Shelby Love

Well it happened, Tuesday night my BFF called me to let me know Wednesday morning (her actual due-date) at 6am she was having labor induced!

I couldn't get out of work until about 2:30 but when I did I high-tailed it to the hospital to find the mommy-to-be only 4 cm after HOURS of labor! Luckily she had an epidural and was pretty cozy by the time I got there! 

Megan and our friend Ashley 

At 9pm when Megan still hadn't progressed more than 4cm and had been in labor for 15 hours already they made the tough decision to go cesarean. 

Going to meet Shelby!

We were all shuffled out to the waiting room to wait for about 45 minutes before Kenny; the proud daddy rushed into the waiting room to confirm what we already knew...

ITS A GIRL!

(she's got her mama's nose and cheeks!)

Shelby Diane
March 30, 2011

7.15 lbs, 21 inches long 

Mommy and Baby were both great - although we did find out the cord was around Shelby's neck so its a good thing they went C-section before she got too stressed out! 

We each got to spend a few moments one on one while they were in recovery but they needed their rest so no one stayed long.

Ben and I went back today and hung out at the hospital for a few hours.

Big Baby Feet!

Hanging with her Auntie Am for the first time

Clearly she was thrilled-look at that yawn!

Not quite a natural but we'll get him there someday!

Showing Little Miss Shelby how to take the one armed angle down pictures and look good-but all she had to do was lie there- the camera loved her!

I just want to squeeze that little face!!!

May not be ready for my own yet, but I'm sure thrilled to meet this little girl! I of course have friends that have children but this girl has been my closest friend since I was 6 years old....more like family than friends really and I'm so excited to watch her take on her new role as a mother and to be a part of Shelby's life as she grows up - I'm just about as proud as I can be! 

So this has been my contribution to all the baby posts that have been springing up lately - and until I have my own ( and lets be honest - probably even after) you're going to be seeing a lot more of this little baby face! 

Much Love Always!

Miss Amber Lane

Week's End

Hallo Poppets!


Its been a few since I've visited but here I am again (on Friday..imagine that).


This week hasn't really been terribly eventful. Over the weekend I dined at a winery with Emily and had lunch with my fam. for both of my nephew's birthdays.


 Then Monday rolled around again as it always seems to do and it was back to business as usual. 


Tuesday I finally decided to bite the bullet and formally sign-up for Weight Watchers on-line. I was sick of guessing the new Points Plus plan and decided if I ever want to lose the last 8 lbs that I better hop to. Its been a successful week in my opinion. I've earned activity points everyday with 2 Zumba classes and a nice long walk. I've stayed within my points or earned Activity points everyday and still have a full count of Anytime points to play with over the weekend- which is good because Jen is coming into town and I'm planning to drink a fair amount of those points. I know. I drink too much wine. But I love it!


My weigh in day will be on Saturday even though my points aren't going to roll over until Monday. I like to start my weekend off with the hard truth so I can decide how to approach my Anytime points. 


Ok well, I guess that's about all I have for now. I'm hoping how have a positive report after weigh in tomorrow! 


For now I leave you with a little questionnaire snagged from Just Jinny @ A Girl in the Real World


Have a great weekend everyone!

A-Age: 26

B-Bed size: Queen, our room couldn't fit anything bigger

C-Chore you hate: Dishes- we don't have a dishwasher - NIGHTMARE!!

D-Dogs: Nada, zilch, zero

E-Essential start to your day: Starbucks Venti Iced Coffee, no classic, 4 splenda, and soy milk! 

F-Favorite Color: PINK!

G-Gold or Silver: Silver when it comes to jewelery 

H-Height: 5'3

I-Instruments you play: Flute and I sing..I also dappled in the melophone but I sucked at that!

J-Job title: Activity Director and Concierge Supervisor 

K-Kids: No, and at the stage in 20 something life where even being around most kids makes me cringe.

L-Live: Suburbia 

M-My mom's name: Georgeanna

N-Nickname: Ru-Way, Berlane, Ambie, Boo Box, Am

O-Overnight hospital stay: Nope, not for myself at least

P-Pet Peeve: People who are late and will call you to tell you they are going to be late exactly at the time you are supposed to meet and you are already there and have no choice but to just sit there and wait because you are already there!

Q-Quote from a movie: "Ok so you're probably thinking, is this like some kind of Noxema commercial or what?! But actually I have like a totally normal life for a teenage girl, I mean I get up, brush my teeth, and pick out my school clothes."

R-Right/Lefty: Right

S-Siblings: 2 older sisters

T-Time you wake up: The alarm goes off at 7am but I make no promises on that one!

U-Underwear: Always cute

V-Veggies you dislike: ? I really love vegetables...do water cress nuts count as vegetables

W-What makes you run late: If I can't decide what to wear

X-Xrays you've had: Ankles numerous times

Y-Yummy food you make: = Everything I make turns out yummy

Z-Zoo animals: Monkeys!!

St. Patrick's Day Times Three: The Same Outfit A Different Body!

You may recall from this post that last year I did a comparison of my St. Patrick's Day photos from 2009 to 2010 and was really geeked to see that I was beginning to make some weight loss progress at the time. Well its 2011 and once again I donned my hair bows, green top, and shamrock suspenders so I figured it was time for another comparison!

2009

At one time I LOVED this picture (even though I cropped it so my whole body wasn't in)

2010

Starting to see some progress - I had lost about 15 lbs by this point and this was the first comparison I could do with pics of me in the same outfit!

2011

Not at Lifetime goal yet (5-8 yet to go) but 60 lbs gone! I'm a new woman!

And the joy is written all over my face!

In case you wondered Bennyboo rocks the suspenders too!

Me and My Girl

Will thinks its appropriate to wear blue on St. Patty's ..pinch him!

Ok...he did at least come with gold coin dollars...that's pretty bad ass on St. Patrick's Day- no pinches!

Hope your St. Pats were a blast!

Much Love Always!

Mrs Amber Lane 

Some of my Favorite South Beach Pictures: Emily's Camera Edition

Waiting to Board The Plane 

Checking the time: Time to go to Miami yet? 

Emily trying to get a shot of herself with the ocean in the background. Instead she got me trying to see my phone!

Emily and I Outside the Fountainbleau Hotel

Jess and I at Blue Bar in The Fountainbleau

Emily at Blue Bar

Emily and I on our way to catch the bus!

The bus ... sucked.

Ready to hit up Mansion

All three of us before leaving for Mansion 

Taxi to Mansion

My favorite part of Mansion? The pink stripper monkey!!!

What exactly is happening here? Video to come!

Not bad for 4 something in the morning huh?

Me headed towards South Beach

So Lovely

Me at Nikki Beach

Emily in front of The Colony -where we stayed the last night

Me in front of The Colony - no makeup, ready for bed to catch our 4am taxi to the airport!

There are so many more but uploading pics takes FOREVER! These are just some of my faves from the ones I have saved at work from the disc Emily made me! 

Much Love Always!

Mrs. Amber Lane

I'm not going to lie to you. Fridays at my work have turned into a bit of a joke. The joke is that I'm actually here. 

The first part of the day the residents swarm the hairdresser who only keeps Friday hours. They buzz about outside the salon and refuse to leave their spot in the line in fear that someone will jump in front of them and get their cut in curl 15 minutes earlier. They WILL NOT (for the most part) participate in Activities with me on Friday morning - so I threw in the towel and went ahead and put Hair Salon on their calendar . So what do I do Friday mornings?

Well, here I am.

Perhaps I will actually have a few moments to hack out an actual update.

• First of all. After I returned from vacation I changed offices.Remember how when I transfered I went from a glorious hard wood floored activity SUITE to a desk squeezed in by a copier? Well, two weeks ago I finally found a happy medium. Its an actual office - with a door - that locks. After a few months of copy machine adjacency I am in 7th heaven. And since I now have a glorious door I can shut it and find time to catch up on things (including blogs) in peace. Something I haven't been able to do since November. Its lovely. 
• Speaking of work: things are finally leveling out after the sale and transition. Things are definitely working out in my favor financially. I've taken on another "position" in addition to being the Activity Director which has also increased my salary slightly. I am now also the Front Desk supervisor. Meaning I hire, schedule, staff all of our concierges. It was a source of much stress when I first returned from vacation because I literally accepted the task the day I left for Florida and that same day one of the concierges announced she was leaving for another job (not related to my taking the supervisory position TYVM). So I returned to a vacant spot that I had to staff by the skin of my teeth. It worked out though. 

Me at my desk Monday morning. Not a great picture but I know how boring posts with no pictures can be so here ya go!

• Speaking of the door to my office from the earlier bullet point - the minute I forget to lock it people just barge on in, scare the crap out of me, and bust me not working! Not that this person was my boss - or that I'm in trouble-  but now let be known I slack off on Fridays lol!
• I have not done so well with working out and/or eating well since I've been back from Florida. I may be up a lb or 2 but its hard to tell since I fluctuate so much from day to day any way. I'm very thankful that I've essentially maintained through the holidays and the bulk of the winter. Especially since WW got all sassy and changed to Points Plus completely revamping their entire Point System. I believe in the changes they've made but I was not a "member" before - meaning I used all things that I found on the internet and apps to track points and things. Well when WW changed I no longer had access to pertinent information therefore Point counting basically ceased. I'm thinking if I want to continue to be successful with loss (if I want to get this last 5-8 lbs off) I'm going to have to bite the bullet and join. I also have been jonesing to get outside for work outs and the weather has just SUCKED - unfortunately that has been my excuse to not work out for weeks. 

My planner open on my desk a few days ago. Left side my schedule. Right side trying to track what I ate! Also you can see I PLANNED to go to Zumba Tuesday but I never made it!

• Friendship Realization. This has been hard lately. I have spring fever bad and all I want to do is go out and play. Doesn't have to be a lot or a crazy night out - just want to be around people and do SOMETHING!!! Well Ben works all day Saturday and usually gets off late Friday night. Emily usually does too. And then the crickets start chirping. I have other friends sure. One in California, one in Louisiana, one in the hick sticks of Indiana, and one who is about to give birth. Those are my closest 5 girlfriends. So basically if Emily doesn't want/is not available to do things ... I'm on my own. It seems as though all of my other friends are busy parenting and living a very domestic (read: stay at home) life. And while that makes sense - it bums me out. I'm not ready for that life yet. So what do I do in the meantime and with whom? I'm thinking of taking up a class. Creative writing or something to meet some new people. Its hard after being out of school for so long though. Where do you meet new people?

Well, I've been here long enough now I suppose to fill you in on at least the thoughts in my head this Friday morning. Hope you all had a great week and an even better weekend! I'm still hoping to come back in full force very soon. Just takes.....what's the word again? Oh! Motivation.

Much Love Always!

Mrs. Amber Lane

10 On Tuesday

I have so much to write about but since I can't seem to find a good place to start I thought I would just fill in the blanks! 

10 on Tuesday stolen from Amber @ A Little Pink in the Cornfields

1. How did your parents decide on your name?

I was named after the title character in the novel Forever Amber ; Amber Sinclair - if it weren't for that book my name would be Marci (gag) 

2. Do your initials (First, Middle, Last) spell out anything fun/funny? 

ALL was my maiden name and in middle school I used to say I was, "ALL that and a bag of chips" ( because I was lame) Now its ALS and all I can think of is ALS Toy Barn from Toy Story!

3. Did you take your middle name from childhood or did you take your maiden name as your middle name? (If unmarried, what do you plan to do?)

I took my husbands last name and kept my middle name the same. I feel like my middle name is as much a part of me as my first name I would feel weird without it- and its also a family name. My mom never had a middle name so she took her maiden name as her middle name when she married.

4. Are you or will you name your children thematically (ie. same first letter, all of same origin…)

I might- I'm Amber and my husband is Ben so I thought maybe we could continue the alphabet but then I thought that's dumb because for the most part none of the baby names I like would follow suit and that would be a dumb reason to name a baby something you don't love. More lately I've thought having all As and Bs might be cute because there are several names I like that begin with those letters.

5. Did you decide on baby names as a little girl? Did you stick to them or change your mind?

Sort of. I have a laundry list of names that I love but I'm not sure that I came up with them when I was a little girl or later. I shall share (Middle names are in () ): Girls: Autumn (Lane), Addison (Rose), Bridgette (Audrey) Jolie (Georgeanne) I also like the middle name Grace Boys: Lane, Gabriel, Christian, Dominic, Caleb, Aiden

6. Does your family have any names that have been passed down through generations?

Lane. My grandma's middle name - my middle name - a future middle name of a girl or first name of a boy for me!

7. Do you look at the meaning of the name or just the name itself?

I look at the name's meaning definitely. For example I love the name Addison but it means: Daughter of Adam. Adam was the name of a boy I dated who almost killed me; emotionally and literally. I don't know if any child of mine can have a name that literally translates to daughter of Adam.

8. Do you name pets with human names (Sally, Henry) or with pet names (Fluffy, Mr. Bo Bo)? 

Five cats two have "human" names: Izzy and Zoey. The other 3 are Bryndel, Rennie, and BG Snugs.

9. Are there any names that you have an affinity or dislike for based on a childhood experience/someone you once knew?

See above on Adam. I also don't like the name Maria, Mary, Chrissy and I'm sure if I really thought about it there would be more.

10. What are some of your favorite names? Why?

See above! On another note about names..with a last name like Smith any child we have must have a name that will be strong and stand on its own. 

Megan's Baby Shower

Today was Megan's Baby Shower. I've been working my buns off putting this shindig together and it finally came ... and went. Everything came together awesomely. My mom has most of the photos and hasn't posted them yet but here are just a couple from today:

Megan and I before her guests arrived

The girls that go WAY back...We've known each other a LONG time - most of us since elementary school. I'm glad we keep in touch and still come together to celebrate!

That's all for now! Tune in to the Oscars tonight. My bro-in-law did the artistic design for God of Love nominated in the short film category! Good luck to Casey!!!

Much Love Always!

Mrs. Amber Lane