Christmas Fun

Christmas is over, and the new year is just a few days away. I can't believe how fast 2008 went. It just flew by.

We had a great time this Christmas, It started Christmas eve, we woke up and it was Christmas at our house, we opened the presents then headed to visit our good friends, Chad and Christine and their son Camden. Then that evening we headed up to visit Eugene's family.

This is the best Christmas we've had in years, not only present wise, but also just with how much fun we had visiting. Everything was so peaceful and relaxing. One of my favorite memories happened Christmas evening. I spend some time hanging out with two of my nieces, we were jumping on the trampoline. First I want to say, Trampolines were not made for women who have had two babies, are a bit over weight and are chickens.

My nieces are 15 and 17, they're young, in shape, and a bit fearless. They were doing all these flips and tricks and trying to get me to do them. I was trying, really I was. The first problem was that every time I jumped... well, let's just say after two kids my bladder isn't as good as it used to be. I had to run inside a couple times to use the bathroom. Then my attempt at tricks was pathetic to say the least. I really wanted to try all those front flips. Anyone that knew me in high school knows I was a dare devil. I wasn't afraid to try too much, but flips have always scared me.

So there I was, jumping, getting height, talking myself into flipping. My mind said "Ok, I can do this,I can do a forward flip, I can." I jump, I go to tuck and flip, and my body says "TWIST!" and it twists. basically I spin my body in a circle, never making my feet go over my head or anything, just jumped in a circle. I think that happened about 6 times.

Then my nieces decided to have me try something else. Jump high, land on my butt, then my knees THEN flip over. Ok, any chicken can do this right? So I try it. I fail a few times, then finally get it. I was so proud of myself.

Then I decided I'd try to do a kartwheel. I've never been able to do them, and I thought maybe it would be easier on a trampoline. So I tried several times (not with jumping, just standing still.) The last time I tried I got over, but didn't land, infact I was a little too close to the side and smacked my foot off the frame and the springs. I hit it so hard one spring went flying off the frame.

As my niece was putting the spring back on, I sat down and noticed the trampoline felt really cold. That was when I realized what happened.

In all my twisting and jumping, I some how ripped my favorit jeans. from the middle seam across the back side of both legs. VERY close to my bottom. Since they were my favorite jeans some spots were worn pretty thin so it didn't take much to rip them. It was hilariously sad.

Las Vegas

A friend of ours from Tennessee has moved to Las Vegas recently. It was a shock to think of him in Vegas, but he's doing The Lord's work, so I'm sure he's doing ok. I'm not sure how far away from the strip, but if we ever go I'm sure we'll need to use this Las Vegas strip map.
Not that we have any plans to go to Vegas, regardless of who lives there.

The other day he posted pictures on his facebook of snow. Yes, Snow in Vegas. How weird is that, I think it's colder there than it is here. Today it was warm enough we had the girls outside in short sleves taking Christmas pictures!

This was our second atempt at taking Christmas pictures, the first time neither girl wanted to cooperate. We finally had a good day, and good attitudes and got some good pictures! They'll be late I'm sure, but better late than never right?!

20.9 Design

My hubs is starting a business. Sort of. He plans on doing some work from home and apparently you need a business license for that. Hopefully he'll make enough to pay the bills! So Today he's running around town applying for state license and getting all the zoning info and all sorts of other stuff done. It's kinda scary!

But yah, he chose the name 20.9 design from his favorite Bible verse. Jeremiah 20:9

If I say, "I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,"
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.

So there you have it. One HUGE prayer request. (That he gets everything taken care of and gets enough work to pay the bills!)

It's Winter.

The cold weather is here! Time to break out the winter coat, beanie and mittens! Cold season is here too. We had just gotten rid of the sickies in the house then Lexi and Caylee started sniffling again. I hate seeing them sick. I can't get Lexi to figure out how to blow her nose either which is so frustrating.

On another note I've been adding a bit of dairy to my diet to test Caylee's allergy. She doesn't seem to be screaming like she was a month ago when I'd eat it. I really hope she's over it because I miss eating Cheese!

Well, Caylee is fussing cuz I put her down! gotta go!

Busy, busy busy!

Well, I just got home from a Christmas party.There was lots of food, and lots of talking! Luckily I managed to stay away from over eating, so I wont have to discover Lipovox side effects
Just kidding, You know I don't use diet pills.

Anyway, Today was a VERY busy day. It started last night. We went to The Upper room, which was a lot of fun. They had a Celtic band there playing Christmas music, it was nice and relaxing, but we didn't get home until 11. Today at 12 Lexi and Eugene had practice for the Christmas program that the kids from church are putting on tomorrow. Eugene is playing the drums and Lexi is part of the choir. I was interested to see how she'd do, but she was so tired that she wouldn't even stand up there and sing. Hopefully she'll do better tomorrow.

From there we went to a Christmas party, we just hung out and ate some food like I said earlier. We left there around 5:30, Eugene dropped the girls and I off at home and headed to the Upper Room. We were all going to go, but since Lexi only slept for an hour in the car we didn't think she'd do well staying up until 11 or later again tonight. So the girls and I are home alone right now. Hopefully they'll go to bed early and I can soak in the tub for a bit then hit the hay! Tomorrow will be another long day!

The job hunt continues

Well, A month has passed since my husband was laid off. I'm realizing it's not a rare thing, many people are out of jobs. He's not having much luck finding a job, he's mostly looking in the area since we just signed a new lease two months ago. With both of our parents in Texas maybe he should look there. Think his resume will compare to Austin resumes?

He's done a few jobs from home for various architects around, but since work is so hard to come by no one wants to hire him full time. We've been able to spend a lot of time together as a family, maybe too much. The stress level here is pretty high which causes some stupid fights at times. In the 6 years we've been married we've never spend this much time together. It's kinda funny, of course we love each other, but times like this really test your patience.

On the plus side he's gotten to work on a few things that he's been wanting to for awhile, like really learning how to do websites. He's also just recently gotten hooked up with The Upper Room, a venue not too far from us that has local Christian bands come play. It's a lot like Straight Gate- a youth club he spent many, many hours volunteering at before we got married and in the first few years of our relationship. I am very excited for him, probably not as excited as he is to get back into the music ministry, since the band broke up years ago he hasn't had much opportunity to minister in this area. And trust me, this is the area God has called him to minister in. Hopefully he'll be able to really help out and get involved.

9 words Women use

NINE WORDS WOMEN USE

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It! Especially if what you want to do involves buying Ferrari parts

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' . That will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying Bite Me.

(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

Christmas Time!

Can you believe Christmas is 2 weeks away? I don't have all my shopping done yet. We still have to buy for My mother in law and her fiance. I'm not sure what to get them, but we need to hurry up and pick something because they live in Texas and we'll have to mail it.

I know lots of people who have taken Disney Vacations for Christmas. That seems like fun, celebrate the holidays with Mickey Mouse. I tell you one thing though, that's not us this year. Although I do want to take the kids to Disney, I'm planning on doing that when the youngest is old enough that they will remember. Since we plan on having about 4 kids and we only have two, our trip is years away. That's ok, we enjoy spending Christmas with family.

We have some presents under the tree already and Lexi is doing really good about not opening them. She has picked them up a couple times and played with them, but mostly to "build". We thought she'd open them the second she saw them. Although she might be avoiding opening them because we've officially told her that on Christmas (the day we open our presents) we are going to pack up all of her "bobs" (her pacifiers) and mail them to Beth, because the baby is going to need them. Hopefully that will work. I'm desperate to get rid of that thing.

Annoyance

Annoyance is the cat that was left here by the previous renters. It's quite annoying. The neighbors have kind of taken it in, they got a flea collar for it, a food dish and even one of those neat little pet beds, It's like a cube with a little whole for the cat to climb in.

So what makes the cat so annoying? The fact that is sits in front of our door meowing all day long. The fact that when we come home and try to pull into our parking spot it gets in our way. And the fact that when we try to walk outside it is constantly under our feet. That's just a typical cat looking for attention and love you might say. Which I agree and try to pet on occasion. The issue is, it's not our cat. We don't have a cat because A) my husband and at least one of our daughters is allergic and B) we don't have the desire/time to show affection to an animal.

If we had a pet of our own, we WOULD show it attention, we wouldn't leave it outside in the cold and we'd try not to grumble when it got under our feet. Those are just things you plan on when you have a pet. I just hate that this cat is expecting all that stuff from us, but it's not our cat. Maybe I'm just mean. Maybe I just don't want to get attached to it because I know we can't bring it inside. Whatever the case... I'm annoyed with it. I feel really bad for it, because first of all, what kind of person leaves their pet behind?! second of all, you can tell it was an inside/outside cat that got lots of attention and now it's outside getting no attention. Last of all... it's now limping, I don't know what happened to it, but it is holding it's front paw up and wont put any weight on it anymore. Anyone know of a good loving home for a black cat?

Christmas Shopping

I'm doing a lot of online shopping this year, in one way it's fun. It saves the hassle of waiting in lines to check out, it keeps me on my budget because I don't see something else in the store that I like and buy it too. That's what normally happens, I'll have an idea of what I want to buy, go in the store, find it, then look around the store at everything else and find more stuff I want to buy. On the down side, I have to pay shipping and handling, a few times I've been lucky and found some sites with free shipping.

Maybe next year I'll try wholesale. I'll just buy everyone the same gift. That should save a bunch of money! :)

So life has been pretty busy with Christmas shopping, playing with Lexi, and holding Caylee who for the past week has protested every time we put her down. Then add all the house work, cooking, cleaning, laundry on top of it and that explains the lack of posts lately.

It was good to go "home"

Yah, even though we've lived here for a year and a half, Tennessee is still home to us. It was so nice to be able to be there for almost 10 days. We got the chance to see and hang out with everyone, it was great.

The town we lived in is just growing like crazy. new stores are popping up everywhere and there is an abundance of commercial real estate signs covering the side of the roads. It's cool to go back and see what else has showed up since we were last there.

We spent a lot of time with friends, got to go to church two weeks in a row. We even got the stomach bug while we were there. Thanksgiving day Eugene and I were locked away in a bedroom. no turkey for us! Well, we had some the day after Thanksgiving.

But now we're back in North Carolina, getting ready for Christmas with two little girls. Even though this is Lexi's 3rd Christmas, it's the first one that she's really paid attention to the tree. She is amazed by it and wants it on the second she wakes up and comes downstairs. Caylee doesn't care, obviously! :) What a great time.

Christmas is coming fast

Tonight we set up the tree. It is our first year with a fake tree, it looks ok. Lexi was so cute helping me set up the tree, then hanging the ornaments. We took a few pictures, maybe I'll get some posted on here tomorrow. I also just finished buying the first Christmas presents. I ordered the Fisher Price Nativity scene as well as some presents for some nieces and nephews. I'm hoping the nativity scene will help us explain Christmas to Lexi.

I was looking at rings the other day, because, well it's fun. I've been eying up the anniversary rings, I just think the three diamond rings are so pretty. For fun I like to look at engagement rings too. I am very happy with the ring my husband gave to me over 6 years ago when he proposed, It is just what I always wanted. Our wedding bands are my parents old bands so my set is just perfect. :)

Just a few more presents to go then I'll be done shopping. (ok, really a ton more...) I love Christmas shopping!!

New Years

Do you make New Years resolutions? I normally stay away from them. A few times I've tried to set some, they don't last very long. Especially when they include avoiding chocolate.

Lately I've been thinking more about setting spiritual resolutions instead of the typical lose weight, save money,quit smoking, get a new job type resolutions that most people set. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with those types of resolutions, many, many American's will join weight watchers, or buy Allie on January 1st to help them lose weight. But I want my focus to be on God in 2009. (don't get me wrong, I am going to try to lose more baby weight and even run more)

I think my #1 goal in 2009 is to read my Bible every day. Yes, every day. I want perfect attendance in my quiet time. I want to see how much God can do in me when I make the commitment to not let one day go by without spending time in His word and at His feet.

anyone want to join me?

Tennessee!!!!

Yes, that's right, we're in Tennessee. The wonderful state that it is. I've been enjoying our time here (except for the 24 hour stomach bug that Lexi caught, it was the first time in her life that she threw up and it scared her- the first time anyway). We got into town on Saturday and spent some time with a friend of ours and her two kids, then went to see some other friends of ours and their 4 kids. Then came back "home" to Jim and Kathy's house to relax for the evening. Sunday was wonderful, going to church and seeing all our old friends. We even got to go out to eat with some of them to enjoy even more fellowship. Yesterday was very laid back (aside from cleaning up barf) we just sat around Jim and Kathy's enjoying the cable tv. he he. We were supposed to go see some friends last night, but decided not to spread the germs.

Today we might head out to the Ocoee River for some old memories, then this evening we're headed to another friend's house for dinner. Tomorrow will be full of cleaning and cooking and getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner which will be held here on Thursday. Then Tomorrow night we have a dinner date with 3 couples and their kids.

Thursday is of course Thanksgiving, and lots of family (Jim's family) will be coming over including his mom, sister, niece, son, and maybe an aunt or two. Last year it was the same group and we had tons of fun just hanging out and watching the eating contests that were on TV. Talk about some major pigging out, those people on tv could eat hundreds of hotdogs in one sitting. it was sick. I thought about offering them some apidexin, (a diet pill) but didn't think that would be very kind.

Anyway, Friday I might get out a bit to do some shopping, I have a little bit of birthday money that I'd love to spend. :) However, I might not brave the crowds. Saturday we'll get together with more friends, then Sunday will be another day of church, then Monday we head back to NC :(.

Our week sounds busy, but really most the day we're just sitting around the house, it's only the evenings that are busy. I'm having a great time either way!

YAY TENNESSEE HERE I COME!

Guess what? Since Eugene was laid off and hasn't found a new job we are going to Tennessee early! We were going to leave Wednesday but decided to leave Saturday instead.

I am struggling with losing the baby weight I gained from the two girls, and although I wouldn't ever take diet pills, I was looking up some diet pill info to see what makes them so appealing to people. I think I'll stick with diet and exercise.

Anyway, I have a fussy baby tonight for some reason. I haven't had any dairy in 2.5 months so I don't know what is bothering her. and let me tell you, if I've ever had a craving in my life... it's right now! I want ANYTHING dairy. ice cream, milk, cheese, yogurt, even butter would be fine. However, I like having a happy baby better than dairy.

I think maybe God is trying to get me on a different diet, I couldn't have sugar while I was pregnant, and now I can't have any dairy. and YES, i still want more babies.

I love Coupons!!!

I just went to walmart. Every time I go there I walk in for 2 things, thinking I'll spend about $5, and walk out with a few bags full, and about $25 poorer.

Well not today! money saving mom had a bunch of walmart deals listed and I thought I'd take advantage of them. I was quite disappointed while getting my list together though because half of the printable coupons weren't around any longer. Then when I got to the store some of the items were more than she said they were going to be (different locations have things different prices). So I didn't think I was going to do as well as I hoped.

But I was wrong! I got $20 worth of stuff for only $4. I got everything from food products to preparation H wipes (not that i need them right now, but I'm sure they'll come in handy during the next pregnancy. The only thing I didn't get was a good colon cleanser. I did get a great deal on some baby food to keep in the cabinet for when that time comes. I do plan on making my own baby food for Caylee, and I plan on holding her off on eating solids until about 5 or 6 months. But when going places it's way easier to throw a jar in the diaper bag, so these will come in handy.

So yah... I love coupons!

AHHHH!

no that's not the ahhh, like I'm relaxing. it's AHHH, like I'm screaming.

Things are crazy here! Lexi came down with what we thought was just allergies on Friday, turned out to be a cold. Yesterday Caylee started coughing and is congested now.

Caylee had her 2 month check up yesterday (and her first shot) she weighs a whopping 11lbs 4oz now. everything is in the 50th percentile (including her head! unlike her 96 percentile sister's head).

In a few minutes we'll be headed out the door to vote. I am glad God is in charge and He can use either man to lead this country.

Well, Caylee is waking up to eat and my hubby will be home in a few so I better get things moving!

November already?!

There is about an hour left of October. I can't even believe how fast this year is going. Each day it's starting to get a little bit cooler here, not enough to break out the electric blanket, but of course we keep it kinda warm in the house due to Caylee.

November is a pretty busy month for us we have my husband's birthday, my birthday and our anniversary (6 years!) We also have Thanksgiving, which we will be traveling to Tennessee to visit our "family". I'm just praying we sell some things we have on Craigslist so we can have the money to pay all our bills and make the trip. You can pray too if you want! ;)

Well, it's kinda late, we just got home from visiting a good friend of mine and Caylee's eaten and ready for bed, so I guess I'll head that way too!

it's Friday!

I just thought I'd let you know in case you didn't.

Friday's are wonderful, not as good as Saturday or Sunday, but they are nice because I know I get to spend the next two days with my husband!

Tonight we're going to visit a good friend of mine that I haven't seen in years. She hasn't even seen my kids! Her name? Beth Ann. yup. She was one of my youth leaders when I was in high school. She means a lot to me. I even lived with her for my senior year of High school while my mom moved to Indiana a head of me. A few years ago her and her husband moved to Virginia, but I never got up there to see her. Recently she moved here, to North Carolina, only about an hour away!! So when my husband gets off work tonight we're loading up the car and heading down to visit!

I thought maybe I'd share some pictures from when my mom was here. Enjoy!



Here's our whole family. The girls weren't ready for this picture to get taken, but it's still the only picture we have of the four of us!





Here's my mom and Lexi, I thought it was cute that they both had the same color shirt on.









And here they are building with the megablocks my mom bought at Goodwill for $2.99. the best $3 every spent on Lexi
I think!







My mom made Lexi and I matching aprons, and Caylee a matching bib. This was our attempt to get us all in the picture. Lexi didn't want to stop playing with her blocks as you can tell since she pulled them into the kitchen for the picture. :)

My mommy has gone to Maine

I really enjoyed the time my mom was here, but unfortunately it had to come to an end. After all she does have 4 more children all of whom live in Maine. Although I'm the youngest, I'm not the only one who matters.

Caylee got really spoiled by her Grammie, as did Lexi so I'm sure the next few days will be interesting. Too bad we couldn't have gone to Maine with her, I'd love to see all my family. Grammie bought Lexi a wagon full of Mega Blocks at good will on Saturday night and that is ALL Lexi has played with since then. Looks like getting more might be a smart Christmas present option. Lexi enjoyed playing with her letter magnets with Grammie too, she likes to show people that she knows all her letters. I haven't decided if she's too prideful of what she knows or not. We always praise her for what she does so she really doesn't know any different. In fact, sometimes she tells herself "goodjob" when doing something.

Caylee just got held a lot and hasn't wanted to be put down too much. I got spoiled cuz I had someone else here helping with the laundry and dinner! I was hoping she'd teach me to make rolls but we didn't get the chance.

We did however find the world's best fabric store yesterday! We ended up way down south of Charlotte, at Mary Jo's cloth store. it was about a walmart sized building full of just material! My mom bought a bunch of material to help her make things to start her etsy store. I just had tons of fun walking around drooling at all the pretty fabric. I WILL go back there once I get some spending money!

Life has been pretty busy lately with visitors and moving. I think we're done until Thanksgiving when we get to go to Tennessee to visit! I'm SOOO excited for that trip, we miss all our friends and "family" there.

We have been facing a few small delemas lately. One is that Eugene's work has lost a big project and pretty much has no work. The owners told them all that they have enough money to last through the end of the year. All the employees are pretty much looking for new jobs. It's not an easy task since he is a draftsman (like an architect) and everyone knows the housing market is not exactly the best field to be in.

The other thing going on right now has to do with us moving out of our old house. We had a verbal agreement with our landlord that she would give us our security deposit back even though we only gave her an 18 day notice instead of a 30 day notice like our lease says. She had been avoiding us for a few days, then finally called my husband with this news: she "hired a safty inspector" to go through the house and check for any mold. (the reason we moved out was because of a horrible mold smell in Lexi's and our bedrooms.) Well the "inspector" didn't find any mold, so now she doesn't want to give us our deposit back. She said if she gets it rented out before the end of the month she'll give it back, or she'll prorate it and give us what is left. There are a few problems with her logic... first of all we were on a month to month lease, our only requirement was a 30 day notice- despite our reasoning for WHY we moved out. Also, North Carolina state law requires her to give us writen information about where our deposit will be held and she didn't. All in all, we could both legally be wrong. We didn't give a full 30 days notice. We did give a notice, and talked to her to make sure the 18 days was enough. She said yes. We should have gotten that in writing. She failed to give us the information North Carolina law requires, she told us she would give us our deposite and is now saying no. The biggest issue is that we told our current landlord that we would be getting it back and give it to him as our deposit for our apartment.

So yah.. that's that.

She laughs and talks and smiles!

Within the past two weeks Caylee has started smiling, laughing, and talking. The first smile was for her daddy. The first laugh was for her daddy. Her first talking was for her Grammie... Maybe she'll roll over first for me.

She's been very gassy lately, normally she only acts this way when I've had dairy. I guess the chocolate chip cookies I've had contained too much milk. :( I really miss ice cream, chocolate, cheese and milk.

My mom has been here since Saturday and we've really been enjoying our time with her. I'm glad the girls are getting to see their Grammie, it's good for them. Lexi has really enjoyed playing with her, and apparently Caylee likes her since she started talking for her.

That's the brief update on why I've been so quiet and what's going on!

Hurray!

Most people hear a lot about getting a car insurance quote, to making sure you're getting the right deal. Car insurance is one of the insurances that is always talked about; everyone needs it, so everyone has it. I just wonder why there isn't as much out there about renters insurance. We just recently realized how cheap renters insurance is and we've also recently started the process of getting life insurance (outside of my husband's work).

Since we moved we've managed to save money on renters insurance! Our apartment is newer, and is right in down town, less than a mile from the fire station as apposed to our old trailer in the middle of nowhere!

I love saving money.

on a different note, here are some much needed pictures of the girls.

Why don't boxes unpack themselves?

So we're all moved in. I think we have too much stuff, I'm getting ready to go on a mass Craigslist spree and try to sell some stuff. Yes, I know it's kinda backwards to sell things AFTER we move, but oh well!

We thought we had done good with the move, everything looked good. Until we tried to watch a movie the other day. It seems our electronics are on strike. First our DVD player wont give us any video. We can hear everything, but we get no picture. So we put the DVD in the xbox (you know, that really expensive toy I just bought my husband in July...) and it freezes. So my husband messes with it and messes with it, and tries again. It still freezes.

We ended up watching the movie on the computer. Luckily the xbox has a 2 year warranty on it, so after talking with Microsoft we learned all we had to do was mail it to them (postage paid) and they will send us a new one. YAY!

Another thing I've been busy doing is running! I'm trying to get back into it since it's been awhile. I was very pleased with myself, because even though it had been a year since I ran I still managed to do almost a mile the very first time I ran. By the 4th time I had done almost a mile and a half. Then I took a weeks break because of the moving, but I was able to still do a mile. (I haven't tried further yet, my knees are hurting a bit). Yesterday I decided I would see how fast I could run the mile. 8 minutes. I was happy with myself. I'm hoping to run a 5K in December. To someone who runs a lot that is nothing, but I've never ran much at all, and last time I was running regularly I had just made it to the 2 mile mark. running in a 5K would be an accomplishment to me.

The girls are doing quite well, Lexi counted to 9 in Spanish today. Every once and awhile we count to 10 in Spanish, French and German. We just thought it would be something fun to teach her. Caylee's face is clearing up, I'm still not sure what it was/is that was going on. She still has a few red spots and it's still dry in places too. It seems as long as I wash it (with just water) a couple times a day and put Aquaphor on it once a day it is clearing up and looks better. She did have some puking issues today. One while I was driving that was so bad she couldn't breath. luckily my mommy instincs told me something was wrong so I looked back and saw her wide eyed with spit up coming out her nose. That is one of the scarriest things to see. She does way better with the screaming/gas when I'm off milk, and it seems that the puking is related to me having acidy drinks (I had juice last night).

We have aquired an outside cat. The people who live here before us left their cat (which was apparently an inside/outside cat because it keeps trying to get inside. I felt bad for it because it was sitting outside meowing so I bought it some food. My husband is not pleased about that. He says he doesn't like cats, he's allergic so it can't be inside, but I don't see a problem with an outside cat. Did I mention it's all black? By the way, what kind of people move and don't take their pet???

All Moved!

Well, the move on Saturday was successful, we had a friend and his kids helping us, which was great because it gave us someone to help entertain Lexi and someone to help Eugene carry all the heavy stuff!

I've been very busy the past few weeks, between packing, having my sister here, moving, unpacking and on Saturday my mom is coming. Not to mention I have a baby who STILL eats every 2 hours through the day and sometimes at night too. Hopefully I'll be able to blog more soon, maybe even post some pictures of the girls and our new place.

For now I'm signing off, hopefully I'll talk to you tomorrow!

6 weeks over, time to lose the baby flab!

Welp, since I got the clear to exercise I decided it was time to start running again. I haven't ran in over a year, but when I was running I was really enjoying it.

I was never a runner before, but I decided I wanted to try. it took me about 3 months and I got to the point that I could run 2 miles, then some things happened and I couldn't get to the park to run and our road was too busy to run on, so I stopped running for a week. After that week was up I never started back up. Then I got pregnant.

So, a year later I'm running again. My sister (an avid runner) came down from Maine to visit and got me jump started on running. She helped me make it over a mile by the 3rd time I ran. I was impressed.

But since she left I've discovered it's hard to find time to run with two babies! I wish I had a treadmill or something so that I could run during nap time. Unfortunately, we don't have the room in our apartment for one.

hopefully I'll be able to find time when we move to our new place. it's much closer to my husband's work so he'll be home earlier after work. it just might give me the time I need to run before it gets dark!

freedom

Now that Lexi is two she's learning all sorts of things. I think my favorite thing she's doing is playing pretend. I love to see little kids cooking, cleaning, playing house and dress up.

Lexi's getting quite an imagination. I've heard her talking to her dolls, even reading them stories. We also give her the freedom to pick her own clothes sometimes. When she does I just say "oh my!" some of the things she puts together are interesting to say the least. Especially the shoes she picks. I think she might be the next Manolo Blahnik.

That wouldn't bother me at all, she could take care of me when I get old, and I'd have the nicest shoes around!

She's also loving her little sister more and more each day. She tries her hardest to comfort her when she is crying, it's too cute to hear her say "I know Tayee, I know." ( Tayee is how she says Caylee). They're gonna be great friends in a few years, I just know it.

Worry? I think not.

So lately all sorts of crazy things have been going on with the economy. House market is going to the dump, jobs going over seas, shortages on gas and even the market crashing.

Do we panic? are we in for another great depression. Some people say we are. I have to be honest, I can't worry about it. I can't think about how in debt we are as a country or how a ecommerce merchant account is doing. (or even what it is). Because if I think about that stuff I worry. and How can I worry. I know worrying is not the thing for Christians to do. After all God says he clothes the lily's of the valley and feeds the birds of the air, and we are way more important to him than those things. We are his children!

So when I hear something that makes me want to worry the best thing for me to do is pray about it then never thing about it again. Sometimes that is easier said than done, but each time I think about those things I have to just pray again and leave it in His hands.

Counting down the days

We made plans to go home to Tennessee for thanksgiving and I can not wait.

I love Thanksgiving, I think it's my favorite holiday. I love being with family (and friends), I love the turkey, stuffing (or in the south cornbread dressing), olives, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie!

I am excited to see all the friends we haven't seen since Easter, I can't wit for them to meet Caylee and see Lexi again. I can't wait for it to be like old times, sitting on Jim and Kathy's couch, petting the crazy dogs, watching the food network channel. :) I miss Tennessee so bad.

We had so many friends there. Friends that were close enough to call family. I don't know why God sometimes calls us to unfamiliar places, places where we don't know anyone. We've been living here for a year and haven't really made any good friends. We're just now trying to settle down in a Church which will hopefully lead to the fellowship we had in TN- or at least some fellowship.

We know God brought us here for a reason, despite missing home. But we're still excited for the chances we get to go to Tennessee and see our friends.

fashion

I know I'm getting old.

I see teens in church and stores and I say "oh my.... that's an interesting style..." I see clothes in the mall and think there is no way anyone could possibly think it looks good, then I look around and see all the teens wearing them.

I just don't understand today's styles. Short skirts and leggins? UGG Boots? belts OVER shirts? Some things just scream 80's to me and I don't understand why anyone would want to go back to those styles.

I am thankful that while I was in high school the style was so simple and made sense. Jeans and a t-shirt, or a fitted baby t. Not skinny jeans, not peg legged jeans, just regular relaxed jeans. Sure, some guys wore them too low and pretty baggy, but I'd rather see guys in baggy jeans than in girls jeans! (seriously, how is that comfortable? not only do guys wear girl's jeans, they wear TIGHT girls jeans!)

I don't claim to be a fashion expert, in fact I'm quit comfortable in my boot cut, or regular jeans and whatever shirt I choose to put on. I just know that I'm getting old when I don't even see a way that the latest teen fashions could be considered "cool".

random thoughts

I'm so glad that while you're dealing with all the fun postpartum things like acne, flabby bellies, sleepless nights and nursing issues that you have an adorable, wonderful baby to look at. It makes it all worth it.

Seriously, without the baby I'd just be a slob!

On a different note, it's fall here in North Carolina. I'm loving the cooler weather, the chance to wear jeans and long sleeves. It makes me want to go to a high school football game. If we were still in Tennessee I would go, we don't know anyone here that plays football so it would be kinda weird.

Fall is just a great time of the year. It's tied as my favorite season with Spring. For some reason this year I am really loving fall decorations. I've never been into the pumpkins and corn stalks, or autumn colors. But this year every time I see a fall decoration I want to buy it! I want to make outside decorations out of dried corn stalks and pumpkins and guards. I want to put a weird wreath of colored leaves and sticks on my door.

Wonder if this means I'm getting old or if I'm just appreciating things more this year?

I have a strong desire to go outside with the girls, and yet I never do. Mostly because there's nothing to do outside here. Lexi has a tricycle but doesn't know how to use it, I'm sure she'd appreciate just being outside. She'll find something to do. Maybe we'll go out this afternoon, it's a little chilly right now.

I still love the fall weather!

Lexi's birthday money

A month later we finally decided on something to use Lexi's birthday money on.

See, she's been watching The Incredibles over and over and one of the previews before it starts is for the movie Cars. Eugene and I both LOVE the movie, so when we saw her so interested in the preview we thought it would be a good investment. You can only watch The Incredibles so many times before getting annoyed.

So we bought it today. After the big race in the beginning she lost interested and wouldn't even watch it. Of course Eugene and I still did, but Lexi was not amused. Maybe she'll want to watch it some other time, but not tonight! It was like there was a big exit sign on the door, all she wanted to do was leave the room! How could you NOT like cars?!

Adjusting is hard

Lexi is proving to us that adjusting to a new baby in the house is extremely hard for her. She's very whiny, especially if her daddy is home. All she wants to do during the day is watch movies. One of her favorites right now is The Incredibles. I think she'd watch it all day every day.

The rest of us are adjusting pretty well, We're dealing with having less and less time for things for us like sitting on the internet or for Eugene-playing his games. He still gets some time after bed or during nap time to play his xbox or playstation (nothing fancy like a PS3, just the normal old fashioned play station.) I'm sure he'd like more time on them though.

Caylee is doing pretty good, she's adjusting to just nursing- no bottles anymore which makes life a little bit easier on me. I'm slowly figuring out how to balance kids, husband and housework. The house isn't as clean as I'd like, but it's acceptable I guess!

Speaking of housework, the diapers need washed!

Life is crazy!

Well, almost two weeks have gone by since Caylee was born. A lot has happened. We've been through jaundice and now we're dealing with a cold. We got a simple cool mist humidifier It's not fancy like an Ebac dehumidifiers, but it seems to be helping. Luckily Caylee didn't get a fever and the cold hasn't affected her eating or sleeping so the doctors are just having us keep our eye on her.

I'm still having a hard time getting her to nurse. She wont nurse at all on one side, and sometimes she'll nurse on the other side. Yesterday was a good nursing day and I got my hopes up thinking we'd be able to take the bottle away soon then today she barely nursed at all. I'm getting sick of pumping and bottle feeding AFTER trying to get her to nurse. It's really quite frustrating. Not to mention I'm pumping about 6 oz every time I pump and Caylee only drinks 2 sometimes 3. So I have an over abundance of milk in the freezer. I don't even know what to do with it, there is no way we'll use it all. Anyone have any ideas? I think it's too late to try to donate it to a milk bank because I'd have to go through the screening process before they'd accept my milk. I think that's how it works anyway. I know it's good for 6 months but with the amount I have already plus each day I put more in there I don't know what to do.

Lexi is VERY whiny and tests us constantly. She's not adjusting very smoothly. Any time one of us is holding the baby she seems to disobey. Especially if I'm feeding Caylee. Other than that she's doing good, her cold seems to be going away, she still has a bit of a runny nose, but nothing bad. Her and Eugene got to go to church today, I was so jealous. Caylee and I are gonna stay home from church for another week then go when she's about 4 weeks old. It will be tough, but best for her.

On an exciting note, I tried on all my pre pregnancy clothes and I fit in about 75% of them. My stomach is still nasty looking and some of my shirts look really bad. I've lost all my weight from Caylee, but I still have about 10-15lbs to lose from my two previous pregnancies. Hopefully I'll be able to work on that over the next few months.

Well, I guess I'll turn in for the night, I've got about an hour before Caylee will want to eat. Did I mention that her eating every 2.5 hours really makes the night interesting. Trying to get her to nurse, then feeding her a bottle then pumping takes about an hour to an hour and a half which leaves me an hour to sleep before the next feeding. Eugene gets up to do one feeding a night which really helps, but since he has to get up and work I hate to ask him to do more.

Anyway, Have a great night!

Craziness!!

Well, Caylee was born last Tuesday morning. It's a crazy story really, she came quite quickly. Life has been completely crazy since then with nursing, bili lights, a toddler who isn't adjusting very well and sleep exhaustion that taking over my body! Did I mention my husband hasn't even gone back to work yet? That happens tomorrow, I'm pretty nervous about him going to work and not being here to help me take care of Lexi. We chose to not have anyone here because I'd rather just have to adjust once instead of twice.

I spend a lot of time on the couch nursing and pumping, I wish we had nice, comfortable, modern furniture instead of our couch which is kinda hard and hard to get out of! Hopefully soon things will get a little easier as Lexi gets used to having to share her mommy and Caylee gets used to nursing and I get used to having two girls! For now I'll just push through, I know it wont be like this forever.

just waiting

We're in the last few weeks of having one child and that's exciting. In fact, it's very exciting. The way things have been going the past few days I think we're just days away from meeting Caylee. I'm actually quite nervous that it will go so quickly and I will be unaware of what is going on that we'll barely make it to the hospital or we wont have enough time to get Eugene's sister down here to watch Lexi and I'll end up delivering the baby alone because he'll be busy watching Lexi.

I'm enjoying this long weekend, one extra day with my husband at home is a great treat. I'm sure Lexi will be very interesting tomorrow, she's whiny today! Sure long weekends are not as nice as Orlando vacations, but they are still nice!

She did what we wanted!

And she's two! Can you believe it?

Today has been an interesting day, Lexi woke up early, putting her in a bit of a sleepy mood all day even after her nap. We had several incidents where she was disobeying, we tried time out, we tried a spanking (to which she laughed at), and we tried ignoring her behavior. Nothing seemed to work.

After supper she was asking for her bubbles, but before we let her have them, we told her we wanted her to pick up all her toys. She had made a horrible mess all over the living room and her bedroom. We simply asked her to pick up her Mrs. Potato head and pieces while we cleaned up the rest.

Eugene and I got busy picking up the blocks, puzzles, alphabet magnets, dollhouses, fake food, plates and cups, books... you name it we picked it up. EXCEPT for the MRS. Potato head pieces. 5 minutes later she was still standing there staring at the pieces. The rest of the house was clean. She started whining for the bubbles. We kept explaining to her that until she cleaned up the potato head, she wasn't getting bubbles. She kept whining and whining and whining.

We didn't give in. (amazingly enough).

We were sitting on the couch watching tv, she was whining. I simply said "Lexi, listen to mommy, we want you to pick up your potato head toys, then you can have the bubbles, do you understand?" She kept whining. I said "honey, pick up the lips and put them in the potato." She finally got it and picked up the toys. We celebrated and gave her the bubbles.

So, although it took her almost 20 minutes she did what we asked!!!

Interesting Day

Lately when we go in Lexi's room in the mornings it has been smelling like mildew. We've always kept her door closed while she sleeps, that way the noise we make doesn't affect her. Since breathing in mildew isn't exactly a good thing we thought we'd try leaving her door open while we were asleep too. We weren't sure what was going to happen, but we tried it.

At 4:30 this morning she started crying for momma. After a few minutes she was still crying so I went in to get her and brought her to our room. I thought since it was so early she'd fall back asleep in between Eugene and I, and we'd be able to bring her back to her bed and get some sleep. I was wrong.

She wanted to snuggle with her daddy, which was fine, until she was trying to get him to play peek a book. She seemed too awake. So I asked her if she wanted to go back to her bed. She said yes, Eugene brought her back there and as soon as he put her in the crib and pulled the side up she started screaming. Not the type of screaming you ignore, especially not at the wee hours of the morning. Anyway, we tried a couple other things and at 5:30 she was still wide awake so I gave up and brought her into the livingroom. She wanted to watch Curious George, so she sat on the couch, milk in one hand, cereal in the other. She was in a complete zone.

I decided to take advantage of the still time and read some blogs and stuff. My computer is running so slow now, it doesn't like waking up so early, I think it needs a memory upgrade or something, but for now I deal with a slow computer.

Anyway, around 8:15 she decided it was time to go back to bed and slept until 11. So now it's lunch time, but it feels like it's still 9 am!! This day is just flying! I've even been getting stuff done like laundry, dishes, more laundry, diaper stuffing. All the usual.

On a good note, she woke up in a great mood and is happy now.

Aaaaaaah

I've been watching my friend's little boy who just happens to be the same age as Lexi. Let me tell you, two two year olds is a rather fun combination. Most of the time it's a good thing, but days like today when they are fighting over every toy- I just want to scream. I clean up the living room, and three seconds later it's a big mess again. I don't think I could even fill out an online auto insurance quote without having to get up 17 times to break up a fight. I have a bit of peace and quiet right now because I just laid them down for a nap. I really should be cleaning up the livingroom, but instead I am sitting here blogging, no wonder my house is a mess.

I am still trying to solve the toy storage issue in Lexi's room, nothing seems to work for us. She's got so much in her room with her little table and chairs, her kitchen, dresser, diaper shelf, and bed that there isn't much space for toy storage. I'm wanting to get a shelf and put her toys on it, with baskets for the smaller toys so that she can see everything, but there is no room for that. I don't know what we'll do when Caylee is ready to move in there and we have a crib and a twin bed!!

Anyone have any perfect solution?

Life insurance

Yesterday evening our insurance agent came to our house to meet with us. I have to admit I found it very strange that he was coming to our house. He's been wanting to talk to us about life insurance for some time now.

Eugene and I are not the most financially aware people. We don't save like we should, and live paycheck to paycheck. Although we've made a budget and try to stick to it, we're not very good at it. We also barely have enough money to cover our bills let alone set some aside for savings or investing or things like futures trading.

We know life insurance is a good thing, something we should have- just in case. He does have a small life insurance policy through his work, but it's not enough to take care of everything if something were to happen.

I was honestly shocked at how cheap it is! Like renters insurance we've put it off thinking we couldn't afford it, after meeting with him and going over our options I'm pretty sure come next month we'll be signing up for a life insurance policy.

I'm so thankful that he came (although it was a bit awkward) because he really did tell us about our options and made things a little more clear. (previously our thoughts on life insurance were clear as mud, now they are just dirty water). I DO want to learn a little more about life insurance, everything I've seen and read online seems to point to term insurance, especially for people our ages, Also, the policy he gave us a quote for has $10,000 coverage on each of our children- one flat rate no matter how many kids we have, it's only a couple bucks a month. Anyway, I would like your thoughts on life insurance, if you've written or read a good post about life insurance, please leave the link in the comment section. maybe it will help clear up our thoughts a bit more.

Thanks!

Boyles furniture giveaway!

Want to win $10,000 for a dream room?! Sounds good to me! Boyles Furniture will be giving one lucky winner $10,000 to furnish their dream room!

How awesome is that?

Ever heard of Boyles? It's really nice, high quality furniture. You can check out their website and their discount furniture at their site. I was checking it out and there is a lot of furniture I'd love to get my hands on. I'd love to furnish my bedroom with their furniture. Talk about a luxury room!

To enter to win their giveaway just click on the image it will take you to the page to register!

Going to town

I'm so excited because tomorrow I get to go to town. Although gas prices are dropping (Praise the Lord for that!) we still try to stretch gas as far as we can, which means only going to town once a week unless there is something planned.

Tomorrow there is something planned! So I get to go to town. And since I'm "nesting" and trying to get things all put together, I've come up with a list of things we need, most of which I'm going to put on our Target registry, but a few things I might pick up because they are cheap and needed sooner. I'm going to pick up some soap, and some baby hangers to put away the millions of newborn clothing we have. I might even pick up a basket or rubber maid container to put all of Lexi's play kitchen stuff in. Maybe I'll pick up some home theater sconces in case someone buys that big screen tv that my husband put on our baby registry. (Just kidding!) Is that a guy thing by the way? To scan some weird thing that has nothing to do with babies, but he'd love to have?

Anyway, I'm really excited to get out of the house, I should say off of our road since I've been getting out of the house by going for walks.

Yay for going to town!

Getting closer

Tomorrow I will be 33 weeks pregnant. I can't believe the time is drawing to an end. I am so excited to see my baby, hold her, kiss her and introduce her to her big sister. I'm a bit nervous about how Lexi is going to handle the big change, I've been praying for an easy adjustment for her.

After Lexi's 2nd birthday party I was so relieved that we had nothing to do until Caylee is born. Then the reality of how soon that could happen it and I realized how much we have to do! I dug out the newborn clothes and washed them, now I'm trying to find a place to put them all away. I also realized we don't have a diaper bag yet! The one we have for Lexi is awesome, but it is not big enough for two babies in cloth diapers.

Then of course there is the fact that we have to buy more cloth diapers, we're still searching for the best option and the best buy. Little things that we need keep popping up too, I mentioned earlier trying to get all the newborn clothes put away, our plan was to let Caylee and Lexi share a dresser, but truth is we have too many clothes! So we're thinking about buying a cheap closet organizer to optimize the space.

So with excitement comes the nervousness that we might not have anything. But hey... as long as Caylee has a place to sleep (which she does) a car seat to get home in (which she does) and food to eat (which she will once she's born) she'll be fine! I just have to keep reminding myself that a little bit of mess and clutter is ok. :)

I hope you're all having a good day!

Almost 32 weeks!

Well, I'm almost 32 weeks! Time is flying. I love feeling Caylee move, I love how every morning around 10 she gets the hiccups. We're still praying that she stays in a little longer than Lexi who came at 34.5 weeks, but 37 or 38 weeks would be great!

Because, of course I'm having the end of the pregnancy symptoms, like back ache, sore muscles, and yes, still my lovely acne, I'd love to get a good acne treatment that was natural and worked! I also have gestational diabetes, and I've been trying to adjust to the diet. It's not as bad as I thought,so that helps.

We're trying to get together the last minute baby things, we're still working on buying the cloth diapers and there's a few other things we need/want. Then of course we have to wash and clean and scrub and organize and figure out where we'll put the bassinet in our already crowded room. (the bassinet will probably go unused because I'm sure Caylee will be in our bed just like Lexi, but we'll see).

Well, I hope you're all having a great week!

Family reunion

Welp, we're back from our trip to West Virginia. We had a blast at my husband's family reunion. There was lots of games, hanging out and of course.... FOOD. after all the food I ate I'm pretty sure I'm gonna need a diet pill or something.

We had 3 days of fun, enjoying seeing aunts and uncles and cousins that we don't get to see much. Lexi enjoyed being outside all the time and running around chasing the kids. Now we're back to normal every day life filled with laundry, dishes and cooking food for me, Work for Eugene, and playing a lone and watching TV for Lexi. I think she missed the TV a little bit cuz first thing this morning she asked for George, then "do doos" (Blue's Clues).

Ahh the life.

Oh happy day!

Welp, we're on our way to West Virginia. Well, not as I type this, but in 30 minutes we'll be leaving.

Lexi's sitting in her night time diaper and pj's watching Curious George. Eugene and I are on our computers getting one last hit of our addiction (the internet that is). See, where we're going, it's all mountain. You wont be finding much wireless connection at his aunt's house, maybe a fading cell phone signal coming and going as the wind blows or something.

It's time for the yearly family reunion. We haven't been in about 4 years so we're REALLY excited to see everyone. I'm sure their lives have all changed. The kids have all gotten bigger, cousins gotten married and taken on careers, who knows, maybe one of them has become a futures broker. I'm excited to not only spend time with his immediate family, but also see all his aunts and uncles. They haven't even seen Lexi yet!

It will be a great weekend!

House Cleaning

I realized that we have some house cleaning to do. Not the kind that requires vacuums and dustpans. The kind that requires us to look over what we've allowed in our house over the past year.

God has convicted us pretty strongly about what we watch and listen to. We do not live by the world's standards which makes it a little difficult to find entertainment that is appropriate. Like normal people we slip up and watch a movie that has some inappropriate parts, when we do it makes it easier to watch the next movie that has inappropriate parts. Little by little we allow more into our house than we should.

Then we get to points like we are now where we don't feel very close to God, and we look around and realize how many PG-13 movies we own. All of them have sexual references, sexual innuendos, sexual jokes, violence, language- whatever the reason may be they are inappropriate for our house.

We've also let something else in our house which we have NEVER allowed. It entered in the form of a video game. What is that you might ask? Secular music. Shortly after we got the Xbox we got Guitar Hero 3. It's a fun game I must admit, even without a big screen tv and Peerless tv mounts... The issue? I have never listened to secular music. My husband stopped listening to it in 2002, we are Christian music advocates and feel that secular music opens you up to more than you think. Here we are, living hypocritical lives PLAYING secular music. Not just any secular music. These are almost all bands that worship Satan. Looking back now I can't believe we've allowed it in our house, not just allowed, but willingly brought it into the house.

So, Today is housecleaning day, Guitar Hero 3 with a cordless guitar is being sold, we have about 7 movies that we are getting rid of too. One of them might surprise you- The Sandlot. Have you seen the old Sandlot? I watched it the other day with an 8 year old and a 10 year old and could not believe the sexual references in it!

Anyway, step number one to getting close to God is under progress- preparing our hearts and house for God. There is a lot more work to be done.

I understand not everyone lives under the same convictions as us- I'm not telling you you're right or wrong, I'm simply sharing how we feel, and what we do in our house.

Slow computer

What is it that makes computers slow? It takes my computer like 5 minutes to shut down everything at night. It gets frustrating when I'm trying to switch from the internet to something else and it takes forever to get the other thing open. Do I need to buy memory for it or something?

I really don't know anything about computers, my husband says it's RAM or something. Maybe I just expect my computer to do too much at one time. I mean right now I have 6 tabs open in firefox, AIM, MSN, one chat, and my thunderbird email... is that too much for a computer?

The Falls keep coming

I know it's part of babies growing up, but Lexi keeps falling!

I'm so scared people are gonna think we beat her or something. She's just now started climbing on chairs (and tables), her favorite is climbing on her daddy's chair to get into his desk. She normally digs in the drawers to pull out random things like the stapler or flash drive.

Saturday morning she was standing on his chair and fell off sideways. She didn't seem bothered by it other than the fact that she was stuck between the table that holds the printer and the game chair. no Injuries.

We weren't so fortunate Sunday. We were visiting my husband's family and Lexi decided to climb on the kitchen chair to get the box of cereal. I was watching her, she was sitting down then stood up, and just fell over backwards, right onto the hard floor. She landed with a very LOUD thump and lots of crying.

Luckily there was no major damage, I think she got a headache, and she had a small bump. She brought it up several times later that day, so I know it scared her if nothing else. Do you think she learned her lesson?

The answer is no, she is still climbing on the chairs and we keep telling her "remember you fell? you don't need to climb on chairs!"

4th Of July happenings

Yesterday was an interesting day for us. We had no plans- or so we thought.

Around 2:15 I got a call from some friends of ours whom we hadn't talked to in two weeks- they live about an hour away. Here's a paraphrased version of our conversation:

CHAD: Hey, you guys coming down?
ME: um.. when?
CHAD: Today! I thought we made plans to get together to celebrate the 4th of July.
ME: oh, did Christine send me an email?
CHAD: no, I don't think so.
ME: I thought you guys went to MI for the weekend.
CHAD: nope, Christine had to work. We planned a BBQ, you coming?
ME: sure! Lexi's sleeping but when she wakes up we'll be down.

So, although we didn't know it, we had plans. And let me tell you, we had fun!

We went down to their house, and got together with a few of their neighbors had a big combined BBQ. Which made it even better because of the wide variety of food we were served!! I ate my heart out it was so good. Including these yummy peanut butter cookies that had broken up Reeses peanut butter cups on them!

It started storming so we moved the party inside, which turned out just fine, around 8:30 we decided we'd head home since it was raining so there was no hope of fireworks, plus Lexi was sleepy.

Once we got back up by our house things had cleared up, and it was just getting to be dark which meant the fireworks would be going on! So we headed down the road to see some fireworks.

We got a parking spot and made it to the parking lot just in time to see the light show. Lexi's attention span was a lot longer than last year. She actually liked it and was amused. We sat on the pavement right behind a mini van, next to a bus for sale and several boat trailers. They shot the fireworks off over the lake, I'm sure it was a beautiful site from the water!

So although we had nothing planned, it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening!

The Man who Says Everything Right

I'm so excited about this post, it's unlike anything I've ever done before.

A few weeks ago I received a beautiful necklace made from freshwater pearls. I have to admit, other than my wedding band and engagement ring I've never owned any nice jewelery. Getting these pearls in the mail to review was an exciting day for me!

Pearl Paradise has a wide variety of pearls available in different colors and sizes (and price ranges), from different locations. This particular set I received was a white pearl necklace and I fell in love with it! It would be the perfect gift for bridesmaids, or a simple token of your appreciation for the woman in your life.

Part of my review was to make a video, kind of like a commercial for the company. My husband and I had a blast with this, I hope you enjoy it.

A lot of nothing!!

So... Why have I been so quiet on my blog? well you see, I've been busy. Yah. really busy. Doing well, a lot of nothing. You know, I've been sitting here sipping my California wines.

Just the usual, dishes, laundry, changing diapers, playing with Lexi. Waiting for the next 13 weeks to go past until Caylee Grace comes. I know it will go by fast, but the days seem to be dragging.

We actually do have some excitement coming up. Friday we leave to go to visit my husband's family. One of his nieces is having a birthday party on Sunday, so we decided to take advantage of the time up there.

Then in a few weeks we'll be headed to his family reunion in the great state of West Virginia. YEE HAW. It will be nice to see his family. we haven't been up there in about 4 years, none of them has even seen Lexi.

Then August 2nd is Lexi's 2nd birthday.. I can't believe it's been two years already. Then of course, September 24th is the due date for Caylee. not that due dates matter. :)

the daily outing

I'm so excited because my sister in law is coming to visit today. And she's bringing her babies. I say babies.. one is 4 months the other is turning 8 in a few weeks. We're going shopping for her birthday party. The Theme is 50's. :)

Then we're going to get Fish for the tank. The only problem is our little tank is too hot for fish, and the big on is staying at 75, 76 is the top heat for fish. Unless we get saltwater and I really don't think I'm ready to maintain that.

I should go to walmart to recycle the two huge piles of plastic bags we have on the table, but I'll probably end up buying way too much if I go there. I normally end up walking out of walmart with all sorts of things not on my list and not needed. Things like diet pills, soda, snacks, potting soil... Who knows what I'd end up with.

The Fishies are coming, the Fishies are coming!

After 4 months we are going to set up our fish tank again. Hopefully this time we will be able to keep more than 1 fish at a time alive.

We have had this empty 10 gallon fish tank sitting on the shelf that holds our books, and another empty 2.5 gallon tank sitting in Lexi's closet. We were just waiting to get back from our camping vacation to fill them, and well, now it's time!

So yesterday I went to walmart and got gravel. Came home, rinsed the gravel, dumped it in the tanks, filled them with water and got the pumps running. Either tonight or tomorrow we will go pick out some fish. I think we'll avoid the goldfish though. Last time we had gold fish and after a few years of the tank we realized all we could put in with goldfish is more goldfish because their poop will kill other fish. So there you have it. We ended up with 1 goldfish in the 10 gallon tank for about 4 years straight. We'd wait awhile for it to die, it wouldn't die, so we'd go get more goldfish and all but one of the new ones would die. It was sad, really.

This time I think we'll go for tetras, some African dwarf frogs and who knows what else. I want bright colorful fish to capture my child's attention. Of course, they will be competing with the TV. but hey, they might win. For awhile...

Tick Season

The ticks are out. and I don't know about where you're at, but around here and around my in laws, they are bad! Just walking outside by my sister's house you'll come in with a tick. The other day I was at their house and went to crawl into bed and there was one crawling across the sheet. It had stuck to someone and come inside.

The other day my husband was opening the blinds and one landed on his arm. Where do these things come from? What will keep them away? I was hanging laundry and one was on my clean clothes too! They're crazy and everywhere!

Summer plans

It's already June. The summer is going to fly bye (I think).

Last month we went on vacation, this month we will be making a trip to visit family for a birthday party, and maybe going on a weekend camping trip, or visiting the Lazy 5 Ranch. Next Month is my husband's family reunion. We'll be traveling about 5 hours and staying in his aunts back yard in our tent, only because there are no cheap hotels available. We should have fun. Then August is Lexi's birthday and in September, Jelly Bean comes. Hopefully by then we'll have a name picked out so we don't have to put Jelly Bean on her birth certificate.

Oh, and Friday we get to go see the comedian Tim Hawkins!! I'm so excited. it will be our first real date since Lexi was born (almost two years ago). If you've never heard of him check out his website, he's hilarious. it's timhawkins.net.

Unfortunately with summer plans comes spending money, but oh well right?

Father's Day is coming, are you ready?

Luckily I don't have to worry about rushing out to buy some expensive Patek Gondolo watch or something for my husband. He got an Xbox a few months ago which covers his Father's Day present. He is also getting to go to a Demon Hunter concert this month too. He's just a wee bit spoiled. Anyway, I just wanted to give you guys a heads up though that it's just around the corner, make sure you get all your cards and presents mailed!

Home Sweet Home.

Well, we got back yesterday from our camping trip. It was great. We had a good time with my sister and her husband, then we had a few days of just family time. Both were wonderful.

We saw some alligators, went to Ripley's Aquarium (not worth the time or money), got some candy, laid around on the beach, sat at our campsite, and ate s'mores. We went into town a few times and got turned around, it would have been handy to have a gps tracking system or something, but oh well.

Lexi saw Sharks, Jelly Fish, Alligators, the Ocean, and had a few interactions with some fire ants. She also got her first mini sunburn. (just a little pink on her shoulders).

All in all we had a great time! Can't wait until next year! We might just have to go camping again this year, maybe for a weekend or something.

ahh the life...

Life has been so crazy lately.

We're preparing to go camping, I can't wait. We leave Friday morning.

My husband has been working so many hours it's crazy. Not to make up the hours he'll be taking as vacation time, but because there is a deadline at work. Yah, a deadline of tonight. Who knows what time I'll see him, it's 9:30 and he's no where near done. Although I love his new job, it makes me miss his old one where he never had to work late. That's the difference between commercial drawings and residential drawings. All he had to worry about before was making sure the people's walk in tubs were in the right place. Now he has sidewalks, weird awnings, indents in the walls... all sorts of things to worry about. Not to mention that instead of his company telling their customers when the drawings will be done, the customers tell them when they want them by. It seems so backwards to me.

I've been busy with Lexi and Camden (the little boy I watch) as well as keeping up with the house cleaning and trying to pack for our trip.

Jelly Bean is coming along good, she's such an active little girl. She moves a lot and I love to feel it. She even moved for her daddy the other night. :) I'm 22 weeks today. Past the half way mark. Each week I tell Bean how many weeks she HAS to stay in there for. Today it was "Jelly Bean, you have to stay in there for at least 15 more weeks." We don't want her to come as early as her big sister did.

I cannot believe how big Lexi is getting. Time is just flying by. in two months she will be TWO YEARS OLD. I can't believe it. She's so smart too. She is working on counting, she says two, tree over and over and over again. She is saying new words EVERY day. some of which we don't understand. She refuses help with climbing up and down stairs now, and is even working on some colors. She reads us books, she sings, she dances. Time is just flying by, I can't believe it.

Ok, this pregnant, sentimental sap is going to bed. Good night Blog world.

Our Great Find

Ever since we moved I've been driving past this cute used furniture store about once a week. Little stores like that just call my name. I love to look at used stuff. There is just something about knowing you saved money on furniture!

Anyway, Today we FINALLY stopped. It had almost every piece of furniture you could think of, couches, tables, dressers, coffee tables, and beds. Outside there was this cute little table with four chairs. The table was white with each leg painted a primary color. The chairs were all painted a different primary color too. Well, it was little out of our price range considering the condition it was in. It has stickers all over it and it was VERY dirty.

We managed to talk the guy down $10, and after about 20 minutes of scrubbing it's nice and clean. Here's what it looks like now, all set up in her room.

Cute huh? the best part, she LOVES it.

Diapers!

Diapers have been on my brain for a few months now. Between trying to get the stink out of my BumGenius one sized inserts, and thinking about ordering diapers for Jelly bean.

I think I've decided on Baby Kangas. I'll buy some BumGenius doublers to use as newborn inserts, and probably some Kelly's Closet inserts for once the baby is a little bigger. I'm really loving cloth diapers. I'd love to start a franchise. Is that even the right word?

I'm sure you get a discount when you're a store buying to sell. I really wonder why there aren't more stores that sell cloth diapers. Like, stores you can go to and see all the different things. It gets frustrating when one website sells a diaper you want to buy, but you have to buy the wet bag from another website.

I could just listen to my mom and use what she used- flats, pins and rubber pants. Certainly would be cheaper! I just like the convenience of pocket diapers.

Except for when you have them hanging on the line, almost dry and a freak rain storm comes and gets them and you wet while you're trying to take them down. Not that that has never happened to me. Not like that happened to me just now... no. I'm not wet.

Oh, and if you feel like getting Jelly Bean a present, just get a gift certificate to Kelly's Closet! :)

Everyone, everywhere is buying!

I think I am officially the only one of my friends who hasn't bought a house. The sad thing is most people my age are buying houses regardless of whether or not they can afford it. They buy it with no down payment, tons of debt already and end up barely surviving.

That is why there are so many people looking for foreclosure help. We'll probably be renting for many more years. Maybe forever. We have to much debt as it is, school loans, dr bills, car loans, personal loans- fortunately our Credit card debt is under $400. But that doesn't matter with all the other debt we have. Our monthly bills, gas and food seem to equal take home pay, leaving no room for paying extra on our debts.

Although at times I get jealous of the thought of buying a house, I know I want to do things right and make sure we have a down payment as well as money saved up for any repairs that will be needed.

So for now, I'll be content just renting! :)

Baby Bean

I cannot wait until Tuesday.

Tuesday we find out whether Baby Bean is a boy bean or a girl bean.

My husband and I are so excited I don't know how I'm going to make it through tomorrow!

I got to switch doctors since we moved, which is a blessing. I really didn't like my old doctor. I am so thankful for my husband's job and the benefits. I'm so glad we have health insurance! It's better than the insurance I had when I was pregnant with Lexi, either that the doctors here are cheaper. The Doctor's office called the other day and told me how much it was going to cost for delivery and prenatal appointments.

Our insurance is pretty good, our health insurance even covers eye exams, I wonder if it helps pay for Lasik... I've been contemplating that. It would save some money in the long run. I mean even though I wear one pair of contacts for two months (or more sometimes) they still cost money. If I got Lasik, i could wake up in the middle of the night and still see! that would be amazing.

I doubt it covers it, I don't know as though I'm brave enough anyway...

For now I'm just waiting for Tuesday!!!!

Slowness

My computer has been acting weird lately. It's kinda slow. The internet is speedy, but when I try to go from Mozilla to a word document or something, it seems to get confused and freeze up a bit. I think it has something to do with RAM, or memory or something. The hard drive is no where near full, so I know it's not that.

Maybe we can get some Dell memory, or more RAM and fix it? Anyone know anything about computers? I can work on a computer, but when it comes to working IN a computer.... you got me!

economic stimulus check

I don't want anyone reading to think I'm upset about extra money. That's why I'm starting this blog with that sentence.

I'm not sure I understand the point of the check we'll be receiving this month from the government. It's some how supposed to jump start the economy by giving everyone extra money I guess.

I guess because we will all get that money and go out and buy extra things like flat screen tvs, an elliptical machine or for anyone weird like me- cloth diapers.

But how is this one time spending going to help make more jobs and get America out of debt? The good people (one of which I am not) wont even spend their money. They'll apply it all to a debt, or put it in the bank to save.

Am I misunderstanding the point of this check? Or is there something I don't know about spending money that will help us not go into another great depression?

Pregnant lunch

I just had lunch. Want to know how healthy I ate? Ok, I started with raw broccoli. YUM! I've been wanting raw veggies so bad that last night I made a special trip out to get some.

After they were gone I moved on to part 2. Ice Cream. Yah.. I guess that's not healthy...

Neither is the Chocolate chips I ate for desert. Is anyone else having a hard time believing that I've gained under 5 pounds this pregnancy, and I'm 18.5 weeks into it.

Do you I need addiction treatment for my chocolate addiction?

Hmm.. I want Chinese food.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is in a few weeks.

I have no clue what to get my mom. I've thought through everything from freshwater pearls (just kidding, I'm not that rich) to homemade cards. I still have no ideas.

I asked her what she wanted. She said she's been too upset thinking about her birthday to think about mother's day. So needless to say I didn't bother asking what she wanted for her birthday (which is a few months away).

Then my husband asked me what I wanted. My response "I have no clue". I really don't. I'm sure I could come up with a mile long list of things I want, but choosing what I want the most is hard.

So.. Mother's day is in a few weeks. And I have no clue what to do.

Cleaning day

Our official moving date is April 26th. Yes, that is next Saturday. No, we are not all packed. Yes we are crazy.

This Saturday we will be having a deep cleaning day. Everything from the floors, to the tub, to the walls to the lighting fixtures will be cleaned. and I don't just mean cleaned. I mean SCRUBBED.

I am very um... obsessive about making sure a place is clean before we move in. I clean everything. I love it. A big empty room, no furniture, no pictures, no toys. Nothing in the way. Just me, my bucket and my rag! Or course, being pregnant means the husband has to help. He's volunteered to clean the bathrooms. What a nice husband. He just knows that if he didn't do it, I'd be in there with bleach, and that's a bad thing.

So... anyone want to pack a box, or scrub a floor?

College life was great

You know, College was some of the best days of my life. I didn't realize it at the time. I couldn't wait to get out, get married, start a family. You know, be an adult.

But really, what's better than living on a hall with a bunch of fun girls, making great friends, having your only worries be studying, and did I mention free memberships to the YMCA?!

I have lots of great memories from the Y, trying to figure out how to use all the weight training machines, jogging away on the ellipticals (which by the way are my favorite gym machine ever- they don't hurt my knees like treadmills), a few swimming memories, some jogs on the indoor track. Mostly just a lot of laughs with some friends.

By no means to I regret my life now, or wish I could go back to college. I just wish I would have appreciated what I had when I had it.

We're Moving!

Not the blog, Us! we're physically moving. In just a few weeks.

I'm really excited to have a bigger place, a place that doesn't have neighbors sharing walls.

No longer will I have to smell the burnt toast of the guy who lives next door, no longer will I have to hear the yappy annoying dog who lives (illegally) in the apartment upstairs.

Best of all- I will no longer have to deal with having only ONE closet. That's right. Our new place has two closets, a laundry closet and a storage shed outside! AND the closet in the master bedroom is twice the size of our one lonely closet that we have here.

Also, our new place is closer to my husband's work, closer to his family and closer to our car insurance office. Now if we need to stop in it wont be that big of a deal, maybe we can even convince them to give us renters insurance. Maybe.

Anyway, On May 1st we will be happily unpacking box after box. Hopefully Lexi adjusts well to another move.

The Sick Bug

Welp, months of being healthy has ended in the attack of the sick bug. Yesterday we got up early to go to church and Lexi was really whiny. We didn't think much of it since we did get up early- she's used to sleeping in.

We got home from church and I started feeling sick to my stomach. The day just got worse from there, fevers, trips to the potty, diaper changes and upset stomachs.

This morning we woke up to more fevers and more belly aches. I wasn't about to change 900 dirty cloth diapers while feeling sick myself, so I made a trip to the local Target to get diapers. (Why did I chose target? Cuz we needed wipes too, and their wipes are the best buy you can find!)

By the way, I love this target. I wish it was a big closer, it's a bit out of the way, but it's in a plaza with a bunch of other things including Pet Smart and Best Buy(my husband's favorite). So when we go as a family we all get to look in stores we like.

Anyway, by 9:30 Lexi was acting normal, and I was feeling better. My husband came home from work around 11, we all took a nap and I thought we were doing good. Then at 6 Lexi's fever came back with a grudge. It was still up to 102.1 when we laid her down tonight- even with Tylenol.

Hopefully by tomorrow the sick bug will have found it's way out of my house and we can all be healthy again.

Dress up

Last Monday Lexi and I went up to visit family for the night. Lexi loves visiting her cousin Summer. they always have lots of fun. Half of the time we are up there she spends in their big tub- without water. She just loves to play in it, fully clothed.

This particular time they were playing dress up, here's Lexi all ready to go play bingo, with her shawl and of course, her designer jewelry. After this picture she added to her wardrobe a nice pink plastic visor. Yah... she was pretty cute.

Pregnant hormones

These pregnant hormones are making my acne act up. The weird thing is when I get pregnant, my face clears up, but my chest normally breaks out. Maybe I should get some acne treatment to eliminate zits on my chest!

I'm 16 weeks along, So far I've gained a whole 2 lbs. Hopefully only 2 more weeks until we find out if we're having a boy or girl... what do you think it is? Eugene is wanting a boy, I think a boy would be fun, but I'm not opposed to a girl either! I've been around a lot of boys lately, Eugene has a new nephew, I'm watching a little boy who is the same age as Lexi- he's really fun. Lexi is enjoying having a friend here, but I don't think she's fond of sharing her toys with him. At least it will prepare her for having a sibling right?

House hunting

We're "fixin to" move. Our lease doesn't run up until July 31st, but with the baby due in September, and the history of premature labor I have, we really don't want to wait that long. Plus, our apartment has some issues, one of them being that it's way to small and cluttered. We were told it was 900 sq feet, after measuring it I came up with 750 sq feet.

Anyway, we're not ready to buy yet, so we'll be looking for another rental. I really want a single family home, I'm tired of listening to the people around us, and smelling their food and cigarettes.

Even though we're not ready to buy,I can't help but look at the cute houses that are for sale. We drive by a sign and I just say "oh, how cute." There are a lot of cute houses that have been turned into commercial real estate around here. That normally bothers me, because the houses look so cute.

We have a huge long list of things we're looking for in our next place, we've got wants and needs on there. We always jump into an apartment then find all the things wrong with it, but have to live here for a year anyway. We're playing it smart this time!

Do you have a list of things you look for in rentals when you're searching? If so, care to share any hints?