A nice surprise

My sister in law decided to take our girls for the night. I love the random overnights that they do, it's nice to just have a night here or there where we can sleep in as late as we want (normally around 8- why is it that when your a teen you can sleep until 1 or 2, but when your a parent and really NEED the sleep 8 is late?).

It is very nice to just hang out, hubby is watching the Steelers game and I have time to myself. What's that you ask? yah I was asking the same thing. When the kids are here I think of all sorts of things that I should look up or want to look up but don't have time, and when they're gone I can't think of anything! I know I didn't have anything as important as researching Mesothelioma or anything, I'm sure it was just looking up different products or reviews for different things. But right now I'm drawing a blank. oh well, I'm sure it will come to me... as soon as the kids come back. :)

Trunk or Treat

We've never been ones to celebrate halloween, in fact normally we skip it all together. Last year we went to a Church to a fall festival, Lexi loved it and for two months has been asking when "candy day" is.

After halloween last year we got her a costume on mega clearance at target, it was 75% off so it cost us around $4.  We decided to use it this year and hit up a couple trunk or treats, as well as the shops in downtown. I must say, the girls got a TON of candy. So much that I think Eugene and I will have to be looking for some natural weight loss products because you know the whole reason parents take their young kids out on halloween is so that WE can get some candy.  After all, some candy just isn't safe for young kids, and we wouldn't want them to eat too much junk. :)

Christmas is coming... fast

I've already got Christmas on my brain. I get so annoyed when people start talking about and decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving, and this year I've been thinking about Christmas for a few weeks already.  With Josiah coming sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas I'd love to get all our shopping done soon. We're having a low key Christmas this year so it will help that we're not planning on buying or exchanging gifts with family members, that's less to buy for. We'll still buy for our mom's and for our kids, but that's it. I don't even know if we're going to buy for each other, and I don't think we're buying for Josiah, after all, what does a few week old baby need other than his mommy? 

I'm hoping to do a lot of the shopping online, it will save time and if we don't get it all done before Josiah comes it will be easier than trying to bring a newborn out in the cold December air.  I've seen some nice tiger direct coupons so if my husband and I do buy anything for each other I might have to take advantage of that site. I've never used it before, but it looks good.  My husband is pretty easy to make happy, a new video game, or CD or some other form of electronic normally works just great as a gift! 

Running makes my heart happy

No really, I realized since I stopped running my stress levels are through the roof.  I guess I didn't realize just how much I enjoyed getting out and running until I had to stop.  Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather stop and be a bit stressed and have a healthy baby boy than to have kept running and take the chances that I mess up my pregnancy.

I am very much looking forward to the doctor letting me know it's safe for me to start running again though. Whether that be 6 weeks after Josiah is born or sooner. (I think I cheated and started running 5 weeks postpartum with Caylee). It's just a great way to relax, get some time alone, lose weight and build muscle fast.  I can't wait to start training for another half marathon,  This time I hope to finish in under 2 hours AND run the whole thing. I was VERY disappointed in myself that I walked some during my first half.  I still completed it 5 minutes faster than my goal time (which was 2hrs 15 minutes) but I know that had I kept up the comfortable pace I was running at I would have been done in under 2 hours.

I've thought about training for a full marathon, but I'm not sure me (or my husband) are ready to put that much time into training, especially with a newborn. We shall see, if Josiah is a scheduled baby like Lexi was it will be easier to get the runs in, if he's like Caylee it will be hard.

Getting healthier

My husband and I have goals to get healthier after Josiah comes. We should be starting now, maybe eliminating  soda and so much chocolate. But we're really going to focus on it when I get the go ahead to start exercising. I can't wait to start running again, it was such a nice stress relief, not to mention I dropped weight really quickly. My husband is not a big runner, but he does like to roller blade, and doesn't mind treadmill running. We have to find him some good vitamins for men, to make up for his lack of eating vegetables (and other things). But our main focus is going to be getting to a healthy weight and being in shape!   We've been debating between buying a nice used treadmill for Christmas, or a gym membership, although we'd be able to do more at the gym, if we had a treadmill it would be here for us to use 24/7, when the kids are sleeping or napping and it wouldn't be like throwing money out the door.  We shall see what happens.

Fashion is not my middle name

In fact, I think it's pretty far from my middle name. I don't know if there has been a time in my life that I have desired (or even liked) the current "fads". I normally stick to simple attire like jeans and t-shirts, or fitted shirts. I will admit there have been a few times where if we had the extra money I would have bought a pair of nice womens boots or a sweater. For the most part though, things like jeggins and uggs just don't appeal to me.

Being pregnant adds a whole new dimension to clothes... and I am far from trendy with my maternity clothes. Right now my belly is so low it hangs out of the bottom of almost all my shirts. Even my biggest ones. Luckily we're just a few weeks from labor so hopefully I wont get too much bigger.

akward!

I'm beyond the point where giving the girls a bath is hard on me and my back, have been for months. My husband will bathe them, but he gets really nervous because they like to go "underwater" and lay down and make all sorts of messes.   The end of last week we discovered something that the girls love and make my life easier.  They shower with me in the mornings. We've done it every other day for a week and a half and each time they like it more!
This morning I realized JUST how big my belly is. Don't get me wrong, I knew it was big.... but when I turned on the shower, Caylee stood UNDER my belly. Not only could I not see her, but she was staying dry. Yes, my belly is now an umbrella for my two year old.  Nice.  At least I know I don't have to worry about weight loss, it will come off shortly after the baby is born!

Computer junk

My husband was playing around with Lexi's computer yesterday, as in, took it completely apart and was messing with all the drives and gadgets. He's attempting to learn the insides of computers because hopefully he'll be getting a job that is a graphic designer/ computer tech position. So while he was taking apart her computer he remembered that the USB ports in my computer are broken, and he attempted to put the card readers/usb port from her computer into my computer. unfortunately it wouldn't fit. My computer must need some custom usb drives or something.

Oh well, so I still don't have a USB port, but at least my husband was smart enough that both of our computers work still. :)

Generic vs brand name

I've always been a frugal, penny pincher, tight wad or whatever you want to call me. I normally don't even bother with coupons unless it makes the product cheaper than generic. In the past one of the only things I have been picky about only buying name brand is toilet paper. That's one of those things that is not worth buying generic, you use twice as much generic toilet paper to do half the work of Cottonelle, so we buy the good stuff.

However, I just found another item that I think I will be forced to buy name brand from now on.... flour. i accidentally bought the Gold Medal flour the other day, and made my chocolate chip cookies. I couldn't believe the difference, not just in taste, but in look. These were picture perfect, award winning cookies. Tonight I made pizza. The crust was 100 times better than normal.  I don't think I'll be able to go back.

It just makes me wonder if the saying that generics are just as good as name brand is wrong with everything, I'm afraid to try other name brands now.   I can understand buying name brand medicines or a colon cleanser, but soap, spices, sugar? is it all better?!

A day out

Some friends of ours (that we've known for 8 years now) are in an awesome band called Common Ground. They don't play too often, it's two brothers and one of their wives.  Today they played a show and asked Eugene to join them on drums. It's tons of fun for Eugene to get to play, the only problem is they live about an hour and a half away from us. Not too bad, but when you're talking about cramming two kids, a pregnant wife, and a full drum kit in a Taurus it gets a bit squishy. :) Especially when the only place the kick drum fits is on the front seat.

We had a blast at the show, and grabbed some ice cream to eat on the way home. I think that was a bad idea... Lexi talked NON STOP for the hour and a half ride home. I don't know if it was the ice cream or not, but man, she's a talker!  and some how vanilla ice cream left a dark circle on Caylee's shirt, I'm sure it will wash off, but it confused me a little bit.

Oh, after the band was done playing there were some people there from a Zumba class doing Zumba in the parking lot (the show was held in the parking lot of a Chick-fil-a). Lexi was amazed, stood there mouth open staring at these women, then finally joined in the crowd. She was dancing away, I was really impressed with her moves, she did about as good as I did my first Zumba class!

Insurance

We've had the same insurance for about 5 or 6 years now. A friend of ours was an agent and so we just decided to go with it. They gave us the cheapest rate, and when we moved to North Carolina from TN, we checked around and again they were the cheapest place, so we just stuck with them.  The only bad thing about who we have is that each state is individual, so if you move to a different state it's like starting over. That part is a little annoying.

After Caylee was born our agent came to our house and talked to us about life insurance, I didn't understand much before he started and didn't understand much after, but once we realized how cheap it was, we went with a term policy that would cover what we would need if one of us died. It gave us a peace of mind. A few weeks ago our new agent came to our house just to go over all our policies (life, car and renters) to make sure we had the correct coverage. She explained a bunch about life insurance and encouraged us to get whole life ASAP, it was nice to finally understand the difference and why one is better than the other.  We decided as soon as my husband gets a job we're going to transfer over some of our term insurance to whole life insurance, because it's much cheaper and easier to get now while we're young then trying to get life insurance for seniors.

Another thing on our mind lately has been getting a Will established. We're completely in the dark on this one too. A friend of mine mentioned that you don't need an attorney, that you can get one online so we're looking into that.  We don't have a ton of money or "things" laying around that will really matter if we died, but I really want to make sure my children go live with who we want them to live with, not whomever the state decides.  So a Will is the next thing we will hopefully accomplish.

The next full moon

I've been thinking about Josiah a lot lately, I know I'm in the home stretch, if I go the normal 37-42 weeks we're looking at 4-9 weeks from today. Knowing my history of early deliveries, I'm betting more on the 4 weeks than the 9. I know it's possible for me to reach 9 so I'm not trying to focus too hard on the 4, but it's just the way I'm thinking.

I noticed tonight the moon is a few days from full, and I know a lot of women go into labor when the moon is full. So I decided to look to see when the full moon in November is, just out of curiosity. November 21st. My birthday. I'll be 37 weeks exactly. Think he'll come then?  Neither of my girls waited for the full moon, Lexi was born a week before full moon, and Caylee was born two weeks before full moon. So we'll see if it has any affect on Josiah.

I can't wait to be able to run again, I'm dreaming about running that's how bad I miss it. The effects of running on my body are better than phentermine could offer me. Of course, I also have to give up chocolate, soda and junk food too... but I need to do that anyway.

Dream house?

I remember when we first found this house we are renting we were so in love with it. It wasn't perfect, but it would fit our needs. There's a HUGE room that we use as a toy room/dinning room. The bed rooms are small, but there's an extra one we use as an office, so the office mess and computers are not all out in the open in the living room . There's hard wood floors in all but 3 rooms, the kitchen has a bunch of cabinet space. There's a huge deck on the back. It's great.

Or so we thought until we moved in. The people who lived here before us smoked inside despite the owners telling them not to. Getting the smell out is a battle we're still fighting. It's not as bad anymore, but I do still notice a smell when we walk in. The other thing is there's a lot of weird cracks and holes which means a lot of bugs (including nasty spiders) find their way in the house.   And now that we're thinking of adding a 5th person we're starting to feel the smallness of the rooms. The girls share a room, which barely fits one twin bed and one crib, as well as the very small dresser we managed to squeeze in there. Luckily they have a toy room so none of their toys have to fit in there. Our room is decent sized, it was big enough for our queen bed, the girls old dresser, and my husbands chest of drawers. Now we are adding a pack and play, a plastic rolling drawer cart thing for Josiah's clothes and a small metal shelf which will hold diapers and other baby needs. We're starting to feel the squeeze. Oh, and it's going to be getting cold soon which means the toy room is going to start being too cold to play in for most of the day (there's no heat out there).

Each time we find a place to rent we are pretty happy with it until we've been there for awhile, I'm hoping that when we take the plunge and buy a house we wont feel the same way after a year. I know it will be different, because when you buy a house, you pick the one you absolutely love, and we'll definitely being looking for one we will fit in for the rest of our lives. The other bonus is if you do any improvements (like installing one of those copper farmhouse sinks) it's not just wasted money.  But I still get worried that I'll be ready for change after a few years. We'll see.

stubborness

Sometimes you just have to do things the way someone tells you to do, which can also be called admitting you're wrong.

I've dealt with oily skin and acne my entire life, ok, so I'm sure there was a point in time when I didn't have zits, but I don't know when that was. Growing up was horrible, all my friends had clear skin, they'd claim they had a zit and I could never find one on their face, meanwhile I'm searching my face for a square inch that didn't have a zit on it.  I tried everything, some of the best acne products, some natural products, cutting out sugar and soda, I even tried putting toothpaste on my zits.  Nothing seemed to work.

Once I got out of high school and into college people started telling me I needed to use an oil free lotion on my face every morning and night, even when it didn't feel dry. The thought of adding more moisture to a face that could fry some chicken nuggets on it was bizarre so of course I never did it.  Then just recently my sister in law started selling Mary Kay, and someone brought up putting on lotion. Over the years I did start putting lotion on some mornings when my face felt dry, but like I said, I've never put it on no matter what.

So I tried it.  I washed my face that night, and put on lotion. I woke up and felt my face. instead of the normal oil slicks I felt a normal face. How could that be?! So I put on lotion after washing my face that morning too. I continued for just a few days and could already notice the difference. I forgot one night and woke up greasy the next morning.

Amazing. A greasy oily face really does need lotion. Guess some times you just have to bite the bullet and say "I was wrong" no matter how stubborn you are.

A lighter load?

Today my sister in law quit her job, which means I quit mine too since I watch her kids. :) As I get further along in my pregnancy I've been getting more pains, more stress and more tired. Chasing two two year olds who fight continuously makes my days quit challenging. Add to it Lexi who has been really whiny and you get a very unhappy, crabby, not very nice mommy (or aunt).  I've noticed Lexi picking up on even more bad habits, and the way she treats me (yelling at me, completely disrespecting me and giving me dirty looks) is nothing more than a mirror of the way she sees me treating her.

So I'm hoping with a little lighter load maybe I can be a better mommy, and a better aunt when I do get to see the kids. Of course there is always the chance that it wont be any easier with just my two kids... some days they can be quite.... fun.  I also hope I can get the last few things I need to get done, done around the house. If we come up with some extra money I'd love to make a little visit to see my sister's before Josiah is born too. We wont need to take an rv, or get a rv insurance quote, but a visit with my sister's would be nice. :)

Where did fall go?

A few weeks ago it was chilly. I loved it. I love fall weather. I love wearing pants and was excited for weather cold enough to wear sweaters. Not that I have any that will fit my pregnant belly... but it's the thought that counts. I was enjoying making soups and other crock pot meals that just warm you up (like my first attempt at chili).  I was making pumpkin bread and banana bread and I was dreaming of the first pumpkin pie of the season.

But something happened. it got warm again. so warm that I wore shorts today. It's October 19th and it was warm enough to wear shorts...

cool, crisp, fall air... please come back!

too much moisture!!

About a month ago I pulled out our suitcases to pack for a camping trip, only to be greeted by the smell of mold. After inspecting them I found both our suitcases, and about half of our bags had mold on them. I was confused and annoyed, we keep them in our closet, how did they get wet? The only thing I could come up with was the moisture in the air had got trapped in the closet. So I broke down and bought new suitcases (we buy cheap ones from walmart, the ones I threw out we bought 7 years ago for about $30).

I keep our new ones in the closet still, but we make sure to leave the door open, I'm hoping that solves the issue, if not the next step is to buy a dehumidifier, something I don't really feel like purchasing, but will if it's necessary. I've inspected just about everything else in the closet and haven't found any other mildew or mold, so hopefully the bags are the only loss.

32 week ultra sound

We had our last ultra sound today, They had to do one this late because of the issues with the low placenta. We found out a lot of awesome news, Josiah is doping perfect, he's the perfect size for gestation, the reason I'm measuring so big is because I have a lot of extra fluid. The doctor assured me that the only bad thing about that is it will cause me some extra discomfort. We also found out the placenta has moved up just enough that I will be able to have a normal vaginal delivery, not a c-section. It was very close though, the Ultra sound tech measured it 3 times, then called in the professional sonogrammer or whoever she was who measured it twice.

We got some awesome pictures of Josiah though, They did a little bit of the 4D, we got a picture so good I've thought of making custom mugs with it. He's absolutely ADORABLE. He even has a little tiny bit of peach fuzz on his head. :)

Nesting!!

I am completely nesting, actually, I've been nesting for a week now. The feeling of being taken over by clutter started taking over two weeks ago, and I finally gave in.  I was determined to do anything I could to make sure this place is ready for Josiah to come. It required moving things around, figuring out how to organize clothes and blankets, burp cloths, and cloth diapers. Luckily this place is pretty kid friendly, so I didn't have to worry about buying fireplace screens, or outlet covers.  I do still have to make some pack and play sheets, since unless we somehow get a bed for Caylee, he will be sleeping in the pack and play for the first few months of his life.  When I saw the price of pack and play sheets I decided I could make some for free with the elastic and fabric we have here. Now I just have to do it. :)

Waiting

Last week some promising job leads came up for my husband, he did turn down a sales jobs that would have cost us $200 a month in gas, and he would have already been making way less than we need to survive. It was a had decision since it's been two years since he had a job, but there was no way we could have made that income pay our bills.

Now we're waiting to hear back from one place he applied at, and there is another place that an employee is really trying to get the HR lady to make a position for him. Eugene spent a lot of time fixing up his resume even more than it already was, and writing a cover letter to try to sell himself.  I'm just praying so hard that one of these jobs comes through, I'm at my wits end, we're about 3 weeks away from him being unemployed for 2 years.  Luckily we serve a God who is faithful and has provided every step of the way, how else could we still be in a house with our bills paid after two years?!

The Crafting mood

I've been feeling kinda crafty lately, I haven't made time to do anything in along time, but the other day I made curtains for my sister in law, and made one curtain for the toy room... the other one is still waiting to be made. I also have really felt like working on the girls scrap books lately. Lexi is 4 and I haven't even gotten to her first birthday yet... I'm so horrible. Needless to say, Caylee's book doesn't even have one page in it. And now I'm thinking about the fact that in a month or two I will have a 3rd little baby! Where does all the time go?! 

I just got back from a pampered chef party a friend of mine hosted, and this friend is little miss craft herself. She does everything from paper stuff (including using rubber stamps) to quilting, scrap booking, I don't think there is anything this girl can't do!  I always feel like I should be making more time to do stuff, and yet I can't seem to find the time to make the time! Oh well.... our kids know we love them anyway right?!