First Snow

Here's what we woke up to this morning:



A light dusting of snow. The first feeling that overcame me when I looked out the window was dread. While I grew up loving the winter, over the past few years I've started to hate it. The loooooonnnnnnnggggggggggg, dark, cold days. The treacherous driving conditions. The claustrophobia of feeling trapped inside all the time. But ya know what? I quickly pushed away that feeling of dread and made myself instead embrace the excitement of winter and all it brings with it. Here is what I am choosing to focus on instead...

• Thanksgiving is right around the corner (YUMMO!) and so is Christmas!!! And who doesn't love Christmas?
• My b-day is also just a couple weeks away and I still get giddy thinking about it (even though I'll be a year closer to the end of my 20s)
• Ugg boots on my feetsies!
• Can't wait to build snowmen and make snow angels with Leila Jade this year
• Christmas cookies! Pumpkin pie! And HOT chocolate! (Remember, I have a MAJOR sweet tooth these days)
• Lots-o-family time and LOVIN' in the air

Speaking of hot chocolate... this is what I am currently enjoying as I type this up and my little ones sleep. Life is good.

I've been much better about "living in the moment" since my last post. Writing out my feelings and goals makes me so much more likely to change my ways - I highly recommend this to everyone.

In other news...

Leila Jade got to feed her baby bro for the first time yesterday! And she loved every second of it.



Okay, maybe she didn't love the picture taking part of it...

35 weeks

Well, I think it's a downhill slide from here - only 5 weeks to go!



Pregnancy tid-bits for this week...

• I'm...so...tired...not really sure what to say today.
• My body is sore. See yesterday's post. I feel like I'm ready to be done being pregnant, but at the same time I love it. I'm tired of the aches and pains and the tossing and turning at night and the million and one pees throughout the day. BUT, I love knowing that there is someone growing inside me. I love feeling his little kicks. And basically, I just love being fat for a change.
• Made a pretty hefty error on something at work and I blamed my pregnancy. That's ok, right? Well, I really do feel like I've been out of it lately, so I'm going with YES, IT'S TOTALLY OK.
• The crazy pregnancy dreams are getting even cRaZiEr! The other night I seriously dreamed about placentas ALL night long. I kept dreaming that Andy was either trying to eat my placenta or trying to compound it at his pharmacy into a vitamin we could take at home. Soooo weird. I mean, I know people really do things like this, but it just isn't for me.
• I'm finally entering nesting mode. I've washed and folded a bunch of the 0-3 month clothes, got the crib all ready, cleaned our infant car seat, and started putting together a diaper bag. However, I still have a lot of progress to make on my original BIG ticket pre-baby to-do list....

Speaking of my pre-baby to-do list, here's where I stand right now...

• Clean out the garage and GET RID OF CRAP!
• Organize the office (without spending ANY $). I would love to turn it into my little craft room.
• Put my jewelry making supplies to use! I need to complete a trial run before baby gets here! But I need the office organized first!
• Sew blankie #2 for little man along with burp rags with leftover fabric.
• Sit down and have a serious budget talk with the hubby. We need to discuss ways to control our spending better ASAP.
• At the same time, convince hubby to let me spend lots of $ on stuff I need for baby... cloth diapers/wipes, wet bags, diaper sprayer, new breast pump kit, ergo baby carrier, & I really want a Kindle/Nook (ok, so maybe this one has nothing to do with baby... he he).
• Figure out plan for when/if I return to work... I need to talk to hubby and the boss man... part time? full time? not at all? I have some serious thinking & figuring out to do.

Not too bad, eh? I did indeed sit down with the hubby the other night and talk finances. However, the only conclusion we came to is that we spend WAY too much money on food. At the store, at restaurants, everywhere. I guess we just love to eat. I won't even tell you how much we spent on food last month because it'll make you sick. This talk took place after we got a quote for a monthly/bi-monthly house cleaning from a local maid service. With our spending habits the way they are right now the maid thang ain't gonna happen. So, we are going to try to cut back on food spending (hello organized shopping lists and coupon clipping!), maybe cut our cable out completely, and try to trim down our cell phone bill. Any EASY money saving tips out there?

Funny thing is that right after our money talk (i.e. the next day) I did a little online shopping and bought the remaining big ticket items on my baby to-do list... more diapers, diaper sprayer, ergo carrier, wet bags. All necessities, though!

Now I have 5 weeks to get the office in shape, make some jewelry, and decide what to do about work. However, I have to be honest that the work thing probably won't get done until after baby comes. I just don't know yet. I need to see and feel how my life is with 2 kiddos at home. Stay tuned...

Get 'er done!

Sometimes you have to waste away a beautiful summer weekend to just get 'er done. With only 3 weekends with my hubby off work left until our new little bundle arrives, I need to make the most of having him around. So, what did we do over this most glorious and HOT HOT HOT weekend? We tackled the basement and garage. Fun times I tell ya!

Beautiful pile-o-crap (& shirtless hubby) in basement BEFORE...


Basement AFTER (still not a "pretty" basement, but at least it's organized now!)...


Hideous, disorganized garage BEFORE...



Hideous, now somewhat organized, garage AFTER...



Leila Jade had fun with sidewalk chalk in the garage while mommy & daddy worked...


So, basically we still have some work to do, but we made some serious progress! Highlights of our cleaning spree included finding a bag of my old maternity clothes that will get put to good use over the next few weeks and finding a box of old love letters from my hubby. Lowlights included the MANY nasty spiders we encountered along the way - creepy! In the end it was a painful task to take on (especially in nearly 100 degree weather), but worth it.

Our weekend wasn't ALL work, though. We had some fun, too! My momma and I went and saw The Help (OMG, tears galore... & I thought the book was a tear jerker!) then the hubby & I took Leila to the park to play on the splash pad and get ice cream (totally forgot my camera for the best part of the weekend, grrrr). Here are a couple of more pics I captured this weekend...

Leila crying in frustration because she can't figure out how to tie daddy's shoes...


Hot Weather + Cold Popsicle = 1 Happy Girl


As for my Pre-Baby To-Do List, I get to cross another item off - YAY! Here's where I'm at...

• Clean out the garage and GET RID OF CRAP!
• Organize the office (without spending ANY $). I would love to turn it into my little craft room.
• Put my jewelry making supplies to use! I need to complete a trial run before baby gets here! But I need the office organized first!
• Sew blankie #2 for little man along with burp rags with leftover fabric.
• Sit down and have a serious budget talk with the hubby. We need to discuss ways to control our spending better ASAP.
• At the same time, convince hubby to let me spend lots of $ on stuff I need for baby... cloth diapers/wipes, wet bags, diaper sprayer, new breast pump kit, ergo baby carrier, & I really want a Kindle/Nook (ok, so maybe this one has nothing to do with baby... he he).
• Figure out plan for when/if I return to work... I need to talk to hubby and the boss man... part time? full time? not at all? I have some serious thinking & figuring out to do.

The weekend is over, but I'm feeling good... I'm feeling a productive week ahead! :-)

2 Month To-Do's

The pressure is on. In a little over 2 months I will have a brand new human being to take care of. I will have even less time in the day than I do now - and I already struggle with lack of time to get stuff done! Sooooooooooooo, I've decided to create a to-do list to focus on before our little man arrives. I am going to push myself to accomplish these things. Sure, most of it is boring... just crap that I've been meaning to do. But it needs to get done.

Here it is...

• Clean out the garage and GET RID OF CRAP!
• Organize the office (without spending ANY $). I would love to turn it into my little craft room.
• Put my jewelry making supplies to use! I need to complete a trial run before baby gets here! But I need the office organized first!
• Sew blankie #2 for little man along with burp rags with leftover fabric.
• Sit down and have a serious budget talk with the hubby. We need to discuss ways to control our spending better ASAP.
• At the same time, convince hubby to let me spend lots of $ on stuff I need for baby... cloth diapers/wipes, wet bags, diaper sprayer, new breast pump kit, ergo baby carrier, & I really want a Kindle/Nook (ok, so maybe this one has nothing to do with baby... he he).
• Figure out plan for when/if I return to work... I need to talk to hubby and the boss man... part time? full time? not at all? I have some serious thinking & figuring out to do.

Okay, I think that'll do for now. By putting this list out there for all to see I am putting pressure on myself to GET. IT. DONE.

A glimpse at what is currently distracting me from tackling my to-do list...


On another, happy note... guess what? Just found out the my hubby gets 3 WEEKS of paid paternity leave!!! How cool is that? I am SOOOOO excited to get to spend 3 whole, uninterupted weeks together as a family of 5 (counting our doggy, Billy Dee, of course!). It is going to be fantabulous!

So, what's on your current to-do list?

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