Swagbucks Widget

trouble with a capital T

In the car on the way home....

C:  Z WAKE UP
Mommy:  C shhh Z is sleeping
C:  Don't shhh me!


...........and she is only 2..............

I'm in a funk...

I'm in a major funk the last couple of days.  I'm guessing it is the weather.  I just can't get motivated.  I managed it for a couple hours on Sunday and did some major cleaning but that is about it.  Grr.  I hate these kinda moods.  I need to get motivated...

SwagBucks

Megan is the death of me again.  Now she got me hooked on Swagbucks.  I have 12---I want a Wii so I figured I would follow her example!!  All you do is search and occasionally you get point.  The more you search the more often you get points (it seems).  Plus if you join, I get a referral bonus!!

Crunchy mama!

Before C was born, everyone tried to convince me that there were things that I just wasn't going to do, no matter how much I wanted to.  This included breast feeding, cloth diapering, co-sleeping...you get the drift.  All those things that a crunchy mama does.  Ironically enough, I did every one of them (probably cause I'm stubborn!!).  I even got a little into baby wearing though not as much as I would have liked.  But the other day, I decided to wear Z because I was busy and he was fussy with this darn cold he can't shake.  It only lasted a minute because that kid is way too big for my pod like sling I have (note to self--take a baby wearing class with the next kid)  I handed Z off to his dad and the backpack carrier.  But the damage was done.  C wanted to play with the sling and then she wanted her own.  I finally fashioned one out of a little bit of white fabric I had left over from some curtains I put up in the old house. 
She wore her baby the rest of the night...
(my mother in law is going to have a cow...I turned my baby crunchy and she is only 2!! LOVE IT!!)

My crunchy baby C

Rumparooz

First, I have to tell you about my friend Megan over at NewlyWedNewlyBred.com.

She is absolutely fabulous and a great resource (fueler of addictions!) She is currently starting her 15 day give away and I think everyone should check her out...because again she is fabulous!!

Second!! My rumparooz arrived yesterday...and I'm in LOVE!! Here is an action shot of my little dare devil child!!

I ordered new diapers :)

I ordered new diapers this weekend. Really yummy ones. I ordered a rumparooz (which my friend Megan) just raves about. It is a pocket diaper, which we have never really used so I am excited to get it. Plus it is a super cute, WHALE PRINT, which is adorable.

Then for daycare I got:
a Thirsties AIO, in red
3 BG AIOs, blue (which we already have one), orange, and green
a Gro Baby with 2 extra soakers - kiwi green

I am trying to hurry up and prep the soakers cause I want to play with them. I have never really used any AIOs except the BG which we got a couple of months ago to try.

And...my baby, CW, potty trained this week. It is a happy occasion BUT it is the end of my baby using my pretty diapers. Now I only have one in diapers...

I love beautiful days!!

We had a great day around here, the weather is beautiful and we got a ton of stuff done outside. We got some ornamental grasses that needed to be planted so we got that done and then we picked up all the reminants of summer projects. Then after that we cleaned up the back patio and moved the grill and furniture down. Plus hubby got some of the tubing buried so it is half done!!

What a wonderful and productive day :)

Garage

I'm happy to announce....I cleaned the garage. I didn't move anything out, but I "neatly" stacked things over in one corner. We have a huge space to the side of our cars but they have cool cabinets that I don't want to block. For now, it is all stacked, but eventually we will get through it and put it away (like when the basement is cleaned in order to stack stuff down there.
But at least you can pull BOTH cars in!!

Garage-CHECK

Family party

I am currently out of town visiting the inlaws. It was a really great day. Z and C wore themselves out playing with everyone. I'm looking forward to a week at home to finish products, but I love visiting!
More later!!

Outside of the House

Okay I'm going to cheat a little bit and give you the one major project that we have finished. This is what the house look liked when we moved in -- well close, the bushes were even more overgrown. And yes I stole this from the county assessors website but since I'm mad at them at the moment I figured all is fair (whole 'nother long story).

Part of our purchase required that we paint the house. Hubby didn't like the bushes or trees so they all had to go, especially the one by the garage because it had overgrown half the garage door. I loved the idea of the shutters, but they were a crappy plastic type that 'melted' when I tried to spray paint them (and yes I used the special plastic spray paint). I am still trying to decide if I want to get new shutters or if I like them like this. What do you think?

I picked the color, but it is blue-er than I had planned. It works well though. Now we are working on the garden part of it, but here it is, our first completed project.

Sleepless night

Tonight was one of those nights...the nights when your mind races a thousand miles a minute and sleep is elusive. So far I have done laundry, written emails, worked on homework that I have been avoiding, and now I am blogging. I really need to sleep.

I'm not sure I mentioned this before and am way to lazy to go look it up so I will mention it again. When we sold our house, we knew we needed to upgrade. We (hubby and I) had a couple of things that we wanted in our new house. I wanted room to expand and a large yard. Hubby wanted a ranch and wanted to be able to do some stuff himself. We probably looked at (and bid on) 20+ houses. Something always went wrong--the house sold while we were bidding, the yard was too small, something didn't feel right, you get the drift. 3+ months of looking, 2 real estate agents, and lots of tears left us searching. When we were 3 weeks away from being homeless we found our house. Loved the neighborhood, loved the yard, loved the house and really, most importantly, we were able to negotiate what we thought was a good price. Okay who am I kidding a great price.

Now 3 months later I am looking at a house that needs new floors, new paint, new counters, new appliances, new everything. I am also looking at 2 months worth of classes until I graduate, a hubby who is starting his MBA, and kids who need mom and dad (but if you ask C she just needs grandma lol). We still love the house, I just don't like the timeline.

Maybe it is because we can't seem to get a project 'completely' done. We got Z's room painted and the furniture in, but it needs to be rearranged and the carpet needs to be replaced and the wall stuff needs to be hung. C's room is painted and the furniture is in, but nothing is on the walls and she still needs outlet covers. They are small stuff but we can't seem to find an hour to get it done. Well actually we had an hour tonight, we spent it playing with toys and reading to C...pretty sure that was more important. (And yes we would have played with Z too, but the kid goes to bed at like 6 pm--and sleeps til 7:30 or 8:00 am. Man I'm lucky!!)

So tonight, as I am sitting here, I decided to visit my favorite blog on home stuff The Nester. I swear she wrote this post for me. It was front and center when I got on and man I think I needed to read it. Home Wasn't Built in a Day. I think I am going to make it my mantra. I am also going to start cataloging what we need to do, have done, and will do on here so you can all see my progress. Plus it will let me show off pictures of the before and after. This is not an all inclusive (are they ever?) list and does not include hubby's outside stuff, well except for getting the flower beds in. And remember I'm not in the least bit creative so if you have ideas for me, feel free to share.

Mom's new blog!

My mom started a new blog today (well I started it a while ago, she just wrote on it today). It is about the horses they have at the farm. Right now she only has 2 posts, but hopefully in the spring she will start posting all the cute baby horse pictures. Check it out:
www.cherryhilltb.blogspot.com
I'm sure she would love to have some hits added!

Otherwise in our life, same old same old. Hopefully more updates to come.

Haha once again I'm failing

Once again, I am failing to keep my blogging going. Probably something about a house taht needs to be put in order.

Though we have some great news around here...Z moved into his OWN bed, in his room which he is sharing with CW, and has gotten back to sleeping through most of the night. This was the norm until we did all the moving then the schedules went to hell. Mom is quite happy to have such a wonderful nights sleep again. Now if hubby would just stop coaching baseball in his sleep everything would be heavenly.

I read the most interesting blog tonight. I absolutely LOVE her writing, and given that she has a bunch that is similar to mine, it gave an interesting insight into the daily adventures. You should check it out here.

Remembering when

...I'm feeling a little nostalgic tonight

...five years ago, Justin was the furthest thing from my mind.

...four years ago tonight we were at the rehearsal dinner, celebrating that tomorrow was our wedding day.

...three years ago last month we were driving like crazy hoping to make it home before the doctors took my baby sister off life support. But her guardian angel was there, and though I spent three weeks living in a hospital room with her, she is alive today.

...two years ago next month I was able to meet the most beautiful daughter anyone has ever seen who made me realize exactly how precious life was.

...one year ago we spent the summer getting ready for Z and spending every free minute with Cw.

...tonight I remember all the reasons I am blessed...

I'm B.A.C.K.

Haha,
I think I've said that before. Well, never the less, I am. The last two months have been filled with wicked craziness. First, and foremost, we sold our house, became homeless for 3 weeks (during which time, my wonderful sister let us live at her house), and finally moved into our own new house. Also within this time, we had a beautiful wedding to attend (and be the Matron of Honor in) along with numerous other off the wall things.

Unfortunately, this whole process has left me disconnected and finding the need to be reflective of our life. Which can be good or bad, depending on the topic. One thing that has been agreed upon by dear husband and I is that with the new house comes the need to GROW UP. Granted, we have been married for 4 years (on Thursday to be exact), just bought our second house--which ironically has become an area of stress for me because everyone assumes it is our first and when I correct them they act like there is no possible way that we could be 25 and at that point but again a topic for another time-- and have two kids. But honestly with our other house we could do just enough to survive but not enough to be truly grown up. But that is going to change because that just doesn't cut it here. In the old house we could go a week (or three) without cleaning but this house is big enough that a week would require an entire day to catch up.

And since I am a planner by nature (which drives hubby and hubby's extended family NUTS) I figured a good way to be accountable would be to share with the whole internet!! My first goal is to cut out the amount of fast food/take out/ and eating out that we do. This requires planning so it seemed like a good place to start. I have been wildly trying to come up with recipes that don't bore me to death so this will be my task for the week (hint hint if you have one you would like to share, please do!)

Next week, I think I'll tackle cleaning :)

More Random Things...

I decided that my last post was quite a nice way to get out all of my thoughts so I figured I would try it again, granted it probably won't be 25, but we'll see.

1. Baseball season starts soon. Ha! I pretend to hate baseball, well I did for a long time. I hated that it made hubby and I live 4+ hours apart for 2 years, I hated that it was, and still is, the reason that hubby has to do more school, I just hated it. Now, well now, I kinda am starting to soften. I'm still not thrilled at the possibility of CW or Z being involved with it, because I saw the trouble it caused, but I'm getting there. Maybe in a couple of years...

2. My mother says I am lamenting on being 'homeless' We sold our house 3 weeks ago, and yet we still haven't bought one. But we found it! It's funny, I love this house but it scares the hell out of me. There is so incredibly much work to be done and I am scared of the possibility. But I love the house. And so does hubby.

3. This house is testing several of my previous random things because a) it scares me that we will fail to make it amazing, b) dad can't just say he likes it, though I swear he does because of his comments, but again I need approval darn it, c) it is big, bad, and scary--but totally worth it if we can pull it out.

4. "Gotta meet the hottie with the million dollar body...." I love NICKELBACK

5. We have 4 weekends, 5 weeks, to get this house packed and I'm gone 3 of them. Yeah that's going to happen.

6. Somehow, not sure how, I managed to pull a B- in my class that I flaked on. I was positive that I was going to be repeating it....

7. I'm really kinda irritated with the agent who is helping us buy a house because we wanted to put a bid in on Friday and he didn't have time til tomorrow--if it sells, I swear they are going to hear me in New York.

8. oooo Tide is on sale at Costco...haha I lead such a boring life.

9. The college is having a job fair for all of us with Masters so they can say they try to make us gainfully employed. I think it is a waste of time but I am going to look anyway because I would love to use my degree.

10. It is 12:29 and I'm not tired.

Okay that's it. off to figure out what I have to do for class this week. muah!

25 random things

I would totally tag somone for this but I stole it off facebook--mainly because I couldn't make my facebook work to post it there...BUT normallly---Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you

1. I love rain (this is probably number one because it is currently raining) I love nights like tonight where it is a slightly cool rain with a nice breeze that just makes you forget all of your worries.

2. Speaking of worries, I worry a LOT. Everything should be planned, surprises are the bane of my existance, and I think every little detail should be accounted for.

3. I hate Dumb and Dumber--if I could figure out how to trash it without Justin noticing I probably would--hmm maybe during this move?

4. My greatest fear is that I'm going to fail...I'm scared to fail, and that makes this balancing act even harder

5. Watch CW learn is the greatest joy I have ever experienced. It is a complete wonder just to see the true "awe-ha" look in her eyes.

6. Z sat up today...by himself...where did my baby go??

7. I love margaritas, wine, and an occasional beer.

8. Hubby and I fight. I always had this idealized view that in a marriage you didn't fight (and don't ask where I get this from, if you know the fam you will ask what the hell are you thinking, you guys can't go five minutes without fighting) but we fight and argue and still love each other.

9. I'm scared to move--this is the first house we bought when we got married, this is where both of kids came home from the hospital. I make hate this house, but I can't even begin to forget the memories.

10. crap i'm tearing up--i do that a lot lately

11. as much as my father pisses me off, which is more often than not, I can not truly begin to tell him or my mom how much they mean to me

12. getting a masters is hard---which is saying a lot because school usually came pretty easy, or at least easy enough that I could pass without trying too incredibly hard

13. I'm worried about hubby's little brother. I worry that he will fall into the same issue that hubby did with going to school to play ball and not realizing the full impact of the academic decisions. I hope that he has seen how hard this was on his brother, but I'm not sure he does

14. I have the three laziest dogs ever.

15. my mind races all the time, it is always something, and most of the time the only one who understands is hubby

16. i love baths, nice hot baths, not the luke warm ones I take with cw before bed to get her to relax

17. i complain occasionally (okay sometimes more than occasionally) that cw is stubborn and headstrong, but then I realize that she is just like me. boy is that a hard pill to swallow

18. i like red toe nail polish but french tips on the fingers

19. i use to want to teach college but honestly now I would just be happy to use my degree. and not in a 'well you have an mba, here is a token job to make you happy". Is it crazy that I actually think it might be fun to run a hospital

20. there are some days that I wonder if I shouldn't have thought a little more about medical school

21. I wish I would have left. Again another hard pill to swallow (probably worse for my mom) but lately I have been rehashing why we didn't leave when we had the chance. Hubby actually suggested texas not to long ago and I thought it sounded like a blast. If I could make 19 work, then I think moving wouldn't be as scary. I just can't do it now because I can't bear the thought of taking CW and Z away from the people who love them the most.

22. I'm 25 years old and it scares the crap out of me because I thought things would be a lot different when I hit 25.

23. I need to start running again, lately I haven't because the kids/me/hubby (in any combo) have been sick, but I need the stress relief I have come to realize

24. As much as I swear I don't, I actually like other peoples approval

25. I am actually beginning to like Sid the Science kid.

News

**happy dance** the house SOLD

Can you tell I'm excited??

Now we just need to find a new house, put a bid in, pack, move, all while I do finals and start my last set of classes...hmmm remember I said we like BUSY!

I have to give a big ole hug to my friend Meg who is stuck on bed rest right now. I hope that baby girl stays put for a while even though it is hard on you darling. You and the boys are in my thoughts!

**more happy dance**

houses for sale...

I hate having our house on the market. Not only is it a pain to keep clean, but everyone is coming through. Now I will be the first to say, this is not my dream house. It is getting crowded and it is time for a new house that I like more. But we have had 15+ showings and we have gotten some great looks. One realtor loves it, a couple really like it, and some hate it. The hate it ones are hard though. As hubby put it, it is our home, where we are raising our children, and to have people be so critical of the place we live is hard. To solve this, I'm not going to look at the feedback anymore, my poor brain can't take it.

10 minute room change

As I have mentioned before, I am not crafty in the least. But one of my friends turned me on to the Nesting Place blog because she is wickedly creative and I love browsing for ideas since I am not crafty enough to think of my own. This week she challenged everyone to change a room in 10 minutes and since we are in the process of selling the house, which is an entirely different post all together, I figured why not show off what I am doing.
The biggest problem with our kitchen is that it is sterile...white wood, white counters, white EVERYTHING except the floors which are a red oak color. Here is the before picture of the kitchen:

My inlaws were kind enough to come up this weekend and my mother in law helped me work on the kitchen. I had already put up the vance (using Nester's ideas of course!) a couple of weeks ago and had started to declutter the cabinets. Luckily mil brought the paint with her from doing her house so I finished it up with only spending $11 dollars on a new rug--which you can't see in this picture, darn.
Here is the final picture:

I don't think the picture truly does the kitchen justice but I'll take the splash of color and the bare cabinets. Thanks for the wonderful project Nester!!

Cross you fingers it sells soon--trying to keep a house clean with a baby bunch (lol gotta throw another of my favorite blogs in there) is going to be the death of me.

what is a blog that isn't the topic of the blog...

Mama and more...that is the topic of this blog. Maybe I should tell you a little about the more. School Sucks! Have I mentioned this. I am currently taking 9 hours in the Masters Program in order to graduate in May. Now you might ask why...oh yeah, because my dream job, yes dream job, requires you to be done by Summer, and since I go to school on a wacky schedule unless I finish in May (graduating in August) I wont' graduate until December. Did I mention that this is my dream job...have I mentioned that they haven't called me back yet???

Nebraska was never part of my plan. I left, packed my car, drove to Kansas, and never looked back. Until I hate that school. I hated it for over a year but I couldn't face going home. I finally talked bf (who is now wonderful hubby) into moving home with me...until his mama got involved and then he stayed in Kansas. I came home, with no intention of staying home, but then dad offerred me a job. Hubby says I can't say no to him, and I can't, he is my daddy. 6 years later I'm still here...ready to leave but just can't do it. I can't leave him without help, I guess I just don't trust anyone else with the company that I have helped shape.

But now we are back to this wasn't part of the plan. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, I love my kids with ever fiber of my being, but there is always part of me that thinks I should have left, walked away when I had the chance.

Have I mentioned the dream job...MBA internship, with international assignments, lasting 3 years with guarenteed job position at the end....dream job...which I guess mean I keep dreaming...