Chocolate Wine

What a winning combination.

Just Between Friends

Just Between Friends is a great event where you can consign your outgrown baby items and earn some sweet cash twice a year.  Tucson just had their sale this week and I got rid of a bunch of outgrown kid clothes and a few toys & random household items.  It is a bit time consuming to prepare your items for the sale, but JBF provides an online inventory & tagging software that makes the process go quickly once you get the hang of it. Our house is small, so I will take any opportunity to purge unneccessary stuff.  Especially after Christmas throws up inside my living room. 

If you have JBF events in your area, I encourage you to check them out.  It's fun ... and $ rewarding $

Freebies

I have several codes for free 8x8 books on Shutterfly, so I made one:

Click here to view this photo book larger

A Real Man

A real man is a woman's best friend.

He will never stand her up and never let her down.

He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comforts her after a bad day.

He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and forget regret.

He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires.

He will make sure she always feels as though she's the most beautiful woman in the room and will enable her to be the most confident, sexy, seductive, and invincible.


No wait........ sorry........ I'm thinking of wine.

Never mind.
 
---
*Author Unknown

Let's Get Personal

I want a bikini wax.  I am, however, terrified of getting one.  Two reasons: the obvious pain involved, and the thought of exposing myself to a total stranger.  But then I think it's strange for me to feel so shy about it, considering I've had 2 c-sections which involved WAY more exposure than a bikini wax would.  A nurse shaved my area before surgery, for crying out loud ... and I had catheters inserted and removed.  Oh yeah, I also had random medical staff roll me around and put pads the size of diapers on me when I was still under the effect of my spinal and couldn't move my legs.  And I was passing huge blood clots after surgery, so they were changing my diaper pad every hour or so.  I really was a physical mess for 24-48 hours after my c-section.

ANYway, like I was saying ... bikini wax.  How bad could it be?  I really need to get over my hesitation and just do it.  It's on my list of things to accomplish in my thirties.

I have lofty goals.

Blogger Award: Honest Scrap

I was sent this award by Amber Koter-Puline at Beyond Postpartum.  Part of this award is listing 10 honest things about myself.

1. I am afraid of snakes, to the point where I won't watch them on TV or look at pictures in books, and I get a little bit anxious every time I go to the zoo with my kids for fear someone will be holding one outside of the reptile exhibit.  I don't want my kids to learn to be afraid of snakes just because I am, so I'm really nervous about how to overcome my fear for their sake.

2. I struggle with keeping my house clean.  I lack the motivation to get into a regular cleaning routine and I procrastinate way too much.  My bathroom is horrible and I really need to do a deep clean.

3. It's hard for me to not be jealous of other people's houses.  Our house is 1600 square feet and only 3 bedrooms.  I would love to have a bigger home but financially it's not possible, not to mention it's a crappy market to try to sell.  It takes constant effort on my part to remind myself that we have a nice house and we're above water, so we're doing just fine.

4. My son watches too much TV and that's my fault.  It's so hard to get anything done unless the television is on, because otherwise he takes out almost every toy he owns and scatters them around the house.  And that makes me nuts.  I feel really guilty that he watches so much TV.

5. I don't know what I'm going to do when I go back to work.  I know I eventually will once my kids are in school full time, but having been out of the workforce for so long I'm not sure how I will transition back.  I worked in human resources for 4.5 years before staying home with my son.  I loved the stimulation and I always felt productive and like I was accomplishing things.  It was a huge adjustment to learn to be a stay-at-home parent, but I know I will go back to work in a few years.

6. My car is horribly messy.  It's disgusting.  There is stuff everywhere and it needs to be washed.  And it makes me a little concerned that there is a funny smell when I first open the door.  I'm worried about what's lurking under a seat somewhere.

7. I've always had weight & food issues.  In elementary school I was usually the "big girl."  There have been times in my life where I was definitely thin and felt good about myself, but food was never out of my mind.  I obsessed about what I ate and constantly thought about the next time I could eat.  After having my 2nd child the weight isn't coming off as easily and I worry about that.

8. I also worry about money.  Who doesn't.  But we're surviving off my husband's salary which is less than what I made when I was working when we had two incomes.  I want to join the gym again (see #7) but I feel guilty about spending the money.

9. I have never spent a night away from my kids, except for the three nights I was in the hospital for my c-section following Lillian's birth.  I don't think it's healthy for parents to spend 365 days with their children non-stop.  Parents need a few days & nights to themselves so they can remember what it's like to be husband & wife.

10. I like the color red.

Now I nominate the following blogs to participate with Honest Scrap:

Crazy Little Psychos

Just By Living

Just Another Manic Momday

Mommy Drinks Because You Cry

Fun Mommy Blog

Check her out:

Mommy Drinks Because You Cry

I think we all can appreciate the title.

A Wishlist, Revised

4 consecutive hours of sleep

That's all.

A Wishlist: In No Particular Order

Five consecutive hours of sleep

Gym Membership

Housecleaner

Any one of these items

Odyssey

A house in Sierra Morado

A foot massage

A back & neck massage

A date night with Joe

Five consecutive hours of sleep

Not My Proudest Moment

I just bought Ke$ha's song Tik Tok.  And while I'm confessing my sins I will also admit that I, on occasion, listen to Party in the USA. 

Irresponsible

Meet the newest member of our family:

Joe and I bought a new TV yesterday and Joe has some serious buyers remorse.  I'm not as upset about the purchase because we got a really good deal and Best Buy has the 3 years no interest program going right now, so we have 3 years to pay it off without worrying about interest.  Our old TV worked alright but it was dated technology and some of the connectors in the back didn't work so well.  My parents got Brandt a Zippity for his birthday and when we plugged it into our old TV the picture would scramble.  And if we ever get a Wii we don't want to worry about crappy connectors.

Joe really likes Curling.

My Decision

I bought the Graco Mosaic for the following reasons:

1. Brandt prefers to walk wherever we go and I think once the novelty of the Sit N Stand wore off, he wouldn't be interested anymore and we'd be stuck with the bigger stroller.

2. The Mosaic still holds the infant car seat but it's not as big as the old Quattro Tour or the Sit N Stand.  I tried pushing the Sit N Stand at the store and it felt more awkward because it was longer.  And the carseat would be way out in front with the Sit N Stand.

3. The Mosaic is lighter and smaller and collapses like an umbrella stroller so it takes up less space in the back of my car.

4. I always have the option of carrying Lillian in the Bjorn and pushing Brandt in the stroller if need be.

Ultimately, my goal was to have less bulk and awkwardness with my stroller so I'm hopeful that the Mosaic fulfills my needs.  I'll be testing it at the zoo tomorrow.  But I know I'll still have stroller envy.

I Need Input

I'm thinking of participating with the Babies R Us Trade-In Event that's currently taking place so I can get rid of my old, ridiculously large and cumbersome Graco Quattro Tour stroller.  I am undecided on whether to get a Sit N Stand so Brandt has the option to ride, or a Graco Mosaic which is smaller & lighter than the Quattro Tour but still accepts the car seat.  Brandt is turning 3 in a couple of weeks and I really don't know if he'd still be interested in riding for that much longer.  I'm conflicted.

Therapy

I don't do this very often, because honestly it's not in our budget, but every once in a while it makes me feel better to shop. And it's a lot better for my ass & thighs to shop than to eat chocolate chips, so that is my coping mechanism. But I definitely have to keep it in check and I ONLY do it when I get an awesome deal. So here's my awesome deal:

OldNavy.com & Gap.com, 22 pieces of clothing that were either on sale or on clearance, 20% off the Gap items, & free shipping with $100 order using my Gap VISA. 22 items for $108. That's $4.91 each piece if you average it.

I refuse to pay full price for anything and I love free shipping deals in conjunction with an extra percentage off already reduced merchandise. Makes me feel like I conquered the retail world, even if it was only $108 worth. But at least I can feel good at something when I'm currently feeling incompetent as a mother.

And I'm in a particularly good mood right now because both kids are sleeping. Cross your fingers for me.

Scratch that, she just woke up.

My .... Is Bigger Than Yours

Ok, so this is a month and a half late and the contest is over but I finally thought of something I could post. My collection of BOXES is bigger than yours! In this picture I have 13 boxes but I have more in the closet. I keep them because I feel like I will use them to store old baby clothes/books/toys etc. And I also keep them in case I need to mail packages, which came in handy earlier this week when I mailed a present to my Godson in Phoenix. Although I think I'm at a point where I will actually get rid of some boxes because it's getting out of control and I don't have anywhere to keep them without my house looking like I'm a hoarder.




For the record, I don't keep them all stacked right there by the Christmas tree. I just put them there for the picture.

Weekly

Maybe I should change the pictures to "Weekly" ones, because obviously I can't keep up with dailies. Although at the rate I'm going I probably can't even follow through with weekly pictures.

I'd rather sleep.

I Am Fascinated

With the Duggar Family. I watch the show 18 Kids and Counting and am completely fascinated with how this family operates. This woman is super woman & super mom, I cannot even imagine 18 children. I realize the older kids take care of the younger kids to help out, but still! How does she do it?! Homeschooling ... teaching all the children how to play piano & violin ... always staying so calm & happy?!? All without a TV!

As I sit here on the couch watching television while both kids are napping instead of putting the laundry away.

I Find it Funny

That people who live in southern Arizona feel the need to dress for snow just because it's 50 degrees in the morning, knowing full well that by 11:30am it will be over 70. Do you really need to put that fleece coat on your kid? Although they could be looking at me with my kid dressed in shorts and a t-shirt and think I'm a horribly neglectful mother. But really I'm just lazy.

Christmas Outfits

I got Lillian hers yesterday. Nothing too fancy, just a little sweater dress from Target. My mom is getting some tights and already has some black shoes. I'm still working on Brandt's outfit. I plan to take our Christmas card pictures sometime this month because Costco has a coupon for $5 off your first set of photo cards (before Nov. 29th), and although they are already super cheap, I would really like to get them even cheaper.

Dailies

In an effort to make sure I take pictures of Lillian I decided to post daily pictures of both kids. Actually Joe gave me the idea, so I will give him credit. See pictures on the right.