2010... Happy New Year!

I realize it's been months since my last entry. As good of intentions that I have with this blog, it seems to fall by the wayside. I am still around, and we are doing well. I do hope 2010 is a MUCH better year than 2009 was, though.

Let's start the new year with some resolutions. I have a few.

1. Not spend so much money eating out... make meals at home and take them to work. Try not to spend money on things that aren't absolutely necessary.

2. Get more scrapbooking and crafting done. Like the blog, I always have the best of intentions to get some pages or projects done when the little guy goes to bed. But by the end of the day, I am too beat to get out my crafting stuff. I just need to find the energy somewhere and get to it!

3. Get some exercise. You would think that would mean going to the gym and all that. But I'm actually going to cancel my Y membership since I never go. I have a perfectly nice neighborhood to walk around, some exercise and yoga DVDs, and space in my living room to work out. And I'll be saving $38/month. Which will in turn go directly to my recently upped car insurance premium. Another story for another time.

4. Hopefully get pregnant sometime this year. Again, another post altogether.

5. Spend more quality time with my little guy. Whether it be lining up cars, play doh at the kitchen table, reading books, coloring or watching a show, I just want to enjoy him and the wonderful little 3 year old guy that he has become. He is so entertaining and I don't know where he comes up with half of what he says.

6. Read a lot more.

Those are just a few of the things I hope to accomplish and stick to this year. So far, so good. Hope everyone had a great holiday season and that you all are looking forward to 2010 as much as I am.

Weekend, finally! And Mother's Day.

Happy early Mother's Day to all of my readers, wherever the two of you are. :) Only kidding. Hope everyone has a great weekend and that you are all much appreciated as mothers. It's not an easy job, but it's a good one!

Has this been the longest week ever, or is it just me? I am ready to get started with my weekend. I am going to clean the house (shocker), take little man to get his hair cut, hopefully get mine cut too, and do some scrapbooking. I'm really into that lately. This is the best store ever for scrapbooking stuff galore...



I am so lucky that we have the only Archiver's store in NC about 10 minutes away from my house. I am sure my husband and my checkbook don't think it's so lucky, but they both like me to be happy, so there you go.

I have some cute pictures of my little guy to show everyone, so maybe one day I'll get around to putting them on the blog or Facebook. Have a good one everybody!

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a good one. We sure did. My family came into town on Thursday afternoon and we had lots of quality time. Little man loves Grammy and Auntie and of course, they spoil him rotten. The Easter Bunny's visit looked more like Christmas!



We shopped a lot of the weekend, and ate good food, both at home and out. We visited husband's mom in Rocky Mount on Easter Sunday. We also went to church, tried a different Catholic church in Raleigh - St. Raphael's. We really liked it, though we had to stand in the back because they were super crowded. All the Catholics come out for Christmas and Easter. Including yours truly. I must work at getting to church more, especially for the little man's sake. Speaking of little man, he is learning to do the sign of the cross... SO cute.

I am slammed at work and unfortunately came home early today with a stomach bug. Hope I can get in there tomorrow and catch up. I'm way to busy for this crap. Later y'all.

Mellow Mushroom!

Why are we so excited about a pizza restaurant, you ask? Because it's so freaking good!! And it's right up the street from us in Wake Forest! We don't have to go downtown Raleigh anymore to enjoy Mellow Mush. When we found out it was coming to town, we swore that we would go on opening night. Husband took the night off work and everything. It was excellent, they really had their stuff together. I was a little worried going on opening night, seeing as they haven't had time to work out the kinks and all, but it was great. Service and food were great, we had to wait a few minutes but they got it in there pretty quickly.

Just got done paying bills (ugh) and getting ready to go to bed. Can you believe it's already almost April?

What's the "Harward Helper"?

In addition to being a catchy title for our blog, the term "Harward Helper" actually has a story behind it. For those who don't know him, my husband is quite the comedian. I can hold my own as far as being funny, but he is pretty hilarious. With that being said, he's also a bit more relaxed than I am in general. Said husband was also a fan of wrestling growing up, you know, WWE and all that. One day, I happened to get a little worked up concerning some housework or something that needed to get done pretty quickly. Apparently while explaining to husband what needed to be done, I got a little flustered and frustrated and started to hold my hands out in front of me, shaking them as I spoke. I probably said something to the effect of "Please. Please help me." Complete with voice sounding like I'm close to tears. Hopefully you get the picture.

Anyway, during my pleading for help, the comedian starts acting like he's announcing a wrestling match and says this:

"Watch out folks, she's coming out with the Harward Helper! Oh man, she takes him down with the Harward Helper! He's out! The Harward Helper strikes again!"

Needless to say, I started laughing and the Harward Helper was born. I reserve it for special occasions, like when I really need help. And then husband knows I really mean it. Sometimes I only do it with one hand. This means the task or whatever is going on doesn't quite warrant the original Harward Helper, but I need a little more than just my words to back up my request for help.

So there you go, that's how the Harward Helper got its name. Funny, right?!

Oh, I went to Target again today. I think I have a problem. Actually, I had to return a drawer organizer that I bought yesterday because it didn't work with our silverware, so I did have a reason to go. And I bought more groceries, other stuff we needed for the week. Of course, I had to get a decaf skim iced mocha from Starbucks to drink while walking around. Some things are necessary, ok?

Now, I will profess my love for Target.

I made my weekly trip to Target today and reaffirmed the fact that I do indeed love that store.

"My" Target is a Super Target, which means you can get groceries there, as well as all of the other useless yet necessary items you can buy at a regular Target. I've even started getting my prescriptions there, I love it that much.

First and foremost, I got these today.



How cute are they, right?! Then I got a black track jacket because I liked the red one I bought last week so much. I'd put a picture of it on here but I can't find one on the website. They also make the best cami/tanks there too, I think it's under the Merona label. Anyway, they fit really good and don't have that lame shelf bra inside them. It might work for some, but for me it's a joke.

So after I got all of this fun stuff that I didn't need, I set out to get some of the grocery items I actually went in there for. All this in under an hour!

Hope everyone has some big plans for the weekend. I don't, but I'm kind of glad about that. Enjoy the rain and see y'all next week. I do believe I'm on a roll or something!

2009 so far...

In one word, sucks.

Let me list all of the fun and exciting things that have been going on in the Harward's lives since January 1, 2009.

1. The Mr. crunched his front bumper in a parking garage on New Year's Eve. Morning, mind you. No alcohol was involved. I realize this happened on the last day of 2008, but I count it as the start of our series of unfortunate events.

2. Yours truly gets speeding ticket #2 in less than 6 months. I had never had a speeding ticket in my life till last August, and then here comes another one. I didn't even look at it this time, just stuffed it in my purse and went about my business.

3. On the coldest weekend this year, on a sunny Saturday morning (January 17th to be exact), a pipe in our neighbor's town home bursts and floods our half bath, coat closet and half of our living room. Little man and I were at Target and Home Depot for about 2 hours, came home about 12:30 PM and heard water running outside our neighbor's house. I thought maybe she left her faucet dripping outside... wrong. We walk into our house and see about 1" of water, which little man runs right through without a clue. Long story short, it could have been a lot worse, but it was a real pain in the ass. It took about a month to get everything fixed. Or so we thought...

4. Little man falls between the coffee table and the couch at the end of February and breaks his collarbone. Are you kidding me? I've never even broken anything, but my 2 year old has. He is fine and his "bone", as he likes to say, is healing nicely. And he wore a little sling for about a week before he was just to busy to bother with it anymore.



5. A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law went to the emergency room and they then admitted her to ICU, where she has remained for almost 3 weeks. I won't go into all the details, but she is improving. She also has a long way to go, so all thoughts and prayers are appreciated.

6. Yeah, you know how we thought everything from the Flood of '09 was fixed? Well, in order to replace the hardwood floors in our entryway and half bathroom, the workers had to take out the toilet. At one point it was in our front yard, which I thought was pretty funny, but I digress. Apparently the builder hadn't installed the toilet properly when our place was built, so these guys supposedly "fixed" it. I look at the bathroom floor yesterday and notice that both sides of the floor at the base of the toilet are wet. Looks like they have been wet for a while, and we hadn't noticed. Great. Calls to the fix-it guy have not yet been returned, which makes me even more happy!

Life is not all bad though. We have our health and a roof over our head, and our sweet baby boy has turned into a mischievous 2.5 year old who talks a lot. Non-stop, in fact. He has his moments, but is the best little guy we could ask for.

Ok, I'm watching "Milk" so let me get back to that. Hope to update more than once every 6-8 months. :) Don't give up on me, readers!