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!

Great Deal Day

I did some pretty great couponing today. I made two trips to Walgreens and may make another one later on today!
Trip #1 (Bigger trip)
Total for all of this was $9.89 (this includes a $1.39 bottle of water I drank before I got home!)
Trip #2
Total for all of this one was $2.32!
I got half of my coupons from the paper on Sunday and half from the internet. On every item but two, I used both Walgreen's Coupons and Manufacturer's coupons. I am not savy enough (yet) to tell you my before and after coupon subtotals, but I am working up to that. I was pretty impressed with my trips and still have some coupons left (Progresso) so I may go back and do it again. Also, I missed out on the Electrosal, but I am going to check again and see if any of the stores have them left.

*Anyone who uses blogger, whenever I upload pictures, it always puts them at the top, I can't ever make them go exactly where I want to go. Any help?

An update on our life:
We are officially living in an extended stay hotel. They started packing yesterday and are finishing today. Tomorrow they will start work on the floors. We will probably be in the hotel a total of two weeks. Its a nice hotel, two bedrooms, two baths. Everyone who works here is very nice and they have a breakfast buffet every morning as well as hor dourves and drinks in the evenings. KK thinks it is the coolest place. She has called her Grammie on the phone in her room, got breakfast with my this morning, and bounced of the walls! I am sure the novelty will all wear off, but I am definitly thankful for a nice, safe place to stay and for good insurance! I am hoping that I will get some much neede relaxation while we are here, along with getting all of my coupons cut and organized and cleaning out my binder. I am also hoping that this will give me some insight and motviation to help me declutter by realizing that we can live without nearly all of the stuff we have in our house. For now, I need to run and get ready to pick KK up from school.

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.