Erin Akin Carroll

It’s another week of Pinnable Me Friday with Stefanie from Paw Prints and Pastry Bags. I picked a few of my favorite pins from this week to share with you.

I was able to invite some of you to Pinterest this week, but I’ve just been so busy. There may only be a short “waiting list” so try to get on if you’re not yet on Pinterest. And go link up with Stefanie!

This first room is an attic that was remodeled into an office. I think this room is so serene and peaceful yet still has tons of style. The color is beautiful and the furniture is simple. I love the use of their wedding photos around the room. I pretty much want this whole room!

In the last couple of years I have started to feel older and older. And not because of my age or my physical condition. I’m going to be 29 this year. That’s not exactly old. But I’m afraid having children has made me feel old. I can’t blame them and it’s definitely all my fault, but it has definitely happened as a result of their birth.

I find myself looking at clothes when I go shopping and saying, “gosh, that looks a little trampy!” Or I hear a song on the radio by a 16-year-old boy (who shall remain nameless for fear of serious blogging backlash) and think, “do girls really like the way that sounds and do they really think he’s cute?” And then I’ll say something like, “in my day, JC Chasez was the bees knees and I couldn’t get enough of him or his *NSync bandmates!” (I’m not saying the 16-year-old nameless wonder isn’t the bees knees– I’m just saying I don’t really “get it” because I feel like I missed it.)

Oh my wow. I can’t believe I admitted, in writing, that this is the celebrity I was crushing on in 1999!

Heck, when I watch the Grammy awards, I only know a handful of the nominated songs and artists. I actually turn to the Grammy Awards to find out what I should be listening to.

I know that my music tastes haven’t changed and my personal style hasn’t really changed, but my awareness of what’s out there has changed. I’m more and more aware of what my children are exposed to and what bandwagons kids of their generation will jump on.

When I get in my car, I always turn it on contemporary Christian music, Country music, classic rock, or the music I listened to in college and grad school because that’s what I know and it’s just easier to listen to something I already know. This is when I’m not listening to a Disney CD in order to keep Hudson happy while he sings, “This old man, he played one, he played knick knack on my thumb.”

Just the other day, TC and I were driving the boys somewhere and one of my old favorites, “What’s Up?” by Four Non Blondes came on the radio. TC and I were belting it out and I was thinking, “Hudson is going to think we’re so cool because we know all the words.”

Wrong.

Hudson was actually shouting from the back seat, “No, no no sing! Stop!” He was shaking his head and covering his eyes. He was embarrassed. We’re old!

Do any of you other moms feel this way? Did time seem to stand still when you had kids? I promise I won’t be wearing “mom jeans” because I don’t know any better and failed to pay attention to current fashion trends. That’s where I draw the line!

1. We are mourning the departure of one of the members of our family. My 2001 Volkswagen Jetta that my parents gave me in August of 2000, a couple of months after I finished high school, went to live with another sweet family. I asked TC to take pictures of my precious friend before it left. I was trying to find pictures of me with the car from the day I got it, but I couldn’t find them.

I got my Jetta after months of dreaming about it. I was so proud of that car! It drove me to my first day of college at Louisiana Tech all the way from Indiana. It drove me to South Carolina for graduate school. It drove me to my wedding in 2008 and then to the hospital to have Hudson is 2009. And we had it until Hayes was 5 weeks old.

I’m proud to say that I kept that dear car for 11 years and it only has about 105,000 miles on it. After Hudson was born, TC started driving the Jetta to work every day and I kept the SUV at home because it was easier to drive with a car seat in the SUV.

I’ll miss that car so much, but I’m happy to have moved on. Adios, Jetta aka “Muppet.”

I nicknamed the Jetta “the Muppet” the night I got it after my friend and I drove it for a couple of hours and decided that “the Muppet” was a proper nickname for it.

2. Hudson, Hayes, and I drove up to my parents’ house (with their help) on Sunday after the birthday party on Saturday. TC couldn’t come with us, but I’m so excited to get a quiet week with my folks and am so thankful they rode with us for the 12 hour trip.

The trip should have taken about 9.5-10 hours, but because we had to stop every three hours to feed Hayes, it took a bit longer. And I I am pretty sure I have carpel tunnel syndrome from holding a pacifier in Hayes’s mouth from the third row of the vehicle.

Here we are before we left the driveway!

3. Kelly hosted a Sip and See for Hillary last weekend and used a delicious punch recipe that I passed along to her from my mom. I’ve gotten a few requests to share the recipe, so here it is. It’s a pretty yellow punch and I’ve “borrowed” the picture of the punch from Kelly’s blog.

This punch is perfect for a brunch or a shower. It’s like dessert. I just can’t get enough of it if it’s available.

picture from Kelly’s Korner Blog

Ingredients

• 4 ripe bananas
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3 cups water
• 1 (46 fluid ounce) can pineapple juice
• 2 (12 fluid ounce) cans frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate
• 3 cups water
• 3 liters ginger ale

Directions

1. In a blender, combine bananas, sugar and 3 cups water. Blend until smooth. Pour into a large bowl and stir in pineapple juice. Blend in orange juice concentrate, lemonade concentrate and 3 cups water. Divide into 3 plastic containers and freeze until solid.
2. Remove from freezer 3 to 4 hours before serving. Using one portion at a time, place slush in a punch bowl and pour in 1 liter of ginger ale for each.