drooling at how perfect they were every time.

So today I was in the mall with my sister, and since our 10-year dating anniversary is coming up, I figured I would go in to try them on, and my sister would hint (very strongly) my husband about them. But, ::gasps::, they were gone!! They were sold out everywhere! But the nice sales lady (and my new hero) got on the phone, and found out there was one pair left in Montreal, in my size!

My plan to get my husband to think he found the perfect gift had to be modified though, I had to special order them if I didn't want them to be sold over the week-end. Oh well, instead I told him; By the way babe, I ordered my anniversary gift, you're the best, I love you! He was more than happy to not have to go shop for a gift so it was a win-win situation.

Oh and also, they were reduced to $49.99 instead of $100! I'm telling you, it was meant to be!

Crockpots

So the whole idea of the crockpot was sold to me as this wonderful way to just throw some stuff in there, have it cook all day, and come home to a nice home cooked meal. Needless to say, I rushed to the nearest Wal-Mart to get one.

Then I started looking for recipes for said crockpot, but for some reason, most of them require you to cook for 1 hour, then add something, then cook another hour, then stir a little, or cook for 3 hours... Huhhh, Hello?? Most work days are 7-8 hours, not 3, and how are we supposed to do all those steps in between? Whatever happened to just throwing stuff in there and ending up with a great, no-fuss meal? Maybe I misunderstood and we are supposed to take the crockpot to work with us? It's the only way someone could make one of those recipes that require 20 steps.

So now that I'm home most of the day I thought I would give it another shot, and I tried this recipe (Taste of Home Magazine, December 2008), it was pretty good, but I bought the wrong kind of roast by mistake, I used a rib pork roast, instead of shoulder like the recipe required. It was VERY greasy since it's a fatter kind of roast. I'm thinking it would have been better with the right cut of meat.

I would recommend to use quite a bit of salt since everything in the crockpot seems to lose its flavor.

Slow walkers

Stores need to have two lanes, a fast lane, and a slow lane. I mean really, get out of my way already! I'm a fast walker, AND I'm in a hurry most of the time, I get so aggravated with people just taking their sweet time, not caring that you are stuck behind them. I swear I'm about to install a plow on the front of my stroller!

If you have all the time in the world, I'm honestly truly happy for you, but please understand that not everyone enjoys that kind of stress-free life. I'm trying to run a house, run a business, and raise my son, so for me every minute counts, the 3 minutes I'm stuck behind you is 3 minutes that I should be doing something else. Seriously, do you not feel me breathing down your neck, do you not get the hint?

Or you also have two groups of people that thinks it's a good idea to stop and chat right beside each other, blocking the whole hallway. I seriously have fantasies of just plowing right into them with my stroller! Obviously I do stop to talk to people in the mall every now and then, but I normally try to stand on the side, so there is plenty of room for other crazy mamas trying to get their stuff done before the end of the day.

For me it's just a matter of respect, if I go just for a relaxing stroll with my husband and baby on a saturday afternoon, (most likely in a park!) but if I decide to do it in the mall, I walk either on one side or the other, so that other people can also go about their business without having to be stuck behind me.

So people, next time you are in the mall or grocerie store, and you see a tall chick, almost running, with a baby bouncing on her hip, get out of her way! And if she's wearing heels, it's most likely me so say hi! :)

Cupcakes

I can cook, but baking is a different story, with cooking you can kinda follow the recipes, add what you like, change it up and it's ok, with baking there are too many rules, you have to follow directions carefully, and it makes me nervous, so I don't do it.

The thing is, I don't like not being good at something, so I decided that I'm going to at least become a decent baker. I'm going to bake once a week and if no one dies I'll share it with my readers.

So this week's project was cupcakes, I got the recipe for 'Spring Cupcakes' from the Family Circle Magazine, April 2009 issue. It didn't look too complicated so gathered all my stuff and, once the baby was in bed, the husband gone to the gym, I baked, and it worked! I, however, had to change my plans slightly because originally I had planned to do the marshmallow frosting, but then read the instruction and wasn't too sure how to proceed, and my aunt wasn't home when I called her, so I opted for the regular frosting instead. I'm glad I did because it turned out really good and tasted yummy!

I left the frosting white but you can add food colorant to make them all cute, I just sprinkled some candies on mine .

I sent most of them at my husband's office and everyone loved them!

The recipe was easy to follow, finished product was yummy, so this week's baking mission was a successs!

My first award!!

Thank you Stacia, I was very honored that you thought that my blog was worth sharing this award with!

Check out her blog

My little man is now eating with his hands!!

I was starting to worry that he wasn't able to eat small pieces of food by himself, until my mom made me realize that I was so paranoid that he would choke on something, that I only fed him micro mini pieces...and that made it super hard for him to get it in his hand, AND put it in his mouth.

Once I realized it, I gave him a baby rice cookie, (Baby Mum Mum they are called), not crumbs this time , but an actual cookie, and in 3 seconds flat, he was eating like a big boy! All that time I was worried he just couldn't do it, turns out it was my fault! That was a few days ago and he's loving it! He gets all excited when he sees me open a package, so cute!

I'm so proud of my little man, growing up so fast!

Laundry

Our alarm system sucks, I mean we have top of the line equipment, paying for monitoring and all, and yet another family manages to sneak in and wear our clothes without it going off!! I mean, it is the only explanation I can find for us having so much dirty clothes to wash.

We are a family of three, 2 adults and a nine-month old, and somehow, I do laundry every single day, and somehow get behind every week and need to do 2-3 loads at the end of the week to catch up. What am I doing wrong? I have never seen so much dirty laundry in my life!

Or maybe my husband thinks being a stay-at-home mom is a vacation so he's trying to keep me motivated by throwing some clean clothes in there, just to give me a project?? ::looks at husband suspiciously::

Also as if keeping up with laundry wasn't enough of a task, we seem to have bought a sock eating washer/dryer. You think I'm crazy? Well explain to me why I always end up with at least 1-2 single sock then!!

I wear two matching socks, remove them both at the same time, put them both in the laundry basket, meaning I throw them both in the washer/dryer, how come half of the time only one of them make it out of the dryer alive?

I still put the now single sock, in my sock drawer, in the special '' single'' corner, in hope that one day, the other one will turn up, but every few months I have to admit defeat and I throw away all my single socks.

Please tell me I'm not alone?

My new favorite singer

New to me anyway...Joshua Radin

I never heard of him before I watched Oprah's show with Ellen and her wife Portia, they showed a clip of their wedding (GORGEOUS by the way) and I just fell in love with the song that was playing in the background. I googled it and turns out it was Joshua Radin, Today, I've been listening to it on repeat ever since.

I found lots of his work online, and just fell in love with him! I'm going to the mall tomorrow and I will definately pick up his albums. Most of his songs are just soft and easy to listen to, I just love it!

I'm almost sad I didn't discover his music, particularly his song, ''Today'', before I got married, because it would have been such a wonderful song to have played during the ceremony, but hey, there's always next time right? Just kidding!!

Here's a video of him on Ellen's show after her wedding if you want to listen to that beautiful song;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDr_gB6RryQ&feature=PlayList&p=A59E2E4BB1060A85&index=5

Traveling alone with a 9-month old- Part 2

So the 3-hour drive was pretty good, baby was fighting napping but not being fussy so I figured, once we get to my parent's house, he'll sleep in the pack 'n play. Sooo , I get home (after a brief visit to my grandma to get the house key, since I realized after 2 hours of driving, that I forgot mine home...) thought I would set up the pack 'n play first, get baby down for a nice long nap, and then I could unpack and eat.

I never needed to set up the PnP before, my husband always did it, but I thought, I'll be fine, how hard can it be...oh boys, how wrong was I to think that I could get it all set up in 5 minutes. Maybe a normal one, but apparently ours was designed by Satan! Fast forward 30 minutes later, I'm still trying to get the sides to click in place, I'm sweating buckets, my mom's dog keeps jumping up on me, baby is following me and grabbing the bottom of my pants because he's so exhausted and he wants me to pick him up, AND I keep calling my husband for some pointers (because he NEVER mentionned how hard it was to get the f***in thing to work) and he sounds like someone who never even saw the pack 'n play and can't tell me how to do get it working.

After 1 hour of trying, cursing (in hushed tones because baby is there of course), and wishing the creator of the PnP to die a horrific death, I had to admit defeat. But by now, my little man is WAY too tired to go to sleep easily, so I decided to take him to visit my mom at her office, and that he would fall alsleep in the car. He slept maybe 10 minutes in the car and then he was back to being awake, overtired , and whiny. So again, I tried for another 30 minutes to get the PnP to cooperate with me, so I could put the little one down for a much needed nap, to no avail!

Finally my mom got home from work and together, we got it to click in place, but only after another 30 minutes of huffing and pulling and cursing and trying, and pulling some more. I told my husband that night that there was no way I was taking it down the next day to go back home, the PnP will remain at my mom's house, all set up, until my sister and I have no more little kids that needs it. We will buy a cheap one for when our little man goes to my sister's to visit. By the tone of my voice, he knew better than to try to reason with me.

If you add up all the time it took me to get it done, its a whoping 2 HOURS...aren't those supposed to be designed to be easily put together???

So aside from the fact that my poor baby didn't get to nap ALL DAY, my first experience traveling alone with him was a success, I learned a few things, and I will do it again in the future if I need to!

Eddie Bauer people, if you read this, WTF??

Traveling alone with a 9-month old

Gone are the days when I was scared to go to the grocery store with my baby, now I'm a pro at going out with my boy! So when I found out I had to take a trip back to my home town for work, during the week, I figured, no problem!! No need to find a babysitter, I'll just bring my little one with me, and my mom is going to watch him once she gets home from work. The three-hour drive wasn't going to be a problem either, since he's so good in the car.

Sooo, Monday morning, baby boy wakes up, I feed him and strap him in his carseat, thinking he's going to take his morning nap in the car, since driving seems to have the effect of a sleeping pill on him. For some reason no nap, which was ok, since he's just sitting there, looking around, not fussing or anything.

Once we get passed the halfway point of our trip, all the water I have been drinking is starting to weight heavily on my bladder...like ifIdon'tpeenowimgoingtodie kinda deal. And then it struck me, how am I going to do this??? I had nowhere to put him since I had left the stroller at home, so I would have room for the pack n play in my car trunk, I didn't want to bring him in with me and make him sit on the bathroom floor, and I wasn't going to leave him in the car by himself for sure.. so for about 30 minutes I drove, and drove and drove, no rest stop in sight. I kept eyeing the plastic container I had used to bring some strawberries, now empty, I swear I seriously considered just using the container! Really the only thing that kept me from doing it was that I was scared to miss and pee allover my seat. So when finally I saw a little take-out I pulled over, I figured I could go in with the baby, and I could maybe try to hold him while sitting on the toilet. I thought that was kinda weird but hey, I had to go REAL bad. So that's what I did, I somehow lowered my pants (thankfully I was wearing yoga pants!) and sat, with him sitting on my lap. It wasn't even that hard! Later, I talked to my friend about it, also a new mom, and she told me that she does it all the time! So I guess it wasn't that weird after all!

So to all the new moms out there, it is ok, and acceptable to use the bathroom with your little one sitting on your lap, I'm telling you because I wish someone would have told me!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, for part 2 of my first trip alone with my little man

O-M-G!! Channing Tatum on Ellen

First of all, what I want to know, why didn't anyone tell me he was going to be there?? I had to learn about once it was done, by my little sister, but thankfully I found it on youtube.

So I guess he used to be a stripper, now, I've never been one for male strippers (or strippers of any gender really...) but HIM, I would have paid to see! Mium mium!!!

He even gave a lap dance to Ellen, and he's not even her type, what a waste! Although she seemed to enjoy it ;)

I know he's not the most popular actor, although he's been getting quite a few roles lately, and he's not the typically good looking guy either, but I don't know, there is something about him that just makes me drool! He's actually on my list of freebies lol!

Here a link to the youtube video if anyone is up for a little eye candy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0OObmrVAsI

Fighting Naps

How wonderful would it be to be able to nap just whenever we are tired, just like that, in the middle of the day? It would be great you'll tell me...then can someone explain to me why babies FIGHT naps so darn hard????? Don't they realize how lucky they are?

My beautiful little man got up at 9 ish this morning (after a 5 am bottle that is..) and he only decided to nap at 4:20 PM!!! He fought the morning nap for an hour before I went and got him, figured he would just sleep longer this afternoon, nope! Granted I was doing my aunt's hair this afternoon and he wasn't in his own crib (she has a crib for her grandkids and he borrows it from time to time) but still!! Normally he sleeps there no problem, but not today, he fought it until we were on our way back, then he fell asleep in the car. I transfered him in his crib once we got home and he's been out ever since.

I would be ok with skipping naps if he wasn't so fussy (which is so unlike him!), didn't he get the memo, that when you intentionally skip a nap, you are not allowed to be cranky since it's your own fault? Oh wait, 9 months old don't get memos because they can't read!

Good thing he is so darn cute, I can't stay mad for more than 2 seconds, then he smiles at me and everything is well is the world again :)

Oh well, I bet he'll sleep great tonight!

I finally did it!

I decided to create my own blog, even though I'm technologically challenged, I think I can handle it! (watch me get stuck and need one of my friend to help me figure it out.... I give it a week! lol)

I felt it would be a nice outlet for my feelings, frustrations, and random thoughts on life, shoes, and mommyhood.

::raises right hand::

I promise to try to keep it interesting, real, and not let it become all about giveaways, reviews and popularity!