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Thursday, November 30, 2006

Thankful Thursday

I almost forgot it's Thursday today! Here is what I'm thankful for today:

1) In January DHs company is taking all employees and their spouses on an all expenses paid trip to......Cancun! Woohoo, I'm so excited!

2) My brother and his wife who are some of my best friends.

3) A wonderful hubby who doesn't mind changing diapers.

4) Baby seems to be starting to sleep a little better.

5) All my online buddies.

What is everyone else thankful for today?

6 Wierd Things About Me

I got tagged by Skittles for this MEME, but I did one with 10 a month ago so I'm just reposting the first 6 lol.

1) I'm a picker. No, not my nose! But things like scabs, pimples, flaky skin, etc. I can't help but pick at it. I'm sure it is because of my psoriasis (skin disease). I've always lived with my itchy, scaly skin so it's just second-nature to pick at anything that is on my skin. I know, gross, but at least I don't pick other people!

2) I like snakes. I'm not sure why, maybe cuz they are smooth and graceful. I know lots of people hate them, but I like 'em.

3) I am not a people person. I'm not good around people except a few friends and my family. I have a hard time making (and keeping) friends. I can't carry a conversation, I just don't know what to say. I avoid situations where I have to confront people. I hate using the phone, I can actually have a panic attack about making a call I don't want to do, and have been known to cry if really pressured about it. So if you are a friend of mine and haven't seen this side of me, that means I'm comfortable around you :)

4) I must have a great metabolism cuz I eat too much junk and hardly exercise and weigh less now, just 5 months after having my second baby, than I did when I got married 3 years ago. Of course fat has replaced some of my muscle so I'm a bit more jiggly lol, so I really should exercise.

5) I hate corn tortillas, absolutely hate them. The smell, the taste, the texture, yuck! Even thinking about it makes me want to gag.

6) I love office supplies. Everything all orderly and useful and neat. I can spend an hour browsing office supply aisles, just drooling over all the pretty organizing things, packs of pens, and gadgets that I would never use but still want.

And since everyone I know already did the 10 weird things, I tag anyone who hasn't lol.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Toy Storage

OK, so I'm sure most of you that have kids look around their room and wonder why there are so many toys, how to keep them cleaned up, do the kids even play with most of them, and WHY ARE THERE SO MANY TOYS?!?! I know I have lol. Especially with Christmas coming up, and most likely more toys are about to invade the area, we wonder how to get it under control. We don't want to throw it all away because, after all, we paid for those, and they might play with them again some day.

So one day I took some advice I heard from someone else. I put about 80% of the toys away, really away. Boxed up, hidden away on shelves, stored out of reach. My 2 yr old doesn't even miss them. I left out a few of his favorites (which is still enough to make a pretty big mess lol). Then you can rotate toys when they start getting bored with them, put the ones out away and get out some of the boxed ones, it will be just like Christmas for them! This has really cut down on the mess, clutter, crowded space, and cleanup time in my boys' room.

Next is to have some sort of system for storing the toys in use so they are easy for kids to get to, but easy to put away. For me what works best is a small bookshelf, designated areas, and a few containers. Cars go into one container, blocks in a bag, miscellaneous small toys go in another container and everything else goes back in the same spot every time. I also utilize the area under the baby's crib for thing that don't fit on the shelf, like a Tonka dump truck.

Here is my boys' toys. This is about 95% of his toys that we have out (a few things like the dump truck and play table aren't pictured). It's so nice not to have a ton to pick up. Though I wish I had more containers but it works :)

I admit this isn't a flawless system, I now have a closet full of the boxed up toys, so I can barely open the door, but that's only cuz I haven't gotten the shelves for my storage room yet, then they will go in there. :)

Check out Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer for more great ideas!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Tuesday To-Do

Let's see what I need to do today:

* Dishes

* 2 loads of laundry (and fold the 2 loads in my bedroom)

* Clean the boys' room

* Make more crochet hats

* Clean up the office

And if I get that all done I might start getting the Christmas decorations out!

Monday, November 27, 2006

Monday Madness

Today is definitely a Monday lol. Baby is still fussy from the teething and cold and he kept me up again all night, so I'm pretty tired. 2yr old is acting his normal self, driving me nuts, but I love him :) I had to go to the store, bank and post office today. I had to mail off 6 packages and it took forever! But at least that's done, and my great friend watched the boys for me so I didn't have to drag them along. Now I'm trying to relax a little while the boys are asleep, eat lunch and crochet a bit. I'm working on the cutest purple hats. Hopefully when baby wakes up he'll be much happier.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Colds and Teething Do Not Mix Well!

So my baby is not feeling well. He caught the cold I've been hanging onto for a few weeks and then started teething. The good thing is his first tooth poked through today! I can't believe he's already got a tooth! The bad thing is he keeps screaming uncontrollably and is covering everything in snot. We've given him teething gel and medicine and nothing is helping. Last night he woke up at least 10 times, and I don't expect tonight to be any better. Hopefully his other tooth will pop through in the next few days and he'll get feeling better. It's so hard when nothing I do helps.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

We just got back from our trip to my family's for Thanksgiving. We were there since Wed night. It was lots of fun. The food was great, and it was wonderful to be with my family. We also got most of our Christmas shopping done yesterday. No, I didn't go early morning when it was all crazy, but I went later in the day. Hubby did get up early though to get a few things. I went later in the day with him and we bought our boys' gifts (mostly clothes). I still need to buy for hubby but I already know what I'm getting him (he knows too lol) and I have time to get it still.

Anyway, now I can start getting out Christmas decorations! YAY!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Opened a new website!

Check it out! I'm making and selling crochet baby and kid things and made myself a website! I'm hoping I can get enough business from it that I won't have to get a job outside the home, and we'll have money for Christmas, so tell your friends! I'll be adding more things as I think of them, it's still a work in progress.

Kara's Custom Crochet

Thanks for looking!

Thankful Thursday- Wait! It's not Thursday!

Well, I am going out of town for Thanksgiving so I won't be posting the next few days, so I'm doing my Thankful Thursday today :)

I am thankful for:
1) Yummy food, I'm so excited for my mom's turkey and stuffing
2) My baby sleeping a little better
3) My 2yr old saying Please and Thank You, so adorable
4) Baby napping peacefully
5) Beautiful sunny day

What is everyone else thankful for?

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Does anyone know...?


So, does anyone know if we are allowed to post about stuff we are trying to sell on our blogs? I read the Terms of Service but it doesn't mention it anywhere.

Finished my quilt!

So I've had this quilt lying around for 4.5 years just waiting for me to finish it up, all that needed done was the edges. So yesterday while the boys took a nice long nap I got it out and decided to finish it. I think it turned out so great!

Tuesday To-Do

* Dishes

* 1 load of laundry

* Pick up living room, again

* Clean up boys' room, again

* Get feeling better :P

Monday, November 20, 2006

Monday Madness

So last night we sold our laptop, I am so sad, I loved that thing. Now I have to use the desktop, I am not used to the keyboard, the screen's too far away, and I can't carry it downstairs and watch TV while online. *sigh* At least we got $900 to put towards our credit cards, that is a relief.

Also last night we went through all the storage room stuff, put a bunch in the attic, distributed some to other rooms they belonged in, found a cute baby outfit I'd been searching for months for, and organized the few boxes that we were keeping in the storage room. It looks so much nicer. Hopefully we will be getting some shelves in there, then it will look even better.

Today I don't have many plans. I'm still not feeling well so I'm just going to take it easy, read a bit, and maybe straighten up our office since I'll be spending more time in it. Maybe if I feel up to it I'll finish that quilt I started 4 years ago.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

I really hate being sick :P

So, my cold is not fun at all. My throat hurts really bad, especially if I drink water, which I am really thirsty so that's what I want of course lol. Anyway, I decided to stay home from church so I wouldn't pass it on to someone else. Just me and the baby hanging out, with the smell of dinner in the crockpot filling the house, mmm. I'm going to try to get a nap while baby sleeps. Hubby's family is coming over later to watch the boys while we try to clean up our storage room mess downstairs, so I need to clean again (panic-cleaning doesn't stick around long lol), but I'll do that after a nap. What I really want is some ice cream to sooth my scratched, burning throat. Mmmm.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Is it bedtime yet?!

I swear I get so confused when it starts getting dark so early. It just makes the day feel much later than it is lol. I'm ready for bed already and it's only 6:30! Had a pretty good day, a little busier than I expected. After watching my friend's girls, my boys both took a nap for a few hours so I just sat around and read a book for a bit. Around 5pm dear hubby got a call from his brother who said he was going to stop by and see us...in 15 mins. The house was a big mess so I got all flustered and started throwing things in drawers, scooped the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, wiped the counters, quickly vacuumed, and cleaned up the boys' room. I was so proud of how quickly I got the house cleaned up. Of course then hubby told me he was wrong and they'd be a little more than 15 mins. :P Gee, thanks. Luckily they did take longer, because 2 year old decided to act his age and try to flush a whole roll of toilet paper down the toilet. Obviously it wouldn't go down, because I walked in to find an inch of water filling the bathroom and seeping onto my bedroom carpet. We quickly worked to contain the flood, I plunged the toilet until it drained and we used all our towels soaking up the water. Hopefully we got it good enough that it won't ruin our carpet. Oh well, the bathroom needed mopped anyway lol :P Anyway, we managed to get that all cleaned up, the boys cleaned up to look presentable, and looked like a fairly put-together family when brother-in-law and his girlfriend showed up. They'll never know the total chaos they would've walked into just a 1/2hr earlier. All in all it's been a really good day. On the down side I think I'm getting a chest cold, my chest feels all heavy and hard to take a deep breath and my throat almost feels bruised and I have a deep cough. I hope I don't get too sick, and the kids don't get it.

Saturday Somethings- On to a new day

I deleted my last post so I wouldn't keep getting worked up over something that's done with and create more bad feelings.

Life: Not too much going on today. My friend Michelle is moving to a new apartment so I'm watching her girls while dear hubby is over there helping out. I don't think I have anything else planned for the day.

Hobby: I'm reading "Currant Events" by Piers Anthony right now. I love his Xanth books, they are very funny.

Projects: I need to work on organizing the storage room stuff, finish a quilt I started 4 years ago, and work on my baby's blanket I started crocheting before he was born and never finished. All in due time. :)

Well, I better check on the baby, I think the kids might have woken him.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Friday Favorites

TV Shows:
1) ER
2) Friends
3) Seinfield
4) Deal or No Deal
5) Extreme Makeover Home Edition

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Who's the boss here?

My little boy has a mind of his own and isn't afraid to tell me exactly what he wants. I had the TV on today but wasn't really watching. After a while I realized Teletubbies was on. I absolutely HATE Teletubbies! So I turned off the TV. My 2 year old turned to me and says, "Push the button! Now! Mom, push the button!" Then he started begging, "Please push the button mommy. Please. Mommy, push the button." And then frustrated, "Grrr! Push the button now! Mom, Teletubbies, now! Push the button!" I don't even know where he learned "Teletubbies" since we never watch it! I did turn the TV on, but quickly changed the channel, and after a few minutes of glaring at me, he forgot about it.

Thankful Thursday

5 Things I Am Thankful For Today:

1- My 2 cute little boys, they drive me nuts some days, but they are still wonderful
2- Good friends, especially Michelle :D
3- My sweet husband, even though he's noisy in the morning and wakes us all up
4- Our gas fireplace, it's getting cold out and I'm so happy it's warm inside
5- Oreos, mmmm, who doesn't love Oreos?!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Wrapping Presents


Thanks to Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer for hosting WFMW. This week is a special Christmas edition to share tips to get us through the season. Check out Rocks In My Dryer for more helpful hints!

So, it's come to my attention that there are many people out there that do not know how to wrap presents. I absolutely love wrapping gifts, I think it might be one of my favorite parts of Christmas. No, I'm not a professional by any means, but I think I do a good job. So for those of you who are wrapping impaired, here's some simple instructions on how to do it.

1) Cut out a piece of wrapping paper that is long enough to wrap around the gift and overlap about 1/2" and enough paper at top and bottom to go a bit more than halfway up the side. (OK, that might not make much sense, but that is why I'm adding pics! And I'm just using boring butcher paper in the pics cuz this isn't a real gift. It doesn't really matter how you place your gift on the paper as long as it's in the middle, but I always put it face down, just because, that's just the way I have to do it, don't ask, I'm a bit OCD about it).


2) Fold the sides over so that they overlap, and tape. Simple.


3) Then, fold in the small sides and tape down, as shown:


4) Fold down the top flap, tape.


5) Then fold up the bottom flap and tape.


Repeat steps 3-5 on opposite side. You can then decorate with ribbons, bows, tags, etc however you like.


Other tips:
* If you have an odd shaped gift, or soft gift (ie clothes) it is much easier to wrap if you put it in a box first.
* To wrap a ball or cylinder shaped gift, you can wrap it like a candy. Fold the paper around the middle of the gift and tape, then use ribbon to scrunch the ends together and tie, so it resembles a tootsie roll (or for a ball, some other round wrapped candy lol).
* If you are in a big hurry or still can't get it and are getting frustrated, that's what gift bags and tissue paper are for! I save gift bags and tissue paper I'm given and keep them by my wrapping paper so if I'm in a hurry (or just feeling lazy lol) I can grap one and go.

Hope this helps someone!

I feel like I'm forgetting something

I don't know why, but I feel like there's something important that I'm forgetting today. I know I have my little boy's 2 year appointment at 2, I need to put some checks in the bank, and I'm going to get a "Works-For-Me Wednesday" thing up later. I need to do a load of laundry, dishes are done, the house is mostly clean (except the basement where we are working on the storage room). So what am I forgetting?!?! It's really driving me nuts! And I'm sure as I lay down in bed tonight it will hit me, and I'll go "Dang! I really needed to do that!"

Well, I'm going to go put laundry in and hope it comes to me eventually.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Tuesday To-Do

Here's what I need to do today:

* 1-2 loads of laundry ( and fold them!)

* Clean up living room

* Vacuum

* Get started on storage room

Things that need done this week:

* Go through coffee table and end table, throw away junk and old mail

* File bills and stuff

* Clear off top of entertainment center

* Straighten up office

* Mop kitchen

* Clean master bathroom


I love making lists, now I need to stick to it! LOL

Monday, November 13, 2006

Organization Challenge!


So I decided to join the 30-day Organization Challenge hosted by Laura at Organizing Junkie. My storage/laundry room is filled with boxes and clutter and I can never find anything I need very easily. It is a disaster. Sweet hubby keeps saying we are going to clean it up, but it never happens. So I figure if it's a competition that I might be more motivated to clean it up. OK, here's some pics of the war zone:

From the doorway:


The main mess:


And the laundry area:


Our main problem is we really need shelves in there but can't afford it right now. Any ideas on what else I can do?

Crime and Punishment

So my 2 year old gave me a laugh this morning (as 2 year olds can sometimes do between bouts of wanting to pull your hair out). He decided to grab the baby's rattle and use it to play drums on baby's head. Baby was not amused. So I grabbed the screaming baby and told 2yr old that he needed to be gentle with baby and to say sorry. He smiled and laughed. So again I told him to say sorry or he'd have to go on timeout. So he cheerily said sorry and then decided to put himself in the timeout corner, where he stood making fake crying sounds for about 30 seconds. What a silly boy! Not sure what I'm supposed to do when he makes a game out of putting himself in timeout lol.

10 Things I've Done This Year

Well, I've been tagged! Let's see if I can think of 10 things, hmmm...

1) Finished my 3rd year of college and still don't have a major :P Who knows if I'll ever get a degree.

2) Took a car trip to San Diego when I was 34 wks pregnant. Believe me 14 hours in a car when that pregnant is not fun!!! At all! But the time we spent there was wonderful. It was nice to have time alone with hubby before the baby came (2yr old stayed with my parent's for 4 days).

3) Had my precious little baby boy, my second, on June 1. Wonderful VBAC with no pain meds!

4) Moved from Utah to Idaho, when baby was only 2 weeks old, that sure was fun!

5) Bought a house. Definitely makes me feel like an adult now!

6) Celebrated my 3rd Anniversary with wonderful hubby in July.

7) My older boy turned 2 in September, where has the time gone?!

8) Was able to meet a bunch of friends I met online in August and October. It's neat how close a group can become online, it felt like meeting with friends we've seen forever.

9) Started blogging about 1.5 months ago and become a bit addicted lol :)

10) Went to my grandma's funeral last week. She was 80 and had health troubles for as long as I can remember. It is sad, but she is no longer in pain so it's also a relief.

Man that was hard!

Tag Beth, Mimo, and Barb!

Monday Madness

It's another Monday. I don't particularly like Mondays. They really aren't much different from any other weekday here, but I guess it's because I've had my sweey hubby home with me all weekend to help take care of kids and clean, so when Monday rolls around and he heads off to work I'm left alone with my little terrors, um I mean sweethearts. Mondays invariably turn out horrible, the kids drive me nuts, I can't keep up with the messes, and by the time hubby gets home I'm ready to sell the kids and hide away to take a long, hot bath. So far today has been fine though (besides being exhausted because baby slept horrible again), so maybe I'll have a good Monday for once. Dishes are done, laundry needs done but I'm doing it later, the bedrooms are mostly clean, and I think I'll put off cleaning my bathroom for another day lol. Well, now baby is screaming at me, I better feed him, and maybe he'll take a nap.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

My Friend

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares." -Henry Nouwen

So it's my turn to gush about my wonderful friend Michelle :) I met her when we were both pregnant with our 2 year olds. We became friends at first over the internet, and I occasionally drove the 2 hrs to visit. Finally I moved to the same city and we now live only a mile apart. It is great to have her so close. I tell her everything, and she still likes me lol. She is always offering to help me when I need it. Many times she'll watch the boys so I can take a shower, or help clean up my messy house.

A few days ago she offered to watch my baby for me overnight so I could get some sleep. He wakes up a lot at night and I was just exhausted. I warned her over and over that he didn't sleep well, but still she kept offering. So I gave in, who am I to keep her from the blessing that come from service? LOL She took him from 9pm-7am and I was actually able to sleep! It was wonderful! I'd forgotten what it felt like not to be exhausted. And she didn't complain at all that he was awake from 2-4am and got up at 6am. She's the most amazing friend ever! God definitely knew what he was doing when he had our paths cross almost 3 years ago.

Sunday Sermon

OK, I'm not really going to preach to you. Just going to mention what stuck out to me at church today, and my thoughts on it. They mentioned the importance of teaching your children what's right at home. As parent's it's our responsibility to teach our children right from wrong. We can't leave it up to the world to teach them. We will be held responsible by God for what we do or don't teach them. It is important to read scriptures as a family and teach our children to pray. I haven't always tried to bring the Spirit of the Lord into my home as much as I should, but I'm trying to do better. I'm teaching my 2 year old to say prayers at dinner and before bed, and we have our weekly Family Home Evening where we have a simple lesson, songs, and scripture. He doesn't really understand yet, but I want him to grow up knowing about the Gospel.

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Friday Favorites

Thought I might start a themed thingy like this on here for myself. So every Friday I'll list 5 of my favorite somethings. They might not be my mostest favorites, just what I can think of at the time lol.

Authors:
1- Gerald Lund
2- Piers Anthony
3- Clive Cussler
4- J.R.R. Tolkien
5- Dean Hughes

I'm thinking of going to paper

Dishes that is. How does our little family dirty so many dishes?! I swear they dirty themselves just to spite me and make life harder. No matter how hard I try the sink is always overflowing. I bet if I watched them long enough I'd actually see them multiplying and crawling across the counter, all by themselves. Maybe I have a ghost who comes in after I leave and randomly adds dishes to the pile. It would be much easier if I just used paper dishes and plastic utensils. Of course I'd still have pans and such. At least I have a dishwasher! I would just die if I had to wash it all by hand lol. And now my 2 year old is learning how to "help" me unload the dishwasher (often when I don't want him to) so that makes it a bit more interesting, getting to the knives first, carefully watching him handle breakable dishes, pulling forks out of the wall heater that's shooting sparks, you know, everyday stuff :P

I've tried Flylady. I loved it, it worked great! For about 2 weeks. Then, like every new thing I ever try, I lost the motivation. The sink un-shinied, the counters collected every crumb and speck of dust, clutter again invaded my life. Maybe I'll try it again one day and have 2 more weeks of precious cleanliness.

I usually get my sweet husband to do dishes once a week. He does an amazing job. The dishes get all clean, the counters practically sparkle, the floor is swept, and the appliances even get cleaned. I thank his mother all the time for training him well.

I really need a better system of dishwashing. I know I should unload the dishwasher as soon as it's done so that I can rinse dirty dishes and put them in it as soon as they are dirtied, and run it once it's full, and start over again. It's such a simple concept and would make life much easier, but somehow it doesn't last long here. There's always one or two dishes that I find after I start the dishwasher, so they sit in the sink mocking my efforts, telling me that it's not worth trying because there will always be another dirty dish. And then they attract more dirty dishes, I get distracted and forget to unload the clean dishes, and before I know it the stinky mold mountain is back, plates balanced precariously in slimy stacks, sippy cups of rotten milk laughing at me and daring me to open them, greasy pans happily wallowing in the muck. I can hear the monstrous mess from here, just taunting me, knowing that I can win the battle but never the war.

Well, I'm off to battle them again, wish me luck!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

I'm seriously losing my mind

This has been a crazy week. My 2 yr old got sick with a nasty cold Friday and is just now feeling normal. And he kindly passed it on to the baby and I. Luckily the baby didn't get hit hard, just a little stuffed up, but I've been miserable. We went to my husband's niece's baby blessing Sunday and it was fun. And then Sunday night my grandmother passed away. I found out Monday morning from my brother. So Tuesday night we drove to my family's house and spent the night, the funeral was Wednesday morning. The service was nice, a short graveside service. I was volunteered for the closing prayer and barely got through it cuz I was crying. I wasn't close to my grandma because she had some mental problems and wasn't always the nicest person, but she'd still been part of my life since I was born. We spent the day with the family and drove home that night. I hate travelling far. It's almost a 3 hr drive and I have to be squished up in the passenger seat to make room for the baby's carseat behind me, so I was uncomfortable plus my husband likes to have the a/c going even if I'm freezing cold. So I was cold, tired, sick and squished for 3 hrs, with baby crying the last 1/2hr. Not fun. I just really need to sleep for a week or so. Baby's sleeping hasn't gotten any better, he still wakes up a billion times a night. The lack of sleep is really wearing on me. I'm cranky all the time and have no energy to do anything. My mind is starting to slip away from me.