New things are a comin'

For the last four weeks, I have been doing something that I was honestly not sure I would ever do while my kids were young. I have been looking for a full time, 8-5 job. I have been working 3 jobs from home, but it was just not cutting it. At first, I came to the decision to pursue a full time job because of necessity. I was so terrified of this. Once I came to the decision that it had to be done, no ways around it, I have felt alot of peace about it. When I was younger (before I had kids), I always said there was nothing wrong with daycare. I started daycare myself when I was 6 months old and stayed until 10 years old. I enjoyed it and made my oldest friend there. I have no bad memories of day care. But when my first child was born, my thoughts changed. I just did not see how I could do it. This mental block has kept me from doing what has probably needed to be done for a long time. I am glad to be over it!

I have been actively applying for jobs for 3 weeks now. Unfortunately with my degree, you really need to have a Master's to be able to do the things you dream of doing when you are an undergrad, so that was kinda a shock to my system. (I won't even start on how my advisor and professors failed to mention this!). I had an interview last week for a job that I basically had, but it was just not a good fit for my life right now. It is a great job and so needed, but not for me. It was hard for me to let the job go though, because it was the only one I had even heard back from! This week I got an interview for a different job within the same organization and 5 mins into the interview, I knew this job would be great for me! When I left, they told me I should hear on a second interview, if I got one, in a week. That night, I checked my email to find that I got a second interview for the same week! I am beyond excited and hope this means that they were as pleased with me as I was with the opportunity. I am secretly hoping that they offer me the job on the spot on Friday, but I know that is probably far from realistic.

Even though a year ago, I never would have forseen the changes I am going through and definitely would not have seen them as something I am looking forward to or even enjoying, I am. God is great and I have never felt closer to Him than I do right now. I feel 100% confident that I am on the right path and taking the right steps. I know the big changes have just started and will get harder to handle, but I am ready. BRING IT ON!

Now I am struggling with my child care situation, but I know that this will also work out the way it is supposed to. I believe that God knows our life before we live it and I just have to have faith and stay focused on Him and simply live. Its odd to be content while living with a lot of turmoil, but that is a very apt description of how I feel right now. I also have never realized what incredible people I have in my life. I am so blessed that I cannot even believe it sometimes!

Here's hoping for an "I got the job!" post in a couple of days...

The Kitchen I was standing in...

I happen to be reading a friend's blog, who has my blog on her page, when I noticed I had not updated in 5 weeks! How did that happen? I have had at least 5 blog ideas but obviously they never got done. Some of them I will still write about, and some I won't. For those of you that follow me on Facebook, you probably know that in the last couple of days, something is up with me. While I am not ready to discuss specifics, there are alot of changes happening in my life right now. Big decisions are being made and I need all of the prayers I can get right now! If you don't know me personally, I don't like change. I think things to be the same day in and day out, I love knowing what to expect the next day, and I have a really hard time handling things if they don't turn out they way I had pictured them in my head. Needless to say, change is HARD for me. I am hurting right now and trying to to one foot in front of the other. I am thankful for the wonderful people in my life and am happy that even 1 person reads my blog! I promise to have a better update soon, as well as posting about some blessings that have come my way recently, I may even explain the title of this blog. Thanks in advance for the prayers!

Answers to Prayers

Have you ever prayed and prayed about something, feeling like God wasn't answering you, and then you wake up one day and realize he has been telling you what to do and you haven't been listening? What was I praying about? Money, finances, stability. I currently have two jobs, both work at home. One is a non profit job that I love with my heart and soul, but there is just not money in it and it has slowly become a volunteer job. The second one is a very cool job with a local child welfare agency, writing profiles on children eligible for adoption through the state. This job is a contract job and I only get paid when the file is done, which takes about 6 weeks. I love both of these jobs and am thankful to get to do them, but there is just no money there, literally right now! So, I've been asking God for guidance on what to do next. Should I get an 8-5 job, put my son in daycare and just be miserable? Should I go back to teaching and make very little money for my time? (Nothing wrong with teaching, but I could only get a job at a Preschool, because I am not certified and Preschools don't pay).

All the while I have been thinking about all of this, I have also been wishing that I had a business. Something that I was in control of and loved to do. My mind kept going back to Arbonne. Back in 2007, I signed up to be a consultant with Arbonne. The week I signed up, I had a miscarriage. I really lost my drive after that. Shortly after that I got pregnant with Henry, and life just got busy. However, it has always been in the back of my mind. It is such a great company, with great, natural products and their compensation plan tops any other Network Marketing Company out there! I just kept thinking, God, I don't want to sell stuff. But you know what I did? I applied for a work at home job in advertising sales! I did not get it, because I have no experience in advertising, but one day it hit me: I was willing to work selling something for someone else, but not for myself? DUH!

So I contacted my close friend, Krystal, who recruited me to Arbonne originally. What a God thing it was because she had been thinking about the same things as I had and just told her husband about it! The more I let myself think about it and believe it, the more I realized that God had been smacking me upside the head with it! What it finally came down to for me was this: My kids are worth it. Why was I letting other people dictate how much money I made? How much work I had? I am jumping in feet first and ready to go! I know it will be hard, and it will take time. But this company has proven over and over again, that if you work, you will reap the benefits! In the book, The Millionaire Club, Maureen Mulvaney wrote about the success of 21 females who earn as much as $20 million a year through home based businesses. Three of these women are with Arbonne. Can you believe it? Those are some great odds.

If you are interested in talking with me about how you can change your life with Arbonne, hear about the products, or book a party leave me a comment! Is your success in your hands? Mine is!

Duckie

Yesterday, we went to say goodbye to our good friend Duckie, Donald Broughton. Duckie was killed when his motorcycle hit an SUV head on, late Friday night/early Saturday morning. Angela Halford, who was a passenger on Duckie's bike, was also killed. They were in an unfamiliar area and got turned around, and ended up going the wrong way on the highway. He was laid to rest on Wednesday, September 3rd. Duckie was one of my husband's best friends. He left behind a 2 year old son and Angela had twin daughters. It is such a tragedy. They were both in their mid 30's.

Through dealing with Duckie's death, I have also had to almost re-live the death of my father, when I was six years old. There are many similarities between my father's car accident and Duckie's, and it has been really difficult for me to know that Duckie's son will never know his dad. It will be up to his mother, as well as Duckie's parents, to keep his memory alive for him. This is not nearly as easy as a task as one might think. Now that I am grown, I have realized that my dad's family did not talk about him often because it was just too painful. While I now understand this, it was hurtful when I was younger because I wanted to talk about him. I wanted to know every memory. Even at six years old, I really only had a handful of my own memories of him. Thankfully, my mom, my aunt and some close friends helped me to keep his memory alive in my heart and let me know what kind of person he was. His boss at the time of his death wrote me a letter about what kind of person he was. This letter is so precious to me! I have asked my husband and our friends to do the same for Duckie's son, for when he is older.

My prayers are with his family and his son's mother every day. This is the type of thing you never get over, you just keep moving forward. His mother is very young, and this is not an easy burden to carry. Not just parenting by yourself, but parenting a child without a father, keeping his memory alive, etc. I have new found respect for my mother in all of this. When my dad died, they had been divorced for not long at all, so there was still alot of love between them. My mom had also lost her father almost a year to the day before, and she was still reeling from that. Suddenly she had to raise a daughter with very few father figures in sight. She had to make sure that despite my dad's death that I was still well rounded and loved. She was also only in her late 20's when this happened. She got divorced, lost her father, and her ex-husband in less than 3 years. My mom is not perfect, but I don't think she could have done anything better than how she handled things. Between her and my grandma, I never doubted that I was loved and was the most important person in the world to them. If Duckie's family and his son's mother, can do half as good of a job as my mother did, they will be fine!

If you are interested in helping raise money to assist Duckie's family with the costs of the funeral, and to help set up a college fund for his son, please contact me at crleegrl at aol dot com. I hope you hold your loved ones tight tonight, I know I will! Duckie, you always made me feel special!

Swagbucks

I am always looking for new ways to save and/or make money. I work from home, which allows me to be able to go to school events, drop off and pick up my daughter from school, etc. This is very important to my husband and I so along with my 2 part time work at home jobs, I make it my full time job to save as much money as possible in every way I can. I am also always looking for ways to make money at home. I discovered Swagbucks earlier this year and really love it. It is a search engine powered by Yahoo and Google. When you search, you can earn Swagbucks. These rack up pretty fast and you can redeem them for prizes, gift cards, and now even paypal money! I have heard of many people getting lots of bucks in a short period of time. I know one blogger who used Swagbucks to purchase a Wii (by redeeming for Amazon Gift cards).

Also, when you recruit others to Swabgucks and they sing up through you, you get points for all of the Swagbucks they win! If you would like to try it out, click below to sign up and you will also help me earn points. Then you can get others to sign up under you and get even more points. I added a Swagbucks search bar to my home page so that I can just search and not have to go to the main page. Its a great way to earn money and prizes for doing what you would normally do anyway! Happy Searching!

Terrible 2's

When my daughter (now 5) was my son's age (18 mos), I had someone tell me that the "Terrible 2's" actually start at 18 months and last until 3 yrs old. We some how skipped this with the Princess. She was (practically) born talking and had full sentences at 18 mos of age, so there was very little of the frustration that seems to lead to the terrible 2's. She was also a totally different kind of kid than the Prince is. She never really had terrible 2's, but she had what we termed the "Fearsome 4's". This stage was mainly her testing us, testing boundaries, bedtimes, talking back, asking why 300 times a day, etc. So I was unprepared for the Prince's head first jump into the terrible two's.

A large part of my son's terrible twos seems to be his lack of language. He has some words, but seems unable to use all of them at once. It goes in phases, although his first "real" word (used correctly all the time) was thank you. It was really cute and since we push manners pretty hard around here, it seemed fitting. However, now he has lost thank you and hasn't gained many other words. So his main form of communication is pointing, grunting and stomping his feet! Let me tell you, its a fun stage!

The other characteristics of the terrible twos he has started is throwing things and climbing. And the other day, he put both of these together to climb on top of the glass coffee table and throw things off and downward on the glass. I had a small heart attack when I found him like that. He has also started throwing fits, and kicking his feet when I pick him up to re-direct him from a hazardous activity. I know all of these things are normal behavior, we were just spoiled with my daughter's personality because she and my son are SO UNBELIEVABLY different. There could not be two children whose personalities are different. (Except my little sister and I, we are incredibly different also). I guess I stop re-reading New Moon (I have to make sure I know every single detail before the movie comes out) and pull out my copies of What to Expect for Toddlers and The Girlfriend's Guide to Toddlers.

Grammar Nazi's: Is it terrible two's or terrible twos?

Changes

I mentioned to my mother last week that I felt like Thursday (of last week) was the first day of the rest of my life. A little dramatic, but I think its kinda true. See, last Thursday, Princess started Kindergarten. Big kid school, not just preschool anymore. On top of that, she started in a great school and is in the Spanish Immersion program. Yep, she's hot stuff! This will be her school for the next 6 years (and hopefully the Prince's too, when he is old enough!). Not only that, but the kids in her class will be her only class for the next 6 years. That means if she has problems with a kid, or I have problems with a parent, there is no getting away from each other! I am very excited and nervous about all of this. This school requires alot of dedication from both parents and kids and to tell you the truth, I am kinda overwhelmed. It has been exciting to know that my oldest is starting a new phase of her life.

One thing that also comes with this new phase, is a new schedule for the Prince and I. We are all getting up earlier, and it is back to just my boy and I at home during the day. It has been nice though, to run errands with only one child and to get to work more often. We are all still adjusting to getting up an hour earlier than we have been, so I have had some tired babies at my house lately. Ben started school last week also, so we have had lots of changes! Ben is going to school for his EMT Basic, which will make him much more desirable to Fire Departments in our area. I am so proud of him for doing this, because Ben doesn't do school. He is probably the most intelligent person I have ever known, but school is not his thing. Most schools and classes are not structured to keep his attention. Its a BIG deal that he is going back to school and I am bursting with pride!

We planned on spending our first weekend of the school year relaxing and prepping for a busy couple of months. We had absolutely nothing planned for the weekend. However, God had other plans. Ben and I ended up spending a good portion of the day on Saturday in the ER due to a very painful kidney stone that Ben had. Thankfully, it was not nearly as bad as his last kidney stone and he is feeling much better.

This week is the first full week of school for both Ben and our daughter. I have a feeling they will both be exhausted this week! I will be spending a day training for my new second job with FCS. I am excited to start this new opportunity and am thankful to be able to help contribute to our household.

All in all, I still feel like, at least this last week has been the start of a new life for us. We are all taking on new opportunities that will change our lives in different ways, all for the better. I am excited to see all of the different blessings these will bring into our lives!

Bunco

Tonight was the first night of my new bunco group. If you know me in person, you know I like to be bossy and am so excited to be "in charge" of the bunco group! One of my bff's, Holly and I decided to put a group together and we some how managed to get 12 great girls, some married, some single, some childless, some blessed with children, and all different careers. We also managed to make sure that there is not a large group of friends/colleagues in the group. Before tonight, there was not a single person who knew everybody. In my last group, 7 of the girls worked together or were close friends, and they kinda dominated the group. It ended up being not very fun!
We had so much fun tonight. About half of the girls had never played before, and one of the newbies won 3 different prizes! I hosted the first month, so I had a good excuse to do the cleaning I never do until I am having company (cleaning the baseboards, dusting, wiping down walls, etc.). Since my husband is about to start back to school and will be gone alot, I am trying to make sure I have some regular activities with other women. I have a tendency to stay isolated, because I work from home, and I will realize after a couple of days that I have had zero social interaction! I have also joined a book club that I am really excited about! Over the next 4-5 months, I am also going to work on forming deeper relationships with some of my friends. Not all of my close friends have children, so its harder to get together.
I would love to hear from other work at home or stay at home moms or even work away from home moms about how they keep up their friendships and social interactions! Leave a comment and I will get back to you!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless WednesdayCan you resist this?

Not Me! Monday

Here we go again. I have not been having a battle of wills with my husband over who would pick up the trash that was left on the back deck after our 4th of July party. I definitely did not let trash sit scattered all over my deck because he said he would pick it up (prior to the dogs tearing 3 sacks of trash apart).

I have not broken my own rule of showering every day simply because I was too busy too shower. And I discovered that my hair looks clean and cute in pigtails! Not me!

I am not incredibly behind on my work. I have also not wished that school was starting again and have definitely not wanted to throttle my daughter on more than one occasion! August cannot come fast enough!

Be sure and link to MckMama with your Not Me! Monday post!

You know the rules, head on over to www.mycharmingkids.net to get the button and post your own confessions.

I did not take the kids for ice cream and french fries at 5:00, which is way too close to dinner time. I also did not seriously consider ordering more fries, I LOVE Braum's french fries!

My bedroom is not still filled up with all of the furniture I shoved in their to clean up the house before our 4th of July party. I am also not dreading opening up some of the closets in the house that I shoved more stuff into.

When my sister in law came over to lay out in the pool and I told her I would stay inside and get stuff done, I was not weak and ended up going outside to join her and also get some sun. There were definitely not too many "and"s in that previous sentence. And I did not get a little too much sun!

At our 4th of July party, my awful, horrible, and mean spirited neighbor (yes, she's that bad!) did not call the cops on us for doing fireworks. The police men that came did not think she was as pathetic as we do and felt bad for us having to live next to her!

Thanks for reading!

Lately

Well, I haven't been doing very well at keeping the blog updated on our daily happenings and have had a 1,000 things I wanted to blog about, but then forget or never get around to it, so here are some highlights from the summer so far.

May was a super busy month for us. Here are some pictures from what all we did that month!

Cadence had her dance recital.
My aunt Joyce got married and The Princess was her flower girl.

Callie, Ben's cousin also got married.


We celebrated Mother's Day at my house with my mom and sister.

Ben and I took my sister and her friend with us to see Ben Folds at the Cain's. My sister has loved Ben Folds since I introduced her to him 5 years ago but has never gotten the chance to see him. For those of you who don't know my love of Ben Folds, I walked down the aisle to his song, "The Luckiest".
My friend Holly also had her first bridal shower in May, for her upcoming wedding in July.
We actually had even more events in May than just this, but these are the important ones (and the ones I have pictures of!). May was truly one of the busiest months we had ever had. The Princess also graduated from Pre-K and had a Spring Fling at her new school. Now its time for me to work on a post about what we did in June. And get ready for the 4th of July party we are having today!

Father's Day

Father's Day is always a bittersweet holiday for me. Since my dad was killed when I was a child, I only remember celebrating Father's Day for my grandpa. Its a day when I am reminded that my dad is not here. It always makes me sad, but as I have gotten older, it has become more wistful than actually sad. However, now that I have kids, I am sad for them for what they are missing out on. I don't have alot of memories of my dad, but I know he would have been an incredible grandfather. Thankfully, my kids have a wonderful grandpa in my father in law. In fact, my brother in law's father died before he and my sister in law got married, so their kids and our kids only have one grandpa. We have told him that he has to be the best grandpa ever since he is all both sets of kids have! And he is! But, on days like this, I really miss my dad and really wish he was still here on earth. It makes me think about how different my life would have been if he would have been around. I know that was never God's plan for my life, but I still wonder about it sometimes. I know its not up to me to understand God's timing. Its just hard not to wish things had been different. I have always believed that one of the reasons that Ben was the right person for me was because he has such a great dad, and God knew that I needed a father figure in my life. I am so thankful for him. I am also very thankful for my uncle CurCur (Curry) who was my father figure growing up. On this day, I hope that all of the wonderful fathers and surrogate fathers know they are loved and appreciate. And daddy, I love you and look forward to the day when I can see you again!

Dear So and So

I saw this on a blog I read and thought it sounded like a fun way to vent your frustrations. Lets try it out and see how it goes.

Dear lady at the Cricket store,
It was very un-cool of you to run in the minutes they opened the doors and get the coveted first in line spot, even though myself and 5 other people had been there waiting for 15 minutes longer than you had. You should learn some etiquette.
Thanks, woman with the boy in the pink stroller

Dear Princess,
When mommy is trying to nap on the couch, please refrain from continually taking the pillow off of my head (yes, I sleep with a pillow over my head!), and asking me questions I have already answered. No spongebob, no friends' house, just let mommy sleep!
Love, Mommy

Dear Mr. Wright,
You need a new sense of time. Please stop telling me that a quick errand will take one hour and then be gone for 3 hours. It makes me want to strangle you.
Love, your incredibly patient wife

Dear mom and sister,
Please stop putting me in the middle of your fights. You both confide in me and its too hard for me. Leave me out of it!
Love, Amber

That felt good! I may do that one again!

Not Me! Monday

WARNING: THIS POST IS WRITTEN BY AN ESPECIALLY CRANKY MOMMY.

I did not waste 30 minutes of my day talking to a women who argued with me about what my organization does. Seriously lady? I think I know what our beliefs are a little bit better than you do.

I did not take 2 tylenol pm last night when I went to bed, even though I was totally exhausted, because I had a headache and I wanted to be able to sleep through the night. I did not have a tylenol pm hangover all day today.

My daughter did not back out of another VBS this morning with a friend, while the friend and her mom were waiting for KK in our driveway.

I do not feel as if my children are punishing me for being gone all weekend by being whiny and clingy. I also did not have one of the best weekends EVER!

I am not about to put my especially cranky son to bed an hour earlier than normal, to save my sanity and help him feel better.

I am not mad at my husband because he accidentally lost 6 years worth of files and half of my pictures when he was re-building our computer. I know it was an accident, but he didn't lose any of his stuff, did he?

That's all the bitching I am going to do for now. Hope your day was better than mine!

Also, on a horribly sad note, I ask that all of you pray for the family of Courtney, a friend of my little sister's, who was killed in a car accident. She was 15 and her 17 year old sister was driving. Claremore Daily Progress has the story on the accident. I hope that you will all also remember that cars are deadly weapons. Please remember that just one moment of texting, not paying attention, etc can cause you or someone else to lose their life. (I do not know the details of what caused the accident and am not implying that anyone was irresponsible. This is just a reminder.)

Frugal Friday

Okay, let's see all of the frugal things I did this week.

First, we made it until June 1st before we turned on the AC! Actually, I broke down on the evening of May 31, because it was super hot and Ben was gone for the night and I did not want to have the windows open at night while I was home alone. However, we actually ended up turning it off just two days later and have not turned it on since. I got my bill in the mail and it was not nearly as low as I would like, but I was forgetting that we are running the pool, hot tub, and aquarium along with everything else.

For the last three weeks, I have made all of our meals from the pantry and freezer. Usually when I do my menu plans, I find recipes that I have 3/4 of the ingredients and shop for the rest. These last 3 weeks, I did not shop at all; I just made the recipes work with what I had on hand. Sometimes simply staying out of the store saves money. And to be honest, I have a tiny kitchen that was bursting at the seams with my stockpile and we really need to get some of the stuff used up.

Tomorrow, I am having a last minute garage sale in an attempt to raise some more money to help with our bills. I have had boxes of stuff to take to Goodwill and the pregnancy centers, but my plans kept falling through and I did not want to hold on to it all for my mom's garage sale in July. I have never had a garage sale by myself (without my mom) and I will also have both kids by myself for the last half of the afternoon, so wish me luck! I actually got Ben to get rid of some of his junk, so that's a huge plus!!

Well, I am off to get some sleep before the big garage sale! If you are in Tulsa and want to come by, email me for my address!

Frugal Friday *Updated*

One of the most frugal things I have been doing lately is not using my air conditioner in the house. That's right, we have not once turned our air on. There have really only been one or two days that I was really tempted. Every year, we try to wait as long as possible, but we usually only make it about half way through May. This year, thanks to the weird weather we have had, I think we will make it all the way. As soon as we wake up, we open the windows and let the cooler air come in. We use a box fan in one of the windows of the main rooms to help, and every ceiling fan is on. I am excited to get my electric bill!

In the last two weeks, thanks to Kraft and Coupons, I have done some major couponing at Homeland. For those of you who don't know, Homeland doubles coupons up to $1, which means they double $1 coupons, for a total of $2 savings. They only double the first in a series, so you have to do more than one transaction to get the full benefits, which is a pain, but worth it! So, here is a picture of what I got in two transactions this week. I went back and did 2 more, but I didn't take pictures of those. *I forgot to tell you the total for all of these items! $15.00!!! Can you believe it?
Frugally, it has been a good two weeks. What are your frugal friday tips?

Not Me! Monday on Tuesday

Yes, I know its Tuesday, but I had most of this post ready and just got too stinkin busy yesterday to finish it! Here we go!

I did not let my daughter eat two kinds of ice cream, gobstoppers, and yogurt for dinner one night while we were busy cleaning up the back yard! I did not then allow a dip in the hot tub to substitute for a bath that same evening.

I have not referred to my son as my "human garbage disposal" and I definitely do not feed him the left overs from the fridge that no one else will eat!

My husband did not show me up with his homemaking skills and frugality by getting out the sewing machine I got for Christmas in 2006, and cutting and hemming his pants into work shorts for the summer. And no, I did not teach him well, his momma did!

My internet did not get shut off yesterday due to a "security breach", because we were suspected of downloading movies (Not Us!) and my husband did not call Cox and chew them out regarding the privacy issues involved and their inability to verify if we had actually downloaded a movie, and in turn did not get us a day of free service for the hassle it caused us! And I am not constantly amazed by the powers my husband possesses in such instances!

Hope you enjoyed the tell all!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Confession Time! I have not realized that when I am super frustrated with one of my children, I stamp my foot like a two year old not getting their way. I did not laugh at my 15 mo old when he threw his first real fit this morning, throwing himself on the ground and crying, standing up and then repeating. My laughing did not make him start laughing and thus stop throwing a fit!

Our second guinea pig Bob has not turned out to be a total bully to our original guinea pig Joe and I am not super excited that he is going to a new home tonight, even though it will break my daughter's heart. I also have not been having to write "Feed Guinea Pigs" on my to do list every day to keep from forgetting to feed them. Not me!

I did not feel my head swell when I found out that 1,000 kids applied to the school KK got into and only 60 were accepted and my kid was one of them!!! And I am definitely not bragging right now!

I did not have a miniature meltdown last night because my husband was not 3 hours later than he said he would be. I was not overwhelmed with the house and kids and a social busy husband, and did not end up crying and cursing my unsuspecting hubby.

I also definitely do not realize that the left side of my blog is crowded with the column, and have not dreaded trying to fix it because it took such a long time for me to figure out how to make three columns in the first place. I think I will not just leave it for now.

Hope you have all enjoyed my confessions! Do you have any sins to confess?

Frugal Friday

Today's Frugal Friday post is regarding clothes. The Princess was accepted into a magnet elementary school that requires that the students wear uniforms, with the logo of the school embroidered on the clothing. I will admit that I was kinda excited about this, because I never had to wear uniforms and I think its super cute, as well as easy to put together outfits! However, I knew they are very expensive. Her new school had a Uniform Resale this week, selling gently used uniforms from other students/parents. My main goal at this sale was to get jumpers, because Cadence loves to wear dresses and when you add leggings, she can wear jumpers year round. I left that sale with the biggest smile on my face, I cleaned up! I had $60 to spend and was hoping to get a decent amount of items and then pick up the rest at some resale shops that might have them, and possibly only have a few items to by new and pay to get embroidered. But, I did so well, that I won't have to buy anything, except some shirts to wear under her jumpers. For $60, I got:
6 jumpers
7 polo shirts (long & short sleeve)
2 skirts
1 pair of khakis
*I did have a picture of everything, but the computer is being dumb.
And with one exception, everything I got is already embroidered! I am unbelievably excited. I save more money than I can even imagine. Hopefully most of this will last the whole Kindergarten year, and then I can sell them in the resale next year.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been cleaning stuff out of the house more often, especially clothes thanks to nicer weather. Most of my kids' clothes are in pretty good condition. I very easily could have consigned them, or sold them in the JBF sale, like I have before. However, I decided to give all of their things to friends with children who could use them. Honestly, most stuff going out of my house goes to Goodwill, or a Pregnancy Resource Center, but usually the nice items I sale in a garage sale. For some reason, I just did not feel like holding on to the stuff, and it was really weighing on my heart to give to others, instead of making money from it. So, last week I have a bunch of stuff to a friend who is pregnant with a boy (and already have another 3 sacks for her!) and have been getting stuff ready for another friend with a 3 year old daughter. And guess what? This week, I was gifted with a huge box full of clothes for Henry, and just today my neighbor (who buys only name brands!) gave me 2 trash bags full of almost brand new clothes for Cadence! I was super excited and incredibly grateful and was further reminded that what you give, you get back!

I know this post wasn't really full of tips, but I firmly believe that if you give, you will get back, so let that be my tip! And buy uniforms used!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

MckMama is back and Stellan is doing better, so off we go with another Not Me! Monday!
I did not allow my 5 year old to stay home from school today, even though I knew she was probably faking dramatizing, simply because I had overslept and didn't really feel like rushing around like a crazy person to try and get ready and get to school by 9 am or she wouldn't be let into school for the day because of the new stupid rule at her school.

I also did not realize later that I still had to get out and go to QT to buy my three newspapers, and think, crap! While at QT, I did not feel bad about myself after seeing a girl woman my age looking very cute and sophisticated in work clothes while I was wearing jeans (with greasy stains), a t-shirt (with greasy stains), and hot pink tennis shoes with no make up, caring a dirty faced, barefoot toddler. Nope, I am more secure with my self image than that!

I do not secretly kinda enjoy the nights my husband stays at the firehouse or is out of town, because I get to put the kids to bed and not worry about anyone else, watch whatever tv I want and sleep in the middle of the bed, with Chandler (terrier) and the cat. I am a better wife than that!

I do not know that we are kinda crazy for getting a second guinea pig. Most of you know I am furry animal obsessed, but usually my husband balances me out and makes sure we keep the fur babies to a realistic minimum. I have read over and over that guinea pigs are happier in pairs so when Ben came across a free pig on craigslist, we jumped on it! The Princess promptly named him Bob, so we now have Joe & Bob. Pictures will be posted soon!

I am not in pain from wearing my retainers again. My teeth have been moving lately, so I decided to start wearing my retainers again and I am definitely not cringing with pain as we speak.

I hope you enjoyed my weekly confessions. This is my favorite post to do and I seriously encourage everyone to try it out! Visit MckMama's site to read lots more blogs who are also doing it!

Frugal Friday

I need to lose some weight and tone up, desperately. I am going to be in a wedding this summer that I would like to look good (better than I do now) and I would like to feel better. So here is my new, frugal plan for weight lose.

Pedometer: I found a pedometer I got a couple of years ago for free. I did some research online and found that "sedentary" people walk 2,000 to 3,000 steps per day. Walking 6,000 steps per day will keep you healthy and reduce your health risks and walking 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day will help you lose weight. Last night in about 4 hours, which included working in the front yard and having a race with Cadence, I walked close over 4,000 steps. Today I have been wearing it all day, and am so far at 4,000 steps. Today Ben took Cadence to and from school for me, so I definitely lost some steps right there. My goal over the next couple of days is to see how many steps I average per day so that I can increase them. I will have to add activity of some sort to get to 10,000 steps.

DVDs: I have 5 work out dvds that I have collected over the years. My goal is to do something every single day, and hopefully to work these dvds into my routine. I think for right now I am going to have to do them in the evening, because I just can't seem to get up early enough to do them. Maybe once I start doing them and realize how much better I feel, then I will be able/willing to get up earlier.

Watching what I eat: I think this will also help me alot. I am switching fruits and 100 calorie snacks for chocolate and otherwise fattening snacks. I am going to try to eat more slowly and not get "lost" in my food and not pay attention.

The only thing I will have to buy is a new sports bra. My old ones are from high school, enough said.

I am also planning on using this blog to post what I have done to motivate me. So you see, you can work out and lose weight without spending any money! Wish me luck!

Not Me! Monday

Yes, its baaaaack! I stopped the Not Me! Monday about 4 weeks ago in respect for MckMama and her baby Stellan's battle with SVT. Click her name to read more and please pray for this sweet baby, his 3 siblings (under 5) and their struggle. Here we go:

I have not taken to giving the Prince an empty bottle to use as a pacifier to go to sleep. I also have not been taking a bottle of formula with us when we go places where it would come in handy to keep him occupied (like a wedding).

I have not been told more times than I can count lately that I am "the worstest mommy" by my ever so dramatic 5 year old daughter. And she definitly did not add "on the planet" one really bad time.

I have not recently realized, nor am I admitting, how much my daughter loves tv and movies. This is her zone time and relaxes her, however she has recently been watching too much of it! So it has been a battle scaling back, which is where most of the "worstest mommy" comments come from!

I am not constantly amazed by how fast our house can go from clean to dirty. I swear it is clean when I go to bed and dirty when I wake up. How does that happen?

I have not been super jealous of my husband's new tattoo. I have definitely not been heavily hinting that it will be my turn soon. FYI: The blue fish is for Henry and the orange fish is for Cadence.



I have alot to be thankful for, so I am going to combine my Not Me! Monday post with a Grace in Small Things post.

Grace in Small Things
5/365 (still determined to do 365, even if it takes me a long time!)
1. A long talk with an old friend
2. Sunshine
3. A friend who babysat my children so I could attend a wedding shower
4. The way Henry hooks his right arm around mine when I hold him, and clings like a monkey!
5. My house, I love my house. Its not fancy, but it is ours!

Missing in Action

Yes, I have been missing in action. I was finally getting some organization and rhythm to my blogging, and then life came and it was gone! Here are some numbers to give you an idea of how busy we have been the last two weeks:
Trips to Walgreens: 8
Doctor's Appts: 3
Volunteer Trainings: 3
Conference Calls: 3
Firefighter trainings: 4
Birthday parties: 2
Cheerleading tryouts: 1
Wedding Shower: 1
Trips to Target: 4
Trips to Border's (Twilight obsession): 2
To BOK Center: 2
Trips to Owasso (for JBF Sale): 2
Books read: 3 (Twilight series)

Wow. Now, this may seem like a normal couple of weeks for some of you. Its not at all normal for me. First of all, now that I work from home, I just don't drive that much. Since I am not already out, or in a certain area, I really re-consider my trips to the store and such before I go. I make sure there are more than just one or two goo deals before I make a trip to the store. In fact, thanks to my coupon stockpile (and tiny kitchen with no cabinet space) I have not been to Wal-mart (Neighborhood Market, my main grocery store) in over a week! I am happy about this, because I am trying to use some of our stockpiles because our kitchen is bursting at the seams.

The amount of doctor's visits were definitely not normal. All three trips were in one week. First, Henry had his one year check up, where he received 5 shots and had blood drawn. Two days later, Cadence had a check up for her perforated eardrum. That same evening Henry came down with a 103.3 fever (too late to be caused by the vaccines) and was miserable. I took him to the doctor the next morning, where they discovered he had double ear infections. He was also mildly dehydrated from such a high fever and from feeling bad. Unfortunately to make sure he got enough fluids, we had to give up weaning (we had two nights down!) because he drinks so much better from a bottle, to make sure he got re-hydrated. The day after his appointment, he started dripping from his eyes and mouth, so I gave him some of his as needed allergy medicine and if it is not better on Monday, we will call the doctor. He also has a follow up visit next week from his ear infection. You can always tell when Henry is sick because it changes his personality so much. Normally, he is a smiley, non cuddling baby who is too busy to stop and is a voracious eater. Sick Henry falls asleep while I am holding him (which he has not done since he was 6 weeks old!), never smiles, rarely eats, and only wants to be held. He is getting a little better, but is definitely not back to his normal self.
So, in a nutshell, these are all the things that have been going on that have caused me to be MIA. I am back. Thanks for your patience.

Praying for Stellan

MckMama at Mycharmingkids.net is a blog I read religiously and she is also the one who started Not Me! Monday. Her youngest son Stellan is in Pediatric ICU and is not doing well. Please click on the picture above to go to her blog and more than anything, please pray for this sweet baby boy.

Frugal Friday

A couple of the blogs I read do a Frugal Friday post, and since being Frugal is a part of my daily life, I thought I would add one to my blog and see how it goes. Basically I will the Frugal Friday post to talk about ways I save money each week, or new ideas I have read. Here goes nothing!
This week was a very frugal week for me, not just out of habit, but also out of necessity. Even Mr. Wright was frugal this week! Here are some ways I saved money this week:

• In the mail this week, I recieved quite a few of the free magazine subscriptions I had signed up for, including Martha Stewart!
• I also received a free sample of popcorn and lots of coupons from offers I had signed up for this week in the mail.
• My sister and I went to Gardner's used books and bought well over $100 worth of books for $30. I finally got Twilight and have started it!
• My mom, sister, the prince and princess and I took advantage of the Salvation Army's 50% off all clothing on Wednesdays. I love thrift store shopping, as does my mom. We got to spend time together, have fun, and left with 4 bags of clothes for all of us and books! My mom got especially lucky with clothes for her, which was great because she really needed some clothes. When I find really, super-great deals, I will even get bigger sizes for the kids and put them away for upcoming seasons. That way they always have clothes to grow into and I don't have to run out and spend full price on anything.
• I am trying to be more aware of using only half of the recommended amount for most household items (Shampoo, dish detergent, clothes detergent, etc.) I usually try to do this, but I have not been as aware of what I am using lately. Most items like these you can get by with using a much smaller amount than most of us use.
• All of our Spring Break entertainment has been free. We went to the park at the River one day, had a friend over, played at the neighbor's house, etc.
• I am trying to make sure paper has been thoroughly used up before it is recycled. I use both sides to print on, cut used paper into scraps, and write on both sides of the paper I use for my to do list. This is not only frugal, but good for the environment, as alot of frugal doings are!
• I am being more diligent about lights. Both Mr. Wright and the Princess have a tendency to leave lights on when they leave a room. I am trying to double check for them and turn them off.
• On the hottest day this week, we left the windows open and fans on until right before bed to cool down the house. We also only used the heat for a teeny bit this morning, other than that it has been off all week.
  
• When the trash bag in the can is full, I take it out of the can, and continue to use it. There is so much more room left in the bag!
  

I would love to hear anything frugal tips you have, or your frugal doings for this past week. Hope you learned something from mine! Can't wait to hear some of yours, be sure and post some tips! Now, I am off to read more of Twilight. I think I may finish the book tomorrow. Yes, its THAT good!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Here we go again!

I am definitely not excited for the Princess to be on Spring Break this week and to have the excuse to cut back on my working hours. I love my job and working is always a pleasure! I am also not going to pretend that I am a Stay At Home Mom this week while she is off, as opposed to a Work At Home Mom!

I am not so horribly exhausted this morning that it is hard to look at my computer screen without falling asleep. And this is not due coughing all night last night and having an over tired little boy who woke up way too much last night. I also did not just give up on weaning him from the bottle last night because the night before was to miserable for both of us! I am also not contemplating napping when Henry, Abi (who is playing with us today) and Cadence take naps this afternoon. I have too much to do to nap!

I did not think how pretty Henry's hair would be if we were a girl last night, right before Oma gave him his first hair cut. I did not wish for just one second and Henry and KK had each other's hair!

And I am not totally enjoying the silence while Henry and Abi nap and KK play's at a neighbor's house. Ahhhhh.....

Weaning

The Prince is now 1 year old. And that means its time to wean. When Cadence was getting close to this age, we gradually started weaning her, and by her first birthday, no more bottles. Alot of this was just her personality also. She did not really rely on the bottle. Now comes Henry. Since Henry spent most of his first year going to work with me, he got hooked on bottles to go to sleep. Since I was in an office close to clients and could not let him "cry it out" as we had with Cadence at a much earlier age, Henry has never really had to do this. I have relied on the bottle to get him to sleep for naps and bedtime. (I know this is a huge no-no!) So here we are now, working from home, where he can cry it out, and while I have been home for close to two months, I have not even tried weaning him. Its just gotten so easy to put him to nap/bed with a bottle and that's it. Now its time to wean him. I am dreading this. See, when Henry was a young infant, it took quite a bit of training to get him to sleep. He did not know how to sleep well, and I literally had to train the kid to sleep. Well, I have him well trained now. Nap time starts to roll around and he is cranky. 6:30 at night and he is ready for bed. The problem is the bottle. And I know part of the reason I am hesitant to wean is because of all of the problems I had getting him to sleep in the begining.
Earlier this week, I was training volunteers one evening while Ben had the kids at home. When I got home, he told me he put Henry down for bed without a bottle and it took 1.5 hours for him to go to sleep. But he went to sleep eventually. So yesterday I decided that for afternoon nap, I would not give him the bottle. I knew that Ben could pick KK up from school so that if it took Henry a while to fall asleep, it would be okay. I put him down about 1:30. By the time Ben and KK got home, 3:15, he was still crying. So I left to go run errands, and when I got back at 5:15, HE HAD NEVER GONE TO SLEEP! I went and got him out of his bed, and I found this horribly tired baby.
Look how red and tired his eyes are. So, I gave up weaning for the day. I think tonight I may try to put him to bed without a bottle. I am thinking that starting at bedtime will be a smarter option. Wish me luck!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Confession time. Here goes! (I am not in a fabulous mood, so it will be interesting to see where this takes us...)

I have not cursed my husband (silently) numerous time last week and this weekend for being sick. I have not thought that he really just needs to get over it, because I am sick too and am taking care of two sick and cranky children. I understand Mommy's can't get sick and even if they do, they definitely cannot act sick because there is no time for that. Especially Mommy's who work from home and are still home, so there is really no excuse not to work. Not Me!

I did not let the Princess stay home from school again, even though I knew within a couple of hours she would feel fine, just so I would not have to get out since I felt horrible.

I have not been pretending to be weaning the Prince from a bottle/formula, but not really doing it. I have not been thinking that I have plenty of formula and so what if he is one and a half before he gives up his bottle? Its not like he's 3!

I have not stopped almost all of my recycling since we moved back into the house, just because I am too lazy to get it all set back up again. I would never do that because I deeply care about the environment. I also have not forgotten my shopping bags for the two weeks and collected more plastic bags. At least I have sacks for dirty diapers!

That's it for today!

What a week!

TGIF! Since I now work from home, I don't look forward to Fridays as much as I used to, although the prospect of sleeping in on Saturdays is always appealing. This week I was ready for Friday just for the week to be over. Last weekend was very event filled, with Henry's birthday. Towards the end of the weekend, some major events happened that, while they did not directly affect my family, we definitly felt the after shocks. It is incredibly hard to watch people that you love hurt and be hurt so badly. The whole week has been over shadowed by these events. It has been a hurtful week and I am praying that the damage from the events of this week can be repaired. Last night we got some good news on this issue, so hopefully things will be looking up.

On to the good events of the week, Ben got started on the process of becoming a volunteer firefighter for Berryhill. He will be on probation for a month before he can actually have any duties. Ben unfortunately, came down with a bad cold virus and has been pretty sick this week, missing two days of work. By the end of the week, we all ended up with the virus and are trying to get better.

Wednesday, my mil and I went to the Just Between Friends Sale and picked up a bunch of clothes for the prince as well as some toys I had wanted to for him for this birthday at half the price. The same day I went to the Salvation Army thrift store because every Wednesday all clothing is half price, and got tons more stuff for both kids. It was a great day for bargains.

Thursday, we played outside after school and then went over to my mil's for a cookout. Friday, I went to watch KK's dance class in the morning and by the time it was over, it was obvious that she was very sick, so I just took her home with me. I ended up caring for Ben, KK, and Henry most of the day, and worked in between.

It has been a busy work week for me, because we are sending out our first fundraising letter, finalizing the website, and I am starting a new training on Monday. Hopefully by next week, we will have some much needed money rolling in from our letter.

Here are some recent pictures to enjoy!
(Never mind, I just discovered I left my camera at my mother in law's!)

4/365

1. Daily chats with my mom
2. Thrift stores
3. Instant mashed potatoes
4. 100 calorie snacks
5. Nose bulbs for suctioning baby noses

3/365 Grace

I know I've missed some days, but lets see if I can still complete 365 of theses, even if it takes me longer than a year. Because face it, these are just cool to do and give you perspective.

1. Working from home (which today allowed me to take some time off of work and take a nap when the Prince did because he kept me up all night.)
2. Redbox for renting DVDs
3. Warm Swaeatpants
4. Taco Bell on a night when I had not energy to cook
5. Sleep

Grace in Small Things

I know these posts have fallen by the way side, but I would like to jump start them again.
1. Internet
2. Snuggling with Joe (the Guinea Pig)
3. Fat baby legs and feet
4. Disposable diapers
5. Secret Life of the American Teenager. Such a great show emotionally and educationally for teenagers!

Not Me! Monday

Get ready to confess your sins!

I have not picked out a new name (I already have another) for a third child, a girl, especially since there is very little chance of actually having a third child, since Mr.Wright is done and I am 90% sure that two is fine. And I am definitely not keeping this name to myself in case someone might steal it!

I have not been getting Joe the Guinea Pig out of his cage after the Princess goes to bed to snuggle with him on the couch. And he definitely did not pee on me one of those times!

I did not go to sleep at 9:30 last night, even though House was on (and you know I can't miss House!) and it was so nice that I am definitely not thinking about doing it again tonight.

The Prince did not take off walking last week and never stopped. And I do not let him walk into the Princess's room and play in there while she is at school!

I have not just now realized that I never did another "Grace in Small Things" post. Oops!

I did not buy my husband a 44 oz bag of Reese's eggs at Sam's the other night, that is so unhealthy!

I did not threaten the horribly cranky Princess that we would be sleeping in our can in the Sam's parking lot if she did not wear her seat belt properly! Good mothers never have to threaten!

I hope you all enjoyed my indiscretions!

Miracles

So many of us a blessed with healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. We never realize how much can go wrong and how much we can lose when we first see that blue line. A friend of mine, Misti, knows first hand how a happy pregnancy can turn frightening in a matter of moments. Please go visit her blog and view her video of her youngest son Jackson's struggle when he was born at 23 weeks. Misti and her family are the 2009 Ambassador Family for the March of Dimes in our area. Jackson's life is a miracle, thanks to so many people, but especially the March of Dimes.

Jackson's Story

Please help Misti raise money to give back to babies fighting the same struggle that Jackson did.

Not Me! Monday

Ahh, Not Me! Monday. When I started to think of my transgressions, I had a hard time thinking of some. I thought, "I don't have any, I was a pretty good Mommy this week" and then it all came flooding back!

I did not buy pop at the store today for Henry's birthday party and then put it all in my fridge and I definitely have not been drinking it.

I did not use Bella's birthday as an excuse to get out of the house by myself yesterday and spent an hour at the thrift store, coming home with books for myself! I definitely did not keep those books hidden until I could safely put them up.

I do not let Henry empty the contents of the trash can in the office on a daily basis, just so I can get a few more minutes of work done. That would be messy and teaching him bad habits and I would never do that!

I did not give my son a bowl of mashed potatoes and a spoon under the guise of letting him learn how to feed himself, simply to keep him safely in the high chair a bit longer so I could write this post. Not me!

I was not the teeniest, tiniest bit relieved that my hubby was traveling this week so that I could clean the house for the birthday party this weekend and have some much needed alone time at night and overdoes on House re-runs. I love my husband and always want him by my side!

I did not ground the Princess from tv and movies because she was disruptive during school and then allow her to watch "grown up" tv (Friends) with me so I would not also be punished. I know consistency is the key to parenting and I would never do that!

I hope you all enjoyed laughing with me!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Thanks to Misti I have discovered the above blogger and her famous "Not Me Monday". I love reading when others do theirs (because we can all relate!), so I have decided to do one myself.

I did not spend my whole weekend checking Craiglist obsessively in hopes of being the first one to spot the next listing for a Guinea Pig with all of its stuff for very cheap. (This will be KK's b-day present). I have not missed out on a couple already and am going to be sure and not miss another!

I did not turn cartoons on for KK and put Henry in the play pen with a bottle so I could sleep off my Nyquil hangover this morning. A good mother would never do that. I definitly did not not check Henry's diaper before I plopped him in the play pen for an hour. I did not roll over and put the pillow over my head when KK told me to "go ahead and stay in bed", which means, I am doing something I shouldn't. (This turned out to be bringing me breakfast in bed!) I did not eat what she brought me in bed, Ritz crackers with cheese in a can on top, for breakfast!

I do not let the dogs in to clean up Henry's highchair and mess on the floor after he eats, before wiping it down with a cleaner. I also do not let the dogs in to clean up any spill (of a food or drink) instead of cleaning it up myself.

Well, I am sure I can think of a ton more, but that is it for my first Not Me Monday post. Hope you had a good laugh!

More things I love

This is getting harder than I thought it would be.

11. GermX
I have always loved liquid hand sanitizers since Bath & Body works first came out with theirs. I discovered GermX when I worked at the preschool and I love it! I have it in almost every room of the house.

12. Soft Lips
This brand is my current favorite for lip stuff. I usually change brands every couple of years. I love these because they are tiny and fit in my pocket.

9 & 10

9. Land Rover Discovery Series III love my car. I have had it for almost 5 years, which is about to tie for the longest I have had a car (the eclipse). It is almost 10 years old and is not as fancy as some newer cars, but I absolutely love my SUV. My favorite thing about it is that it is all windows. There are virtually no blind spots in this SUV. I am also higher then most cars on the road and since I am so short, I love this! I honestly don't know if I can ever go back to being a car and not being up high.

10. iGoogle
I love iGoogle. It is a homepage that you can program with all sorts of things on it. Mine has a daily bible verse, flylady tips, real simple tips, my gmail, my google calendar (which I also love!) and some more fun stuff. You can make it fit your needs and even have a design at the top, mine is pink bubbles.

More Love

7. Luv'sI think Luv's is the best brand of diapers. They are cheaper than Huggies or Pampers, and they work just as well.

8. Cannon SD790 IS

Ben and I got this camera as our Christmas present to each other. Its a small point and shoot, but it takes great pictures! I am very pleased with it.

5 & 6

I am very behind on my 14 days of Love, since I missed two days. Oops! I know you all will forgive me.

5. Bibs. Ever since Henry was born, he has thrown up. I don't mean baby spit up, I mean actual vomit. Poor baby. However, since he continued to grow like normal and it didn't seem to cause him any pain, the doctors decided not to give him medication for it. Up until very recently, Henry has had to wear a bib every where he goes, even hanging out at home. I have also had to pack at least 3 to take with us when we left the house. The poor cute baby always smelled like vomit! Bibs have been a life saver for me over the last year. I really could not have lived without them!

6. Diffuser. My diffuser for my hair dryer helps me out so much. Because of frizz, I cannot blow dry my hair for more than a couple of minutes at a time. And for someone with such thin hair (I know it doesn't look like it, but it is!), my hair holds moisture like nothing else. The diffuser really helps my hair get dry without getting frizzy.

Grace

It has been one of those days. A really bad one. Everything I have touched has broken, spilled, etc. Every phone call I have made has had bad news. I was having a break down because my printer would not work and kept popping up messages about the connection. I decided to take a break and read a blog I have not read in quite a while, Life In Pink. While reading her blog, I came across Grace In Small Things. Not only did I think it was a cool idea, I knew that I came across it for a reason and was hoping it would help cheer me up and get me to see the positive. I don't know that I will do it for 365 days, but I will try! Here is day 1.

Grace in Small Things 1/365
1. A husband who can pick KK up from school so I don't have to. 2. Being able to work from home. 3. Sunshine and warm weather in February. 4. How Henry is ticklish on the back of his neck, just like me. 5. Clean water. I love to drink water and I thankful that my town has good drinking water.

There, I feel better already!

More things I can't live without...

3. Garnier Curl Construct Mousse.

This mousse is the best product for my curly hair that I have ever found. It doesn't make my hair crunchy or stiff, even if I add more after it is dry. And it really helps prevent frizz.

4. Oxyclean

I adore Oxyclean. I use the laundry booster as well as the stain remover. For Henry's clothes, which get soooo dirty, I spray the stains with oxyclean, put detergent and the laundry booster in the machine, fill it up with water and clothes and let it soak for up to 30 mins before I start the washer. The stain remover has taken old, dried in stains out of KK's clothes before. I love Oxyclean!

14 Days of Love

In an effort to give my blog more structure and to do something fun, I have decided to do a "14 days of love" post. My friend Jenny gave me the idea! Now I know I am behind since it is already February 6, so I will try to do two a day. I have never done this before and I don't know the "rules", but I have decided that I am only going list things or items I love. I would be on here for months if I listed people!

1. Graco Pack N Play

This play pen was KK's and is now Henry's. KK could sit in it for hours and play or just watch, the tv, us, me cleaning, etc. In fact, I was still using it when she was 2 when I would get in the shower, until Ben made me put it up because she was too old for it. Henry does not like it nearly as much. However, with Henry being such an acitve and into everything baby, the play pen is a god send!


2. Palm Centro

I have had this phone for almost a year now and I have really liked it. When I first got it, we did not have internet at home, so this was my only source of internet (except work). While I am not stupid when it comes to technical stuff, I am also not as good with things as my husband is. However, this phone is so easy to use that I got the whole thing set up by myself. I don't like being idle, so when I am stuck in traffic, or waiting for an appointment, I like that I can get out my phone and get on facebook, or check the weather or my email, or play ms pacman.

Feeling the stress

Over the last few days, the stress of our current situation has really been creeping up on me. I think hotel living is hard enough, let alone when you add two children, 3 dogs and a cat to feed every day, driving all the way across town 2 and 3 times a day, etc. Here is how our last week has been.

The first part of the week was really not bad. I felt like I was getting a routine down and things were working. However, living with transition in my home and my job is still very hard, even when things are great. By Friday, I desperately needed to get out of the hotel and get away from my children! Because Henry goes to work with me, I usually have zero time by myself. Most of the time this is fine, but sometimes it gets to me and this was one of those days. I had some drama/stress to deal with at work, which made my pray this transition is over with as soon as possible (but the work transition is on hold until the house is finished!). My mother in law agreed to have KK and Henry spend the night, so we headed out to Bourbon Street for dinner, where we ran into a friend and neighbor and had dinner with them. After dinner, we met up with Rachel and Kathleen at a sports/karaoke venue (which is really not our type of place!), but we had a blast although we were all hoarse from yelling over the music all night.

Saturday morning Ben went to work and I picked up the kids and headed to Claremore for a play date with my long time friends Lindsay and Daniele and their kids. We each have two children, a boy and girl for each of us. KK is a full year older than their oldests but all our our second babies were born within a 2 month time span. The babies played by themselves, but interacted with each other a bit. The older kids played together and had fun and us mommies caught up. After that I went to my mom's to see my sister off to her first dance. Then we headed back to Tulsa and KK went to spend the night with her cousin Will.

Sunday, Ben, Henry and I headed to Home Depot to buy paint for KK's room. My poor daughter's bedroom was still the blue cars and trucks design that they boy who lived there before us had. As we were mixing her paint, we found an "OOps" can that was the exact color I wanted for our bedroom so we picked that up also. We had to apply two coats of Kilz to the bottom half of KK's room because it was bright, primary blue! My mother in law ended up watching all four grandbabies so my favorite sister in law could come help me paint. (Katie is my push behind getting KKs room done and even offered to do the whole thing herself!) We painted for almost 8 hours before both rooms were done! While we did this, Ben layed down the missing quarter round and did some little things that needed to be done.

So needless to say, we are all exhausted today. KK spent most of the weekend away from home, and playing and she was worn out. Henry missed a nap each day, which makes him miserable. We all had to get up and over to the house early this morning. Ben had to meet with the hardwood floor people and I wanted to be there when KK saw her room for the first time. Then the kids and I ran some errands and are back at the hotel. I think the kids and I have a touch of the stomach flu and we are exhausted, so we are trying to rest, or at least not leave the hotel today! Tomorrow starts the week (thankfully a short one), so there is always the typical "getting ready for the week stuff" to do. This was supposed to be the week we were moving home and moving my office home, but unfortunately due to some problems with the floors, it will probably be next week, which puts a wrench in my office and work schedule. I am trying not to stress about that today!

Thanks for reading, now I am off to try to take a nap while Henry is down.

I cannot think of a good title for this post!

First I want to say congratulations to my friend Jenny on the birth of her new baby boy, Hudson Gray. I can't wait to see pictures.

Moving on. We are almost one week into our (possibly) two week hotel stay. It really has not been bad at all. I am saving money by have breakfast provided every morning, as well as using the hotel shampoo, condition, and lotion they have provided (its actually nice and smells good!). Ben and I worked out a deal where I go over and feed the dogs in the morning and does the afternoon. The problem with this is that I have to carry Henry with me through the gate into the backyard and hold him while I feed three hungry and attention starved dogs. Since I am still having some major issues with my wrist from my surgery this summer, holding Henry for more than 5 minutes is not a walk in the park. Other than this small issue, hotel living is not bad at all!

Since we are so close to Super Target, I am taking advantage of it! I went today and found a couple of 75% off clearance racks in the kids section. I ended up getting sweatpants and a sweatshirt for both kids for $0.98 each, a coat for next year ($5), leggings ($2), sweater ($3), and a dress ($4) all for KK. I was very very happy. I am planning on going back later in the week to see if the 50% of racks have gone to 75%.

I have been considering some goals for the year, but I haven't seemed to have any time to really sit down and think about them and figure out exactly what I want and how to get it. I have decided on one goal for sure: Have an emergency savings account with $1000 by the end of the year. I even have a plan to do it.

Here are some of the other goals I am wanting to work towards, but want to have a plan to achieve them and not just say I want to:

• Lose weight/tone up
• Declutter
• Generally live well (be more active, use less, eat better, make more time for myself...

I will be working on a better plan to actually do all of these and make them a regular part of my life. I hope to have another goal with a definite plan soon!