Too Many Books

Blog Photo Review: A visually stimulating two years August 31, 2008: knot = tied Got Hitched I adored every single inch of my modern wedding... rooftop ceremony, reception in an urban space overlooking a glass-blowing studio.. all the purple and yellow and black and white... the way I looked... the euphoria of pulling off the event... love is grand, but a kick-ass wedding is, too. Sept. 2008: Fish outta water! Honey, moon me... Hubs and I spent the week in Myrtle Beach, SC and were there for Tropical Storn Hanna. Not a highlight: super hard wind and rains. Definitely a highlight: forcing my new husband to take my photograph on the beach, me sportin' my wedding dress, even though our wedding took place back in Louisville.  November, 2008 I spy a Hoosier!  Floor Seats in Assembly Hall, Bloomington Yeah, we played nobody IUPUI. It was still top-ten on my most awesome life-experience list. Summer 2009: Got a new ride. I drove all night... to get to you. Her name

(Preface: I didn't think I was going to have the strength to blog about this, but since what doesn't kill our babies makes them stronger...) Two weeks have slipped by since our first day home with Stella. A couple of hours ago, hubs headed back to his job. (My mom took this week off from her job and is coming over to help me -- I think the plan is that she will entertain Stella while I clean up around the house. Part of me wishes she would do the cleaning up while I do the baby-holding, but it's her birthday today so I guess I'll let it slidespice.) Um, anyway... I digress. (I'm stalling.) So, I have one of those super-stylin' My Brest Friend pillows, which straps around me like a fanny pack slash inner-tube... I just lay the babe on it and whip out the boobage... It pretty much rocks. Well, I'd gotten kind of confident using that pillow because I had it with me in the hospital. So, for instance, if I... say, dropped the remote or something, I woul

Cute mobile; not the same as the photo on the website! When I got the opportunity to receive a free item from csnbaby.com, I knew that I wanted to find a mobile to accent my modern nursery. The Lambs & Ivy Madison Avenue Musical Mobile looked like the perfect addition. When the package arrived, I was a little crestfallen at first. The mobile I received was not exactly the same as the one in the photo on csn. The mobile I expected to get was brown, tan, and white -- the mobile that came was brown, pink, white and yellow. I realized that the mobile shown in the product photo is actually the Lambs & Ivy Park Avenue Style. I considered returning the item and getting what I wanted, but decided that it still looked great and kept it to avoid any hassle. Plus, since I received it at no cost for doing the review, I figured there was no reason to be complaining. My husband easily installed it on the side of our crib. Our newborn doesn't sleep in her crib yet, but we love to p

merry christmas from amber and stella murphy may joy be yours today and always.

I spent a good part of the nine months I was pregnant being a little miffed that I would have a December baby. I spent the better part of late November and early December just wishing she would getherealready... so her birthday wouldn't be dreadfully close to Christmas every year. I prayed that I wouldn't go past my due date and end up in the hospital for Christmas. I wasn't that excited about having a "Christmas baby." Then she arrived and none of that mattered anymore. It is a special time of year to have a baby... and the hospital looked beautiful with winter decorations, Christmas trees, lights. More, in those quiet moments alone with Stella, when I looked into her eyes, I felt like saying thank you to a Big Man Upstairs -- one whom I'm not even sure I always believe in.   On our last day at the hospital, the most wonderful thing: I was walking back from the nursery and I heard voices behind me -- the voices of a choir singing. I started to boing!

my little polka-dot-peanut For first time parents, bringing home a little bundle of joy from the hospital is a big milestone. I'm sure that every parent can recall this emotional event -- the fear you felt getting behind the wheel. Is the car seat installed correctly? Is her head tilted too far to the left? Maybe we should turn up the heat a little more! Yes, this beautiful moment is marked with just a bit of anxiety, isn't it? When we brought Stella home on Thursday, December 16th, we were feeling like every other new parent: scared out of our wits! We had some bonus stress: Louisville was covered in a blanket of sparkling ice. The sleet and freezing rain had come as expected Wednesday night, and cars and trees and ground were all coated in a crystal glaze. Schools and businesses were closed -- even the bank where I work (when I'm not busy bringing new life into the world) was on a two hour delay. We didn't leave the hospital until late afternoon, and after

Stella Claire Murphy 12/14/2010 5 pounds 12.9 oz 19.25 inches long Birth Story: not for the weak-bellied Monday night, Dec. 13th -- I went to bed around midnight. Monday night became Tuesday morning, December 14th... at 2:30 a.m. I woke up with searing pain in my thighs and lower back. I decided to try to go back to sleep because we'd just been to the hospital 2 nights before with a false alarm and I did not want to be the pregnant woman who cried wolf. I got out of bed at 3:30a.m. and started coffee. I sat through an hour of contractions that were spaced 4-6 minutes apart. The pain was so different than what I expected -- I thought it would feel like a fist clenching and unclenching in my groin. Nopers. More like someone poured kerosene on my kidneys and then intraveiniously pumped it into my thighbones as well. At 4:45 a.m. I went and sat on the edge of the bed -- hubby's side -- and made him aware of our situation. He'd heard me moaning and figured I was up questio

I started a post and scrapped it... it was titled: "TMI Thursday, Monday Edition: Childbirth Photos." Then I was going to write "PSYCH!!" as my opening line. Anyway... Blog world, she's here! Please help me welcome: Stella Claire Murphy 12/14/2010 5 pounds 12.9 oz 19.25 inches long A few things: yes, she's almost 7 days old already... sorry this post is delayed but I have been busy sacrificing my body, boobs, and bedtime for another human life. Plus, if you've befriended me on facebook, you already knew! Still, as a reward for your patience, I will post a few photos of this December darling (and a few of them aren't on facebook yet... so they are super special.) You'll have to settle for captions tonight, but I promise there are stories to tell -- get ready for TMI's out the vagina wah-zoo. please note: she doesn't sleep here yet. Once she does, the crib will be empty of toys and other such hazards. (Musings of Amber Murp

Lost my mucus plug yesterday. Word. (If you know about those, then you know how TMI that is. If you don't know, then google it.) (Hubs came up with a pretty decent descrption of it, though... "It looks like you blew your nose after you had a bloody nose.") (I'll pause for regurgitationspice.) Still no baby, though. I'm six measley days from my due date on December 16th, and I'm starting to feel like a beached whale. No, not just a beached whale: an impatient beached whale. I'm 1 cm dialated/ 50% effaced as of my last appointment. What is she waiting on?! Christmas?!

I shouldn't even be allowed to blog anymore because of the irregularity of my posts and my lack of keeping up with my reader. Still... here goes. A post! How novel! Top Ten Pregnancy FAILS (my due date is December 16th... about two weeks and two days to go!) 1.) Secretly, the car seat is still in the box. 2.) Secretly, so are the stroller, pack and play, and high chair. And the crib is still in transit and coming via Fed Ex. 3.) Secretly, my bag for the hospital is only half-packed. So is the baby bag. 4.) Secretly, I only have four pairs of pants that still fit, and only three of those fit comfortably. 4.5) What are jeans? I've forgotten. 5.) Secretly, I don't plan on buying Christmas gifts for anyone under the age of seven this year. 6.) Secretly, I've considered wrapping baby clothes and other pre-purchased items to give my baby gal on Christmas morning. And I might fill her stocking with little nursery necessities from the now-stocked changing ta

Did I ever tell you about my bachelorette party? It was THE best night. First, I looked hotspice. Ohhh, I miss skinny Amber! Circa 2008. Secondly, there was this: I love how it looks like I'm in an empty room. There were PLENTY of other ladies there who, I might add, ALSO got flipped around. Okay, so, obvi... my bachelorette party was second to none. There are no words. It was an amazing night. (I credit the dress.) Simultaneously, hubs was embarking on his bachelor party. The boys were on the way to play paintball in an RV... on loan from the parents of one of the guys. They stopped for gas, and the guy in question filled up the tank. With diesel. The RV didn't take diesel. The guys were stuck there for quite some time, in the July heat, waiting on a ride... Long story short, they FINALLY got to play paintball, then went to Diesel-boys house and cleaned up and cooked out, and then ended the night at the Casino Boat across the river from us in Indiana. No strip

The first thing you should know is that I'm getting my air ducts and carpets cleaned today. So, as I sit here and write this, there is a Sears man running around my house. I keep wondering if he's going to sneak up behind me and see the words "preggers or porn." Anywaddle. I've been promising to explain  Preggers or Porn?  for, like, a week and a half now. It was a super-fun baby shower game. A few weeks before the event, my shower hosts chose pictures of women from various websites of ill-repute and inter-mixed those with pictures of women in labor... there was a ton of cutting and pasting and cropping of photos involved to turn this fantastic idea into a semi-classy baby shower game. The host -- my good friend and also a 7th grade Math teacher -- put it all together in a professional-looking power point presentation. At the shower, she handed out dry erase boards (ones she uses in her classroom, actually...) and powered up her lap top, and the guests had

Awhile back, Ashley at A Matter of Opinion started working with CSN Stores -- CSN has over 200 online stores where you can find lovely items for your home -- like modern extra tall bar stools or quality, affordable cookware. Or, if you're like me... if you don't cook dinner but are cooking a baby-bean... you can scour the internets for hours and hours looking at CSN Baby. Anywaddle, ( <-- pregnancy sound effect) Ashley has paved the way for me to work with CSN Stores, too -- and I'm excited that I will soon be reviewing a product on my very own little blog! I have been looking for a lamp for the nursery, as hubs and I have very little overhead lighting in our home... so I can't wait to receive the lamp below in the mail from CSN! P.S.  Musings of Amber Murphy is now accepting any and all offers which include gratis-baby-plunder. This is going to look sooo perfect in the nursery. Let there be Lightspice! So, stay tuned for my review... coming soon.

What I've done today: * Made a list of things I still need to do * Drank my daily allotment of coffee (sadly, 1.5 small cups) * Organized the baby loot Bath Items. Kitchen Aisle. * Ordered a few a massive amount of baby things from Target online What I should be doing: * Completing the tape-the-nursery-walls since my mom and mother-in-law are coming over tomorrow afternoon to help paint! And since I told said mother-in-law that we've already finished taping... whoops! Remember the M & M people?! They've been primed-over. Hubs cried. He said the yellow one ended like Old Yeller. * Finishing the cleaning of the living room, then obsessively scrubbing the laundry room to complete my deep clean. * Spot cleaning the rest of the house, as to keep it clean now that my "deep clean" is basically complete. * Taking the final--ish load of giveaways to Goodwill * Going to the daycare I chose... to pay my deposit and, also, begging to God I

Pardon my almost-month-long blogging hiatus. See, I had this dream that I wouldn't become a mommy-blogger, but that idea, my friends, was for the birds. I'm less than six weeks away from my due date, and there is absolutely nothingspice else on my mind but getting ready for baby. I'm off work again this week, and thankful that I hoarded my vacation time so that I can continue with my borderline OCD nesting. (Ohhh, you guys didn't get to hear about that week when I was off work in mid-October, did you?! I spent the entire week cleaning my house. I'm talking wall scrubbing. Every inch of wall space. It took me 2.5 days to do the kitchen.) Today: I tackle the living room. But, before I get started I wanted to pop in to say that I miss EACH one of you so much!! I am unforgivably (but, understandably) behind in my google reader. I can't wait to catch up on your lives! Before I go, enjoy these preggo pictures. I know you'll just love to see how much I'

I love my mother. I do. She has her little quirks, though. For instance, she "doesn't know how" to pump gas. Literally, she doesn't ever do it. My dad takes her and fills her car up weekly... or as needed. Obviously, we give her a little hell for it on the regular. So, while my mom and I were in Bloomington visiting my rehab-ridden-grandma, I knew I would be on tank duty. My mom pulled into a gas station and tried to nagivate her way up to the pump, totes preoccupied with the task at hand. ("Is my gas tank on this side, Amber?!") Well, I wasn't paying attention, because I was in hysterics when I saw  this place of business: Doggie Styles: A Canine Salon. So, I was all, "Mom... do you see that?! That is so funny !!" And she wasn't really paying attention, because it's "hard" to pull up to a gas pump. So, she giggled in agreement... and I still couldn't stop howling. "Mom, that pet groomer is called Dog

Squack!! I think I am officially nesting, since I spent most of my Monday-bank-holiday cleaning. I decided to start in the back of the house and I seriously spent THREE hours cleaning our bedroom. I started with a dry cloth and wiped down every inch of wall space -- carefully using a step-ladder to reach the top -- and then followed with a wet towel. (I must have switched out my bucket of hot water at LEAST ten times.) As I worked my way around the room, I used the vaccuum attachment-thingy to get every cob-web. I dusted each inch of the furniture, which I hubs moved as I went. I wiped baseboards. I vaccuumed behind and under everything. I even removed the cobwebs from the insides of our closets. Who knew they were even there?! (Here's the reason I know I'm nesting: I secretly really enjoyed myself the entire time.) Next up: the guest bedroom, which is probably even dirtier since our dog hangs out in there. In Color News: We bought paint! I'm on vacation n

You know how all the cool kids say "FML" now? (In case you didn't know, that stands for "fuc "profanity my life.") Well, for the last week or so I've caught myself saying it under my breath, but because it's so crass, I've been adding an A on the end. Imagine it: I just dropped something, and I have to bend over to pick it up. (The pregnant belly does not love these moments.) So, I look at the item on the floor, sigh heavily and say, "FMLA." I, personally, think it's hilar. I told my co-worker about it today and I was all, "Yeah! I've been sitting on that for like a week, just entertaining myself in my own mind." I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm off my rockerspice.

1. Autumn Leaves. Photo: Zest-pk via flickr I just love when the leaves change colors... my mom used to make the family go on drives to nowhere --  just to look at the pretty trees. (I did not love it back then.) 2. Cider Beer (oh, wait... that was last year.) Photo: randomduck via flickr 3. Hot Apple Cider Photo: kthread via flickr  I want to drink somespice... of that spiced cider. 4. Makin' S'mores Photo: andresmh via flickr And eatin' s'more s'mores. 5. Men in Sweaters Photo: dunikowski via flickr I wouldn't mind bobbing for apples with him! ~happy fall~