This year I...

Hold on to your hats folks, I'm back for another post!

It shouldn't surprise you to hear that it will be about my list of things-to-do for this next year. I like calling it a "to-do" list more than I like calling them goals. Crazy? Maybe but thats fine with me.

So, like last year, I just wrote up my list on a kitchen note pad and stuck it on my memo board.

Here it is!

• Learn to use the table saw
• line the kitchen cabinets
• finish snowman quilt
• line bathroom cabinets
• intall laundry nook outlet
• Make a perfect batch of rolls
• finish kitchen
• finish kitchen baseboards
• finish knitting socks
• finish baby girl quilt
• make baby room curtains
• paint pantry
• do something about master bed lights
• lose all baby weight
• pay off car 
• pay off furnace
• stay debt free!!

Okay. So they aren't terribly exciting goals, I know. But here's the thing. They are all things that I want to do, or learn or accomplish. So worthy, right? The first couple things on the list are roll-overs from last year, so theres that. I bought a knitting book about knitting socks and I taught myself how to knit. Now I just need to finish the socks right? So far, they are pretty bad looking but its okay! Its my first project. Also, I have yet to bake a batch of yeast bread that turned out. So this year I'd like to make that happen. Anyway, my ambitions all in a list. Woo-hoo! I'm looking forward to this year, even though we have welcomed it in with terrible colds all around. I mean, all three of us super sick and congested. Its been awesome. I have coughed so hard I thought I would send myself into labor. Its horrible. But aside from that, we have fun things to look forward to! New baby, fun adventures and good times to be had. 

Here's to the New Year!!!

Oh hey.

Hey

I guess I should dust off thee ol' blog and write something yeah?

So what have I been up to? Just the same old same. Taking care of a boy, and his dad and growing another human. The regular stuff.

I've been really trying to get my craft room cleaned out and ready for its new occupant. This has been about the third round of cleaning out and throwing away and bagging for the DI. Seriously. I feel like a such a hoarder when I think about all the junk that I managed to pull out of that room. But I did have a yardsale and sell a lot of what was in there online so that made me feel better.

Believe me when I tell you that getting this room to the point that I could even vacuum the floor was a MAJOR undertaking. And I'm really quite proud that I made it to this point. I had one minor melt down while cleaning and luckily Darrell was able to pull me out of it and keep it going. So pretty much we just need to find a home for some of the stuff on the counter top and then we need to cut up the countertop so we can get it out and thrown away. That thing is HEAVY. Really really heavy.

So there's that. Also, I got in a car accident a couple weeks ago. It was awesome. Seriously. I mean, it wasn't my fault so hopefully the insurance gets that worked out in our favor. As much as I really want to pay that $500 deductible, I'd rather I didn't have to.

That's the other guy's car. Totally dented in his door and scratched him up good. I know, it looks like it would be my fault but it wasn't. He turned out in front of me, thinking he was at a four way stop (which he wasn't) and I nailed him. Luckily, Liam wasn't with me and we were in a residential zone so I don't even think either of us were going more than 20 MPH and he was driving away from me when I hit him. Blech. I'd rather not go through that again.

So I guess I'll wrap this one up by showing you one of my latest crafty projects. (I'm trying to finish them and I'm making pretty good progress!)

I decided that I would recover Liams old infant carseat. It would have been fine as it was but the supplies only cost... $10 dollars? Maybe sooooo I went for it. Here's what it looked like before:

And here is what it looked like after:

Cute right?! It wasn't complicated, just time consuming and a little frustrating right at the end. Basically, you rip all the pieces apart (at the seams, not actually ripping anything but the stitching..) and use it as a template and then piece it back together the same way it came apart. If you want to try it, take LOTS of pictures of everything so that you can remember how it was before it came apart. I'm pretty happy with. I think it'll suit little girl juuuuust fine. 

Baby Purple and things Liam says.

So since we found out that baby #2 is on the way, we've tried to get Liam comfortable with the idea. Or to even grasp the idea. Or acknowledge that we are talking to him about it. And usually it goes pretty poorly

Me: "Liam, can we bring a new baby home to live with us?"
Liam: "I don't want that here."

Me: "Liam, when we bring the baby home, where will it sleep?"
Liam: Looks at his bed, "No, MY BED."
Me: "okay, but where will the baby sleep?"
Liam: "On the floor."

Me: "Liam, what should we call the baby when we bring it home?"
Liam: "On the phone!"

So he doesn't get it (and I didn't really expect him to) and on those rare occasions when it seems like he does, he's pretty negative about the whole thing. Only just recently did he start to seem excited about it, like when I'd ask him he'd say "and they play with my trains with me?" So hopefully.... eh, I don't know what that means.

Well, the other night as I was putting him to bed, I asked Liam if he thought we would be having a girl baby or a boy baby. He got very thoughtful and looked up and the ceiling and then said with a big smile and an authoritative nod of his head "a purple baby!". I even tried asking him again and he answered the same. He'll pretty consistently tell us that it is a purple baby, so that's what we've decided to call baby this time around. Liam was baby Harold, and this one is baby Purple. I like it.

This whole time I've been pregnant, I thought this baby was a girl. I didn't want to get my hopes up too much, obviously there's a 50/50 chance right? Its just that the whole time I was pregnant with Liam, I just knew he was a boy. Before we found out I knew. I didn't even imagine to think of girl things or girl names because that baby was just a boy. I wanted a girl. So bad.  But I knew he'd be a boy. And the ultrasound proved that right. And we love him! SUCH a sweet and wonderful boy.

BUT.

My last pregnancy, I'm pretty sure it was a girl and I tearfully told Darrell that I was just certain that it was a girl and that was probably going to be my only chance to have one.

And then I got pregnant, and I pretty quickly had that "girl" feeling return. People asked what we wanted, and I could honestly answer that I would be happy with either boy or girl. But I always felt like it was probably a girl.

Well at my last Dr. appointment, my doctor asked me slyly "so do you feel her moving?" and then said "cause you know, I think its a girl." He preceded to ask if we were planning on finding out what it is, we are, and if I wanted to go find out right now! "there's no one in the ultrasound office". I told him no, I had to wait for my husband. I was pretty proud of my restraint! But by the end of the appointment we concluded that we needed to set up an ultrasound to check dates and so I would be heading back in the next week.

The morning arrived and we had the appointment. The tech asked if we wanted to find out the sex to which we answered yes! And lo and behold, its a girl!! Liam was pretty enthralled by the heartbeat and likes to tell me that he heard the baby and we are so excited to be welcoming a little girl into our family!

I just want to write down a couple of the things that have been going on so I can remember them later:

• I am 19 weeks 
• I've gained 4 lbs
• I constantly want salad, baked potatoes or sushi (cooked for this mamma)
• I finally felt this baby moving last night and then all morning

We're pretty excited about this, and now we get to start deciding on a name! Hooray!

This one's for Laura

I heard ya girl.

I'm only too happy to help you kill time while you're working ;)


For the rest of ya'll who are a little lost on that one, I'm terribly sorry I've been a little absent on thee 'ol blog lately.

I don't really have any good excuses except that I didn't really have much to report.

I mean I guess that isn't true, but sometimes daily life seems a little mundane and I don't really want to rehash it out in writing. Know what I mean?

I suppose I'll start by telling you that we are still chugging away on our debt payoff. In fact today I added up the numbers, just for fun, and I was shocked. Shocked I tell you. Want to know the current payoff number? okay. I'll tell you.

$10,316.07

TEN THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED SIXTEEN DOLLARS AND SEVEN CENTS.

WHAT THE FREAK!!!!!?????


I can't even believe it.

Seriously. I'll break it down for you. Keep in mind, these totals are from our initial amounts in February.

We owe Darrell's dad money for fronting us the money for our down payment so we've payed him back $2,672.21
We payed off two different credit cards totaling $3,607.33 and $1,011.84
We've payed down my student loan $195.90
We've payed $2,003.79 on our car loan (which we're planning on having payed off hopefully by December at the latest, 1.5 years early!!!)
and finally we've paid $825.00 in principle off our home loan since we refinanced and started repaying that in May

$10,316.07

Does that seem crazy to anyone else? seriously. I can't believe it.

And the craziest thing of all is that I've been stuck in this "pay the small debts off first" mode of thinking that suddenly we're almost out of small debts to pay. I didn't think we would ever even get to that point. Blows my mind I tell you.

So that was definitely motivation for us to keep on going. I mean, at this rate (assuming we don't accrue any other debt for anything ever, which in all honesty is not really possible considering we desperately need a new furnace, ours kept our house at a consistent 65 degrees last winter, and we're going to need a new car sooner than later and there will probably be unexpected things that come up) we would be completely debt free aside from our house in 3 years.

Have I talked this to death yet? Sorry, I'm just proud of us because we only earnestly started trying to get rid of the debt in February and I really didn't think we would have made that much progress so quickly.

In other news, I keep finding odd projects around the house to start (still suuuper bad at finishing them) and Liam keeps me on my toes, and I love him for it. He's just such a little bug that you can't help but love him!

Anyway, that's all for now! I'll try to update a little more on the regular ;)

Tub time

My kid is a cheese ball. Seriously. And the best happens in the tub. Today, while tubbing, he looked at me and said "poo-poo." I told him "no poo-poo's in the tub." His response? This smile:

A little peak into our life, thanks to my phone :)

Although I can't say I love when people document every second of their lives, I'm really glad that I have a phone that takes pictures because now instead of documenting NOTHING, I now have at least something :)

Just the usual

Today was a pretty average day for me. Woke up. Cut my bangs (cause apparently I like to do that, see?) went to Walgreens and snagged some awesome deals, went to Target and snagged a couple more then headed over to the DI. I just can't help it. I was feeling a little underwhelmed with the stuff there today but then I saw this older woman, haphazardly driving it through the store. The stroller. Now, its nothing like the ones I want to own, (but lets face it, I'm not going to have $1,110 at my disposal anytime soon!) but it had a solid frame and needed minimal repairs to be usable. I followed the lady around for a while hoping that she would decide she didn't want it and guess what?! She left in the aisle and walked away. Free game. I hustled my bum over there and was stoked to see the price tag at $20! I have big plans for this little beauty! I called my mom to tell her what I found and she says "What ever would you need a double stroller for????" and I said, "Nothing yet, but someday I'll probably need it...". Yeah, she was a little dissapointed that I wasn't making a "big announcment" I think. Oh well.

Okay and here are the deals I picked up from Walgreens and Target. I'm pretty pleased with how everything turned out. I paid $5.65 for about $36 of merchandise at Walgreens, and $4.54 for $12.36 from Target. I would have been lower at Target but I just really love Herbal Essences products for curly hair. They work so well that I am willing to pay a little extra for them :) My total savings was  74%. Not too shabby :)

(don't mind my disasterous craft room in the backroom...)

I have a couple other projects in the works. Actually, let me rephrase that. I have a couple projects left to finish other projects that have been in the works for quite some time now. AND I started re-lining my kitchen shelves and drawers. What a terrible chore. Really. I think I will replace the paper.... oh when it starts ripping. And even then, I think I'll be a little hesistant. I hate it that much. Anyway, the five cupboards I got done look muuuuuch better now :)

That's all for now :)

Life lately...

...according to my phone pictures

1. Someone taught him how to climb in the dog kennel. 2.

dear everyone

my baby is a boy.

i know, i know, he has long hair. long curly hair. ringlets. i know. i get it, its adorable hair.

hair that you would want (dream) for any little girl to have.

my  child, however is a boy.

i try to emphasize this by dressing him in "boy" colors, you know, green, grey, blue...

i have resigned myself to the very real possibility that if and hopefully when i do have a girl, she will probably be bald.


so thank you, kind older lady and sweet baby loving men, thank you for telling me my baby is such a beautiful girl, but he is a boy.  and his curls will stay until i'm ready to get rid of them.

Double

So get this. A couple days ago I was making husband some eggs. I cracked one open and there it was. A double yolked egg. I called husband over to take a peek. It was cool.

Today I'm making eggs and it happened again. Totally serious.

It's a sign...

FIRST DAY!!!

The day has arrived! I have been scared to say anything because it might be jinxed. Or it might be too good to be true... Or I don't know what might happen, but if I say something it just might not.

BUT

It is here. The background check has cleared, the tax form filled and the insurance options... almost picked. DARRELL HAS A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember back when I had a *bad* day? Well, it was followed by a few terrible days, some stressful ones but quite a bit of fun too. And we managed to go to nearly 10 job interviews between the two of us.

And now Darrell has a job at Verizon Wireless! I'm thrilled :D I'm ecstatic! And just for good measure I took a first day of work picture and guess what? Baby boy looks pretty excited too!

sorry, they are kinda crummy... we were in a hurry...

GO GET 'EM D!!!!!

and today's a new day

Don't fret, I'm much better today than I was yesterday!

We got a bit of terrible news that set our plans back... well indefinitely until a source of income can once again be located :)

The great things is, and my mom will be thrilled for me to agree, when one door closes another one opens.

A few new opportunities have presented themselves just when we need them the most. A dear friend of mine and family members are helping us more than they will ever know.

And husband and I? Well we're tough. Things work. Eventually. And not always like we want them to. We smile and be grateful for the little things.

We might not have alot, but what we do have is enough for now.

In the meantime we'll spend lots of time on our knees, and keep moving forward

Lately

I have collected about a billion projects.

I got this adorable fabric.

I found some stellar chairs at the DI.

And another one to craft with...

And I am trying to help my little garden grow.

I have a flower bed that has magically re-appearing grass in it.

Our Tracer keeps tricking us into thinking it will die... but then doesn't.

I made my first window valance.

Now I need to make another one...

I sew. All. Day. Long.

My baby is adorable.
and hilarious and cute and cuddly and funny and loveable and squishable and huggable and perfect and wonderful and SUCH A NUGGET!

My life is wonderful.

do you ever feel like you are holding disaster off with your pinky finger?

its so close to attcking and all you can do is close your eyes and stick your finger out because every other limb, hand, foot, finger and toe is busy taking care of all the other things swirling around?

all it takes is a snap and everything you want will come crashing down around you. and then you are left missing a finger and a huge mess to clean up.

i do.

and as luck would have it, the reason i only have one finger left is because my good ol' car, the one i knew wouldn't last more than a year anyway, is now on its way out the door. months ahead of schedule.

and all the other pieces of life that i need to just balance out and take care of themselves are now acting like little boy. fussy, drooly and congested. life must be trying to get some teeth out too cause it's being really annoying.

i know things are going to work out. i know they will. and the temple worker last night gave a beautiful prayer that i think was just for me and husband. he addressed almost all of our concerns. heavenly father loves us, he just wants us to be grown ups now and figure it out.

i'm sure it will work. it always has so far. keep your fingers (if have any extra) crossed for us!

this will be mine!

View Larger Map

Sorry its a little blurry... its the only picture I have.

BUT

in about a month (fingers crossed)

we will sign the papers and this little beauty will be ours!

gr.

you know how once in a while you get to the point where you just don't want to deal with it anymore? you know, it. that one thing. the one you can handle for a long time but then you just can't anymore?

i know how it is.

good thing husband will listen to me vent a little bit.

he's pretty great.

seriously, so blessed!

Okay, okay, I don't really like to admit when I am stalking a blog. You know, reading it silently, gleaning information about strangers. But. If you want a good laugh, read the blog Seriously, so blessed!. It is hilarious. Don't take it seriously, its not meant to be taken that way. Its a joke. I wish I could be her. Literally.

Anyway, I seriously am like the luckiest girl in the world though. You know back when I talked about building blocks? Well we had another DOOZY come into our lives last thursday and my life has officially changed! (no I'm not pregnant. DEATH is not a GOOD change, because that would KILL ME) Anyway, I will write more about this building block at a later date, but I'm just waiting to see where the blocks will fall. I think this could be the best thing that could have happened at this time. Time will tell :D

hope (ful)

you know that moment when life gets just a little bit too stressful to think about?

you know, you start to think,

things are going great now but...
how will this work when...
what if i don't...
what if you don't...
what if we don't...

that moment?

the one that strikes at 2 in the morning after husband just got home from work? and we're both so tired that it just happens? and it won't stop?

it seems that moment is followed by one that goes,

i found out that!!!!
they said i could do!!!
a year from now i could be!!!
a year from now you will be!!!
a year from now we will be!!!

and then suddenly all hope is restored and all those fears just seem to melt away.

i really like those moments.

ps: i just love fall.

building blocks

you know the moment when it seems that all those little pieces start fitting together? like building blocks? like you plan where you want it to go and then unexpectedly something you think might be bad happens but then when you really look at it and figure out how that thing is going to fit in you realize that it really will work and then you can keep on building? well my life has been a little like that lately. so husband and i bought a car. not just any car, a pretty car. a nissan maxima car. its a 2005 and its b-e-a-utiful!!! i love it. that was definitely an unexpected building block... inspired by yet another unexpected one... but things are good. and the unexpected things? well i think they just give our fort a little character. thats all. oh and don't worry... i haven't forgotten to tell you my secret... i'm just waiting for the right time :)

a list

i think i should write a list for the things that i am grateful for.

there are lots of them.

• i have a wonderful husband.
• my family loves me
• i have a job and i earn a paycheck (there are too many people who don't)
• i have a washer and a dryer.
• i have food to eat
• i have clothes to wear
• i can see
• i can hear
• i am not uncomfortable in anyway, shape or form
• i have a couch to sit on
• and running water
• which means i have a flushing toilet and not an outhouse
• i have a warm bed
• on that note, i have a place to live
• my husband loves me
• and cares for me

there are more but i think i'll stop.

what are you grateful for?