The latest...

So, a quick thanks to my newest blog friends who dared take the challenge and post on my blog. I'll get around to adding you to the list soon. Seriously, though, I am excited!

In other news, Patrick came home from work early yesterday with the somewhat unfortunate news that he lost his job. In some ways, it was an answer to prayers, and I've really been feeling a mix of emotions, but gratitude is a big one. He's been unhappy there for a long time (like probably since last fall) and has turned down a few offers in the past few months, so he's already been looking around. There really were a lot of factors that went into all of this. In so many ways I feel relief- relief that my husband won't come home stressed everyday because he's hating his job and that he doesn't have to wake up everyday and go to a job he hates! I'd say I'm a pretty optimistic person (with a definite sarcastic vein that I try to overcome), but I think I need to make a list of all the reasons this is a good thing for us:
1. Quality (and quantity!) family time that we've missed with an overworked husband/dad.
2. No more 30 minute each way commute (at least for now).
3. We finally have time to get around to house projects that we haven't had time for. Maybe I should start unpacking some more boxes from when we moved in....almost 2 years ago... We already started on this one tonight with some serious weed pulling in what will someday be our garden.
4. I can go to the store by myself if I so desire!
5. Patrick can find a job that he actually enjoys doing. I really do feel good about this. We've been feeling the need to make a change for a while, but I've never met anyone more loyal than my husband, and he really felt guilty when he'd think about quitting. This way, he has no guilt, and can move on. He's also extremely talented in his field. When I say he's in the computer industry, think geek. Geek is good in this realm. I really don't think he'll have trouble finding work, he's at the point in his career that we feel we can be a little bit selective in what we're wanting, and that is a great feeling.
6. We have enough savings to make it for a little while, and won't (hopefully) be left in ruins. We will, however, have to curb our spending in ways we probably should anyway (yes, no more big shopping sprees for a bit). It will force me to stick to my menus and budget- a definite good thing to learn!
7. We have no schedule! Yes, he'll be looking for a job and hopefully interviewing a lot of the time, but we can go to the park, the pool, the library, a picnic, a hike, whenever we want!
8. We can truly magnify our callings right now. There are no excuses to hold us back from giving great amounts of service. We also have more time to devote to attending the temple, reading our scriptures, and other things we should be doing but may not always be doing with the greatest diligence.
9. We will grow closer as a couple and a family. Not only because we'll be spending more time together, but also because we'll be relying more on each other.
10. We will be embracing change and the blessings that come from positive changes.

When he got home yesterday, I was completely shocked, but also extremely angry at his boss. I still am, and it comes in waves, but I'm doing much better. I had a vivid dream last night that his boss's family needed a place to stay and asked to come stay at our house. We kind of avoided each other in the house, until they were leaving in the morning, and I totally lit into his boss about what a big jerk he was, etc. I could recall our conversation so clearly. Then, I started hitting him over and over and he was just standing there. I think I realized upon waking up and reflecting on it that being angry really only hurts myself, not him at all. I've learned this lesson before in my life, but it's good to learn it again. I've felt very vindictive in this situation, and it really hasn't been pretty. But I'm praying for peace and calm. I'm really trying to get past what's happened, and just focus on what's ahead and enjoying this time we have to take a break and spend time together. So please, don't worry about us. Really, we'll be fine. This is a trial and a blessing all rolled into one, but then, isn't it really always like that? Thanks for listening/reading. I'll keep you posted. Oh, and another silver lining is that with Pat home, Addie took a nap today ;)

No naps and blog stalkin'...

Well, the biggest development over the past two days is no naps. That's right, folks, Addie has decided she's had enough. After 2 days of battles where Addie has gotten physical and I've tried hard not to, I think afternoon naps for Addie are becoming a thing of the past. I honestly don't know how I will survive. I can't wait until 2:00 rolls around and I finally have a little time to myself, sometimes with Sam, but usually at least an hour to myself. I've tried explaining to her that if she's not napping, she needs to have quiet time, which involves playing or looking at books quietly in her room. I told her that I need to not be mommy during a few hours every afternoon, and that it's really better for both of us if she can cooperate on the matter. Instead, she's decided she wants to be in my hip pocket. Today I finally said I was taking a nap, so she turned on the tv in my room and sat next to me, patting me, while I dozed for half an hour. I am really not ready for this. Really really not ready for this. It wouldn't be so bad if she'd go to bed a lot earlier because of it, but so far we've only managed to move bedtime up half an hour. Please tell me how I'm going to stay sane. I think I need to go get that Healthy Sleep Habits book pronto! Maybe tomorrow while Addie's not napping, we can go to the bookstore to get it.

In other news, I have become a serious blog stalker. I'm so glad that my small circle of blogging friends have long lists of blogging friends, and their friends have other long lists of blogging friends, and on and on. Honestly, who knew there were so many interesting/hilarious/random people out there documenting their lives in a similar manner. So, a challenge to those of you who are stalking my blog. Make yourselves known. Leave a comment. I dare you! Help my list grow so I have new blogs to snoop, and your long list of friends to snoop too! I promise to try to learn new blogging skills to make my blog more visually appealing. I promise to make a real effort to get out of the house and stop blog snooping so I have more interesting things to blog about. And I promise to sharpen my social skills so my charming, witty, and all around personable self will be seen in every post. Ok, maybe that last one is a little ambitious. But you don't have to tell me I'm funny. I know I'm funny. I've lived with myself for 25 years. I am DANG funny! You would only know how funny that is if you went to college with me :) In all seriousness, come out and play, blog stalkers. It's a lot more fun playing in the playground than it is peeking through the fence!

And now I need to go to bed to make up for the naps I'm missing since Addie is missing them too. Good night, everybody!

Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink...

Have you ever done something that caused big problems, but the only person you had to blame was yourself? That was my day yesterday. I was looking up a recipe, when suddenly I turned to see almost an inch of water covering my kitchen floor. I realize it's also in my laundry room, and thought yay, maybe I'll get the new washer I'm needing. No, this was self-induced. I was doing laundry all day, and decided I needed to soak some of the kids' clothes to aid in stain removal. I had turned on the laundry sink, and then Sam started crying. I went to get him and completely forgot about the laundry sink. By the time I realized it, I had filled my laundry room, kitchen, and water went through the air ducts and poured into part of my basement. What a nightmare! Addie had just woken up, so I called my SIL and ran the kids over there so I could work on the disaster. I called Patrick and told him to come home from work, and then called my neighbors to see if they had a shop vac I could use. Luckily, the did and brought it over. The little girl at that house ran and told our other neighbors, so they showed up with tons of towels ready to help. Water had gotten so many places we pulled out the washer, dryer, fridge, and stove just to get it all up. One neighbor helped Pat drill holes in the sub-floor and the air ducts to drain more water. I was so relieved that within about 1 1/2 hours, we were done! The worst part is that it got under my island, but there's no way for us to get under the island, so water just keeps seeping out. We ended up eating dinner at my SIL's. When we got there, Sam had screamed almost the whole time. I felt terrible that I had dumped him on her and then he was so unhappy. I think I felt the worst because so many people helped (paid) all because of my carelessness. So Mel, I can relate to your problem of floods, but I did it to myself! AARGH!
Here's hoping that today is better than yesterday!

My Menu for the Week

Hopefully if I post it, I'll be more likely to stick to it!

Monday: hamburgers, orzo pasta salad, fruit
Tuesday: chicken caesar salad. bread
Wednesday: pork tacos, beans, cilantro-lime rice
Thursday: eating with the out of town relatives
Friday: homemade pizza (I'm excited to try some new crust recipes from the MC cookbook!), salad
Saturday: leftovers or breakfast for dinner
Sunday: risotto, salad

A Shopping Fool

So, please, seriously, somebody stop me. I go through spurts with shopping. I'm good for a while, and reign in my spending, and then it seems like the floodgates open and all of my pent up shopping energy is unleashed. There are definitely certain times of year when I get this way, and late summer is one of them. Another one is the beginning of spring, when spring apparel is hitting the stores, and I want it to be warm so much that I buy into the marketing ploy- buying this stuff will make it seem warmer, sooner! Of course mid-fall is another, when I'm really picking up tempo with Christmas shopping, and fall linens and serve-ware seems so necessary for upcoming holiday meals. I've never figured out how to include pics in my blog without it dragging from the site and taking a million years to load, so I'm going to enter unchartered territory and see if I can share with you some of my finds. If not, I'll just post the links (another never before tried feat), and you can go see for yourself.

First deal of the week is the amazing steals at e.l.f, or eyes lips face. Honestly, make-up for $1? Tweezers and brushes and lip gloss and blush and concealer for $1? I think this is a promo, and I'm not exactly sure when it ends, but I ordered around $35 in product! I'm usually a MAC girl, but honestly, who can pass up make-up for $1. Yes, it is sight unseen, which makes me a little leery, but if it's bad, at least I'm only out $1, right? Or $35...oh yeah :) I ordered a few lip gloss sets to give as gifts (5 glosses in a set for $5) because what glamor girl doesn't love a little gloss in her life. Anyway, next deals....

I've gone crazy Addie shopping, but she really was in desperate need of clothes. First, I found the cutest dress on the planet, and luckily it was on sale, putting it into the more reasonable price range. Check this out...the New Growth Dress in pale blue from Olive Juice Kids.
The blue is actually much different looking from the pic (not so turquoise-y), and I'll have to post a pic soon of Addie in the dress- it was adorable at church today! I love dressing a girl!
Friday night I got roped into a shopping trip, but they didn't have to twist my arm too
hard. My husband's aunt is in town, so my sister-in-law, niece, mother-in-law, aunt-in-law (is that even a term), and his 2 cousins were out for a night on the town. We went to Naartjie, and I came home with a bagful o' stuff. They're having their summer clearance, so all of the already marked down items were an extra 30% off! I had over 12 items in my bag and had only spent $60. Of course, I also bought a couple of full-priced items for fall, but they were begging me to give them a new home in Addie's closet. I think I may have to go back this week to exchange a couple sizes, but I really was thrilled with my purchases.

I also bought some adorable sheets at Target that I think will go great with the new quilt I'm planning to get Addie. It's been almost a year since she's been in her twin bed, and I've yet to commit to a bedding set...until now. My MIL made adorable curtains for her room- white with green embroidered polka-dots and a scalloped green edge. I'll have to take pics soon and post them, honestly, so sweet. So, I found the perfect new quilt from Pottery Barn Kids- I'm planning to get it in pink, but take a peek! It reverses to white with green polka dots, exactly like her curtains. The sheets I got are green with white polka dots- too cute! Maybe Pat and I will make it up to Trolley Square this week so I can finally start putting her room together more. I should take before and after pics. She really needs a new dresser, so I'm keeping my eyes peeled at some of the locally owned cutesy furniture shops.

My last big purchases of the weekend came from the Anniversary Sale at Nordstrom. I knew I needed some new shoes, so I threw Addie in the car at 8 last night (when really she should have been going to bed soon after) and let her have a girl's night out of shopping with me. It's amazing when you have two how much you kind of miss doing things with your kids individually. Sometimes it's nice to go out with just her instead of hefting Sam along too. Anyhow, I've been trying to get some exercise motivation so that I can shed the 5 pounds I gained in the past 2 weeks. Yeah, they've been some stressful weeks. Here are my cute new running shoes, and here are my old reliable Dansko's in black, although this time I branched out and bought the mary-jane style instead of the closed-back clog. The really cool thing with the running shoes is that you can buy some sort of nike-ipod sport pack that includes a sensor you put into your shoe, and then it talks to your ipod to tell you how far you've gone, how fast, how many calories burned, etc. Not that I'm getting it in the near future, but honestly, how cool is that. If I'm going to make myself do some sort of physical activity, I'd love a cool high-tech way to track my progress. Or maybe Patrick's love for useful gadgets is rubbing off on me.

So now that I've spent all our money, I need to commit to eating at home for a while as penance. Maybe tomorrow I'll post my menu for the week in hopes it will make me more dedicated to stick to it. But if you want to go shopping, let me know ;)

Ok, I'll play...

I decided it was time for me to get in on one of these blogging my personal trivia crazes so you can get to know me. Thanks, Lupe, for tagging the general public. I guess I could admit to blog snooping Carey, so I've really been tagged twice. Without further ado...

4 JOBS I'VE HAD

1) 8th grade United States history teacher. Good times...

2) General Services at the Missionary Training Center. I refer to it as my mission since I worked there for 2 years. When I started the missionaries were still cute, and I was only 19. When I left, I realized missionaries really aren't as cool as I'd always believed. Now, I can't believe I ever thought they were cool (and with a brother on a mission I have license to say it)! I worked with some amazing people here too, one of them my best friend and roommate in college.

3) Human Resources Assistant at the Alpine School District Office. It was in between school years, and such a funny job, but working with some great ladies.

4) Hospital "Office Worker". I started as a scheduler in Diagnostic Imaging, and while there worked as a scheduler in Physical Therapy,and also in admitting, medical records, and as a pbx operator. By far one of my most fun jobs, especially because I worked with one of my best friends.



4 PLACES I'VE LIVED

1) Enola, PA

2) Meridian, ID

3) Provo, UT

4) Lehi, UT


4 FOODS I LOVE (Maybe I can make this a topic of another post only change it to 40 foods I love. I'm still not sure that would be enough...)

1) Ice cream. I've had a love affair with this most splendid of foods from a young age. I'm fairly confident I could out-eat anyone reading this blog in an ice cream eating contest. LOVE it! Words honestly aren't expressing here the depth of feelings.

2) Pork Tacos. Easy recipe, delicious results. Honestly, who doesn't love taco night?

3) Avocados- I love them in salads, in tacos, in guacamole, by themselves. It's "good fat", right?

4) Hamburgers. I could eat a good burger every night of the week. I especially love grilling them at home during the summer and having them with tomato straight from the vine. So delicious.



4 WEB SITES I FREQUENT

1) Blogs. I've turned into quite the blog snooper. I never knew what I was missing out on!

2) Martha Stewart. I have dreams of being a domestic goddess. I pretend I am when I visit this site. They have some great recipes, and cute project ideas.

3) USBank. I'm constantly keeping track of my spending.

4) Utah Real Estate. No, we're not moving, but I think once you've looked for houses, you'll always have the bug.




4 Places I'd rather be:

1) at the mall- I have some serious shopping to do. The Anniversary sale is almost over.

2) in Boise. My friend Amy had the day off today and wanted me to come visit, but the thought of the drive with 2 kids by myself just wasn't appealing.

3)in Seattle. Beautiful and fun!

4) in Hawaii- I think maybe we're going next year, and I'm getting so excited!




4 MOVIES THAT I LIKE

1) Clue- So many great one-liners, what's not to love?

2) Stranger Than Fiction- who doesn't love a dark comedy

3) The Sound of Music- I used to believe I was Julie Andrews.

4) You've Got Mail-I'd like to be the cute person that Meg Ryan plays in this movie. She always has on such great skirts.



4 TV SHOWS I WATCH:

1) The Office

2) Numbers (every other Friday when we're not out on a date)

3) America's Test Kitchen- only if I happen to catch it on a Saturday on PBS, but I love it.

4) So You Think You Can Dance- yes, this is one of my guilty pleasures


There you have it. I'm serious, look for an upcoming blog entitled 40 foods I love. I wish that I ate to live instead of lived to eat, but alas, food is a passion.

The not quite weekend update

Sorry, I'm not Seth Meyers or Amy Poehler, but I'll try to suffice for this mid-week update. I've had hard days with Addie, nights that were too short leaving me tired in the morning, and I'm ready for the weekend.
Tuesday I did go on a cleaning rampage, and I was really motivated this time to maintain the state of cleanliness we'd achieved. Then Addie woke up the next day. I swear, if I didn't have a toddler who was also intent on organizing, just in a very different system than my own, my house would be immaculate! Instead, art supplies, toys, stuffed animals, diapers, and clothes are constantly trading places around my house, making it quite a sad site. I did have an epiphany while cleaning, though. I caught a glimpse of myself maintaining my perfectly neat house 30 years down the road when all the kids are gone, and I realized that it will be a sad day when my house stays clean because it's not full of kids. So, I'm trying more to revel in the mess, realizing the joy of children that it symbolizes. Take out all the toys, Addie! Unravel the tp! It's mess-making time! And then, after you're in bed, I'll clean it all up and we can do it again tomorrow. As long as you stay little enough to keep making the mess, I won't complain about cleaning it up. Oh, if only it were that easy to keep the kiddos small. It's so fun to watch them learn and grow, but I have to say, I already mourn the day when we will no longer have a baby in the house. Pat and I were talking when we were out for our anniversary last week about the joys of having kids and the reasons we want more. Who knows what the number will be, but I told him that when we're finished, I really hope it's clear as a bell that our family is complete, because I know it will be hard for me to realize that we're closing that chapter, even though we'll be moving to another good place. Sheesh, I don't usually get this sappy until night, and it's not even 9 am. If this is a sign of things to come today, I'd like to go back to bed :)
We had book club Tuesday which was fun, nothing much to report about. Our numbers are small so far with only 5 committed members, but it was only our 2nd month. Hopefully we'll get a few more good recruits from our struggling ward population.
In other kid news, Sam decided to take off yesterday. He rolled over a few months ago, but apparently didn't like it, so he'd stopped. Yesterday, he took off again. I couldn't put him on the floor and walk away before he'd rolled over again. I know, I should be excited at this milestone day, but really, it breeds a feeling of dread on several fronts.
1. He's growing up (see above section on my love for having a baby in the house).
2. He's that much closer to getting to chase-mode. I guess I need to dust off my running shoes, or maybe just buy a new pair- I always can find an excuse for new shoes!
3. He's stealing my precious computer time because after about 5 minutes on his tummy, he's done and screaming for some assistance.
I needed to make it to the grocery store yesterday, but we struggled to make it out of the house, which just happens some days. It's usually on the days that I end up getting completely ready, so that means I kind of look a little scrubby (showered, just not freshly washed and styled hair) on the days we do make it out of the house. So, I think we'll venture out today, although wouldn't you know it, it looks rainy and overcast. There's nothing more fun than hauling groceries and 2 kids around. It's not bad upon arriving home, it's getting everything into the car to come home that's the worst. Maybe I'll actually take the poor baggers up on their offer to help me to my car. It's probably the liberated woman in my that always says no thanks, and the fact that I don't want to embarrass the scrawny 15 year old boy when I' m showing him up hefting my groceries. But yes, today, a-grocery-ing we'll go. And I do love summer rain, so it's a good excuse to be out, I suppose.
I need to keep fighting the good fight of laundry that I've been working on all week. I think I'll make meatball sandwiches tonight for dinner. I think I salivated just typing that. Meatballs were a huge craving for me while pregnant with Sam. It must be Patrick's Italian heritage (MIL's parents both immigrated from Italy) that gave my little man child such strong desires for a good meatball. And then he was born with red hair. Don't you love genetics?
Ok, that about wraps it up around here. I'm Christina, and this has been your mid-week update.