Tired

We are home from school/work another day due to the icy roads. Yesterday I was glad to be home as I needed the extra day to get stuff done. But by the end of the day, KK was driving me crazy. Bless her heart. We had spent alot of time together over the last week and 4 year olds are emotionalyl exhausting, as opposed to physically exhausting like younger kids. She ended up staying the night with her grammie, and it was a nice break for the two of us.

I stayed up later than normal last night because I knew we had no school and I could sleep in a bit. I also wanted to finish my book, "Second Chance" by Jodi Picoult. I finished it close to one and right as I got in bed, Henry woke up. He ended up spending more of the night crying than anything, so I am exhausted today. He is also a bit feverish and still recovering from his cold. Before KK came home this morning, I remembered an appointment that I could not miss. So as soon as she was home we bundled up to go to this appointment. I am glad I went, but its way too cold to be outside.

Now we are home. Henry is napping and hopefully will wake up feeling better. KK is watching tv and I am contemplating my next move. Shower? Nap? Lunch? Clean? Probably shower, since I did not get to this morning. One of my goals for today is to get pics of the fire damage posted here and on myspace and facebook. Hopefully I will get that done today.

Just a quick note

To the few who read my blog, I have tons to blog about but am recovering from the fire at the house, being very sick with a cold, two sick kids, and a husband out for a funeral. I do have every intention of blogging and posting pictures. Right now I am going to tackle laundry, another load of dishes and make sure everything is ready for school/work tomorrow. Hopefully I can get a little post done later on tonight.

Fluttering

I have been "Fluttering" for about 4 years. For those of you unfamiliar with Flylady www.flylady.com, fluttering is where you do just bits and pieces of her program but never fully commit. About two months ago, I got serious about starting again. One of the things she does is a new habit every month. November's habit is menu planning. This week I did my first menu plan. It has been so nice to know what I am going to fix for dinner. When Cadence was Henry's age, I cooked every night and tried out new recipes. For the last year or so, I have just been cooking the same things over and over and lots of stuff from a box. I forgot how great I feel about myself as a mother and wife when I cook! Last night I made Mexican shells and we had none left over. Tonight I made Jambalaya pasta. Cadence has started to become a picky eater, especially here recently. The last two nights in a row, she cleaned her whole plate and told me I was the best cook ever. This is high praise from her!

With the onset of menu planning, I decided to also start planning outfits for the kids for the whole week. I was doing it the night before, but the last 2 Sundays I decided to lay out everything for each day based on the forecast. This has also been incredible! Henry still spits up so he has to wear a bib every day on top of everything else. This has made my life so much easier! And I love anything that does that. I am really trying to get back on all of Flylady's programs. They have always made such a difference in my life. Go check out her website!

Weekend

This weekend, Ben and I were supposed to go to OKC for a "Stock the Bar Party" for Holly & Austin. We had babysitters, hotel, everything.... except enough money to do it! So we had to cancel and are now staying home this weekend. Ben is going to the Hockey game tonight with his dad and some friends and my lovely mil still wanted the kids so I am planning on hanging out with Rachel, one of my closest friends that I don't see enough! However, this morning it appears that both of the kids and possibly Ben and I have a touch of the stomach bug. Hopefully this will go away as the day goes on.

This week, I have really been struggling with some issues at work. Henry goes to work with me and he is just getting to the point where it is just not working anymore. He is mobile and there is no way to child proof an office enough. He is not napping as well, and gets tired of being in his play pen. I won't get into specific issues, but there is the possibility of some changes being made at my work and if they are, I will get to fulfill my dream of working from home doing what I love and not putting Henry in child care. Friday I got the opportunity to work from home. I just had a few things that "had" to be done and really needed a day at home. Henry slept for 2.5 hours for his first nap! At work, I am lucky if he sleeps for 45 minutes. I got everything I had to do done by 11. It really made me see that I can work from home and how great it will work for us. Now, I am just praying that all of the pieces fall into place that need to in order for me to transition to home. Hopefully by January they will.

Halloween

This was a big Halloween for us. First, we had 2 children to contend with for the first time (and dress up!) Second, it was Cadence's first year to really get Trick or Treating and want to do it. We headed over to my in-laws for dinner with Katie and her kids, Mimi, Kay, Grandma, Grammie, and Grandpa. This year Cadence decided she wanted to be a horse. Henry was a very cute skeleton. Bella and WIll were there and Bella was a bumble bee and poor Will slept through the whole thing, but he was a cow! After eating, we headed over to Holly and Austin's (who live in my in laws neighborhod) and chatted for a while, then went out to trick or treat. Bella is a bit young and we carried her most of the time. Henry was in the stroller and we left Will at Grammie and Grandpa's. We did two whole streets and Cadence was done! I will say though, the streets in this neighborhood were super long. Not just a block, but maybe two. Everyone we went to was giving out "good" candy: Chocolate! So we got lots of good candy and had fun. We went back to Holly and Austin's for a bit and then headed home. Here are some of the best pictures.

HomeLand

I just did a small couponing trip to HomeLand (small because that was all we had in the budget!) and I got some pretty great deals. I am still not where some people are, but I am getting there. I spent $32 in all and saved 40% off of my bill! I was wanting to spend less, but considering in that were a large box of trash bags, hair putty, 4 packages of meat, 4 boxes of Helpers, and 4 cans of soup, I think I did a good job!

Fall Break

Last week was Fall Break for TPS so Cadence was off Thursday and Friday. I took those days off too so we could spend sometime together. Here is an overview of our 4 day weekend:
Wednesday night
My little sis came over to spend the night with us and also to get her belly button pierced. I went with her and mom to do that. I don't think she expected it to hurt so much!
Thursday
Cadence and I had eye doctor appointments in the morning. KK's school had done a screening and suggested she have her eyes checked. Sure enough she has an astigmatism and is near sighted. I was kinda bummed she needed glasses at such a young age and also that she has my bad eye sight. The doctor said her nearsightedness will only get worse with age, as mine has done. However, I am thankful to get the glasses now instead of in having problems learning to read. She loves her glasses and looks great in them. It really looks like she was always meant to have glasses, like her face was waiting on them! After about an hour, she took them off for a minute and was having to squint to see, so I know they must be helping her. After the eye doctor, we went and got Henry and Liv and met Ben at McAllisters for lunch. Then Liv, KK, Henry, and I went to my favorite thrift store and found 15 items for the kids, 8 books, and one toy for $46! We then drove Liv back to C-more for a football game, stopped by mom's store to see her and headed back to Tulsa. As soon as we got back to town, I got the kids ready and picked up Ben and we all headed out to Oktoberfest.
Friday
I actually slept in a little bit, which was amazing! My goals for the day were to clean house, do laundry, and grocery shop. We decided to meet Ben for lunch, but he got caught up and after wasting two hours, we finally ate chinese at home. I spent the rest of the day cleaning and laundry (no groceries :( ). As soon as Ben got off, he headed out to Oktoberfest to work. I enjoyed the quiet and put the kids to bed early and relaxed.
Saturday
The kids and I joined Katie and her family at the Carmicheal's pumpkin patch. This was a really great one; KK and will got to ride a camel! That evening the 4 of us went to a friend's house for a birthday party.
Sunday
Our family along with mom and Liv went out to Oktoberfest for the last time. Mom and Liv had never been and they both had a lot of fun.

Today I am headed out of town for a women's retreat with my sis and mother in law. I am very excited for the retreat. I have not been out of town without both of the kids or without Ben since Henry was born. I can't wait to fellowship, nap, and just relax. And not cook!

Infancy

Its amazing how fast a baby changes in the first year, especially that last half of the first year. Henry is now 7 months old. He started crawling not 3 weeks ago and as of today he can crawl VERY fast, sit up by himself, get himself into sitting position, and pull up to a standing position. These are all great and fun things to watch and experience but they all come with a price. My floor has to be much cleaner than before, which means that I have to clean my floors once a day. If KK is being extra messy, or Henry is spitting up alot, or one of the dogs spent alot of time inside, then I have to mop once a day also. Pretty soon I will have to figure out how I am going to corral Henry. When KK was little, our living room was the perfect set up and shape. I had two baby gates on the entrances leaving the living room. The enterntainment center had lower shelves that I filled with toys for her. Now my living room has three entry ways to other rooms and one of those would require an extra large baby gate. We have a different entertainment center with no room for toys. But I do now have KK. She is a life saver because I can have her check on him, or tell me if he is getting into things. She is not too keen on entertaining him though, because tv is much cooler than her baby brother for more than 5 minutes.
Pulling up to standing is actually one of my least liked periods of infancy. Don't get me wrong, this is such a great and exciting time and I know this is part of the process. But during this time, babies fall. ALOT. Henry already has a huge bruise on his forehead that I don't think will ever go away because he keeps falling. Also, he has learned to stand up in his crib, but hates to get down. Last week he did not even know how to get down. Now he knows, but that requires him to fall, which he is not too keen on. Ben walked at 9.5 months, and I have a feeling Henry will do the same. He is going through these all a lot faster than KK did. He does not yet have any teeth though, although the doctor said he could see some "buds" so it will probably be any day now. He is getting so big and growing so fast. He lookds nothing like he did as an infant and as of today is only 2 lbs lighter than KK was on her 1st birthday! He really is not a chubby baby, in pictures she actually was chubbier, so he may just not gain any more weight. We will see. Let's just pray for now more bruises this week!

Hootie

Does everybody remember Hootie & The Blowfish from the 90's? Well, the lead singer, Darius Rucker, has a new single out. A country single. You can't even tell it is him, and it is a pretty good song. It's called, "Don't think I don't." But its just weird. I guess going country is the cool thing to do know. I like country music, so this doesn't hurt my feelings, but usually country is not "cool" music in the mainstream music media. If you find his song, see if you like it!

Today, I plan to do my first big coupon/sale shop at Homeland. This stores doubles your coupons and had a sale start yesterday, so I am very excited to see how good I can do. I was planning on doing this anyways and when I got on myspace this morning, a girl I went to high school with posted a blog and she had gotten over $77 worth of groceries at Homeland yesterday for $11! And she got alot of the same stuff I am getting! So now I am really excited and am going to see if I can do as good as she did. I'll let you know!

I love blogging

Or rather, I love reading blogs and the idea of blogging. Our lack of internet at home hinders my ability to blog, but I am trying to get better. Here is an update on what we have done in the last couple of weeks:

• I started working 5 days a week
• Had a very successful garage sale at my mil's house
• Found old papers and letters that belonged to one of the previous owners of our house, while cleaning out the attic for garage sale
• My sister turned 14!!!
• Helped mom unpack some more boxes
• Watched ET with KK for the first time (for her)
• Had a productive labor day weekend
• Henry started crawling!!! Just a few tiny crawls, but still

I have been saving up my coupons and will today be scanning the sales that will start and see what coupons I can use. Ben thinks I am nuts, because I have been clipping and organizing like crazy, but I am determined to start doing it and help us save some money in a much needed area. I have figured out that the key to coupon-ing is not just using coupons, but using them while at item is on sale. Then you stock up on this item while it is really cheap, so you don't have to purchase it at regular price. My problem is going to be that my pantry is kinda low, so I will have to be purchasing some items that will not be on sale or have coupons, but hopefully I can make up the difference with other items. Wish me luck!

Week & Weekend Review

Last week was a trying week. Ben was away for work and Henry, bless his heart, decided to give up sleeping through the night, which he had been doing no problem for 3-4 weeks. I was averaging 3-4 hours a night, sometimes less. I think (know) he is trying to get a tooth and that must have been keeping him up. On top of that, it was KK's first week of school and she was exhausted (aka cranky!) every night. It was one of those weeks that was not really awful, but just trying. Ben got home early and was able to pick KK up from school on Friday. All day at work on friday, I was having some horrific sinus pressure and feeling really crappy. So that evening I gladly stayed home while KK spent the night with Will & Bella and Ben went to listen to some music with a cousin he has not seen in 5 years.
On Saturday, I got up feeling better and went an got KK to run some errands and get some (facial) waxing done. We stopped at a garage sale where I found a brand new high chair for Henry. He has been eating 1st step baby food for a couple of weeks now and feeding him in the bouncy chair on the floor was just not cutting it. This chair also has toys to play with, so after he eats he usually plays in it for 20 minutes. It was a great investment. (No matter what I do, I can't seem to get the pictures to post where I want them, so the pictures is up above!). Then I got a call from my mom to go shopping at Plato's Closet and the mall. I went home and fed lunches and loaded us up. We ended up closing down the mall. I never go out South and only go to Woodland Hills Mall twice a year. But I love Plato's Closet, I love thrift and consignment stores in general. I don't usually buy new clothes any more for a couple of reasons: 1) I am cheap. It started out as necessity but became a way of living. 2) I am really not that trendy. Most of the clothes I like are pretty simple. Even when I do like the current trends, they don't usually look great on me. Most clothes designers are not designing for my body type, so I usually find more of a selection at second hand stores. 3) There always seems to be something better to spend my money on. Although I have recently realized how much I am lacking in my closet (especially dress clothes), so I am going to try to get some more stuff when we have the budget.
While at the mall, shopping in a junior's store that i frequented in high school, a sales clerk (maybe 17-18) stopped me and commented on how cute the baby was and asked how old he and KK were. She then said "And your pregnant again?" I wanted to melt into the wall. I know I don't look like I did 10 years ago, that's okay, I have had 3 pregnancies and 2 children in 4 years. And just to brag a bit, I only gained 10 pounds with Henry and lost 16 after his birth, so what I have left is simply extra skin. When I said, no, I'm not pregnant, she then replied, "Oh, its just the leftover?" Even though it really made me feel bad about my body, I can now find it a bit funny and know that she will probably never again ask someone if they are pregnant, at least until it is completely undeniable.
Sunday was a day spent playing catch up and helping Henry with his teeth. We were supposed to attend my cousin's 10th birthday party, but Henry was simply too fussy to make the trip to Claremore.
Here lately I have felt very behind on a lot of things. Laundry, money, relationships, etc. Feeling behind makes me feel out of control. I know we have had alot of changes in our life, but it is still frustrating. So I am trying very hard to get caught up. One of the things I used to do is couponing and price watching on grocery items. I am working on doing this again regularly, so I am sure you will here more about it. In the meantime, here is a great site that is actually run by my director's daughter in law.
www.tulsacouponqueen.com Check it out!

Blah, Blah, Blah

Yes, it has been forever since I have blogged and I want to do it more often, so instead of excuses, here goes.

KK started Pre-K yesterday. I can't believe I have a child this old! She really likes the program so far and seems to have made friends. Starting school creates alot of changes for all of us. This is the first time Cadence has been in school 5 days a week. No more nights off from the "night before school" routine. Every night of the week is now a school night. My work schedule also changes back to school hours. Since I have the freedom now of working any day of the week, I am experimenting with a m-thurs schedule. Usually if Ben has a day off, it is on Fridays, so I figure this would be a good day. We will see how it goes, as Friday is the one day we don't have any volunteers at the office. Hopefully it will all work. Cadence and I both do better with schedules and monotony and I have already found that I feel more productive at work being her a couple days in a row instead of having a day off in between.

Since it officially the end of summer, here are the events of this summer:

• Amber's hand surgery. This surgery ended up being more painful and debilitating than I originally thought it would be. I still do not have full movement back and will find out this week if I have to have physical therapy.
• KK took gymnastics.
• We found out Ben did not get into the Tulsa Fire academy, but he is still working on getting in next time (getting his EMT) and/or getting on with a smaller department.
• We moved my mom into a new house.
• Henry ventured into the new world of eating baby cereal, step 1 baby foods, rolling over, pushing up from his tummy, sleeping through the night, and giving up breastfeeding.
• I experienced some major changes at my office. It was a stressful time and when all was said and done, I had lost a really good friend. I am still very sad about it, but at this point, I have accepted it. I know God has a plan and I have to let him be in charge.
  

I know it was a crazy/busy summer and more has gone on, but that seems to be all I can think of. Till next time,
a

No time like the present

Well, I have been behind on posting and at this very moment I am sitting at the surgery center waiting to be taken to surgery to remove the ganglian cyst on my hand. Ahh, the wonders of technology. Thanks to Ben's laptop and the wireless internet here, I am able to blog while I am waiting. My surgery is running behind and I am bored while watching everyone else eat, so I figured why not? For those of you out of the loop, I have a hard ganglian cyst on my left wrist that has been there for a few months, but has become incredibly painful and has made it hard to use my wrist. These cysts come from trauma to your wrists, which probably happened through all those years of dance. While it is an outpatient surgery, it does require general anesthesia and it will require me to have a hard fiberglass cast and be on wrist restriction for a while. I am ready to have the surgery done because I have had a constant pain in my wrist and it has been hard to use. Well, I know this is a short post, but I am determined to post more, even if it is just short little ones. Pray that my surgery goes well!

Louisiana

Over the weekend, we made our annual trek down to Shreveport, LA. Ben's Uncle Johnny has a cabin that has been in the family for years on Caddo Lake and we started making the trip with the younger generations about 4 years ago. This year we carpooled with Katie, Bella, and Will for the trip to save money on gas. Driving 6 hours with 4 kids under 4 sounds scary, but it wasn't bad at all. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and were able to spend a couple of hours getting settled before Candace and Josh arrived. We then got to spend the evening with just the two of them. It was very nice because we only see Candace once a year since she lives in LA and Josh about 3x a year since he is currently working in Canada. Ben also caught two catfish that day. The next day three more groups arrived, but all at separate times, so we were able to enjoy everyone before it got too big. Saturday we spent another day of hanging out, fishing, sleeping. The kids played in a small inflatable pool and helped fish. On Sunday, we headed out to the Mudbug festival which we do every year. Before we left, I got stung by a wasp which has never happened to me and by the way hurts like hell! This year it was hotter than ever. We stayed long enough to eat (Ben had crocodile and I had catfish), let KK make one of those sand jars they always have at the fair, the kids played on some inflatible toys and then we were out of there. It was too hot!

One the way home, Katie and I ran into a local Wal-mart and found some really great deals on clothes for the kids. When we got up to check out, we stood in line for 30 minutes (I kid you not!). We then headed home to rinse off and relax for our last evening. We had a fish fry with the fish that had been caught during the trip and just enjoyed everyone. The next morning we packed up to head home and this time the car ride was more eventful. When we were ready to stop for lunch, we pulled up to a DQ and waited in line to order for 10 minutes. When we got to actually order, we were told there would be no food for 20 minutes. The best part was this DQ had a sign that said "Fastest Drive Thru in Town". Seriously? So we opted to find another drive through. Poor Henry was overly tired and cried for a good portion of the car ride. About two hours from home, I checked his pants to discover a poop explosion. KK was in a foul mood for most of the ride because she had had no down time throughout the trip and was cranky to all of us, especially poor Will seated next to her. And Bella is learning how to us her lungs and had a period of time where out of no where she would just yell really loud. We were all ready to get out of the car when we got home!


The next day was thankfully my day off, so I was able to stay home and try to get the laundry done and get the house picked up. Unfortunately, most of that did not happen because poor Henry is not a good day time sleeper (which we are working on). That evening we went to dinner at Rib Crib with some of Ben's family to celebrate his birthday, which was the day before. He is 27!!!

Now the end of the week is here and our weekend consists of:
Going to see Sex and the City tonight with Katie
Cadence's dance rehearsal and recital
Hopefully bathing the dogs
Recovering from the short week
And continuing to get Henry on the 90 minute sleep cycle. I stuck with it yesterday and he actually took 3 45 min naps and went down at 9 pm and slept in his crib till 1:30 am. This may not sound like alot, but it is for him. He never sleeps during the day!

Have a great weekend!

Changes

It has been almost 10 months since I have blogged. That really sucks. I am determined to make this at least a weekly habit and have made some changes to help me do so. I have changed the settings so that the blog is now public not private, so that you do not have to create a google account to read the blog. This means that I will not be posting any private information, especially about anybody else.
I have a few friends who blog and I read theirs' religiously and always enjoy it, so they have gotten me excited again about blogging!

What all has happened in the last 10 months? We had baby Henry in February. Ben took a new job in January and travels almost every other week if not more. Cadence finished her 3 year old year at Kirk of the Hills and we are moving on from that school and will be attending a new one next year. I have a hard time believing that she will be in Pre-K next year. I am once again working on the same fundraiser that I was the last time I posted, we decided to move it to a different time of year to see how that works. This year our Mystery dinner will be June 19 & 20 in Catoosa. Email me for specific details. Cadence has finished her first year of dance class and will be having her first recital this Saturday (email for details!). Liv made HS cheerleading as a soon to be freshman. My mom has FINALLY given up smoking for good! My in laws moved into a new house with a fabulous backyard. I know lots more has happened, but those are the big things. I hope all of you will check in with this blog and keep me determined to keep it up. I really love blogging, but the past year has been so busy. I am sure you will all forgive me. Till next time....