Friday, February 29, 2008

Interesting

So Jeff and I were talking about this the other day. Have you seen that LifeLock commercial? The commercial features a guy who gives out his social security number to prove to his customers that with LifeLock, your credit it safe from identity theft. Basically the way it works is you register with this company, pay a small fee, and they will keep your credit safe from identity theft.

Apparently the credit reporting agencies don't like that LifeLock is making money that they could be making, or that they are costing the credit reporting agencies money, so Experian is suing LifeLock. I'm curious to see how it all plays out in court. So far it kinda seems like a David and Goliath type battle to me.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Letter R

Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter. Afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.

1)rain

2)Rowan (the name. If Amelia was a boy,she would have been named Rowan)

3)ripe strawberries. They have to be really ripe though.

4)randomness

5)remotes( for the tv, ceiling fans, and my car, I love them all.)

6)reading

7)roses growing in my backyard

8)red nail polish

9)routines- yes this sounds silly but it's soooo important for me. Okay I'm running out of R things

10)r (our) family. Does that work? Come on, you know you want to comment so you can play too....

Shhhhhhh

I don't want to jinx anything,so I haven't told anyone about this yet. But I'm kind of excited, so I wanted to share. Amelia has been peeing and pooping in the potty for a couple days now. I'm still a little apprehensive about telling anyone, since every other time I thought she had it figured out, she would just decide she was done. But really I'm not telling anyone right now, I'm just blogging. And if someone reads it, it's not my fault. So hopefully that won't jinx us. :-)

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

4 months!

Anthony is four months old! He is smiling like crazy at everyone now. He can roll over both ways, and is trying to sit up. He loves to stand as long as Mommy will hold him up. He loves to sit in his saucer and chew on his stuffed hedgehog. He sits in his high chair with us at meal times, eyeing our food and I think he's hoping we'll share. My baby is getting so big!


Both kids had checkups today, Amelia was such a little ham. She was a total show off! Both of my babies are happy and healthy. He said Anthony is big enough to cry a little at night, he doesn't need to eat all night long. He also said we can start him on some food. He is growing so big, he's in the 96th percentile for height, his weight was lower though around 50th I think. (The paper is in the car. LOL) Amelia is up to 40th percentile for height. She weighs 31 pounds, so she has gained a pound since last year. We had some drama with insurance though, since we're on Cobra they are saying they haven't gotten paperwork from Jeff's old job. They cashed my check a month ago so it should have gone through by now. Hopefully it will get straightened out soon.

Are you OysterAware?

One of my favorite tongue twisters when I was little was
A noise annoys an oyster, but a noisy noise annoys an oyster more.
Try saying it 5 times fast!

Speaking of Oysters, have you heard about about BeOysterAware.com? This website provides information on consuming oysters. I had no idea that oysters could be dangerous. Most people can eat oysters without a problem. However there is a percentage of the population who is at risk, and for them, consuming oysters can be harmful or even potentially lethal. If you visit their website about Gulf oysters you can get lots of information, and find out if you are at risk.



He Slept!!

Anthony slept in his crib all night last night! We put him to bed around 10 o'clock and he slept until 2:45. I went in because he was crying, but by the time I got there, he was quiet already, sucking on his fingers. He went back to sleep on his own, without even waking up his sister! He slept through until about 5:30. I may actually get something done today besides sitting here trying not to fall asleep.

Wanna play?

Have you ever played paintball? When I was in college I played a few times. It was so much fun. I had forgotten about those days until I discovered this website. Ultimate Paintball has all the gear you'll ever need. Paintball has come a long way since I played. The spyder vs3 is amazing. Some of the equipment available is crazy. You can get tactical vests, every kind of paintball gun you could ever want, as well as a plethora of other equipment. Whether you're just getting started at paintball, or you're an old pro, go check out this site. They carry Tippmann, Dye, Spyder, Smart Parts, Empire, and Draxxus paintball gear.

Ultimate Paintball is a store based in Missouri, so they have a real location, run by people who play paint ball, not just a web address. They also have an 800 number if you need some questions answered.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

I'm wireless

I'm blogging from my new laptop via my wireless connection. I even set up the network by myself. (Okay so I had a little help from Jeff, but I did most of it myself.)

I don't know why I didn't do this a long time ago. So nice to be able to be online in the same room as the kids and not have to go hide in the bedroom!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

I should be sleeping...

Anthony is finally asleep in his crib. Jeff and Amelia are asleep in my bed. It's sad when the Daddy goes to sleep before the kids do. I think he goes to work during the week to rest from the weekends home with us. :-) I should be sleeping too, but it's kinda nice and peaceful with them all asleep.

Elephants don't fart!

While we were sitting on the couch the other night, Jeff let one rip. Amelia looked at him in total disgust.

Jeff: Amelia, did you hear that? There is an elephant under the couch.
Amelia: No daddy. Elephants say BRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOO. Elephants don't say fart. Daddy says fart.



I almost fell of the couch I was laughing so hard. This kid is so serious sometimes!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Happy Birthday to me...

For a while now, Jeff has wanted to get a new laptop. I have a frankenstein kind of computer, and it's a good little computer, but not for all the stuff i do. So today he calls me and says he found a great deal on one, and asks my opinion, I thought it sounded great, so he went and got it. He says that's my birthday present. He's been so sick that we didn't do anything for my birthday which was last weekend. So anyway, I can't wait for him to get home from work so I can set it up!

My mom and Grandma both sent money for my birthday. I was going to put it in savings since I don't need anything but then I found this at the scrapbook expo. I can get it for $180. Now I just have to decide if I really want it or not. It's very cool, I got to try one at the scrapbook expo. But I'm not sure if I'd use it enough to make it worth that much money. I am going to research it some more, but if you have a Cricut, do you love it? Was it worth the money? Oh and one more thing. If you are a scrapbooker, and ever have a chance to go to the scrapbook expo, do it! I went to walk around, and then went to the crop night, it was awesome!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

I'm doing a little better at drinking water and eating my points every day.

This post is probably going to be a little all over the place, I'm kinda exhausted. Anthony is not sleeping at night. He sleeps for 30 or 45 minutes, occasionally an hour, and then he wants to eat again. It's kind making me crazy. I can do one night with no sleep, but this has been going on for days now.

I took the kids grocery shopping this morning. At the store I like they have those cool shopping carts that have a car on the front of them. So Amelia could ride around in a little car, and I could put Anthony's seat on the top of the cart (he was sleeping.) So we go to checkout, and I find out that the cart won't fit through the check out aisle. The lady says it's okay, leave it there. So I had to unload everything, get the kids out, and try and check out while holding a sleeping Anthony in a 30 pound carrier and hold onto a trying to escape Amelia. Don't think I'll pick that cart again.

Amelia and I are going to make some zuchini bread now I'll let ya'll know how it turns ou.


Oh and if anyone has advice on getting a baby that has until now slept for 6-8 hours straight, to start doing it again, I'd love to hear it!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Tackle it Tuesday #3

This week I am reorganizing my kitchen cabinets. My kitchen is a little challenging because I'm so short,and half of each cabinet is back in the corner. So really, I can only reach about 30 percent of each cabinet without a stool. (Did I mention these are my only two big cabinets? Everything else useable is unde the counter.) Even with the stool I can not reach the top shelves, which is why you will notice no progress there.

Cabinet to the left of the stove- I got rid of a lot of stuff, and moved other stuff into this area.

BEFORE


AFTER



This is the cabinet to the right of the stove. I moved a lot of stuff out of it , to the other cabinet. Now most of the cups and dishes and such are over there, which will make unloading the dishwasher and stuff much easier. It's still a work in progress, I'm going to move a lot of my baking stuff to this cabinet, but I need some more bins first.

Drive by

This is a drive by post. It's 7:41. I've had a healthy breakfast, and started on my water for the day, so I'm doing better than I've done in a while. Most of my morning routine is done (laundry is going, Amelia is fed, dishwasher is unloaded and I'm dressed and wearing my shoes. Go checkout flylady.net if you don't get the shoe thing.) I am working decluttering and reorganizing my kitchen in the month of February, thanks to orgjunkie.com. She has lots of great ideas. Now I'm off to redo my two ktichen cabinets. Then I'm going to work out. I'll be back later with before and after pictures of the cabinets.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Weight loss update

Well this week has not gone well. No loss for me this week. I was trying, but not trying very hard. When everything else is going crazy (jeff is sick, got lots of stuff going on, Amelia is being crazy, etc)I get so busy taking care of everyone else, that I don't take care of me. I know in my head that I need ot do that. I need to make myself eat a healthy breakfast, and eat snacks, then I'm not starving at 2 PM making poor choices. I need to make the time to exercise. I'd love to join the gym again, but Anthony is too young to go into the child care, and I know it would be too hard for me to go in the evenings and leave both kids here with Jeff. Anyway, I know what I need to do, I just have to do it. Why is it so hard for me to stay focused?

Friday, February 15, 2008

Shoes

So I have a question for all you parents out there. How much control do you give your kids over their own clothes? Amelia and I have been battling lately. The child Will. Not. Wear. Socks. It's driving me crazy. I get socks and shoes out for her, and ask her to put them on herself, she will only put the shoes on. So next I try putting the socks and shoes on her myself. She takes off the socks and puts the shoes back on without them. It bugs me that she won't wear socks. Should I just let it go? Come on internet, give me some great parenting advice!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Ramblings of a slightly crazy Mama

I forgot to post my wordless Wednesday today! Is it really Wednesday already? Oops.

How do you all feel about Wordless Thursday? :-)

I took both kids to run errands today. We went to four places and it went really well. If I feed Anthony before we leave the house he can usually last a few hours pretty well. Our adventures today took us to Linens N things, (I only spent $5 there! It's a miracle. Seriously.) Then we went and got Amelia's hair cut here. We have gone there before and it was great but this time it was horrible. The lady said maybe 5 words to us the whole time. She kept spraying Amelia in the face with the water and she was getting irritated that she wouldn't sit with her head down for long periods of time. Um yeah, she is 3. So then I pay and the lady just goes in the back. No balloon or anything. So then Amelia is freaking out because she thinks we go there just for the balloons. Amelia is having such a cow that I didn't even get a good look at her hair cut.

Our next stop was to get some lunch, then we went to the grocery store for a few things we needed for dinner tomorrow and for playgroup Friday.

After I got home I got a chance to look at her hair, and it's sooooo not even. Her bangs are all over the place. I don't know what the ladies problem was but it looks bad! I could understand if the kid was wiggling all over or something, but she wasn't she held really still when she was cutting the bangs. Ugh. Now I'm not sure if I should go back, or if I should go pay $20 somewhere else. Grrrr.

In other news Jeff is going to urgent care again tonight. He is no better than he was last week, so he's been sick for at least 3 weeks now. Maybe this time they'll figure out what's wrong with him, or at least give him some more cough medicine.

So anyone who's known me for a long time, knows organization is not my strong suit. At least when it comes to my house. Now my house is not dirty (except maybe my kitchen floor. LOL) but it tends to get cluttery. Part of that I'm sure is there are 4 of us in a 2 bedroom house. Where was I going with this again? oh yeah, I suck at keeping up with my house. But, since Anthony has arrived, and I'm not pregnant anymore, I really feel like I'm doing better with that. I'm keeping up with all the general stuff, laundry, the cleaning, cooking meals etc, and I'm slowly working on other projects. Right now I'm in the kitchen. Monday, I reorganized the pantry. Today I started on decluttering and reorganizing the cabinets. It feels good to organize stuff! Now if I can just figure out how to get Jeff on the same page as me about letting go of stuff. He gets so offended if I get rid of something or even suggest getting rid of something of his. And occasionally it happens that I get rid of something that later turns out to be useful. He has to spend so much energy giving me krap about it. It's getting really old. There is so much stuff in this house that we could let go of, but it's a battle to get rid of anything. I'm sick of fighting about it. But I'm also sick of being the only one trying to keep all the clutter in some form of order. Not sure where I'm going with all of this, just venting. Then I'll feel better and be able to let it go for a while. ( Oh and Jeff, since you do read this, i don't want to hear about the 1 thing you DID get rid of 5 years ago, or get a lecture about how sometimes stuff turns out to be useful and you're so glad you hung on to everything so you would have that one useful thing. Okay? Okay. I'm just venting. :-) )

Now if I could just figure out how to do all this stuff without spending 8 hours a day working on the house! Someday my babies will be grown and I'll miss all of this day to day stuff. Right now, it's a little hard to keep up with it all, without going insane. :-)

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Monday, February 11, 2008

Oops..

So for a while now, I haven't been able to find my cell phone. I finally found it this weekend. Okay actually my hubby found it, but that part doesn't really matter. Anyway, I again had a cell phone! Which would make my hubby happy, since he thinks I should be reachable at all times. (He doesn't know me very well does he?). But then yesterday, I accidently washed it. In the washing machine. Anyone know where I can get a cheap phone? Or maybe even some free mobile phones? Oh and since I haven't actually told my husband yet about this phone problem, and since he reads my blog, all I can say is Oops, sorry honey! :-)

Seriously though is there a way to get cheap mobile phones? I need one and i don't want to pay $50 through my insurance with AT&T. (Did I mention that our contract is up in April and we are not renewing it?)

Speaking of cell phone coverage, who is your cell phone provider? Are you happy with the plan? Do you get lots of minutes or lots of hassles? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think of your cell plan. I am still trying to figure out who we will switch to in April.

I got booted....

I am no longer on Top Momma. I had a good long run though, so thanks to everyone who clicked for me. :-)

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Menu Plan Monday



This is my first time doing Menu Plan Monday. I do plan my menu every week so I thought it would be fun to join. Most of my recipes this week are from SavingDinner.com It's a great website, it sends out menus for the week along with the grocery list and suggestions for side dishes. I haven't tried any of them other than the dinner Thursday night. The dessert Thursday ( My anniversary! :-) )will be a White chocolate Raspberry Tart from Cooking Light. If it is any good I'll post the recipe.



Monday: Creamy Chicken and Noodles, with steamed broccoli and steamed baby carrots

Tuesday: Oven Fried Fish, with steamed red skinned potatoes and steamed green beans

Wednesday: Beef Goulash,

Thursday: Chicken Parm with spaghetti and sauce.

Friday: Leftovers or pizza

Saturday: Italiano Beef Stew,

No way

There is no way my little man is growing this fast. He is barely fitting in 6-9 month jammies! He weighs 18 pounds. At 3.5 months! Amelia weighed that much at a year! Crazy.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Share the love!


Valentine's Day is right around the corner. It's a busy time of year at our house, we just had Amelia's birthday, and Valentine's day is our anniversary. My birthday is only a few days after that. Last year Jeff was totally sweet and got me flowers for my birthday and our anniversary. Both of the bouquets were Gerbera daisies, which I love. This year maybe I'll get some Tulips like the ones shown above. *hint hint* Aren't they beautiful? I think they're my new favorite flower.

I haven't ordered flowers very many times, but when I do, I'm usually sending them somewhere else (to my mom or my sister.) I have always used 1-800flowers, and I've always been pretty happy with the result. They have a huge selection. I was looking around their site to find something to send my sister, and I found this, they have organic gifts. I think that's pretty cool. The Organic Ultimate Gourmet Sampler looks delicious! I wonder how many points there are in the cherry oatmeal cookies. Yummy!



Thursday, February 07, 2008

I was going through my desk and found a bunch of old checkbooks. I looked through one from years ago when I lived in Los Gatos, and found a check I had written my Dad and never mailed. I promptly burst into tears. It's been almost 2 years that he has been gone and it still catches me off guard sometimes. I think it's been a lot harder since Anthony arrived. He is the first boy, so he is the first Grandson. I know my dad loved all of his Grandaughters, but I think he would have gotten a kick out of having a Grandson. I'm over getting mad at him, now I am just sad. ( And I know all the postpartum stuff doesn't help. I'm emotional anyway. After I had Amelia, I was really angry. This time around I'm very cry-ee. ) I'm hoping that will dwindle in the coming months.

Not enough time

I have been kind of neglecting my blog lately. There just aren't enough hours in the day. I am hardly ever online any more. Taking care of two kids is a lot of work! The fact that jeff has been sick for weeks doesn't help either. I have been neglecting my weight loss challenge group as well. I'm still doing WW and still losing just not online much. Hopefully things will calm down soon and I can be around a little more. It's all about finding a balance I guess. :-)

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Pain

I have a migraine. I feel like my head is going to explode. For whatever reason it's only on one side of my head. So the right side of my head, especially around my eyes, is going throb, throb, throb, in perfect rhythm. I'm hiding in the bedroom because the noise of the TV and light from the one lamp I let Jeff turn on were killing me. It's sad when the light and noise are so painful it's making me nauseas and I'm fighting throwing up.

The odd thing is I didn't know I had migraines until very recently. I thought this is what a headache was. I just thought the light and noise sensitivity and sometimes vomiting was a normal part of having a headache. Then my sister started having migraines and I found out that's what this was. Funny how those things work out.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Rolling

Anthony rolled over all by himself on Saturday! He had rolled over a few times before, but it was always when he was on something soft like the bed, and I think that helped him roll. But now he's doing it all by himself!

He is reaching his milestones at a much different rate than his sister did, so I get a little worried, but so far he's within the normal ranges for everything except his vision. At two months he was not tracking objects well at all, so the doctor will check him again at 4 months to make sure everything is okay. He seems to be doing okay now with tracking stuff so I'm hoping he's just developing more slowly and that there isn't anything wrong with his eyes.

I have yet to catch his rolling on video but I keep trying.