Making Gaines

{fall fun}

2010-11-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

A few pics of Mikey visiting his Aunt in Tucson and Trick-or-Treating on Halloween:

{Mikey showing his toy trains to Grammy while on the phone with her}

{counting the loot afterward}

{devilish deeds}

2010-10-24T19:06:00.001-07:00

Much to my dismay, the Yoda costume was out of stock. This seemed more appropriate anyway.

{backyard adventures}

2010-10-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

Mikus Arulius Patricles III, enjoying nature with his trusty sidekick, "Gud Girl Sammie Dodgey."

{random acts of randomness}

2010-10-22T10:56:00.001-07:00

*random kidneys: Baby has something going on with his kidneys. I haven't talked much about it, but apparently the official term is "Renal Pelvic Fullness." After all that has gone on with my father's health, hearing the word Renal just makes me want to puke. Best case scenario, baby will no longer have any issues at the 28 week follow up ultrasound. Worst case scenario, baby will require surgery after he is born to remove whatever obstruction is causing the problem.

*random neighbor: The next door neighbor lady (I believe she is single, or at least living alone) has taken a fancy to our sweet old lady, Sammie. One random Saturday she knocked on our door and asked if she could come into the backyard to pet her, as they had apparently struck up a friendship over the wall while she was doing yardwork. I'm pretty "meh" about that kind of stuff. Whatever you want to do! I'm sure Sammie won't fuss about the attention. I knew their friendship was growing, because Mikey finds all the treasures she lobs into the backyard. When I hear the words "Mmmm, good" and look up to find my toddler eating doggie biscuits, I had to laugh. That explains why Sammie was randomly turning up rawhide bones out of thin air in our backyard for a few weeks. Anyway, the most recent event to occur was when I opened the blinds to the sliding glass door to find Sammie snuggled up in a nice comfy HUGE doggie bed, lol, along with a note from the neighbor saying she hoped we didn't mind her getting Sammie a present.

*random reunion: Our old neighbors from Maricopa have moved to Chandler, and only live about 10 minutes away now! She sent out an invitation to her son's 2nd bday, and we ended up reconnecting much sooner. Yesterday afternoon our boys had a 'playdate' that involved chasing eachother in circles around the house. Fun was had by all. We hadn't seen eachother in just about a year, so it was great catching up.

{so many things}

2010-10-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

It only seems fair that if I spent the last three blog posts complaining about the insane heat in AZ, that I in turn give AZ mad props for the last three rainy days with highs in the 70's/80's. It was a nice chilly 65 this morning on my way to work. Of course, AZ does everything EXTREME, so our rain also included hurricane strength winds, TORNADO'S!!! and oh yes, marble sized hail. WTF?!

But, I'll take hail and tornado's over 108 degree October days EVERY TIME!

In other news, had a follow up ultrasound yesterday to get a better look at the baby and also to check out his placenta. Baby looks great, growth is great, still a little boy for sure (I could actually tell this time :o), and heart and brain look fantastic. Only thing is the durned placenta, and where the umbilical cord inserts into it. Everything on the cord itself looks fantastic, but placement is just abnormal. Just because it is abnormal doesn't mean anything will be wrong, they just need to keep an eyeball on it. So far it isn't hampering the little dudes growth in any way whatsoever. Oh, and little dudes name might not be William anymore. I've recently fallen in love with the name Thomas. So - we'll see what we end up with, lol.

Other things? How about fruit and vegetable things? How about finding awesome solutions to irritating problems. My problem was that I wanted to give my family a variety of organic fruits and veggies, but I didn't want to participate in a lame co-op or go to a farmer's market. Solution? Nature's Garden Delivered. For an extremely reasonable price, this company delivers a box once a week full of organic produce. I get to set my preferences so they never stick mushroom's or ocra within inches of my box. Each Friday they send me an email with a list of what will be in the box for the next week, so if there is anything I object to, I can swap it out. Awesome! The perfect solution for the woman who wants organic produce for her family yet is too lazy to go about obtaining it. Now all I need to do is get J to set up an herb garden on the wall in the dining room and I'm ready to rock!

What about holiday things? Because it is fall now, in case you didn't know, so my head is swirling with all the fabulous holiday projects I want to tackle. Baking and crafting (check out these awesome ghosts!. I'm thinking pumpkin cupcakes are in order. Make some halloween sugar cookies. And lots of spooky decorations. Mikey's little buddy Zander is turning 1 on Halloween, so we actually have a Halloween/Birthday party to go to!!

Finally, it is officially "owshide" time. Expect lots of pictures from me capturing our outdoor exploration now that our shoes won't melt to the sidewalks.

{hot hot heat}

2010-10-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

I hate to wish the days away, but these last few weeks of September have been simply dreadful. I can't remember a hotter September, so I continued looking forward to October and playing pretend indoors that Fall really was right around the corner. Imagine my dismay when the high for October 1st in my neck of the woods is 104.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so devastating if I hadn't spent the last few days of September getting a handle of Mikey's closet. Out with the old, in with the new. It was amazing to discover exactly how much clothing we have accumulated for our son since his birth. I have approximately 20 large garbage bags FULL of various sizes of little boy clothing, ranging from the unopened newborn onesies that Mikey never fit into, to the most recently filled bags of size 2T that Mikey outgrew before he even turned 2.

{Mikey's 2T's - purchased when he was 12 months old}

My now 21 month old is fully rocking the 3T, and I took great delight in emptying his closet of what no longer fit, and refilling it in an organized as possible manner. I'm sure he doesn't really appreciate it, but it helps me to know that my Husband (who is in charge of dressing Mikey in the mornings) can now easily find an outfit for the day that fits.

Even though it is fun to unpack a new wardrobe for Mikey, putting away the smaller sizes struck my squishy mom heart in an odd way (like always when it suddenly slams into me that Mikey isn't a helpless infant any longer) and it reminded me that perhaps there would be some cold and dreary days ahead in which I might long for these warmer days we are currently experiencing. So, with that in mind, I looked to our 10 day weather forecast to determine how many *hot* days we had left so I could plan to use them according. And what do you know, folks. Tomorrow. Tomorrow is our last triple digit day. Followed closely by two days in the 90's, and then a quick jump off into the 80's. Supposedly.

Break out the sweaters, people!!! In 3T, please.

{first day of fall}

2010-09-23T07:39:00.001-07:00

The last day of summer was not such a terrible day. It was muggy, but not too hot (thank you to whatever tropical storm system sloughed off a day of rain on us) so Mikey and I were able to wander over to the park so he could burn off some energy. Unfortunately, there was a mean little dog in attendance as well - and while the dog wasn't large, it still had teeth, and Mikey being unable to resist all things on four legs was not about to let those teeth deter him from petting the dodgey (aka, doggie). So, while the little girl with the dog attempted to drag off the rabid fido to one corner of the park, I attempted to corral my little dude to the monkey bars. It wasn't happening. I bargained with Mikey, and we agreed that we would just go home and pet our own sweet dodgey, Sammie. Except I forgot that the pest control company had been out earlier in the day to spray, and our back porch was infested with angry insects fleeing the chemical warfare inflicted upon them earlier. *sigh*

Mikey was not thrilled that his bargained backyard time ended up being "inside" time afterall, and he demonstrated his displeasure by burying his face in a corner near the front door and crying loudly (have you ever cried into a 90 degree angle? It tends to amplify sound...) "owshide, owshide, owshide." Poor dude. The obesity epidemic that is plaguing our country and I have the nerve to deprive my toddler of "owshide" time.

At that point, I was running out of time to attend to the errand that I was dreading most - facing the bank I was none to pleased with in order to finally have the levy lifted from our account. As it turns out, the Department of Revenue faxed a letter to our bank stating that the levy was issued in error, it was their fault, and to please please pretty please with sugar on top waive any fees that were assessed as a result of said mistaken levy. The branch manager I spoke with was reasonable, agreed that the fee should be waived, and said that she was pretty sure the waive would be granted (it was up for review). The only problem is that while the bank DID receive the letter from the dept of revenue stating that the levy was an error, they still haven't received a copy of the actual release, so the funds are still on hold in our account. But but but - I haven't given up yet. Left a message with the only human working at the Dept of Revenue and asked her to please refax the form. Assuming the bank gets it this morning, everything should be resolved today. I was feeling appeased and allowed the banker to upsell me on a cash back rewards debit card (to replace the one they cancelled). Of course, because I am merely his wife, Josh still has not had his card replaced because "Oh, yeah, he has to come in and do it himself."

Whatever.

I left the bank feeling almost vindicated, and in a pretty decent mood, so I transferred that to Mikey and decided that since I had deprived him of "owshide" time earlier, I would give him an extra long bath! Yeah - the kid is whacky and loves bath time - which is great because he is forever getting covered in muckity muck. Getting him out of the bath is an entirely different matter - he won't leave! 45 minutes in, the water was approaching cool, and I had to pretend the drain was broken and the water was "leaking" out. Oh noes! Oh noes! The bath is broken - the water ran away, here get in this towel.

After Mikey went to bed, I was treated to a delicious spaghetti dinner by my darling husband, and dessert was Criminal Minds and Chelsea Lately.

Not a bad day for the last day of summer. Not at all. Now, Summer, since you were a total jerk and showed up WEEKS before you were scheduled to arrive on the calendar, could you be a dear and get with the program and take a hike?

{half baked}

2010-09-20T06:46:00.001-07:00

Today I have officially reached the halfway mark in my pregnancy. The pregnancy I shall forever remember as the summer in AZ which turned into a fiery hellish inferno of ridiculous heat in September. Seriously people, the highs last week were INSANE! On my way back from the West Valley yesterday afternoon, the temps on my car registered at 112. Granted, it was only 108 outside, but for effs sake, AZ, give me a frickin' break! This morning at 5am it was a nice breezy 90 degrees outside. Nothing I love more than perspiration at the crack of dawn.

And I know, bla bla bla, AZ is great 9 months out of the year, quit yer' complaining. No. No no no. AZ is not great 9 months out of the year. Not to me. Not sure what my parents were thinking moving us here 22 years ago. It is HOT. It hits the 90's in April and doesn't relent until some time in October. So, in my book, AZ is UGLY 7 months out of the year.

If I were a smarter person, I would have gone to an out of state school - at least then I could justify the absurd amount I owe in student loans. And then maybe I might have stayed where I went to school. But now all I feel is trapped in this oven, and due to the current economy, I don't see my surroundings changing any time soon (sorry, Mother-in-law, I did so hope to be in the South East by this time).

I'm trying so hard to ignore the actual temperature outside, and cranking my AC down to freezing (take that, environmentalist whacko's) and burning pumpkin spice candles as fast as they will melt down, but it just isn't working. Perhaps my sister-in-law would be so kind as to forward me her Pumpkin Bread recipe.

At least sweet baby William is nice and cool in the 98.6 degree heat of my womb. Happy 5 months post creation. Everything appears to be coming along nicely in there - so keep up the great work! And I will do my best to get us moved somewhere more to my likings... like the North Pole.

{eff you, AZ.}

2010-09-15T09:59:00.001-07:00

Have you ever heard the saying, "When it rains, it pours?" Guess what, internet, it totally does.

As if there wasn't already enough going wrong in my universe, yesterday morning started off pleasantly enough with a quick stop at my favorite place ever, QT {aka, quiktrip} for a fillup.

Insert debit card. "Please see cashier." Huh? Insert debit card once again. "Please see cashier." Now wait just a minute. I know I have money in there. Grumble Grumble Grumble. QT sometimes has issues with their banking system, so I run down the street to the ghetto Circle K and try to fill up there. "Please see cashier." AGHHHHH!

{now, Josh asked me why I didn't just go in to see the cashier at this point, but I knew they wouldn't be able to tell me anything good - just that my card wasn't working for some reason, or that maybe there was a terrorist attack that brought down Visa's system... or something}

So I go to my office, bring up my bank's website, and try to log in to see what on earth is going on. Except, oh wait, my bank's online banking site is down. And after some further research, it turns out it has been down close to 12 hours at this point. Aghh, relief. It isn't me. It is them! Apparently my bank's ATM's are still working, so after I leave work I stop by a branch to pull some cash out so I can fill up my car. I pull through the drive-thru to use the ATM. The ATM can not read my card. Again, I swipe it. No go. Oh my god, this is getting ridiculous.

You know, this story is getting long, so I'll try to shorten it. I go into the bank to talk to a banker.

Per banker, the reason my debit card is not working is because the debit cards were cancelled by their levy department. Yes, Levy department. Apparently a levy has been placed on our account. He doesn't know why, and directs me to that department. Per the Levy department, the Arizona Department of Revenue submitted legal paperwork for the Levy, and I will have to call them to get it released. Per the Arizona Department of Revenue, I didn't pay my 2009 State Taxes. But, oh wait, the chick on the line DOES see money sitting in our account unapplied - money that has been earmarked for a 2010 estimated tax payment. I am looking at copies of the check (front and back) that I sent in April - and clear as day on the front "2009 Arizona State Taxes" are written. Oh, did I mention that I included a voucher (provided by THEM!) along with the check to show what the funds were for.

But but but - they still won't release the levy because the amount sitting unapplied doesn't cover the amount we owe. You see, because my payment that was due in April hasn't been paid yet, I was charged a late fee, so the amount owed is higher than the amount in the account. Nevermind that it was THEIR ERRROR that caused all this. I'm told that the burden of proof rests with me - I have to fax copies of the checks, copies of the voucher and a letter stating what happened and how I want my funds applied.

So, in the mean time, my bank has the funds that AZ Department of Revenue request on "hold" and our debit cards have been cancelled, and the AZ Department of Revenue will not release the levy until I either send in the $7.00 late fee so the full amount is paid, or they get the $200.18 from the bank.

Yes, that is right, internet, the Arizona Department of Revenue placed a levy on my checking account for $200.18. Once the $200.18 is satisfied by either me sending in the late fee or them receiving the amount from the bank, they will release the levy on my account and refund the overage back to me.

So, yeah. Screw you government. Screw you AZ. And screw you bank (big national bank) that added insult to injury by taking a $100.00 fee for processing the Levy paperwork. I hate you all. I'm leaving the bank for sure. I'm going to leave AZ as soon as I can.

/grumble. /cry.

I'm still working to resolve all this, but hopefully all will be ironed out by Friday. No, relatives, we don't need you to western union us money, and Josh just might explode if anyone calls to ask him any questions about this, as a warning :)

{success is not final, failure is not fatal}

2010-09-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

It is the courage to continue that counts. -Winston Churchill

I really wasn't attempting to mislead any of my two readers when I said I would be blogging again. I had every intention of opening my blogger editor each day to document, document, document. Capture every moment digitally in one way or another, and all that jazz. Alas, August happened. Frickin' August.

I won't go into the insane details, but here are the basics in a convenient bullet point list:

*Dad almost dies
*Dad is hospitalized
*Hospital spends great deal of time attempting to discharge my father before he is a)awake, b)coherent, c)feeding himself, d)going to the bathroom on his own. Oh yeah, and they still hadn't exactly figured out what was wrong.
*I spend agonizing hours fretting over the fate of my father, and hoping the hospital doesn't just roll my father out in a wheelchair into the busy street.
*Dad is finally "approved" for rehabilitative services (now that he is cooperating by being "awake.")
*Dad is moved to rehab, and when he finally "comes to", none of the staff determine that it might be important to let this man know WHY he is here at the rehab center.
*Dad promptly proceeds to call 911 several times because he is being held against his will (who gave him a phone, anyway?)
*I finally give Dad the breakdown on what happened, where he was, where he went, and what it means for the rest of his life. He finally agrees to stop behaving like a child and take his meds and eat his food. But, only if I bring him cigarettes.

Somewhere in between all the madness, we found out that we are having another boy! Hooray for brothers! Mikey is thrilled with the "libble brudder" in my belly, and when prompted for what his name should be, he has advised us SEVERAL times that the baby's name is "Dean-two-nine." Or DiDi. I mean, I was kinda leaning towards Liam (short for William), but Dean-two-nine does have a nice ring to it.

In other news, it is September in Arizona, which usually means slightly cooler weather, but we've pretty much had triple digit days so far, including one gloriously horrific day when it was 113 outside with 40% humidity. AJ's still doesn't have their extremely seasonal Honey Crisp apples (which are like 4.99 a pound, but I do not care!). All in all, the stars are aligning to plot against me, but it doesn't matter, because my father is going to be ok.

{colors}

2010-08-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

J's parents came for a visit last week, and unfortunately (for them) barely even left the house! I hope they didn't have visions of visiting old pals and enjoying the Phoenix night life. What they DID get to do was allow this mama some peace and *sorta* quiet. J's mom knows just what to do to bring a smile to my face. I didn't see one dish, or mop one floor for an entire 4 days! Besides making my life easier, they also provided hours of entertainment to Mikey by inspiring our little Picasso:

Definitely in Mikey's top 10 list of best memories ever :)

{back to school}

2010-08-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

I've been away from this blog for nearly two months now. An unplanned break, although as it turns out, a much needed one. I've always been a blogger without a purpose - in my mind anyway, I could not necessarily be classified as a "mommy blogger" or a "food blogger" or a "music blogger" or any other term used to lump bloggers together into identifiable groups.

When I first started reading blogs, my favorites were always the *nesting* bloggers. Youngish women writing about starting families, and making their homes. I found solace in knowing these women through their blogs. I felt less alone. Hey - look - there are other women out there experiencing the same things as me. Except, I wasn't experiencing the same things, I was just reading about their experiences and letting their images color my blank walls.

Not to say that my life lacks meaning or purpose, or is empty. Far from it. Just that my dreams and hopes for my family are all continually bubbling just beneath the surface, never quite making it to paper, never coming to fruition. Hey - I'm sure it is enough for most families to get by, but I don't want to just do enough. I want to do amazing.

So, with that in mind, I'm setting out to get this blog back to its original purpose: the documenting of mine and my families lives together. Some day I hope my children can look back through these archives and fondly remember the simple memories and collections of photographs taken for them.

P.S. - I'm pregnant. 5 days left of the 1st trimester.

{English}

2010-07-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

I'm so tired of having to come in here and moderate comments that are written in Chinese. Seriously grating on me after having my gmail account hacked twice from a Chinese IP. So - if you aren't going to leave me a comment in English, PLEASE DON'T BOTHER!

That is all.

{Are You a Fat Fish, Too}

2010-06-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after spending $60.00 on a swimsuit, cap and goggles, and after getting everyone tucked into bed for the night, I drove myself to our overpriced gym that I've used all of 3 times, and jumped into an empty lane in one of the 4 full sized lap pools at said overpriced gym. You see, I had been dreaming of swimming. Literally. Something about that water has been calling me. A friend recently told me that my Sun Sign being Picses probably had a lot to do that - that perhaps the water was healing. Whatever it was, I had to go.

I was extremely nervous, and my heart was doing little flip flops the whole way to the locker room. You see, I do know how to swim. I swam quite a bit growing up. Each summer my mother enrolled me in the local city swim team (Go Goodyear Sharks!). Not only did I know how to swim, I swam competitively. And even if I wasn't quite as good as my little sister, I won my fair share of Blue Ribbons at swim meets. Being on the swim team made the summers in Phoenix bareable. We had swim practice everyday, and a swim meet almost every weekend. My favorite stroke? The BUTTERFLY! Yes, the crappiest hardest most tiring stroke was my favorite. I think it is because it took me so long to learn it, that mastering it was quite a triump for me.

I carried on this way for many years, and finally, my Freshman year, I joined the High School swim team (Go OWLS!). I did that for a year, and then it became too much. I had to chose between swimming and marching band. For some reason Marching band won, and so at the ripe old age of 15, I stopped swimming competitively and regularly in general.

So - there I am, walking out of the locker room, heart pitter pattering, sure that I'm going to sink to the bottom (of the 5 foot deep lap pool) and suddenly it is do or die. I get in. Well - first I sat down on the edge of the pool, then I slid in. Nice and easy. I fiddled with my cap (I don't remember the stupid things being so hard to get on) and adjusted my goggles, and I was off!

I started off with Freestyle, and then started alternating between Freestyle and breast stroke. Around lap 10, curiousity got the best of me, and despite my fear that everyone else in the lap pool would drown laughing at me, I decided to give my old pal the Butterfly a try.

And you know what, internet, swimming really is like riding a bike. Amazingly enough, my arms and legs just seemed to remember what they were doing. Granted, after swimming the stroke for 50 meters, I was about to explode, so my remaining laps in the pool were back to freestyle, but I look forward to building on that!

All in all, I swam 20 laps, and I was truly exhausted afterwards. This morning my arm muscles feel sore, and I was a little tired, but I can't wait to go back tonight!

{Dry Heat}

2010-06-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

{Sometimes}

2010-06-07T21:11:00.001-07:00

Life doesn't make much sense.

{Goodbye, Friend}

2010-06-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

In a very rapid (over the course of 48 hours) amount of time, our dear 4 year old German Shepherd, Guinness, went from *fine* to dead.

He was playing like his normal self on Monday, and by Wednesday night he was refusing to eat anything. We decided to take him to the vet first thing in the morning, and by that time, he was dead. We have no idea what happened - our other dog, Sammie, is fine.

While I often thought that Marley & Me was based on our trials with Guinness, at the end of the day he was still our dog, and we loved him.

We will miss him dearly.

{summertime and the livin's easy}

2010-05-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

It is summer here in death valley. I mean Phoenix. But, it isn't hot enough, because Mikey still refuses to play in the blow up pool purchased to keep his wee hiney cool during the hot summer months. Loves the bath. Hates the pool. I do have to admit that I absolutely have ulterior motives when it comes to the pool. You see, I would *love* to spend some time outside that doesn't involve chasing him down the street. Perhaps he is just pulling a Richard Simmons on me and trying to trick me into exercising (it is working) but it surely is difficult to run whilst holding a can of Coors(light!).

Dude, Mommeeeee is trying to chill in this here plastic lawn chair that is finally comfortable to sit in now that she has lost another 15 pounds. And, even though you don't appreciate the cool water, I sure love using the edge of the pool as an ottoman of sorts and allowing my feet to soak while I admire my freshly pedicured mint green toenails. Hey. Where are you going?

It occurred to me during the week that I needed to move this operation from our frontyard to our backyard, so that when Mikey jumps out of the less than luke warm pool, the farthest he can go to is the orange tree. Alas, dog crap, you have bested me yet again as I have allowed you to accrue at an ungodly pace. So, today I spent Mikey's 3 hour nap raking up dead grass and dog poo, and also acquired some rad blisters on my hands along the way. When Mikey woke up from his nap, I was so exhausted from the yard work/zyrtec/coors light, that I feel asleep on the couch while my spawn smeared blue frosting from a cookie on my nose. I awoke to the foul odor eminating from my son's diaper to a mouthful of honey nut cheerios and marshmallows he had tried to feed me while I caught up on my beauty rest. You know, that is what I get for falling asleep on the job.

The worst part of all? When Josh finally woke me up after the census worker rung the doorbell and he was finally conned into taking the damn census survey, I remembered the untouched 2 liter of diet coke chilling in the fridge for me. I just needed a little caffeine to get my afternoon groove going. "Honey, will you make me a glass of diet coke." "There isn't any." "Oh yes there is! I put it in the Fridge this morning." "Uhm, I sort of drank it while you were napping." "Noooooooooo..."

The only possible solution to this was to order Domino's for dinner, cause how else am I supposed to get Diet Coke delivered to the house, ha ha ha. Except I couldn't eat pizza for dinner because I wasted all my points on McDonald's Sausage burrito's and Coors Light. So, now I'm all hopped up on Diet Coke and listening to Techno/Trance while uploading pictures from a birthday party yesterday and downloading more Techno/Trance. Gee - I sure am revisiting a lot of old vices recently. Diet Coke. Check. Metabolife. Check. Jamming out on my MP3 player non-stop. Check. Afternoon naps. Check. I feel like a teenager again (trapped in the body of an overweight 27 year old with a 17 month old). Alright, I better stop this blog post right here. Would hate to reveal anything weird about myself.

{oh for too}

2010-05-04T11:48:00.001-07:00

Sorry, sick of numbers. You can thank weight watchers for that. When I really think about it, I'm not sick of numbers, but rather wishing I had more of them. More specifically, can I have more points please? Between my last go and this attempt at Weight Watchers, I lost about 14 pounds and now only get 26 points per day (plus the extra 35 I can spend throughout the week as I choose). This time around, J is in on the act, asking all sorts of questions about point values by food type. Discussing the merits of food based on volume and the more I can get for the fewest amount of points has reminded me that, oh yeah, I can eat a lot more strawberries than I can snickers bars. Duh.

Still, I suffer between convenience and how mad my stomach becomes when I feed it processed junk "diet" food (I type this as I lick the last of the sauce from the meager portion of my Smart ones Three Cheese Ziti Marinara container).

I recently read "Finally Thin" by Kim Bensen, and her story of losing 200 pounds in 2 years on Weight Watchers. The first part of the book is her story, while in the second she attempts to motivate me to lose weight myself. So far, I'm not motivated by anything but the fact that she lost 200 pounds, and even though I only need to lose 50, I still find that number overwhelming. 50 pounds. Bla.

In any event, the only reason I'm even wasting internet space with this is because one of Kim's tips is to "journal" about your weight loss efforts. So, yeah, this is a start.

{around here}

2010-04-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Our weekend, in photographs...

Playing at the park, running around the block, napping and baking cookies. I hope everyone else had a great weekend, too!

{wanting}

2010-04-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

I've got a secret.

And I'm not telling.

At least, not yet, anyway. I hate to jinx things. Right now this secret is just a small glimmer of a wish of a prayer. So, I'm just going to keep quietly hoping over here. Regardless of if I get my wish or not, I suspect that I will be able to share within a few short weeks. But, gosh, it sure does drive me nuts to really really really want something so badly, and not be able to share it.

As I read back over the last paragraph, I realize that everyone is going to think my secret is very obvious, but it isn't what you are thinking! Go ahead and take a guess, because it would be fun if you are right when I come back and tell you what it is/was in a few weeks!

{before & after}

2010-04-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

With my new Canon 50mm f/1.8 II lens and Adobe CS4 installed, I went about snapping some pictures of my most favorite subject this afternoon. I probably should have started with something more simple than a toddler - something that doesn't move - but, I think they turned out pretty great anyway. The first picture is unedited, straight out of the camera (SOOC). The second image is the same image, with some slight layer adjustments made in Photoshop. Not bad for my first serious attempt at photo editing!

Eating Dinner:

Down the Slide:

Monkeying Around:

Don't mind me, I'm just getting up to no good:

Riding Mr. Frog:

Unless I'm planning on teaching photoshop tutorials, I doubt I'll do many before and afters - but I thought it would be fun this one time to show you not only what the new Lens can do without the edits, but with how much more awesome your photos can look with a few simple tweaks in photoshop.

Enjoy!

{morning babies}

2010-04-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

Please indulge me - I've recently installed Adobe CS4 and am exploring all the exciting actions the internet (more specifically, Pioneer Woman) has to offer.

These photo's explore the differences in Mikey upon first waking up in the morning. The first is at 15 days... the second at 15 months. My ovaries are weeping. Was this really my baby?

And what is this - Adobe CS5 is about to be released. Crap. Ohwell - my new Canon Lens has arrived, and I imagine that CS4 will do just fine while I experiment with my new lens!

{loving}

2010-04-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

Honey Bee, by Zee Avi:

/swoon

and,

Fuss Necklaces:

http://tweakboutiqueonline.net/index.php?route=product/product&path=53&product_id=695

and,

Passion Fruit Lavanila:

http://www.lavanila.com/The-Healthy-Fragrance-Vanilla-Passion-Fruit_p_62.html

and, this guy, right here:

My New Vice...

2010-03-30T15:24:00.001-07:00

I can't seem to take a step back from my newest love, Mr. Kindle (aka "the boyfriend" as J calls it). Instant gratification in the form of brand new books at my fingertips in less than 60 seconds = a mom that has read 20 books in 30 days. I've read:

-The Whole Southern Vampire Mysteries series (books 1-9) by Charlaine Harris
-The whole Harper Connelly Mysteries series (books 1-4) by Charlaine Harris
-Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
-Breaking Dawn (of the Twilight Series) again!
-Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson
-The Queen of Clean cleans Everything (ok, mostly skimmed through that one)
-The Queen of Clean gets Organized (again... skimming here)
-And I know there are some others I'm forgetting about

The Kindle helped keep me company while the baby and I were pitiful and sick with colds. We are both recovering quite nicely now.

And, now that I've read and read and read, and I'm not feeling quite so sick, I'm trying so very hard to develop a new vice. An awful habit that includes a clean home. A homey home. A comfortable, clean and maybe even decorated home. And, if it isn't asking to much, perhaps I could fit in a little bit of time to read a book about time management, ha ha ha.

Caveman Craze...

2010-03-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

So, I've been waiting for several weeks to fill you all in on something that J and I have recently embraced. I wanted to test the waters first - make sure it was doable before I started writing about another diet fad that would end in failure in a few weeks.

Here we are - two weeks later - and not only are we thriving and losing weight, but we are learning that there is so much more to this than a diet. We are well on our way to embracing our primal past and getting in grove with the way our genes are meant to thrive.

Specifically, we have been following the methods detailed in a book called Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. There are 10 laws, some of which are tougher to follow than others. J and I have given up grains completely (including rice and that nasty whole grain crap) and have embraced plenty of meat of all varieties, fats, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds. We don't count calories, we eat until we are full, and the net result of that has been J losing 10 pounds and me losing 7 pounds in the last 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks on the program, I feel ready to embrace the fitness portion of Primal Blueprint. There are 3 types of exercise I need to get: Walking at a slow pace for a long time (at least 5 hours a week), Sprinting periodically (maybe 1 or 2x a day) for a very short time (less than a minute) and lifting heavy things.

Expect more posts from me in the future on our new way of life :)

Perfect Situation...

2010-03-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

My days have been strange lately. I successfully made it through my 4th wedding anniversary, and also my 27th birthday. 27 doesn't feel much different from 26, although I have a greater sense of urgency to crack down on my bad habits, get organized, and really put some effort into my family's home. The only problem is, this isn't really our home. I have a lot of bad feelings about this house, and no good feelings to counter them. Lots of things are broken around here, and I don't care to fix them. I'd rather endure them until our lease is up in October, and try to find something more suitable (perhaps something we can do a lease/purchase on).

Other things that are broken? My washing machine. My husbands neck (ok, pinched nerve, not broken neck). The washing machine repairman still hasn't fixed our issues ($185.00 later) but in all fairness, he is supposed to come back in a few days to try and fix it again. My husbands neck is slowly being repaired by the chiropractor up the street (at the low low price of $145.00 per visit, and only 4 visits so far to barely start making him feel better).

But, no matter how insanely expensive things are getting, and no matter how fast things are breaking, we keep on keeping on.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone :)

p.s. - everyone around me is having babies and getting pregnant - I'm starting to get the bug again! Agh! My hormones better cool it - I can't handle the extra laundry with no washing machine!

Kindle, How I Love Thee...

2010-03-03T06:14:00.000-08:00

O. M. G. For realz. Now that I have you, I don't really know how I lived without you. But, I can already tell that you are going to be a problem for me. I have no problems hanging up on phone calls, pushing pause on my mp3 player, even ignoring the "new post" button on my little blog here when I need to. But - to walk away from you in the middle of a thrilling read? Ouch. It stings. It burns. It causes me to stay up until midnight reading even though I have the alarm set for 5am. I question my need for sleep, even then, because "Josh does always say that Marine's can live just fine on 3 hours of sleep a night." Hmmmm... Oh, crap, I better just go to sleep already.

The negative? I am soooooooooooo tired this morning when I pry my eyes open (finally, after much debate about if being tired = being sick and a justifiable sick day). The positive? I was so entralled with my book lastnight, that I was able to ignore snacking out of boredom. Food? No thanks, I don't want to get crumbs on my Kindle.

So, like most things in my life, it is going to take an effort to make sure I'm attending to the other important things in my life (ie, husband, baby, animals, house) before I spend another 5 hours entrenched in a good ebook.

P.S. - Buy a Kindle.
P.P.S. - If you buy a Kindle, you should also probably buy it one of those nifty Kindle covers. I didn't. I was all "OMG $35.00 for a frickin' cover?" I am now on the search for a cheaper alternative, but I am ultra paranoid about doing my Kindle harm while I tote it back and forth from home to work without a cover, just flopping around in my tote bag, going to battle with my Zune, Blackberry and car keys.

March Madness...

2010-03-02T06:08:00.000-08:00

March is my second favorite time of the year (after the time period of October 31st through January 1st cause I lurve me some Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas) and not just because my birthday is in March (the ides of March, to be exact) but because it also happens to be the month of my wedding anniversary (4 years!) and the month that it finally really truly warms up in Arizona!

I'm really trying hard to celebrate life. I really admire a couple of bloggers out there who rock the holiday world by celebrating even some of the more obscure (only obscure because I had never heard of them) holidays. When I think of their households, I'm sure it must rock to be growing up in them. I especially admire Grace over at Uncommon Grace and her dedication to bringing magical delight to her children all year long through the celebration of various holidays.

Because I'm not yet fully versed in all of the holidays out there, I'm going to try and make a bigger deal out of the holidays that I DO know about. So - St. Patrick's Day? Here I come!

And this year, because I like to stay hip with technology as much as I can afford to, my husband bought me a Kindle 2 for my birthday! It should get here today, and I'm super excited to be part of the e-reading world! I've already got a few ebooks purchased from The Kindle store, so as soon as it arrives I will be able to curl up with a book (well, probably not since I'll be at work, but you know what I mean). It should help take my mind off the fact that I'm turning 27 this year - when the heck did I get to the tail end of my twenties?

14 Months...

2010-02-28T13:47:00.000-08:00

M is 14 Months old today! Everyday he seems to be learning a new word, acquiring a new skill. He is filled with wonderment, excitement and joy at the world around him. He loves to CLIMB on anything he can manage (especially the couches and the bench in the entryway of the house). He adores the outdoors and goes into a panic when he realizes someone is going outside without him. He loves all the fur babies - especially his pal, Finley, who curls up and sleeps outside of his bedroom all day and night. When he does get outside, if he gets the slightest inkling you might try to take him back indoors, he "dead weights" himself and hits the floor with the hope that he is now too heavy to be lifted. He doesn't want to run in the grass - he wants to run on the sidewalk. In fact, he doesn't want to be steered, he just wants to go wherever the fun appears to be (ie, chasing after the school bus). When he lets himself slow down, he is a super snuggley bug. He loves to bury his face into his mom and dad's shoulders and wraps his arms around our necks. He also snuggles anything stuffed or living in the animal form in our home.

He has words. So many words. He loves to wave while he says "Hi" and "Bye." He says "book" and "baby" and "Ma MEE" and "Da DEE" plus a few others like ball, juice, shoes and THIS THIS THIS (*insert chubby pointing fingers here*).

He loves his new mega blocks, and is already erecting towers in our living room with his new favorite toy.

His sleeping patterns have changed. He no longer takes several naps throughout the day, now only taking 1 very long nap after lunch (typically 2-3 hours). Thankfully, he hits the pillow for an amazing 12 hours straight every night (like he has been doing since he was about 4 months old) so that is wonderful.

We love him so much, we might just explode (in a good way, of course).

February in Arizona...

2010-02-25T15:42:00.000-08:00

*sigh*

Sorry to those of you still freezing your butt's off, but we've hit a nice row of days here in AZ that are in the low 70's and perfect :)

We've been barbecuing at night:

We've been playing in the sand:

And running through the grass:

And running away from mom!

And sliding down the slide!

Loving the playground in general...

I hope everyone else is having a wonderful week!

Everybody's Changing...

2010-02-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

I couldn't have asked for a better week. M loves the new sitter. I love the new sitter. She rocks, sends me a few emails throughout the days and if she has the chance a picture with her phone. It is so great to see M having a blast. He has so much fun playing with his new friend (the sitter's oldest son, who happens to be 2.5). The best part of all? Not only is he happier at daycare, but he is in such an amazing mood in the afternoon for J and I. Smiling, happy, wonderful baby that I remember. *sighs with relief*

I've been doing a lot of internet window shopping this last few weeks. I'm in love with these Lodge Cast Iron Enamel Dutch Ovens. And of course, I ~~need~~ want a Kindle or a Nook. Besides internet window shopping, I've been lovin on my music collection and turning up my headphones full blast to listen to Muse, Keane, Kidneythieves, Toadies, Leona Lewis and Michael Franti. I'm especially addicted to Say Hey by Michael Franti & The Spearheads, and I have had the song ready to play on my Zune when I pick M up from the sitter's so I can serenade him on the way home. He seems to enjoy it, but perhaps he is actually only amused at his wack ass mother dancing like a fool in the front seat?

But more than anything? I've been daydreaming.. about sleep. Beautiful, blessed, precious sleep, and all the sleeping I'm going to do in the mornings when J's saint of a mother arrives at our home tomorrow to spend the whole week with her very favoritest grand baby.Yes, sleep, you shall be mine. And after I've gotten enough sleep, I'm going to unpack some boxes and finally finish moving into this house.

Beastie Boy...

2010-02-12T13:26:00.000-08:00

You know you have issues when your sitter starts telling you daily through verbal and written expression that your son is the spawn of the devil. Ok, maybe she didn't say it quite like that, but she did essentially tell me that my 13 month old is the class bully.

Sitter: "He hits the other kids with toys."
Me: Uhhhh... sorry?

Sitter: He pulls the little girl's hair
Me: Uhm... sorry?

Sitter: He screams. Not in anger, but in joy. He expresses himself by screaming
Me: Oh - yeah, I knew about that. You don't think that is cute? Uh - sorry?

After spending the last month apologizing, and trying to teach my 13 month old about "nice hands" and "inside voices" I wasn't really getting anywhere. I had only seen him behave like a perfect angel with other little kids - giving kisses and hugs and playing mostly nice.

I guess our sitter finally had enough, because she broke up with us yesterday. Told me I had a week to find a new sitter, and she had enough and couldn't take anymore because she couldn't get Mikey to play "cohesively" with the other babies.

For real? Cohesively with others? Mikey doesn't even fully understand what OTHERS is, let alone playing nice. And my fears of having a 1 year old that could pass for a 3 year old are coming true. Poor fella. I thought it was normal for a 1 year old to behave the way he does, but I guess I was wrong. And this must be some sort of record. My 13 month old was expelled from daycare.

I'm sure some day I will look back on this and laugh. Sure.

And while I get a new sitter squared away, here are some pictures of February, so far:

I finally got Mikey's laundry organized!

Mikey is walking in shoes! (ummm, sort of)

Mikey LOVES reading!

And also, climbing on to things he shouldn't:

And getting booboo's:

If you're wondering if I want you to...

2010-02-03T06:18:00.000-08:00

And we're off! I can't believe we are already firmly into February - the days sure are flying by.

I'm still recovering from a weekend of traveling. J and I took the baby out to the west side of Phoenix to hang with some pals (with two kids of their own) that we don't often get to see. We had a great time, but I have to admit that a huge part of that has to do with the fact that their home is completely baby proofed. Josh and I were mostly able to relax the whole time we were there while the kids ran around and entertained eachother. My best friend has a 3.5 year old boy and a 20 month old girl. We've always joked that her little girl and my little boy are going to get married someday so we can finally be "related." Of course, her little girl is all about kissing, and Mikey is too, except he doesn't quite understand the concept of closing his mouth to make the kissy face, so he just comes at you with his mouth wide open, drool spilling everywhere. Lovely. Ohwell, my friends sweet daughter didn't seem to mind his drooly kisses.

After watching Mikey interact with these kids over the weekend, I have no earthly idea what the baby sitter is talking about. She has recently let us know that other parents have been complaining about Mikey leaving MARKS on their children because he hits them with toys. She said the behavior isn't malicious - just some kids are hitters and some are biters, and apparently Mikey is of the hitting variety. But yikes - marks? On the other toddlers? Thankfully, it hasn't been an issue in about a week, but everyday I dread picking him up and hearing about him being a 13 month old "class bully" (seriously? are you kidding me?).

So - one benefit to having a friend that has a little boy 2.5 years older than yours? HAND ME DOWNS! Holy heck! We were gifted with 4 trash bags full of clothes AND a rubbermaid container full as well, along with a bag of boy's shoes of various sizes. Not that Mikey's fat baby feet fit into any of them, lol. Of course - best friend to the rescue - she bought a pair of Skidders for Mikey that work like a charm. They are technically socks with rubber bottoms, but they really do the trick. Plus, they help him from sliding all over the tile! Thanks Val!

Since it is early in February, I thought I'd post here what my ambitions are for the rest of the month. First - I would like to get all the rest of the boxes unpacked so we can start parking our cars in the garage. Second - I want to do a $500.00 makeover on the house. We are dealing with a pretty blank slate, and since we are living in a rental I don't feel like painting walls only to have to paint them back - so that means I'm going to need to get creative. Plus, $500.00 for a whole house isn't a heck of a lot. I'm going to be scouring the internet for ideas, but I have a feeling that a lot of my budget will go to vinyl wall art that I can peel off when our lease is up, lol.

And what about those goals I made in January?

Well, in terms of physical improvement, I ended up shifting weight loss strategies during the month,and settled on a diet of the low carb variety. After losing and gaining the same 3 pounds, I finally have found something that is working for me and I'm down 8 pounds. Only 73 more pounds to go to reach my goal weight. Boo. I will dedicate a whole post to my diet/exercise program on February 25th when I have a month's worth of data to write about. I am doing terribly in all other aspects of the physical goal. My hair sucks. I hate the color. I hate the bangs. Doesn't having awful hair suck? Anyway - my bangs are almost long enough to start flipping them back into a "pin-up" esque type do, and I'm going to go ahead and dye my own damn hair since paying to have it done isn't getting me anywhere. Just going to slap some super dark brown on it and keep it up at home, which should save me $100.00 every 6 weeks. And makeup? Makeup... Makeup... Oh, I'm dolling my face up about once or twice a week. Not all 5 days. Really need to work harder at getting out of bed at a time that actually allows for the application of makeup.

The goal of loving my family? I am doing much better at this, but as always there is room for improvement. I've been loving the crap out of my baby, but I'm pretty positive that the Husband could use some more attention. This is something I'm always striving for - so I will continue to strive to improve in this department.

Finally - the 3rd goal of working towards becoming a SAHM has flown out the window. Husband and I have some serious goals to work towards in terms of providing for our family (college, cars, weddings, etc) not to mention retirement, and it isn't going to happen on one income alone in our case. So - I've converted my 3rd goal and redirected myself to becoming a super star at my office again.

There you have it. February should be filled with fun posts!

The last 30 days, in pictures

2010-01-24T22:05:00.000-08:00

1. Mikey's 1st Christmas

2. Mikey's 1st Haircut

3. Mikey's 1st Birthday

3. New vehicle

Now that you are all updated, we can move on to February :)

You move, like I want to...

2010-01-20T05:57:00.000-08:00

I've had a lot of trouble getting in here lately. I have a million and a half unwritten posts in my head - updates about Mikey, Mikey's 1st Birthday, the house, work, working out - all those goals for 2010. But, the last few weeks, my time management skills have been just plain terrible. I can't seem to hustle enough to get the smallest of goals accomplished. What is really infuriating is the time wasters that I allow myself to get involved in. Now that my PC is back and running on Windows 7 (Love it!) I should be restocking my music collection, uploading pictures, and keeping up with all my favorite blogs, but I can't seem to drag myself off the couch after work to get to the computer, let alone to the gym.

*le sigh*

For awhile there I was using a daily "to do" scratch pad where I just allowed everything in my brain to spill out onto the paper - whatever was on my mind was written down. Almost like a brain stormed rough draft of the internal to do list in my head, on paper. It really helped to empty my mind and allowed me to focus on the most important things I wanted to accomplish. I ran out of the templates, and if I can find where I got them, I'll print out some more.

The first thing I'm going to write down? Get my music collection back up and running, and my Zune loaded up with great playlists for the gym!

The second thing? Look at your blogs so I can find out what you are all up to!

Sorry for sucking.

Windows to Linux

2010-01-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

OMG Kerith. Where have you been (you might be asking yourself... or maybe you haven't even noticed that I've been gone for approximately forever).

Anyway, Kerith decided to go on an epic journey. A journey into Linux Land. Home of the free (open source) operating system. It almost feels like the time I switched from blogger to Wordpress. Yet, here I find myself back on blogger, so perhaps that isn't the best example?

If you WANT to know, I'm now using a program called Ubuntu. It is essentially the equivalent of Windows, except for it uses the Linux platform instead of the Windows platform. Confused yet? Go to Ubuntu.com to check it out.

What this has meant to me is a complete altering of my formerly known Windows universe. Suck it, Microsoft. Except for, not really, because now I can't use my Zune MP3 player, nor can I use any number of Microsoft platform programs. Boo, hiss. Yes, I know, WINE. WINE is suppose to be the solution to all my problems, allowing me to run many Windows programs. But - what is the point in all that? I'm so excited to be free of the expensive Office, Adobe, etc., programs that seem to cause me all sorts of trouble all on their own.

So, yeah, anyway, I've been busy with all this Linux stuff. But, I wanted to keep this blog updated somewhat, so here is a progress report of my Goals for 2010:

1. Successfully following the Weight Watchers program
2. I've been exercising for a good week now
3. Purchased and USING all sorts of new beauty products
4. Dyed my hair. It was supposed to be brown, but it is so red. /sigh
5. BANGS! OMG! BANGS!

My goal for this week is to stay within my daily points, track everyday, and increase my cardio at the gym to 30 minutes (in addition to the hour long walk I take on my lunch break at work).

My other ambitions for the week include getting all my pictures uploaded to Flikr and figuring out a good portable music solution that does not involve running a virtual instance of Windows in a separate partition on my HDD. Blargh.

Resolving...

2010-01-01T22:09:00.000-08:00

New Years Resolutions are a funny thing. I can't remember ever sticking to one, ever. Yet, each year I continue making them, and I'm just as motivated as ever to change my life. I've been thinking about my resolution for some time now - probably since around October. Some time in November I settled on the generic "Be Good To Myself." I felt that it encompassed all my goals for the year in terms of physical appearance. But then I had to change it to "Be Good To Myself AND My Family."

Still too generic. And still bothering me because I don't want to do something that isn't going to work. So, this year we are going to take a slightly different approach. Instead of New Year's Resolutions, I'm setting goals for 2010. While some of these may seem superficial, they are important to me.

Goal: Physical Improvement
-Start Weight Watchers on Jan 1 and stick to it until I reach my goal weight of 125
- Unlet myself go? Invest in the upkeep of my hair, makeup, nails and clothing
- Exercise. Everyday (unless I'm throwing up or bleeding)

Goal: Love my Family
There are so many ways to do this - I think taking time to write the sweet little love notes I used to give to Josh, and surprising him with random sweet little gifts are one way. Perhaps spending more time on the floor playing with Mikey instead of watching him play from afar. Cooking my family nourishing meals. Essentially, I want to put my family at the top of my list of priorities, and make sure they feel that they are the most important part of my life.

Goal: Work towards becoming a "SAHM" (Stay at Home Mom)
The first part of this involves paying CASH for a reliable vehicle so we are free from car payments. The second part involves becoming knocked up with child 2, and not returning to work from maternity leave. Our goal is early 2011! After that, we can keep growing our family without worrying about the costs of daycare because it won't be an issue.

And that is pretty much it. Oh - there are other things - not so major things. I'd love to learn how to knit/sew/quilt. I want to keep on improving on my kitchen skills. I'd like to watch a little less TV and read a few more books.

What is everyone else resolving to do?

Ding Dong Merrily on High

2009-12-18T11:50:00.000-08:00

Has it really been 2 weeks since my last blog post?

I wish I could say that my time has been eaten up by baking christmas cookies, wrapping presents and decorating the tree, but the honest truth is that the TV and I have recently become reaquainted. I managed to catch up on ALL the shows I've been watching, PLUS I watched the season's 1 & 2 of True Blood (swoon!).

We still have a ton of boxes left to unpack, the tree is naked aside from the pinecones that came affixed to the tree out of the box, and the house still needs some TLC in the deep cleaning department.

Alas, it is Friday, and I have a whole weekend ahead of me! Now that I'm not feeling under the weather, perhaps I can accomplish a few items on my to do list!

-Ship gifts to S. Carolina
-Clean the carpet and the couch with upholstery/carpet cleaner
-Hang up our clothes (finally) in the master bedroom closet
-Bake Christmas Cookies!
-Finish Holiday Decorating
-Watch some Christmas movies!

If I've got time, I'd love to finish moving into the house. We have so many unpacked boxes. However, I'm done with work for the rest of the year after the 23rd, so I should have ample opportunity to get a lot accomplished so my small family can have a good start to 2010!!

11 Months Old

2009-12-03T20:33:00.000-08:00

Mikey hit yet another monthly milestone on his way to becoming 1 WHOLE YEAR OLD! OH MY! He is frickin' adorable. A pill at times, but wonderful still, nonetheless. We love him so much our hearts ache!

And even though we are a few days late (technically he was 11 months on the 29th of November) a photo opportunity did not present itself until today.

'Cuz sometimes its cool to wear dad's boxers as a necklace, and mom humors you by allowing you to wear one of her headbands.

Christmas of Love...

2009-12-02T06:51:00.000-08:00

Much to our suprise and delight, Thanksgiving mostly went off quite nicely. The Turkey was DELICIOUS! Here is the recipe from the Food Network - I recommend it! Our 21 lb bird only took 2.5 hours to cook, which was way less than we thought it would. I do have pictures, but unfortunately they are all on my husbands Blackberry, so I'm waiting on J's parents to forward the pics to me when they get the chance.

Speaking of J's parents - what a god send they are! It was awesome to have them around for the week. I got to sleep in til 8:30am almost everyday! They also spent all day Sunday with Mikey, allowing us to finish moving out of Maricopa and the rest of the way into our new home in Gilbert. Even though we still have a lot of boxes left to unpack, at least they are all with us now. I can't even describe how wonderful it was to have J's mom taking care of things like cooking delicious turkey soup with the leftover bird. Other awesome things? Watching Mikey interact with Grandpa Mike. Those two have a crazy bond - I love it! They will be sorely missed at Christmas time this year!

And, oh yeah, Christmas is right around the corner. I'm bound and determined to make a big deal out of Christmas this year. I'm off to Target and maybe Big Lots on my lunch this afternoon to try and snag some cheap decorations for my office AND home. I've got a great idea for decorating the ledges in the kitchen and entryway (oh, you wouldn't know about those since I haven't posted pics).

Since I'm leaving you hi and dry in the picture department today, I leave you with my two favorite Christmas Songs:

Christmas of Love: Little Isidore and the Inquisitors

The Christmas Waltz: The Carpenters

Happy December!

The First Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T06:17:00.000-08:00

Holy Milestone! Kerith is cooking her first turkey, like, ever. Yeah, I know, I wouldn't eat it either! Oh, snap, I guess I kinda have to if I expect others to endure my cooking.

Fortunately, I've prepared myself by watching 30 hours a week of The Food Network each week for the last 4 years. Oh, and did I mention that I've watched the Rachael Ray 60 Minute Thanksgiving II at least 5 times in the last 3 days?

I am so ready to rock this. Besides, no one comes to dinner for the turkey anyway - it is all about the side dishes - which I SHOULD be able to pull off.

In other news, Mikey has been sick for the last week. Sniffles, snot and overall displeasure at life in general, oh my. He definitely picked up J's lack of ability to function under the duress of a cold! Plus, I've turned into EVIL MOM!! and keep attacking him with a booger sucker and insisting on changing him out of his frequently soiled diapers. Thanks mucous. Thanks. And, yes, I'm sorry your tushie hurts little dude, but if you'd just sit still long enough for me to dip you in desitin, you might feel better.

And to think, at this time last year I was waddling (thanks, Mikey) in sadness due to our recent presidential election, rubbing my tummy, fearing for my childs future, yet simultaneously wishing him to GET OUT OH GOD PLEASE BE DONE.

This year, I'm thankful for my family, that my in-laws are in town, that J and I might get to go see New Moon - maybe - assuming the in-laws are willing to babysit for us one night of our four day weekend. I'm thankful for Joe Lieberman. I'm thankful to be employed. I'm thankful for my sweet baby, even if he is cranky when he is sick. I'm thankful for The Food Network, and Mommy Bloggers, and Weight Loss Bloggers, and friends who Blog. I'm thankful for an amazing husband WHO DID NOT WAKE ME UP ON SUNDAY MORNING and instead let me sleep in ALL THE WAY UNTIL 9AM!

I've got a lot to be happy about. What are you thankful for this year?

The Good Stuff...

2009-11-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling so inspired lately - which really is a nice change for me. I think it is the change in scenery. Between the new house and the new neighborhood, things just seem to be clicking lately. Even though I have a lot on my mind, it all seems manageable, and I just have this wonderful sense of calmness, happiness, and warmth.

Maybe it has something to do with this little person?

We have so much fun together, and when J joins in on the fun, it is a laugh riot. Mikey loves to play "chase" and loves to rough house with his father. It is so amazing to watch the two of them play together.

So, we are mostly moved in. Mostly. Still have a bit of unpacking to do, and a few straggling boxes at the old place. There is some furniture that just isn't making the trip. We both need new computer desks as ours were on their last legs before the move. Definitely in need of a few new bookcases (liking the Billy at Ikea). But, overwhelmingly, looking to make the place home and make it ours, even if it is only for a year or two.

Halloween Magic...

2009-11-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

Mikey's first Halloween was sweet and simple. We visited a few houses for photo opportunities, and other than that we just snuggled Mikey all night in his adorable little costume.

You were the sweetest little cub ever...

Leaving My Foolishness Behind...

2009-11-04T07:16:00.001-08:00

Have you ever seen Clean House? Its been awhile since I've seen it, but the host of the show is forever discussing the subjects of that episodes "foolishness." Essentially, these men and women need to stop their utterly ridiculous behavior if they have any hope of ever having a clean house.

I want a clean house.

More than that, I want to leave ALL my foolishness behind. I promised myself that I WOULD leave it behind in Maricopa when we moved into our new home. Now, we are still amidst total chaos living halfway between two homes, but I could no longer continue on with the fast food and other ridiculous behavior. I know better, and I know that even after living in our old house for 3 years we still weren't unpacked and moved in. So - if I wait until we are actually moved in to our new home, I'll never turn over a new leaf. I'll never change. I'll never be better.

So, I just went ahead and decided to completely stop my foolishness this morning. This decision was made in part by the recent surgeries that two of my co-workers underwent in order to have their gallbladders removed after a life of eating fattening foods and living "typical" American lives. Yeah, I'm in my twenties, and they are in their forties, but I don't even want to get close to needing to have my gallbladder removed.

Perhaps you are wondering what exactly my crimes of foolishness are? No? Well, here they are anyway.

1) I don't clean... much. Occasionally I might vaccuum, but other than that, It takes weeks of pep talk and finally becoming disgusted with the filth to convince me to clean. Then, when the house is 1/2 clean, I get distracted and move on to other more exciting things, and leave the house be until it gets back to general dissaray.

2) I don't do chores... laundry, paperwork, walking the dogs, changing the litterbox, doing the dishes, paying the bills. Na, none of that. At least not regularly. I am totally the type of person to leave the dishes in the sink for several days, and the poor cats have gone as long as a week before without me changing out their box. Poor kitties.

3) I don't eat right. I don't exercise. I allow myself to put garbage in, and I don't counter balance it with hitting the treadmill. I'm on the fast track to becoming morbidly obese and obtaining a myriad of diseases.

4) I don't take care of my appearance. It is hard to get psyched about dressing up and makeup when nothing fits right and I don't feel good about myself. The end result is that I'm not the woman my husband married (appearance wise).

5) I don't do enough to cherish my family. Enough said.

So, there it is - my foolishness. I know I'm probably leaving things out, but these are the primary offenders. And since I had to start somewhere, I started at the grocery store this morning. I now have a drawer full of healthy breakfast, lunch and snack options to last the rest of the week at work. As soon as Josh and I nail down a budget, we can determine if we can afford to become members at the Gym I've been eyeballing. I've implemented a new method of "emptying my brain" on to paper so I can form a to-do list each day (I'll write more about that later). Lastly, I'm trying to clean a little bit each evening so I won't have quite as much to do this weekend, and I'm unpacking boxes all week (a bit each night) so, again, it won't be so overwhelming when we get the rest of our things this weekend. My goal is to be completely moved into the house, organized and clean by the time the in-laws arrive for Thanksgiving.

Moving In

2009-11-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone! Sorry to have been MIA for so long. J and I have been busy moving our little family into our new house in Gilbert. I can't wait to show everyone pictures! We are still unpacking, and getting organized, but expect a large update from me tomorrow!

Saturday Morning...

2009-10-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

J is back from his trip. It was a long week without him. Even though he was only gone for 3 days, I really felt empathy for all the "single" mom's out there who have to do it EVERY day on their own. Kudo's to you, ladies. We also found out lastnight that Josh's aunt passed away suddenly, and that combined with everything else has just worn us out. We were all set to move in to the new house on Sunday, but we went ahead and rescheduled it for next Sunday. In the meantime, I'll try to make an effort to enjoy our last few days in Maricopa, and continue organizing so our move into the new house is smooth.

Mikey will be 10 months old on Thursday! I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures!

Getting Crafty... Digital Scrapbooking

2009-10-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to give digital scrap-booking a try for some time now. I don't know why I put it off for so long, because once I finally just did it, it was so much fun! Plus, it was way easier than I thought it would be. Did I mention there was no glue or scissors involved? No picking up after myself, either. Perfect project for me! I used Shutterfly to create a photo book of cute pics of Mikey to send to his grand mother for her birthday. There was a great how-to post on digital scrap booking done over at Becoming Mom that really has me inspired to finally start digital scrap-booking on a regular basis. What saved me? Taking the time to carefully catalog all the pictures I have taken of Mikey as I've uploaded them during the last 10 months.

I really can't believe that Mikey is almost 10 months old! Only 9 days left! Where has the time gone?! So looking forward to spending my favorite part of the year with him (Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas). I've got some awesome projects planned for The White House (thank goodness for websites like Apartment Therapy for great ideas on decorating rentals), but while all that is going on, there is an awesome Halloween carnival in Gilbert on the 24th, an ASU homegame on the 31st (where better for Mikey to wear his adorable costume) and of course I'm looking forward to the rest of the fall/winter after the ridiculous hot summer we all just endured here in AZ.

The White House...

2009-10-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

J and I picked up the keys to the new place tonight. The home was NOT cleaned to our standards, yet, it was fine. We'll have to do a little cleaning ourselves, but we can handle that. I'm excited about our new temporary living space (we will likely only live here a year or two). I never decorated the home we owned, however, I feel inspired a million times more by the layout of this home and the wonderful nooks, crannies and built in shelf's around the great room and kitchen. As I mentioned before, the house is white - white everywhere - with the exception of gray carpet. The plan is to move into the White House next weekend. Who said "If you want god to laugh, tell him your plans..."?

New...

2009-10-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

Today is a day for new things! New home (we get the keys today), new utilities. In fact, ALL of our utilities will be different (Electric, City Utilities, Cable/Phone/Internet). It all gets turned on today, but we will likely not be living in the new house for over a week when the hypothetical movers that I'm planning on calling today will transport our things from one city to the next.

Other new things: Mikey is walking. Amazing.

I look forward to this next chapter in our lives.

The Weekend Ritual...

2009-10-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

Today has been peaceful, calm, serene. A perfect Sunday to end a somewhat stressful week. J and I have managed to get by the worst, and we are ready to begin again, starting over with the intimate knowledge of bankruptcy, foreclosure and all of the other worst possible things that anyone can experience financially. But, we are ok. We made it through, and we still have each other.

This week seems like a good week for soup. The cooler weather always makes me want to curl up with a good book, and of course fill up the house with the delicious scent of a home cooked meal. It isn't quite warm enough for pot roast, but we are getting close! In the mean time, I've got a potato and garlic soup planned out, as well as a leek and potato soup for this week.

I'm becoming more and more interested in vegetarian eating, but I'm worried what implications that would have for Mikey. I want to make sure he is getting everything he needs to grow up healthy and strong. Also, it doesn't help that J is very anti-vegetarian. For that reason alone, I am tempted to just continue on with my old habits. Cooking several different types of food for meat and non-meat eaters sounds like a lot of work!

Speaking of Mikey and his nutritional needs, J and I are worried that he isn't getting enough to eat. Now, of course looking at him you would think we were silly. He is easily in the 99th percentile for weight and height. My primary concern is that I'm not feeding him the right types of foods, and then again, I'm also concerned that I am not exposing him to enough variety.

I need to explore the internet and find out if there is a community especially designed for feeding children!

Big week ahead of us here in the Gaines household. We get the keys to the new place on Friday. I'll need to get the utilities and cable/internet turned on by Friday so we can start moving in right away. Did I mention that we haven't packed a single box? Yeah, probably should get on that, too. I'm sure I will take plenty of pictures to document all the excitement coming our way!

About 'Making Gaines'

2009-10-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

This blog is a gift. Imagine, if you will, that your mother, or grandmother, had started a scrapbook many years ago. Perhaps the day you were born, or the day she was married. And also imagine that this scrapbook chronicled the simple every day events, that when strung together over a lifetime, were truly magnificent. Wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to know the music your parents or grandparents were listening to, the foods they loved, to witness the seemingly mundane everyday events that you, or your parents or your grandparents experienced over the years? While the concept of blogging was one that I have always been enamored with, I have always struggled with a purpose in writing, until I realized that this blog wasn't for me. This blog is a gift to my children, and their children. A way to remember the good times, our struggles, milestones and accomplishments. This is my gift to you...

Enjoy!

If I Had A Million Dollars...

2009-10-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

I think I could spend it all at Old Navy today.

And after I was done making that purchase, I would have roughly 999,800.00 left to spend. Perhaps I should have picked a more expensive store than Old Navy. Seriously, though - it is all so awesome!

So I go on stuck here in the backseat

2009-10-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

I don't need to know where we're traveling
I don't need to know if we'll make it there
I just need to love you while I can.
-The Noises 10

Today felt like a brand new start to me. A day to start being a better mom, a better wife. A better everything, really. I think these feelings are being inspired by the change in season here in AZ (finally!). I love the fall. It is the first relief we have from the waves of Arizona heat. Its mostly been in the 80's here... and I can't wait for it to drop into the 70's so I can finally pull out my sweaters!

To bring you up to date, J and I put a security deposit down on a rental home in Gilbert. We are so excited to get out of Maricopa, and back closer to civilization. The home has a nice sized kitchen w/ an island (hooray for counter space!). A few other things I'm excited about are the soaking tub in the master bathroom, the full length covered patio (with misters) in the backyard, and the enclosed garden in the backyard. Fortunately, the landlord is completely fine with animals - no pet deposit or pet rent required. Oh, and J? J is just happy to be back w/in the area that Cox Cable covers so he has reliable internet, lol. The house is in an awesome neighborhood, and there is a park 50 yards across the street. Awesome awesome awesome. Besides all that, there are a few more "conveniences" that this house offers that our current dwelling does not. First, you can walk into the kitchen from the garage (ie, you don't have to carry your groceries across the house) and there is an actual laundry ROOM! No more laundry closet for me, thank you very much.

One challenge - the house is completely stark white. Very neutral. White walls, gray carpet, light colored cabinetry. I'm sure the landlord would be fine with us painting a wall or two to liven the place up, but it might be a fun challenge to decorate the place without resorting to painting.

My plans for the rest of today are to finish devouring "Love Soup," and to cook up a pot of delicious soup for dinner this evening. I'll take pictures and report back on my success.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Reality Check...

2009-10-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen yourself one way, but in reality you ACTUALLY look completely worse than you figured. For example... I know I need to lose weight. I know my clothes don't fit. I know I'm miserable, out of shape, out of breath and tired. I know I have a terrible diet. But, for some reason it just didn't look so bad in the mirror. /shrug. And then, a cruel and unusual camera that was merely attempting to snap a pic of my sweet baby, managed to capture my fat ass on camera at the same time. Lets just say it was just the dose of reality I needed!

Doh! Especially since a mere 2 years earlier (pre-baby... pre-pregnancy even) I was looking quite alright:

But, I am armed with a google reader list full of great blogs relating to weightloss, healthy eating and exercise, a couple of workout DVD's, some awesome new cookbooks:

and photographic evidence that I truly am a fat ass.

On Kindness...

2009-09-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

The subject of weight loss has been a hot topic in my office recently. I think all of us (or most of us) want to lose some weight. But, what I'm quickly realizing is that most of the people in my office are just into TALKING about weight loss. When I suggested a team contest over the next 90 days to see who could lose the most weight, I was laughed at. "Silly Kerith... don't you know what is coming our way in the next 90 days? Halloween Candy? Turkey, Stuffing and Potatoes? Christmas Cookies and Holiday Ham? Of course I can't lose weight in the next 90 days... in fact, I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to be gaining weight."

Yeah, pretty much everyone said just about that. They told me to come sign them up for a competition on January 1st, the time when it is NORMAL to be miserable and lose weight.

I tried to convince them - I tried to tell them that we didn't have to be miserable. I tried to tell them that we didn't have to suffer. Alas, no one wanted to hear anything more about it. So, it appears that I'm embarking on this 90 day *discovery* all alone. I have named it a discovery because it won't be a diet, per se. I'm more interested in exploring new, healthier ways of living. I want to know exactly why blueberries are so magical - and I want to overcome my fear of all things carbohydrate (or at least not feel guilty for eating Quinoa). I want to learn more about how my body reacts to certain foods. I want to start treating my body with a little respect after years of abuse with fad diets, under eating, over eating, junk inhaling and other terrible acts of war I waged against myself. Perhaps instead of hitting the treadmill and lifting weights, I'll hit the yoga mat, learn to belly dance and swim for my cardio. There is also the matter of giving my work space a more calming atmosphere, especially that I spend over 40 hours a week there - I believe bringing peace to my cubicle will go a long way to making me a more relaxed person in general.

Finally, I will attempt to delve into the spirituality aspect of all of this a bit more. My spirituality is something that I have long struggled with, but I don't think it is doing myself any good to just push it aside and ignore it.

I think one of the most important lessons you can teach your children is kindness. I like to think that I'm generally a kind person. Somewhere along the way I missed the lesson on being kind to myself. I'll try hard to impart this message to my children as they grow up.

I'm excited to share all that I learn in the next several months with all of you.

I leave you now with a song that is kind on the ears (as opposed to my normal metal tendancies):

~*~ Now We Are Free - Lisa Gerrard ~*~

9 Months Old...

2009-09-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

Mikey, my favoritest baby... today you turned 9 months old! I can barely stand the thought of how quickly time has passed, and how much you have grown even in the last month. You are standing on your own, and even taking a step or 2 as long as the video camera isn't anywhere in sight. You crawl fast as lightening - and Daddy and I have so much fun getting down on all fours to chase after you. As we chant "I'm gonna GET YOU!" over and over, you squeal in delight and sometimes forget to crawl away from us, and instead end up charging straight in our direction. Most recently, you have discovered the joy of clapping. You clap excitedly in the early morning while I change your diaper - and you clap when anyone tells you how adorable you are. You are more than happy to crawl around on your own, getting up to no good - trying to figure out how to open cabinet doors and pulling pans out of the drawer under the oven.

You've officially sworn off pureed foods --- none of that squishy stuff you, thank you very much. Oh, and could you please just let me feed myself - I'm perfectly capable. What exactly are you eating? Yes, I'd like some of that, too.

Today, when I asked you to say Mama (over and over again) you'd laugh and say "Dada... Da Da..." VERY FUNNY MISTER! Then, I sang "Return to Pooh Corner" to you, and you fell asleep in my arms. What a perfect end to another perfect evening with you.

I love you so much, Mikey.

If I could buy it all today...

2009-05-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

These are most of the things I would purchase to decorate my home:

Paint Color: Tree Branch (Sherwin Williams)

The perfect shelf/case for pictures and knick knacks from Ikea:

the matching shorter, wider shelf, also from Ikea:

Perfect couch from Ashley Furniture:

Rug for the living room from Kohls:

This decal behind the couch (from Etsy)

Those would be the main things :) Based on this, what the heck is my style called?

Wishing...

2009-05-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

More Internet Window Shopping...

Diaper Dude @ Amazon

Constellation Turtle for Mikey's Nursery @ Amazon

that will make his room look like this at night:

Wall Decal's for the Babies Bathroom @ Etsy

Lets do lunch, at the beach, with Dr. Weil...

2009-05-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

I am such a nut job. Mr. Right is only slightly irritated that I can't seem to make up my mind about which diet is the right one for me. For the last few days I've done no diet at all. Back to eating whatever. At the moment I'm torn between South Beach and this new thing called "Lets Do Lunch." Both diets are similar, but while South Beach allows grains and fruit in moderation, LDL allows unlimited amounts of fruit but no grain. On the flip side, LDL also allows unlimited beans, corn and they push eating your largest meal of the day at lunch. Click here to watch a short fox news documentary on the diet.

Then of course I'm always interested in overall health, and my man Dr. Andrew Weil is a super genius when it comes to improving your life through natural remedies.

I ordered both the South Beach diet book AND the Lets do Lunch book. Neither one will be here until after May 19th and I'm not willing to wait that long to start on a plan. So, for simplicities sake, I'm 99.9% sure I'm going to do "Lets do Lunch." Have you ever even heard of it? I hadn't either until Monday, and now I've pretty much convinced myself this is the way most humans should be eating everyday anyway. I just want to set a good example for my children!

And, speaking of Children, Mikey had his 4 month checkup today (he was a little late, actually being 4 months and 15 days old). Little man is checking in at 19 pounds and 28 inches! I almost fell out of my seat, lol. The doc said that even though he is pretty much off the charts, it is ok because he is proportionally off the charts, and that he will likely slow down over the next few months. Plus, he has been teething, and the doctor felt around and seems to think the bottom chompers will be popping out within the next month. She only gave me a little crap about starting him on Solids at 3.5 months, saying that since he could support his head and eat off the spoon, it was really fine. /Phew.

I've got those ten little tip-tap-tapping toes...

2009-05-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

The look of pure rapture on Mikey's face upon his most recent discovery had me doubled over in laughter. Oh, cute! He can't get enough of those feet of his. They are his constant companions, always there to keep him company. Most recently, he has taken to holding his feet straight up in the air while I'm feeding him. Sort of feels like I'm playing football, lol.

From Mikey Finds His Feet 5.12.09

After searching in 3 separate stores in Maricopa and finally finding them at Fry's Marketplace, I purchased the Huggies Overnight Diapers in size 4. They don't seem that much more absorbent, but I have high hopes. I can't imagine he feels too comfy swimming in all that liquid, so hopefully this will help keep things dry.

Mikey has his 4 month checkup tomorrow. Not looking forward to the vaccinations, but at least this time I'll be prepared with Tylenol!

Overnight Diapers...

2009-05-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

Is there such a thing as overnight diapers? Super Absorbent? I've become desperate! You see, my little Mikey sleeps so well on his tummy, but all his pee is concentrated at the front of his diaper, and since he sleeps 10-12 hours a night, his Huggies are getting drenched and the urine is seeping through his diaper, onto his PJ's and his sheets! I'm tired of washing sheets every night, lol.

Ok, I just googled it. Duh. How come I didn't know about these? Any recommendations on brands before I go out and buy them?

I've also been on the lookout for a new diaper bag. It seems as though everyone is always looking for a smaller bag, but I really do want something bigger. It isn't like I carry the thing for very long, and I like to carry along everything I might possibly need for about a week or so, lol. It appears that I may end up purchasing just a regular old tote or perhaps even a backpack. I'll spiff it up with patches and stickers to make it super cool for Mikey!

Also, loving this for the Jeep. I don't have a "net" to prevent groceries from rolling all over the place, and it appears that Lands End has thought of everything!

What I Know...

2009-05-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

TheRightWife is in serious self improvement mode. Except, this time, I'm dragging everything and everyone around down with me. Or, should I say elevating everything and everyone? I'm trying so hard. I'm contemplating nurturing my spirituality by finding a church and opening a bible for the first time in over 20 years. I'm thinking about ways to make this house a home for my cherished family.

My heart is heavy with worry yet I have these occasional bouts of energy, motivation and inspiration gleaned from co-workers, other bloggers and memories of my grand mother. Right now its all about overcoming the "lazy" monster. Some peeps have the problem of never slowing down - not allowing themselves to relax. I suffer from the opposite. I think I haven't really done a thorough job cleaning since I went back to work after maternity leave, ha!

So, today, I did a lot of thinking. Thinking about how I want to bring religion into my and my families life, how I want to transform my house into a cozy, clean home and the steps my family needs to take to secure our future financially.

Fortunately, my motives have changed. Before, I wanted to address all these issues so I could compete with neighbors, friends and unknown folks on the interweb. Keeping up with the Joneses, I believe, is the term. Now my purposes revolve entirely around serving my family. My hope is that my ability to take action this time around will be successful because my heart is in the right place...

Mother's Day...

2009-05-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

At some point during my pregnancy, I realized that this year I would be a cause worth celebrating according to halmark. Of course, Mikey is too little to celebrate my greatness and my Husband's debit card is cracked into two pieces and seeing as I now control the cash flow (just call me the ATM) my Husband can't easily celebrate my greatness, either.

But - that doesn't mean that I can't celebrate my greatness, lol.

I kind of want this TV Bench:

Ikea is selling it for the low low price of $179.00! I can even order it online. The TV stand we have now just won't do --- it is so rickety, the second the baby starts pulling himself up on whatever, the TV will come toppling down on him (so I suppose that sort of makes this a necessity actually).

Finally, please try not to be annoyed by my page at the moment. I was trying to code in an additional side bar, and for some reason it ended up on the right side instead of left of the main wrapper (Although, I might just keep it that way...)

Have a wonderful Mother's day this weekend, all!

Dreaming...

2009-05-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

When it comes to baby raising, we definitely break some rules. For instance, when it comes to naptime, we have discovered that Mikey likes nothing more than to snuggle in our bed to enjoy his Ba, all while sinking into 6 inches of featherbed mattress on top of pillowtop mattress cuddled up to our down comforter. He will easily take a 2 hour nap 3 times a day in our bed if we allow it. We do. How could we not? The crib is perfect for sleeping at night (another rule we break - allowing him to sleep on his tummy --- I can't help it, the little guy saws logs for 12 hours on his tummy). Anyway, I snapped this picture of him during his evening nap yesterday:

*sigh*

Sometimes I just watch him while he dreams. I think his dreams must focus a lot on eating - he often makes chewing motions with his mouth while sleeping :)

Tonight I'm Tangled In My Blanket of Clouds, Dreaming Aloud

2009-05-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

After further research, I've become quite excited about the South Beach Diet (SBD). For the first two weeks (Phase 1) I am allowed lean protein, all vegetables (with the exception of starchier veggies like Peas and Corn), vegetable juice, eggs, legumes (hooray for black, black eyed, pinto and refried beans!) and certain dairy products (1% milk, plain low fat yogurt, low fat cheese) and nuts & seeds. Phase 1 is supposed to last 2 weeks, but I can imagine being content on it for longer than two weeks. Phase 2 allows for the addition of fruit and whole grains such as brown rice, whole wheat pasta and grainy bread. It isn't open season by any means. The plan directs you to add specific amounts at specific meals.

Another exciting concept? Snacking! SBD calls for snacking between meals.

Other things that I'm excited about that are sort of lame? The Sims 3, which comes out June 2nd, and Wal Mart in Maricopa, opening in 13 days!

Going to the Beach...

2009-05-05T16:25:00.000-07:00

I've been on the low carb bandwagon as of late. The Atkins Diet, specifically. At a birthday party this last weekend, a friends little sister shared some information with my husband and I about The South Beach Diet. While I've always known about the diet, for some silly reason I've always tended to look down on South Beachers as unable to comitt to the almighty hard core low carb Atkins. They were wuses. They wouldn't really lose weight, would they? How could they! Carbs! Arghhh!

Fast forward to Sunday, and my interest was growing. I started searching for forums, faq's, any basic information I could glean about the diet from the web. From what I can gather, it reminds me a lot of the way my grandmother ate. Mr. Right adored her spreads of fruit, vegetables and nuts with a small platter of bread, meat and cheese for sandwiches. It was satisfying - not too filling - and always refreshing. I think that is mostly what is drawing me to the diet at this point. But, for once in my life, I'd like to start out on the right foot instead of rushing in head first with half the information. With that in mind, I used a Border's Gift Card to purchase South Beach Diet SuperCharged along with 3 other books.

SBD (south beach diet) Supercharged is the latest version of the book about the diet. I'm not entirely aware of what changes were made, but I imagine that the author will spend a good deal of time addressing all the new lower carb products available now. I'm looking forward to reading it cover to cover before making my first shopping trip. I think Mr. Right may be jumping on the SBD wagon with me, as well.

Besides the diet book, I also purchased Real Solutions for Busy Moms and Powerful Inspirations: Eight Lessons that Will Change Your life by Kathy Ireland. After watching Kathy Ireland on the Huckabee show, I have found a new role model. I'm not sure how practical this is, and I suppose I will let you know after I have read her books! (I'm trying to be realistic about the fact that Kathy is a former super model and millionaire!)

Finally, I purchased "Today's Mom: Essentials for Surviving Baby's First Year". I'm hoping this book isn't filled with liberal drivel such as "Make your Husband do everything in the name of Feminism!" I'm looking for practical and applicable information that I can implement in my life to be a better wife and mother. Really, at the end of the day, that is what it is all about for me. I'm pretty happy with my life, and feel quite lucky most days, but I know that I can be doing a better job. I love my little family, and I want to take care of them to the best of my ability.

All these books should be arriving in the next several days - I look forward to sharing what I learn with you all!

Leaving the Nest...

2009-05-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, our children grow older and move away from home. Some, such as my husband and I, don't wander too far away. Others strive to get as far away from home as possible.

After transferring to AZ in the early 90's for work, Mr. Right's parents (my in-laws) are finally moving back home to South Carolina. It feels weird to say they are moving back home --- they have lived in Arizona for at least 15 years. Every minute that I have known them, they have lived in the same house, just an hour up the road. Anyway, they have found a house they want to move into, and in just a few short weeks they will be putting their home on the market.

As far as Mr. Right and I? Well, we aren't going anywhere. Even if we wanted to go, it wouldn't be possible with the economy and the job market. And, if we could just pick up and leave, I'm pretty sure at this point that we don't want to. So, they will go, and we will not. I have to admit, I started entertaining visions of "Everyone Loves Raymond" and having them move in across the street from us. Mr. Right and I want a big family - at least 4 children if possible (5 if I have my way). Wouldn't it be fun to live extremely close to the grand parents and have them involved in our lives on an almost daily basis? Am I out of my mind? My best friend Valerie lives just 2 blocks over from her parents, and they all seem as happy as can be!

I don't think the reality of this has set in for Mr. Right. At the moment, we usually see his parents a few times a month. Now that we've got the grand baby, I'm sure they would love to see us every week, if not every day. We are going to go from seeing them a few times a month to only a few times a year.

What it all comes down to is that they've got to do what is right for them. Yeah, it might suck for us, but I guess we've just got to step back and let them fly back south for the winter.

Mikey cries IRL.

The Right Diet...

2009-05-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

I was all about setting up a separate blog to track my weight loss. I even created the blog. But, true to form, I was unable to commit to more than one blog. Besides, it is selfish to expect my readers to venture over to another blog. Blog reading can be time consuming, and I might as well just post ALL the various pieces of my life in one easy to find place :)

Anyway, I'm back to my old friend, Dr. Atkins. Like trying on a pair of broken in comfy sneakers. I know the in's & out's of the diet. I'm not hungry. Plus, there are so many low carb products out there now that it makes it even easier! I find myself watching cooking shows and converting them to low carb recipes in my head. For example, this morning I was watching a new show on the Food Network called 5 Ingredient Fix. This was the menu:

Rosemary Pork Tenderloin

Cheesy Penne

Dreamfields makes a low carb penne pasta that I would use instead of regular penne. Other than that, both recipes are fairly low in carbs! I'll probably try making this for dinner tomorrow and will post pictures!

Did I mention - I'm down 6 pounds in 10 days! Only 4 more days left of Induction, then the fun starts!

I'll disguise this whining with melody, and I hope that it leaves you intrigued

2009-04-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

Routine. If I think about it, I suppose I've always had one. My days have always been guided by the hours I worked, the time I spent in class, and the countless minutes spent in front of a TV or Computer Monitor. Nowadays, my routine revolves completely around another human being (well, 2 human beings really). Most days of the week begin at 5am. I spend minimal time preparing myself for the day, and the majority of the hour in the morning attending to Mikey (packing his diaper bag & feeding him). If I have time, I hardboil 3 eggs and pack a lunch for myself for the day. Then I run out the door as close to 6am as humanly possible in order to get work by 7am (oh, of course every morning I have to stop at Quiktrip to get 1 liter of my beloved Diet Dew). Work. Work Work Work. A blessing and a curse. I get to do attend to my needs for a whole 8 hours. I can go to the bathroom without worrying if the baby might need something. I can feed myself without worrying about if everyone else in my home is fed. So, yes, there is freedom in work, but for the most part I ache to be taking care of my child and "homemaking."

Fast forward to 3:30 (or sometimes slow forward, the afternoons sure can drag) and it is another mad dash! I pick up Mikey from the sitters, and head home, usually arriving about 4:30. Then it is: Feed The Baby, Put the Baby down for a nap, wash baby bottles, cook dinner, feed husband, get baby up, feed baby, bathe baby, put baby down for the night, collapse.

Ok, I don't always collapse. Sometimes I make it into the computer room and fiddle around with the old blog :) Then it is off to bed to rinse and repeat!

What I'm looking for is time. Some time to insert a few activities into my routine. I'd like to take a 2 mile walk each evening with the baby. I'd also like to find more time to stimulate the mind of my child. After looking at my schedule, it seems like the best way to do this is going to be to have all our meals prepared at the beginning of the week so I don't have to do any actual cooking during the week. Mr. Right offerred to be on bottle washing duty, but I haven't really relinquished the task yet which is my fault.

Or, maybe I can use that machine from the James Bond Movie that allowed the inventor to skip sleep. Think of all that I could accomplish if I didn't have to catch any Z's! If that machine hasn't really been invented yet, I could always try to convince a vampire to turn me... they don't need sleep, either. Stupid REM. In the mean time, I'm relying on Mountain Dew to supplement my sleep. 1 Liter a day keeps the keyboard imprints off my forehead.

I can appreciate that the dogs are trying to help take some chores off my hands. Why, just last night Guinness and Sammy cleaned out the litter box for me since we forgot to put the baby gate up that blocked them from the guest bathroom. Thanks, guys, I can always count on you to contribute to the family!

New Banner!!!

2009-04-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love my new banner, custom made by Brooke. Check her out! Get your very own customized banner!!

God?

2009-04-26T21:56:00.000-07:00

I was quite the god fearing 5 year old. I had started attending church with my neighbors (the Olsens) at my request since my family did not attend church. When I told my mother that she was going to hell for not going to church, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

She began taking me along with my brothers and sister to a Unitarian Church every Sunday. In bible study we learned about all the religions of the world in addition to stories from the bible. There were Pagans and Wiccans that also attended the church, and overall I was fairly happy in this environment. My mother eventually fully embraced Wicca and out of curiosity I started reading more about it. I tried the whole "Witch" thing on for size and out of lack of resources or pure laziness, it never went anywhere.

From that point on, I've considered myself to be agnostic. I just didn't really care to take the time or make the investment into embracing my spirituality. As I became more politically minded and opinionated, I started to feel some conflict. I am extremely pro-life, and not for biblical reasons, but for constitutional reasons. The Declaration of Independence declared "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." There. Right there. A baby doesn't look like a full grown adult, or a teenager, and similarly, a human life in its first days and weeks in the womb may not look like a full grown adult either, but the end result is still the same. I believe that from the moment of conception that the unborn human has the right to life.

So I focus on what the rights are, but there is more than one part of that sentence. I was merely glossing over that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.

Lately I've felt a tugging on my heart. I'm not sure if it is motherhood that is causing this, or lack of sleep. I once joked with a friend that if God ever made it plainly clear that he was "real" I would happily follow him wherever he led. Is this strange tugging actually him trying to reach out to me? And if it is, how do I know who has it right? Is it god, or Zeus... one of the pagan gods... or Allah? Do the Mormon's have it right, or the Catholics? My husband was baptized in the Methodist Church... is that the right way to go?

...

Taking the A-Line...

2009-04-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

The only thing worse than window shopping is internet window shopping...

I want this haircut & color.

I want blogger to put the pictures where I tell it to. Damn you, blogger.

I think my feet really need these. Really really.

And just in case it ever gets cold enough, I have always wanted a Pea Coat:

or this one:

And of course I'll need to protect my eyes from the sun:

Can't lose track of the time:

Ok, that is enough internet window shopping for one night :)

Twilight Trailer...

2009-04-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap - I nearly peed my pants...

This is hilarious!

Because Volunteering is Good For the Human Spirit...

2009-04-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something.
-Henry David Thoreau, poet, writer, philosopher

Last week, my company announced an across the board salary freeze for an unspecified amount of time. During the small team meeting we had where my manager broke the news, the feeling in the room was almost one of humor and relief. We all agreed that a salary freeze was better than a salary reduction (like many of my friends have experienced recently). We talked about possible layoffs in the future. A co-worker of mine asked if they would be accepting volunteers for layoffs. My manager indicated that yes, they would certainly entertain that.

On Friday, during our team meeting (if you can, read between the lines) my manager talked about how our whole portfolio is shrinking, and how every account manager has FAR fewer accounts than we did a year ago. He happened to have the list of the amount of accounts and size of our portfolio in dollars on hand. Wouldn't you know it, I have the smallest number of accounts and the smallest portfolio in millions.

Husband and I have been mulling over this possibility for weeks... months really. Could we make it without my income? On Thursday night, I finally proved it to him by putting it all in a spreadsheet. With my lump severance pay, we would be able to pay off ALL the credit card debt. Of course we would have to contend with my student loan payment still, but with the new IBR program the payment on my student loans will be greatly reduced! But, I figured that all said and done after all our bills are paid, we will have $1,000.00 per month for living expenses such as groceries, toiletries and other items that are needed as they come up (clothes for the baby, for example). Oh, and in case you are wondering, we will also be able to keep our house - we wouldn't have to walk away or anything like that.

With that in mind, we took the plunge! Well, I took the plunge. And actually, I haven't plunged anywhere just yet. I merely notified my boss that I was preemptively raising my hand. I volunteered to be first in line to get laid off.

I thought I might pee my pants as I typed out the words, and almost didn't hit send a 1000 times. But, then I thought about how I'm paying another woman to spend all day with my son. I thought about how sad it makes me that he loves her so much after spending the day with her (and yes, I realize this is infinitely better than him crying and hating every minute he spends with her). I panic thinking that he might crawl, or walk, or utter his very first word to her. I realized that although it didn't start out as my dream, being a stay at home mom has turned into a dream for me. I want to watch my sweet baby evolve into an adorable toddler, a lovable child. I want to teach him about the alphabet, and the consitution, and music and math. I want those crazy weirdo homeschooled children to be MY children!

So, anyway - this all means precisely nothing. If my company isn't doing any more layoffs, then me volunteering for a non-existant reality is not getting me anywhere. On the other hand, it might be months and months before the company does downsize again. I've heard of crazier things though. A friends Uncle offered to voluntarily be laid off, and he had his package within 1/2 an hour. Perhaps my boss will take my offer to HR and I might find myself a stay at home mom as early as next week! Either way, I will keep you informed...

-----------------------------------

On to my exciting weekend! Rather, my not exciting weekend! I haven't had such a fantastic weekend in months! Husband and I poked around the house, didn't see anyone or do anything all day Saturday. Then, on Sunday, we ran ALL OVER THE UNIVERSE running errands and buying ludicrous quanties of baby stuff. Please see pictures as evidence:

And my sweet chub-a-lub is 16 weeks old!

Oh my! I can't believe it. I'm almost done counting weeks, lol (it is getting difficult to figure out how many weeks old he is, ha ha). We celebrated by eating apple sauce in our brand new high chair.

And then passing out. *sigh* he is adorable.

And, as promised, her is my little sister Mariel and her sweet baby girl, Alex:

Have a wonderful week everyone!

The Arizona Tea Party of 2009...

2009-04-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

April 15th, 2009 is one of those days that will not soon be forgotten. I wish I could have been there - stupid work. Remind me to hurry up and be a stay at home mom :)

Here is some footage from the AZ Tea Party:

I sincerely hope that this isn't the end of the movement. Our country is headed in a terrible direction. So many are ready and eager to give up their freedom, their liberty, in the name of a hand out! The worst part? The goverment is trying to bribe us with OUR OWN FRICKIN' MONEY! *sigh*

Real Solutions...

2009-04-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

I saw Kathy Ireland on the Huckabee show a few nights ago. I'm SO hooked! I had no idea how completely awesome this woman is. A woman of faith, dedicated to her family and committed to her marriage. She singlehandedly gave THE BEST argument against abortion that I have ever heard. A frickin' former super model nailed it. I just went on a search for a youtube clip from the show, but I cant find one. If I do, I will post it here.

Anyway, Ms. Ireland was on Huckabee promoting her new book Real Solutions for Busy Moms

I would also like to get my hands on Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin

A reviewer at Amazon had this to say about the book: "Mark R. Levin logically lays out what has made the United States of America different from all other nations in the history of humanity. He re-introduces us to the founders and framers, and those people who inspired them long ago. At its most basic elements, our country was founded on the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...and that we have these rights conferred on us, not by man or government, but by Natural Law, which originates with the Creator. Mr. Levin puts us back in touch with our founding doctrines, which are the at the very heart of what conservatism is and has always been. "

Finally, my little sister gave birth to her sweet little girl on Easter Morning! Everyone is healthy and content. I will make sure to post pictures soon!

Turning Dreams into Reality...

2009-04-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

Mr. Right and I had an interesting conversation yesterday. A conversation that we have kinda sorta had every once in awhile over the last few years.

Out of the blue, Husband will ask "Why don't you make websites for a living?"

Way back when (around 1995, at the ripe old age of 12) I made my very first website. I signed up on Angelfire (hey - it was free) and researched the bare bones of HTML. I had no purpose... I just LOVED the internet. My father had purchased our second computer (a Hewlett Packard Pavillion) and the whole house was swept up in madness. I, forever designing and redesigning sweet little websites at geocities and tripod, and reading source code of everyone elses websites to try and understand how they made theirs look so good. Its really silly, but my favorite website was called Tina.net, and it seemed like the coolest place every for a tween to be. As it turns out, it was a website sponsored by Tampax, lol. Go figure.

Anyway, in one way or another, I've had a website for a very long time. While Josh and I were still dating, but not yet married, I PURCHASED my very first domain and hosting package through siteflip. Josh-Kerith.com. I used it for hosting pictures and music and also began exploring all the various blogging programs (wordpress, typepad) as well as Content Management Systems (CMS) like PHPNuke, Joomla, etc. After awhile I decided to move in a new direction and registered rightwife.com. I wanted to maintain a website or blog about me, my family, and politics. Some where along the line life got the best of me, and I opted to just use a free service (Blogger) and forgot all about rightwife.com.

I forgot about it, that is, until Mr. Right brought it up. "Why don't you design websites for a living?"

I had no answer for him. Why don't I? Why didn't I? Why did I waste 4 years of my life getting a degree that was not pertinent to my passions in life. Why did I then pursue a Masters Degree? All I have now (career wise) is a pretty typical office job with no chance of promotion since not only is my company not really hiring, but trimming back.

I've always been a digi-junkie. I love digital photography, making websites, blogging and reading others blogs. So, Husband's question really hit home with me. Why not? I asked what he thought I might need to do in order to get the ball rolling? He suggested UAT (University of Advanced Technology) and a couple of people I could talk to that work in the field. So, as it turns out, UAT offers a four year program (a bachelors degree) in Web and Social Media Technology. Duh. Where the heck was this place in 2001?

Anyway - the wheels in my brain have started turning. I don't know if I have the heart to go back to school. Yet, at the same time, I have a feeling that I would love every minute of the subject matter at hand. I was stressed out trying to balance work and school and my husband before - and how on earth will I be able to balance all of that PLUS my sweet baby? Part of me wishes I could just read up on everything, learn it all on my own and go into business for myself that way. Do I really need a degree to have a career in web design and development?

I'm also worried that the field might already be too saturated with these folks. Is the pool really deep enough for another web design fish?

Husband told me to request information, go speak with advisors, and once I had the information then we could make a decision together.

What do you all think?

Dig me up from what is covering the better part of me...

2009-04-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

So far, so good. This week has been awesome! I've loved spending every morning, day and night with my sweet pea, and knocking stuff off the "to do" list has helped rid me of some lingering anxiety. All in all, so far, no regrets about using vacation time to get my $hit in order. I've gotten a bit behind schedule, so tomorrow is going to be a super busy day! I'm going to try and finish ALL the cleaning and the garage. My ambitions completely rest on how happy Mikey is to frolick about in his Baby Bjorn while I dust and vacuum.

You all know how I've been bitching incessantly about "whaa... no couches... poor me... I hate my living room... whaa." Well, anyway, I finally put the wheels in motion to get my Grandmother's couches. They have been in storage with my little brother's ex-wife (just collecting dust). We wanted leather, but honestly, since Pledge invented the greatest thing ever, I'm totally down for cloth couches. Plus, my dearest June June had fantastic taste, so the couches are pretty cool. Definitely not "old lady" couches. Anyway, I've mostly talked my little brother into transporting them from Storage to my place - hopefully next weekend! Remind me to get on top of the whole rug and wall decorations thing.

Tonight we are trying some new stuff for the baby. I bought rice cereal w/ banana something or another flavory stuff. I also purchased some new spoons at the recommendation of Ariana @ Becoming Mom.

Mikey will be 4 months old on April 20th - at which point I'm allowed to begin stuffing him full of all sorts of delicious "Step 2" Foods. Of course, I can only stuff them in him 1 at a time, each week, so I can make sure he doesn't have any crazy food allergies. I've been going back and forth on what food to start with. I was thinking of peas, or maybe green beans... but boo! The orange foods seem much more exciting... so maybe Carrots or Sweet Potatoes? I've been told by friends not to introduce him to fruit first, because then he won't want the not as sweet veggies. I guess that should tell me that I ought to start him on the not so sweet veggies, too. Gerber "Step 2" tubs of baby food are on sale right now for 87 cents per 2 tub pack. Is that even a good deal? I might need to run back into Target tomorrow and stock up on the food he can eat in 2 short weeks! Hooray for milestones!

You're Awful, I love you!

2009-04-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

My "to do" list, updated:

~~Oil Change~~
~~Purchase Zune Compatible Deck & Have it installed in the Jeep~~
Get my last name changed on our Bank Account - Tuesday
Car Wash - Tuesday
Scrubbing, Dusting, Vacuuming the WHOLE house - Tuesday
Finishing Mikey's Room - Tuesday
Organizing the Laundry Closet - Tuesday
Organizing the Linen Closet
Organizing the Garage
Shredding a Mount Everest sized pile of old bills and paperwork
Grooming and bathing the doggies

So, the list got a little bit longer, but I did get some things done today :) Poor Mikey - by the end of the day he was tuckered out!

And because my brain isn't fully functioning - here are some loves and hates:

Love:
Mikey's happy smiling babbling baby self
Watching Mr. Right with the baby
Listening to Astrud Gilberto while sipping on an ice cold Pacifico
Giada on the Food Network
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Photographing my precious Mikey
Taking Mikey on a stroll around the block

Hates:
My Bare Walls
My Couchless Living Room
The entitlement attitude plaguing the United States at this moment

Dying and trying just to find some sort of piece of mind...

2009-04-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

Guess what time it is?! Spring cleaning time!!! Uh, who would even be excited by that? Me! Because I have the whole next week off, and a mile long list of projects that have been waiting and waiting and waiting to be accomplished. In case you are interested, my overly ambitious "to do" list includes the following:

Oil Change
Car Wash
Scrubbing, Dusting, Vacuuming the WHOLE house
Finishing Mikey's Room
Organizing the Laundry Closet
Organizing the Linen Closet
Organizing the Garage
Shredding a Mount Everest sized pile of old bills and paperwork
Grooming and bathing the doggies

I also want to start the process of literally running my ass off. I've been trying to unearth some magical free hour between Mikey's naps and feeding and work and chores, and I've realized that I don't have to do any such thing! No no, my friends, they have invented the solution to all my problems. Meet my new best friend, the jogging stroller.

Now, I just have to save up the $$ to buy this :)

Alright - time to clean. Maybe I'll take some before and after pictures to do some further testing on my camera!

I will leave you with my #1 most favorite song at the moment:

Mr. Right...

2009-04-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

Even though I'm pretty sure he doesn't read my blog anymore, I had to dedicate a post to the awesomeness that is my husband.

I came home today to a clean kitchen, all the baby bottles washed, and a request for pizza for dinner!

All of that left me time to go on a stroll with the baby and take some pictures around the house.

Thanks baby! <3

The Picture of Health...

2009-03-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of my New Years Resolution (being a good role model to my children) I have recently started thinking a lot about what it means to be healthy, exactly. The only thing I know for certain is that I most certainly am NOT healthy. However - in my pursuit of various weightloss plans over the years, I've completely lost all grip on the reality of what it actually means to be healthy.

For starters - I know organic fruits, vegetables and meats are ideal. But this whole organic thing makes me suspicous. Just because something is marked as organic, does that mean it really is? How do I know some innovative farmer isn't just stamping his regular ol' produce with little "organic" stickers? And how far do I need to carry this whole organic thing? Organic sheets... pillows... paint... carpet?

Of course, besides the obvious fruits, vegetables and meat, what other healthy super foods should I be bringing into the house? I've read posts now over at Becoming Mom and Girl Gone Child about this crazy grain called Quinoa (Keen-wa). Supposedly all chock full of fiber and even good for making baby cereal. It is only by chance that I learned of this miracle grain. What else am I missing out on?

And then what about supplements? I'm so lost. Right now the husband and I are both taking Fish Oil, Calcium, Magnesium and a general Multi Vitamin. Am I missing out on anything else essential in the supplement world? Or am I over doing it, and taking too many things?

Lastly, we have the final piece of the puzzle - exercise. I actually know a little bit about this, but then of course there is always conflicting information in this realm. Like running - I would love to just put on my sneakers and run... but isn't that bad for my knees?

*sigh*

Anyway - you are going to be hearing a lot more from me on this whole weight loss and healthy living thing. I'm striving to improve my life in this area, and trying to learn as much as possible about what it means to live a healthy lifestyle.

Freeze Time...

2009-03-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

Come along on a random Tuesday night in Kerith's brain:

1. Agh! Mikey is 3 Months Old! He continues to amaze me with this transformation from squishy little infant to snuggley baby. He is starting to enjoy his jumperoo, and can push himself up on his arms when I put him on his tummy. We just love him to pieces...

2. I'm eating a salad for dinner. Lettuce, Grilled Chicken, Pico De Gallo and Light Balsemic Dressing. Blegh. I am so OVER this stupid PSMF crap. Nothing like restricting yourself to lean protein and certain vegetables to give you an appreciation of those lucky health freaks that just eat oatmeal instead of egg mcmuffins because they enjoy it. I'm not quite ready to give up. I lost 7 pounds in the first week, and if I can have a repeat of that performance this week, that will put me at my pre-pregnancy weight.

3. Even if I somehow manage to lose all the weight I want to eating this way, I realize that eventually I will be done losing weight and that is where I ALWAYS falter. Pausing or stopping a diet leads to certain disaster for me. I eventually go back to my ridiculous ways, and I would rather not go there this time around. The fine art of maintenance has always eluded me. I don't have a plan yet, but I'm working on one.

4. I really want to exercise, but I can't seem to find the time to drag myself out of the house. More than anything I want to run. I want to use my whole body... to exert myself. I'm not sure I would be able to exert myself all the way to the end of my block, but I think I might try. Tomorrow. Maybe.

5. My head hurts.

6. I need a vacation.

7. I'm taking the week of 4/6 - 4/10 off. Good Friday, indeed!

8. I can't believe John and Kate aren't getting divorced. I so thought they were getting divorced. I still think they will eventually - I'm not sure how anyone could stand Kate.

9. Ignore the video, but I'm totally digging "Nowhere Fast" by Incubus at the moment.

10. Time to give the baby a bath :)

Kinda, Sorta, Maybe...

2009-03-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

1 Month ago today, my maternity leave ended. My emotions continue to run high on the subject, as I am torn between wanting to do nothing but spend all day with my son and the enormous guilt I feel when I'm in the office enjoying interacting with the adult world.

Right now there is $14k and a refinanced "Obamortgage", and being able to turn in my lease in November standing between me and being a stay at home mom. $14k in measly credit card debt. What on earth did we ever spend that money on, anyway? Why didn't I know about Dave Ramsey when I was coming out of high school? After spending our tax return on paying off credit card debt, there are no large chunks of cash in our future that will make this any easier. Cuz' I have to pay off the credit card debt BEFORE my lease is up in Nov in order to walk away from the lease (because I can't quit my job until the debt is paid off, and I need a car to get to work... see).

Anyway, it is all very frustrating.

And on the flip side, Husband and I are managing to pay all our bills, AND take on all my student loans that just came due AND pay $600 a month in daycare, and we are really ok.

Friends and neighbors are living in fear of losing their job, husband and I are pretty comfy right now, and I'm like "Yeah, lets pay off this debt so we can live on one income and know what it is really like to suffer, that sounds ideal." Oh, and then I want to rub salt in what would be our newly strained budget by having like 8 million more children.

Wooooo!

I must be sleep deprived to dream of this life, right? :)

X-Baby

2009-03-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

What is your baby's super mutant power?

My child has the ability to catch a seemingly harmless cold, convert it into the plague and pass it on to his parents.

For a whole week now, the three of us have been suffering from runny noses, coughing, sinus pressure, and Mikey even has an ear infection. (Note: he LOVES amoxicillin, but can't seem to keep it down for some reason).

Mikey *seems* to be on the verge of recover, but mom and dad are still dead on our feet. I finally stocked up on an arsenal of dayquil, nyquil, tylenol sinus/congestion/pain, and cough drops.

I was deathly ill no less than 4 weeks ago, so to be this sick again is rather irritating.

On a happier note, please please please listen to this song that I found through my girl Lula:

The song is called "Falling" by The Civil Wars. I don't think they are anybody - no record label or anything, but they sure are terrific!

And in case you were looking for another song to listen to, I highly recommend "Sometime Around Midnight" by The Airborne Toxic Event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2YnDlEMXiU

Embedding is disabled, so there is the link :)

Getting Ready For Summer...

2009-03-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this time of year. I know it is still thawing out in most parts of the country, but here in AZ it is already nice and toasty. The high on Wednesday is going to be 88! Last summer was just ludicrous. I was supah dupah preggers, and have never felt so gosh darn hot in my whole life. Come to think of it, I felt much the same way in December, ha ha ha (seriously, we had the AC cranked in December!). Anyway, I'm feeling much better about AZ weather in general, and am REALLY looking forward to the upcoming waves of heat.

Getting ready for the Summer in AZ is no simple task (not for me, anyway). There is a set of rituals I engage in annually in order to properly embrace the long days of sunshine, tank tops and board shorts. First, I have to make my summer time playlist. Check! Yep, I'm done, already! On the list this year is Incubus, Sevendust, Sublime, 311, Fred Green, Jimmies Chicken Shack and the Deftones. 369 songs in all... just in case I plan on sitting by the pool for 23.45 hours one day and don't want to hear the same song twice. I am actually contemplating making another Summer Playlist with Island, Bossa Nova and Samba music (because I'll take any excuse to listen to Astrud Gilberto).

The next item on the agenda is getting a body worthy of nakedness. Now, I don't really run around naked in AZ during the summer, but in order to bare the heat, you essentially run around in sleeveless or strapless shirts and shorts or capris. Back at ASU, the ladies actually did run around in Bikini's on campus, lol. But, I'm no longer at ASU so I can't really do that (plus, my marks of motherhood aren't really pretty, so no 2 pieces for me until I've had massive vitamin E therapy). Last summer I was pregnant and not really caring what my body looked like, but the prior summer I had a lot of success on PSMF. That stands for Protein Sparing Modified Fast. The basics of the diet are : Plenty of Lean Protein and Plenty of non Starchy Vegetables. Throw in some exercise and you lose a crap ton of weight in a short amount of time. It is a science based crash diet, really. Last year I didn't get a chance to move to maintenance because I got knocked up. But - before that happened, I was looking pretty good! (See Below)

This time around, The Right Husband will be joining in on the fun. He gained some sympathy pregnancy weight, and he is going to take it off by doing PSMF with me. Even though AZ gets super hot, super early, most in the State are super chickens when it comes to actually getting in the water for the first time. The brave stick their toes in around June, while the Husband and I will likely be waiting until July. We should both be bathing suit worthy by July of this year.

Of course - the only reason we even care about getting in a Bathing Suit is because of our dearest darling little Mikey. I can't wait to stick him in a sweet little pair of baby board shorts and take him swimming for the first time!

It won't truly be Summer until our first 3 digit day. The day it hits 100 degrees here (it shouldn't be too long... perhaps sometime in April?) I'll roll my windows down and crank up the stereo to listen to "Doin Time" by Sublime.

I love this time of year!

Before I'm Dead...

2009-03-15T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to a lot of the Kidneythieves lately. I wonder why they never made another album after 2003?

So, I turn 26 tomorrow. Not exactly a milestone birthday, but for some reason it has me a little bummed. I've never been so NOT excited about a birthday in my life. My friend at work is convinced that I'm developing a late case of the baby blues, but I just think I'm tired and struggling with working out this whole working mother thing. I know there are super moms out there who can do it all with a smile on their face, but I'm feeling frazzled and just plain tuckered out.

A big problem for me is letting my husband help. I just do everything. I'm perfectly capable of rolling over and pushing the husband out of bed to do the rare middle of the night feeding, but I just do it. I could ask for a lot more help, and he would happily give it, but I sort of have this idea that it is easier to just do everything myself rather than take the time to split up the responsibilities.

*Also* I secretly cherish staring at my sweet boys face when he is eating, or just needing snuggles, so I'm creating my own struggles with my selfishness.

Anyway, each year on my birthday I usually start a slew of projects based in self improvement (most do this at New Years... I wait for my birthday for some reason).

At the top of my list is getting back into shape. Preferably not the shape of a circle. Husband and I will both be doing a program called PSMF (protein sparing modified fast) which I will write more about in a later post.

Also near the top of my list is my continuing effort to get organized and be a good mom and wife, which I will also write more about in another post.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

The Luckiest...

2009-03-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

I just had the most amazing night with my guys. Mikey and I played together all afternoon and evening, and after his nap Mr. Right and I gave him a bath, and then it was off to bed. After a long crazy day at work, it was awesome to unwind with my boys!

For your viewing pleasure, MPG at 10 Weeks:

Drill here... later???

2009-03-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

I recall that during the elections, Newt Gingrich was leading the call to action to get Americans pumped up about drilling for energy (oil or natural gas or WHATEVER) here on our soil. As prices at the pump plummeted, it appears we lost our enthusiasm to stop relying on other countries to provide our energy. I know that Newt is still out there trying to be a cheerleader, but everyone else has simply lost their momentum. I'm a bit worried about this as the price of oil seems to be creeping up again. With this current recession and the Obama administration seemlingly making things worse, I'm really worried about what a steep increase in gas prices will do to families that are already hurting.

And speaking of hurting families, the Mortgage Modification has been rolled out. We are supposed to contact our lenders to get the ball rolling, but I'm afraid that we are likely ineligible. You see, our mortgage is within 1/4 of our combined take home pay. I know that we could have been approved for more at the time, but the Husband and I thought "Hey, why not just buy a home we can afford..." At the same time, our mortgage is one of those crazy 80/20 whatchahoozits. It would be great to be able to refi into one 30 year fixed loan, but we aren't really looking for a payment reduction or anything, lol. Of course - if one of us gets laid off, that totally changes the story. Since you can only use this program once, and it lasts through 2012, perhaps we should wait this out a bit longer to see what the job front holds for us.

Finally, Day Lights Savings has arrived! Hooray! Even though AZ is not affected at all, I'm always happy that my customers are 1 hour ahead of me. It makes me feel not so bad about working from 7 to 3:30 (I'm now working 8 to 4:30 in my customers time zone). For whatever reason, my phone has been in the nasty habit of ringing at 2:29 each afternoon. Don't these people know that I have a precious baby to go scoop up and take home?

Time...

2009-03-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Mr. Right and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. Although we have been married for 3 years, we have been together for much longer (it will actually be 8 years in October). I wasn't worried about it until this morning, but I am definitely feeling now that we (or at least I am) are becoming "lazy" about our relationship. Actually, I'm going to go ahead and say to a greater extent this is my problem. The husband makes sweet gestures quite often --- is always surprising me with energy drinks and my favorite candy, lol. I on the other hand am quick to put him second these days to the needs of our son or myself. Now - I know he would never complain in a billion years, especially if I'm tending to the baby, but I know that it is super important to make sure he feels loved and needed and included in our family. I need to work on this. Which brings me to the point of this post.

Time...

Where does it go? I am starting to resent my schedule quite a bit. Every morning I wake up at 5am and try to squeeze as much time as possible in with Mikey, all while getting ready for work. I have to run out the door by 6am to fight through traffic and get to the office by 7. Then it is work work work, work work, and running out the door at 3:30 to pick Mikey up from daycare. We typically get home shortly before 5pm.

After that, time really starts to fly. It seems like the evenings are the shortest part of the day, and I don't have time to get 1/10th of the things that need to be done accomplished. I suppose part of the problem is that I want to spend my whole evening playing with the baby, but there are other things that need to get done, like laundry, cleaning, dinner and of course it feels like having Mikey's diaper bag stocked takes a lot of time, too. To be perfectly honest, I get pissed about having to keep anything in that diaper bag. He has to leave the house way too often for my taste now. Everyday that I leave, so does he.

This doesn't even take into consideration any of our poor neglected animals. Poor puppies. Guinness is constantly dropping his most prized toy at our feet, begging us to play, and we rarely take the time to play with him.

I know there has got to be a better way to balance our days and nights, and make sure we are making enough time for all the important things in our life, but I'm definitely struggling to make that happen right now. Is this just a skill that is learned over time, or am I doomed to suffer a life full of half completed "to do" lists?

In the mean time, I'm going to try and start running errands on my lunch. Today I'm off to pick up enough dog food to last us until the weekend when we can stock up at Costco.

Anyone have any hot tips on getting your to do list (or at least the necessities) done everyday?

One Hot Mess...

2009-03-02T21:51:00.000-08:00

Poor Mikey - he has had a rough 48 hours. It all started on Sunday when Mommy decided to clip his fingernails and clipped his finger instead. Blood. Everywhere. Who would have thought a little slice on a fingertip would result in such massive loss of blood? After lots of kisses and cuddles, all was well in the world. Later that night Husband and I were giving him a bath, and afterwards I noticed that his skin was looking pretty dry. I busted out my new Aveeno Baby Lotion (for sensitive skin) and slathered him in it. The next morning I woke him up to find him covered in a skin rash! Yeek! Poor little guy. He didn't seem to mind it too much, but I still felt guilty.

Then, this afternoon, I took Mikey to his 2 Month Well Baby checkup. Poor little guy - he enjoyed being weighed and measured, and he loves the pediatrician. As soon as she left though, the nurse snuck in with 5 vaccinations and filled my poor baby full of holes! He SCREAMED! He Cried! Tears! Oh, but I cried more, lol. It was actually pretty upsetting because I realized he was staring right at my face, and of course I'm blubbering away --- I'm sure that didn't make it any better! After a few bandaids and some snuggles, we were on our way home, but Mikey was in sniffle melt down mode the whole way home (not that I blame him).

Once we got home, we curled up in the recliner together and napped the afternoon away. We both woke up to eat (and feed the daddy) at 7, and then it was more napping. Mikey was up again at 9:30 for the bedtime routine, and now he is sound asleep.

*sigh*

I don't know how many more of these well baby visits I can survive!

Anyway, at 2 months old (9 weeks, really), Mikey is weighing in at 14.5 pounds and is measuring 25 inches long. He is in the 95th percentile for weight and height, and the 75th percentile for head circumference. He's going to be a bruiser, I tell ya!

From Mikey 9 Weeks

From Rice Cereal 3.02.09

And You Say, Stay...

2009-03-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

This last week has been killer. When Mr. Right and I discuss our children, their futures, and how we want to raise them, the idea of homeschooling them has always been an idea we toyed with. When I was pregnant, I knew for sure that this was something that I was going to want to do, and I realized that the only way for this to happen would be for me to be a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom).

Living on one income in this day an age is daunting, or at least it seems that way. Josh and I are used to living a certain way, and that way relies heavily on both of us working. Before I got pregnant, it seemed doubtful that I would ever be able to make the sacrifices required to live on just one salary. I had resigned myself to being a working mother and that was all there was to it.

In more recent times, and with the economy taking a major tumble, the distinct possibility of losing BOTH of our incomes had become a major reality for us. A big layoff was done at my office while I was on maternity leave. Those 10 weeks of time spent at home with my child and taking care of the home were both blissful and frightening. I was immensely enjoying that time with my baby, and being able to take care of my husband and our home, but at the same time I was stressed out that I might possibly be laid off.

A week after returning to work, I realize now that being laid off would have been a blessing in disguise. It would have forced us to make the plunge and make the sacrifices we needed for us to live on one income. We would have used my severance "lump" payout to pay off all our credit card debt, and we would have been on a budget in a major way. With the Husband's company car and great insurance, we would have been able to make it along just fine (at this point the Husband has a LOT more job security then I do, even though we work for the same division of the same company).

However, I was not laid off. As those who were affected by layoffs left the office for the last time on Friday, I felt a mixture of jealousy and sadness. I would miss my friends, and the office sure is going to seem a lot lonelier. But - I couldn't help but think "Why not me?" Seems pretty backwards, I realize.

Another woman in my office is struggling with the same dilemma (she has a 6 month old at home). We both would have been able to see the silver lining in being laid off in the latest round, however, both of us managed to keep our jobs. Why not just quit? Well - if we are laid off, the severance makes a big difference, plus the company pays for health care for a year and provides tuition reimbursement for another 2 years. I get the feeling that the axe will be coming down on all of us soon. The industry I'm working in is hurting in a major way, all the way from the MFG's to the Finance companies. With Obama's stimulus (spending) bill, and him planning on raising taxes on the upper 2% plus placing greater restrictions on Wall Street, I don't see the economy improving any time in the next year or so. Then again, who knows? I certainly don't. And I would hate to remain complacent and not make the sacrifices required to change our situation.

With that in mind, Mr. Right and I have to decided to do everything in our power to get ourselves in a financial position where I can stay home and raise our children. It all started with our tax return. Instead of running out and buying the couch and big screen we were eyeballing, we did something completely unprecedented. Yep. We put $1000.00 in the bank for an emergency fund, and then we paid off our two smallest credit card balances. And now we go into crazy mode to start our debt snowball started and get the rest of this debt paid off.

Rush Limbaugh made an amazing speech at the CPAC convention last week. He spoke of American's being able to do anything when the obstacles of the government were taken out of their path. He spoke of all American's being able to realize their dreams, and not because the Government gave them a handout, but because they worked hard for it. It got me to thinking about what my dreams are, and I realized that I need to do everything within my power to obtain them!

So - everyone send warm fuzzy thoughts my way and pray for my company to decide they need one less employee (and make sure that employee is me) or for large sums of money to land in my lap allowing us to speed up this debt payoff process.

I need to be at home. He needs me.

From Mikey 2.26.09

America, going forward...

2009-02-24T21:01:00.000-08:00

I listened to Obama tonight. I tried to remain open minded. Philosophically, we completely differ in our belief of how the country should be run. Nevertheless, I listened. I agreed with a lot of what he said. I do believe that learning starts at home, with the parents. When he talked about reading to your children, I swelled up a bit because, hey, I read to my 2 month old every night.

I too believe that dropping out of high school should not be an option. 2 of my siblings dropped out of high school. It should be illegal to not complete a high school education (whether that is through homeschooling, charter schools or regular old public education).

A lot of what he said was inspirational, and ideal and hey, wouldn't it be great if it were all the way he described it.

My hang up is, he is proposing all these wonderful things by spending my tax dollars. Giving money to banks specifically for the purpose of lending for cars and other vehicles. So, using my tax money to make a goverment backed loan to someone so they can buy a car. From a car company that is nearly bankrupt due to unions and... and... oh my brain hurts.

So, anyway, O said a whole lot of wonderful things tonight, and I "hope" that he can make his vision a reality, but I really have a hard time believing that we are going to get these results by throwing the tax payers money at the problem. Why don't you just let us keep our money in the first place, and we can go stimulate the economy with it ourselves?

Super Mom...

2009-02-23T20:47:00.000-08:00

So not one of those, lol. I'm trying... I really am, but I am falling well short. Today I picked up Mikey from daycare for the first time ever. Daycare lady says that he was a dream. He is bathed, fed and happy. He sleeps for the 1/2 hour car ride home.

Once at home, I snuggle him to death. Snuggle snuggle snuggle. Food. Snuggle. Then I let him play in his bassinet (independent play is supposedly good for him) while I snuggle his daddy (I've also heard that snuggling daddies is very important).

Then me and little guy snuggle up in bed, and we both take a nap from 6pm to 7:30pm. Like a true non-super mom, as soon as I wake up, I order Domino's Pizza online while I feed the baby again.

Snuggle snuggle snuggle. Diaper Change. Swaddle. Pacifier. Sleep (for Mikey).

Re-pack diaper bag, wash 8 million bottles, get the daddy a Diet Dr. Pepper. Blog.

And now I think I'm going to go take a shower and watch some TV while I drift off to sleep myself.

ZzzZZZzzZZZzzzz...

Workin' Mother...

2009-02-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

It's back to work for me tomorrow morning. It seems like I'm going back to school after having a whole summer off (and I guess, 8 weeks is just about a summer break these days). I haven't quite placed my finger on my emotions. I suppose I'm a little sad that I won't be able to drop everything and peek in on Mikey whenever I feel like it. I'm also a little jealous that someone else will get to spend the day with him during the week. I'm worried that I'm going to miss out on so many upcoming milestones, like rolling over, his first laugh, and all sorts of other great things.

However, all things considered, I'm feeling grateful that I have a job to return to tomorrow. There were quite a few layoffs while I was on maternity leave, so that very well might not have been the case for me. I'm also looking forward to being able to do whatever I want from 7 am to 3:30 pm tomorrow (well, whatever work I want) and not being interrupted by a dirty diaper, a hungry tummy or even a rogue pacifier.

So, tomorrow I will officially join the ranks of working mothers everywhere, and I'll enjoy conversations with other working parents. But, when that clock strikes 3:30, I'll be jumping in my Jeep and flying down the freeway to pick up my beloved baby.

Perhaps the hours I spend away from him during the day will make our evenings that much more meaningful?

7 Weeks and Smiling...

2009-02-18T07:05:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my dearest darling child is nearly 2 months old. In the last week he has made an amazing transformation! He is babbling and oohing and aahing. He is developing much better hand control (and hello, apparently his hands are delicious!). He smiles, and it just melts your heart!

From Mikey 2.15.09

Not only is Mikey growing by leaps and bounds, but other tasks around the house seem to be getting larger along with him. Laundry, for instance. So much laundry! I don't know how Kate (of Jon & Kate + 8) does it. Oh, wait, that is right - she has TWO washers and dryers, lol. And I guess that is me admitting to watching that show, lol. Mostly I watch it for the same reason I watch the first few episodes of each season of American Idol. They are so deliciously bad! Kate speaks horridly to Jon, and I'm just waiting for him to back hand her!

So, anyway, in my pursuit of having a cleaner home and simplifying tasks, it occurs to me that Laundry detergent should come in tablet form - like Dishwasher detergent does. You know? I went on a search for it, but was unable to find any. Can someone please invent this? I'm tired of gooey laundry detergent mess on my washer.

I only have a few days left of Maternity leave, and at the best possible time I seem to have come down with the flu. I have a fever, a cough, and other terrible symptoms. Fortunately I seem to be recovering quickly, which is good because I have a LOT left to do to get the house in order before going back to work. (Note - I started writing this post yesterday, and today I woke up and my throat has gotten 10 times worse. It feels so swollen, and hurts so badly. Boo!)

Finally - I am extremely intrigued by this family attempting to live on a $1500.00 per year budget (for food, medical co-pays, beauty products, other household items). It has reminded me that Josh and I really need to set up our own budget and get crackin' on paying off our old debt.

Baby Wise...

2009-02-13T22:32:00.000-08:00

I know it is controversial, but I'm using this methodology to work towards finding sanity with my newborn. In the last week or so I've started to feel lost, and our schedule kept shifting by an hour somehow. On Monday we were doing feedings every 3 hours, and Mikey was fed at 10, 1, 4, 7, 10 and then he slept til 5 and woke up screaming for food. Since he ate at 5, he wanted to eat again at 8am on Tuesday. Then of course the rest of the feedings went 11, 2, 5, 8 and then 11. On Wednesday morning he woke up around 6 and then our schedule on Thursday was 9, 12, 3, 6, 9 and then I started the bedtime routine at 10 to have him asleep by 11. I fed him again at 11 hoping that he would sleep until 5ish. Newp. He woke up at 2am. /Cry.

After doing some reading, it occurred to me that I've got the eating thing down fine, but I was TOTALLY screwing up the nap time thing. For some reason I had it in my head that the more I kept him up during the day the better he would sleep at night. But, he was getting so stinkin' fussy/angry/cranky during the day that I was at a loss. Uh, duh. My child needs to nap more often than once during the day.

Since I go back to work in a week, I'm committing myself to getting him on a reasonable eat, play sleep schedule for at least the next week. I would like to be able to tell his caretaker that he eats 5 oz, plays around for an hour (including feeding time) and then will take a 2 hour nap. Rinse and repeat. I understand that the wakeful time will get longer and the naps a little less frequent (combined with sleeping longer at night) but my 6 week old is not ready to go hours on end without a nap, lol.

I can't believe it. I've been so frustrated this week with my fussy little guy. To think the key was letting him sleep. We would have both been much happier!

Here is a great resource for the Baby Wise Methodology!

From Mikey 2.11.09

Let's Get "IT" on...

2009-02-12T22:22:00.000-08:00

...and I'm not talking about internet technology people.

Lula (over at Lulaville) inspired me to make a playlist of my own in honor of the upcoming V-Day holiday.

All time sexiest songs (or songs to "get it on" to)

1. #1 Crush - Garbage
2. Mouth - Bush
3. Five Minutes to Midnight - Star Anna (This is new... LISTEN TO THIS!)
4. You Know I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
5. Eternal - The Isley Brothers
6. Anytime, Anyplace - Janet Jackson
7. My Love is Like Wo - Mya
8. I Touch Myself - The Divinyls
9. Wicked Game - Chris Isaak
10. Closer - Nine Inch Nails
11. Constant Craving - KD Lang
12. Red Light Special - TLC
13. Supermassive Black Hole - Muse
14. Forsaken - Queen of the Damned (Soundtrack)
15. Licking Cream - Sevendust
16. Knife Party - Deftones
17. Stuck in the Backseat - The Noises 10
18. Thin Layer - The Honorary Title
19. Collide - Howie Day
20. Look After You - The Fray

Check these songs out, and I guarantee you will find yourself in "the mood."

Thanks for the great idea, Lula!

Rich Girl...

2009-02-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

Socks. To me, feeling wealthy is all in the socks that are on my feet. Sounds pretty silly, but it is still true. Money wasn't exactly spilling out all over the place in my house growing up, and some of the basics had to be stretched quite a bit. One of those basics included socks. My crappy (low quality) socks always seemed to have holes in the toes, and they were pretty thin straight out of the package.

When I got to high school, my best friend had parents that were pretty well off. It was through her that I was introduced to the luxury of high quality socks. These particular socks were stretchy, yet thick and soft as can be. I seriously loved these socks people. The socks I speak of are Russell Athletic Performance Crew Socks. I'm sure to many of you these socks may seem ordinary, common place, run of the mill even. But to me, they were paradise in my shoes! I managed to acquire a few pairs of these socks throughout high school, and I cherished them and wore them as often as I could wash them (or when I wasn't wearing flip flops).

Now that I'm an adult, and I get to purchase my own socks, I buy these same socks. I still <3 them just as much as I did in high school, and putting them on makes me feel like a millionaire.

I know to most people, driving a luxury automobile, or living in a big house might make them feel like a million bucks. Me? Nah, none of those things. It's all about to the small luxuries to me.

Other things that make Kerith feel like she is Bill Gates:

-Herbal Essence Shampoo and Conditioner
-Bright Plastic Drink ware (such as these)
-Drugstore Makeup
-Rocket Dog Flip Flops
-Clinique Moisturizer
-Chunky Jewelry

What makes you feel rich?