Roomba Baby!

Just sat down and started channel surfing. First I saw this and thought, "how appropriate! Fit's right in with the theme of my week!"





And then I saw this - A Roomba!

Wouldn't this be so fun to have? It senses things we don't even see (according to the lady on HSN). I could go to sleep at night and in the morning my floors would be crumb free! Why don't I have this now? It would be like having a housekeeper that we never see or pay!

The Saga Continues

Woke up this morning to Baker saying goodbye. Then he came back and told me baby boy was on the couch sleeping. Uh oh. Yep, more puke. It was contained in his bed and he decided to move to the couch. Poor baby, he didn't even wake us. Anyhow. Enough posting about gross stuff. I find it ironic that this happened. I don't know of ANYONE who has ever gotten the flu twice in two weeks. I'm not mad, and I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining. I'm just letting you in to the irony of my little world that currently is just within the four walls of the flu house : )
So, that said, I need to find a new series to blog about - ha, ha!!!
I was reminded this morning that everyday, even the ones we didn't see coming or the days we thought we were through re-living are still the Lord's and he creates everyone.
Psalm 118:24 This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

'Tis the Season . . . (for flu)

2:00 AM Conversation With Baker

Groggily wake up to see it's the 2 am hour and wonder how long Luke has been in our bed.

Me to Baker: Are you putting him in bed? How long has he been in here?

Baker: Mummble, mummble . . .

Me: What?

Baker: He has a distinctive smell.

Me: What? What do you mean smell?

Baker: He just has a smell. Like vomit. Like he threw up.

(I'm now on my feet and out of bed). " HUH?"

Baker to Luke: Did you throw up?

Luke to Baker: I spit.

Baker to Luke: Did you throw up?

Luke to Baker: I spit.

(That was his story & he was stickin' to it.) I'm now down the hall and lookin' in Luke's bedroom. I start with the floor. You know the track record for this week. Nothin'. Mmmm. Look at the bed. Red puke. NOT AGAIN! I strip the bed, start the laundry. Brush Luke's teeth, wash his face & hands to help minimize the smell. Meanwhile Baker got him out of his jammies & into clean, fresh jammies. Back to bed we go. 'Course Luke's in our bed seeing as how his bed is naked. He keeps stirring. I notice he's rubbing his belly. Again. And again. And again. Several minutes go by. He's now sitting up and Baker tells him to lay down. I roll over & look at him. "Somethings not right. He's gonna throw up." Sure enough. Poor baby started dry heaving. He made it in the bowl. And then we went to the bathroom toilet. There's nothing like watching your two year old stand over the toilet with his head down dry heaving at 3am. So pitiful. I'd like to say that was the end of this story. But it's not. We awoke at 6:40am to Luke falling out of bed, hitting the bedside table, knocking over the lamp and crying. (disclaimer: we don't have a bed, we just have our mattresses on the floor. Therefore, Luke actually rolled out of bed). I picked him up and smelt something very foul. VERY foul. The other end. Great. It got on the bathroom rug. Change in jammies AGAIN. And more laundry to do today. Speaking of . . . I gotta go changed the loads in the washer.

An Affair to Remember

Yesterday was a good day. I did however use my carpet cleaner for the third day in a row. I have yet to put the thing away this week. I use it, tuck it aside upstairs & go about my day. Actually I had to leave in a hurry on Monday (see this post) and didn't have time to put it all away. But, that proved to be a good thing as Tuesday morning I had to use it again. Wednesday was lookin' good. All the way until the afternoon when after some unfortunate sippy cups dripped GRAPE juice upstairs in the carpet. Ick. I forgot to say in the infamous Monday post that the purple puke was GRAPE juice. I was about ready to ask for some good blogger friend help to get that stuff out of carpet, when it occured to me to use my favorite cleaner vs. Hoovers Carpet Stain Remover. My earth friendly, non-toxic cleaner in it's non-diluted form got the GRAPE juice out. PHEW!!! Hoover's spot cleaner - HUGE THUMBS DOWN. Unless you're looking to dye your carpet. Then use it. I guess you could say I'm extremely grateful for my carpet cleaner ESPECIALLY this week.

DISCLAIMER: The photo is just a representation of the actual carpet cleaner I use. Any similarities to my actual carpet cleaner is purely coincidental and the author does not accept responsibility for any mis-representation. LOL!

Just A Little Bit

If you didn't catch my post from yesterday. . . my long post, you might want to catch up. Today started out a little bit similar to yesterday. I again had to use the carpet cleaner in baby boy's room to clean up POOP. Yes, that's right. POOP. Diarrhea to be exact. So another bath, more carpet cleaning and wouldn't you know it, baby girl slept through it all. Right outside her door, her brother banging toys in the tub, yellin' and talkin' up a storm havin' a grand ole time. She slept until 9:30 am. And when she woke up she had crusty buggies under her nose. Poor baby. She slept a lot today and has a runny nose. I think her two front teeth are close to coming in. You can see them in the front and back of the gums. Just waiting for them to pop through the top. With baby girl sleeping a lot, I was able to get lots of laundry done. Even Mickey took a nice bath in the Whirlpool washer. It felt great to get so much done. However, I'm exhausted. We had our small group finance class tonight too. We need to complete an extensive budget. That should be interesting. But good. And I'm watching one of my fav shows - Biggest Loser. It was a great day. Even though it started out a little bit poopy.
Thanks a bunch to my new followers for the comments! I hope you have fun as you read about my little ventures as a mommy and in the journey to live a frugal life and become debt free!

Mon-Day, Mon-Day . . .

Today is the start of a new week. Let's re-cap the morning.

• Baby #1 woke us up at 5:30am gagging with that pre-puke sound. His nose was all stuffed up & he couldn't breath. He spit up in his beloved Binkie (blanket) & we had to quick find the other one. Put him in my bed, and after several minutes of squiggly two year old squirms . . . put him in his own bed. Not before giving him some juice to calm the dry throat.
• Awaken at 6:30(ish) to the sound of Baby #1 crying. But just for a moment. I hazily think that perhaps he heard daddy leaving for work downstairs & fall back asleep because the crying quit.
• Awaken shortly after 7am to get Baby #2 (who's fussing) up to feed her & start the day. On the way to her room I stop by Baby #1's room. Door is open, he's not in bed, and there appears to be something wet on the floor by the door. Look for Baby #1 and find him sleeping on the couch in the play room (right next to our room). Huh. Wonder what happen. Unplug vaporizer (that is suppose to be helping with the stuffy nose) and make a mental note to come back & clean up "wet mess."
• Get Baby #2 downstairs quickly before waking her brother, change diaper, prepare bottle & feed her. Lazily sitting in office chair with Baby girl watching the morning news. depressing. Here comes Baby #1. With purple stuff on his jammy shirt. Huh. Weird.
• Transfer laundry, start dryer. Start to load dishwasher. Notice foul smell coming from Baby #1. GROSS. Take him upstairs to put in bath because his diaper is THAT rotten. Run bath, get him in. Open his bedroom window to let in fresh air. Suddenly in the daylight notice that the "wet mess" is actually PURPLE PUKE. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
• Start by blotting purple spots with cleaner & dry cloth. Not working. Get spot remover. Treat & let sit for a while while I get carpet cleaner ready. Nothing worked. Check dryer. Clothes not dry. Restart.
• Get kids clothes. Wash baby boy's face & notice red dots covering his face. He broke blood vessels puking (just like his daddy does). Get baby boy out of tub. Baby girl is now pooping in her saucer. GROSS.
• Dress baby boy.
• Change baby girl's diaper. Dress baby girl.
• Put baby girl down for nap. Start folding towels. Fold 2 towels. Baby girl is crying too hard. Console her. Not working. Sit with her in rocker. Takes two minutes & she's out. Put her back in crib.
• Realize baby boy needs to eat breakfast. Or does he. Toast and warm apple juice. Toast for the tummy & warm juice for the throat. Besides clear juice is easier to clean up than curdled soymilk. Just in case. Make a quick protein shake for me.
• Shower. Dress. Baby boy comes wandering in to bathroom. STINKS.
• Change poopy diaper #3 (3 poopy diapers in under 3 hours).
• Load car.
• Answer phone call. Hairdresser calling to find out if I'm still coming to my appt. It's 10:10am. My appt is at 10:30. RIGHT? Oh, yeah. Sorry. See you then.
• Notice baby girl is sleeping on her tummy, sucking her thumb for the first time. Have to take pictures.
• Drop off kids at Grandma's. Baby boy crying.
• Late for appointment.

It's now Monday night. The towels still need to be folded & the dishes still need to be done. Sometimes that's just how it goes. There's always tomorrow.

Fashion 911

I was blog hopping the other day and found this site on fashion. I need all the help I can get these days. Transitioning from my twenties to my thirties and from working for a construction type company to being at home with my babies. Let's not forget a new body that's holdin' on to lots o love. Especially around the middle section that use to hold those babies in. I need to make best friends with the gym. Like yesterday. Anyhow, while I'm in the process of trying to eat better & healthier as well as move more I'm gonna need some transistion clothing that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. So I was very excited to see this post. I kinda like it, but would probably change the colors a little. What do you think? Do you have any new items that you're looking to add to your wardrobe for spring?

My Big Boy

Picture courtesy of: Aunt April

This is a classic pic of my baby. He wears glasses when he wants too. Not when you ask him too. He prefers crocs. His fav character of the year is Mickey. Yesterday he got dressed (for the day) in his flannel Mickey Mouse Christmas jammies. Seriously. I didn't want the hassle, so he won. Today, there were tears - lots of tears when I told him he couldn't wear his flannel Mickey Mouse button down pajama top with his jeans to go to his friend Wyatt's to play. So he found the Mickey shirt (the one in the pic) folded at the bottom of his laundry basket. That worked for me. A happy compromise. And a happy boy.

DO OVER

Last year in February Baker and I took a Financial Peace University Class. They were offering the class at our church and we joined. One of the best $100 we ever spent. Seriously. Changed our life. Our kids lives. Our future. And who could have guessed a year ago where Oregon's economy and unemployment rate would be at this time? Nothing is for sure and this class helps with financial priorities. So . . . were back again this year. Why? Because it's free for the rest of our lives and all the small groups in our church are participating in this class. We wanted to join a small group again. So we get to brush up on the material. Learn some more and practice what we were taught last year. If you want to change anything in your life in regards to your finances . . . whatever that may be I highly recommend this class. Just try it.

Barbie

When you were a little girl . . . did you play with Barbies? I loved playing with Barbies. Only, I didn't have any. My folks didn't allow them (to this day neither one can tell me why). My sister had Barbies. My friends had Barbies. My cousins had Barbies. I did not. Until one birthday, I found a coupon in the mail for a mail order Barbie with a huge lot of clothes, shoes and accessories. I begged for the Barbie and my grandma got it for me for my birthday. I was so excited. I finally had a Barbie. Only . . . she was hollow plastic. See, it was a fake Barbie. I think her leg eventually split along the seam. So for a little while I was a fake Barbie owner. Maybe that's why I've always been a firm believer of buying genuine products. After all, if you can't afford it then don't buy it. I don't care if you get it on sale, last years model, find it at the second hand store, it was a gift etc. Just don't buy knock offs or fakes. Yes, that's it. It must go back to my imposter Barbie days.

Anyhow, what was I saying? Oh yes. My MIL (bestest one this side of the Mississippi) has always told me that she was going to get me a Barbie. And now that Miss Nat has arrived, she had even more reason to purchase a girl's first Barbie. So Natalie is the proud owner of two REAL Barbies. A collector's 2008 Holiday Barbie (for the year she was born) and shopper Barbie (because she's cute). Believe me. She will not be playing with Holiday Barbie for many years. She's very pretty. I had to share. So, a few years from now you may be invited over to play Barbies. A Barbie playdate. I can hardly wait and only imagine the fun we will have.

The Day I Went Overboard . . .

with coupons. Seriously. It's a little embarressing. I'm having visions of people at Old Navy corporate having a staff meeting to talk about the people who took advantage of their Valentine $5 off coupon event and how they won't EVER be doing that promotion again. Color a valentine and receive a $5 off coupon. I stopped by the store a couple days prior to the event and asked what the conditions were. Apparently there weren't any. Take as many valentines as you want . . . they're free I was told. "And," stated the nice employee . . . "we have flip flops 2 pairs for $5 so you could get some free flip flops." WOW. Employees encouraging coupon usage. Multiple coupon usage. Amazing. There was however NO ONE else shopping in the store, except for my sister. I took 4 coupons colored them and had them on my counter waiting, just in case. Saturday morning rolled around and I wasn't planning on visiting Old Navy. We had an 80th birthday party to attend for my Grandpa and the kids have never gone naked so I didn't give the sale a whole lotta thought. Until my sister called. There's hardly anyone here she said. They just rang up my stuff in multiple transactions. REALLY??? I was there in a flash. I found shorts for the boy for summer, cute stuff for the girlie girl and had it all figured out. I went thru the line and my cashier was more than happy to do four separate transactions. WOW. So, I grabbed some more valentines to color out of the basket next to the registar that had a sign on it "FREE." Then I went to the back of the store where they had a table set up with chairs, and a basket of crayons and a whole STACK of coupons. So, I started coloring. I only needed 9 more. (That should've been my first clue that I was going overboard. Seriously. NINE???) My sister and I soon had company. Another lady. Sporting her Old Navy bag. She had obviously been through the line already. Oh. And here comes her friend. Maybe they were sisters too. Kidding. Well, they could've been. They were coloring more valentines (coupons) too. At least one of them was. And I saw BOTH of them back in line when I was purchasing my stuff. My cashier kept telling me, these are on sale 3 for $15. Do you want to get more? I had three. I wanted to purchase them individually. See, if I paid for all 3 at once with one $5 coupons I would owe $10. If I paid for each one individually I paid $1.50 a piece. You do the math. I asked the clerk if she wanted me to get back in line (because there were more people in the store now and a line was forming). No. She seriously didn't care. She'd ring up my one item and I would pay my $1 or $1.50 and she would do it again. And again. And again. You get the picture. I couldn't believe my luck. However, I was a bit remorseful. Surely this isn't how they intended these coupons to be used. But nobody said a word. So . . . I took my bag, talked with my sister and left the store. My sister soon called. "They told me they aren't excepting any more Valentines." Huh?! "Yeah, I turned around and one of them told me they aren't taking any more valentines. They were meant as a fun activity for the kids.

RIGHT (I thought in my head). That's why the employees told us to take a many as we wanted. Besides . . . all those poor people who have infants who haven't mastered their coloring skills. They don't get coupons. Whatever. Someone at Old Navy decided to make up a rule because their cashiers were ringing up multiple transactions all morning.

So, that was the end of that. I was already done with my shopping anyway but, it did make me think. How much is too much? It's a common question I see on many frugal/coupon/money blogs. Today it was my reality. The day I went overboard. I got over $135 worth of clothing for under $26. Now that's a deal!

An Oldie but a Goodie

One of my favorite reruns to watch is Home Improvement. The reruns are in the afternoon when the kids lay down for their naps. It's my little time out. I love this show. I should probably be cleaning or doing something productive, but then again . . . we all need a break once in a while. One of my other old favorites . . . Cosby. What's one of your old fav shows?

Gut Flush Be Gone

Okay . . . it was a bit over the top. After five days of following the Gut Flush plan. I conceeded. However, I'm still trying to stay away from lots of sugar, and limit my coffee intake. Yesterday I had my first coffee in a week and honestly I'm not wanting to make that a habit again. I really do want to incorporate more veggies into our meals, less sugar, less starches & more water. Which is going to take pre-planning. So, on Saturday I sat down and did some menu planning. That definately took some time because I'm not disciplined at it yet. And might I add . . . I definately want to give tea a shot. I know, I know . . . a tea convert? You never know. In a couple months I could be writing about the best place to get coffee again. Only time will tell.

5 Months

Our baby is five months. Sniff. Sniff. She actually turned 5 months on the 3rd. I love it when they can sit on their own. It makes going out much easier without lugging the baby carrier around. And quite frankly, she's close to sitting all on her own. So there is a plus side to our "Little Social Butterfly" (as daddy calls her) growing up! This picture was taken last week and I swear the child has changed since then. How do they do that so stinkin' fast?!

21 Day Gut Flush

It sounds horrific, and some of it is. However, this 21 day plan is very interesting to me. My mom was diagnosed with celiac disease a couple years ago and since then has been off of wheat and gluten. When I started reading this book and recognizing all the benefits of being off of some of the foods that trigger food sensitivies, I knew I wanted to try it. Baker and I are off of sugar, sugar substitutes, wheat, gluten and almost all dairy. My fridge is stocked FULL of veggies. Seriously, it's hard to find room to put anything else in the fridge. AND there are veggies on the counter too. AND I'm eating veggies at EVERY meal as well as snack time. It's only day 3 and I feel really good. This plan is suppose to increase your energy, and minimize your cravings. For the first two weeks, fruit isn't even allowed. I miss fruit. However, I'm looking at this adventure as eating what is good and healthy for me instead of what I want to eat. There are so many food choices that confront us all day -everyday, and this plan is helping to eliminate those choices by deciding for me what is healthy and wholesome.

I'm definately not following this plan to the letter of the law due to:

1. The fact that the weekly shopping list given for the week was missing key items on the daily menus.






2. There are a lot of homemade items that require time and preparation in the kitchen.






3. I'm willing to try some veggies, however I will not be eating radishes anymore.






4. I do not even want to try sardines. 'Nuf said.






5. My family and I will not continue to live our life according to this diet. Therefore it's a temporary thing and needs to be modified to fit our needs.

Thought I would share our little venture. If anyone has good gluten free recipes send them my way . . . will 'ya?

Preparing the kitchen

To start my weight loss, I decided to clean out my pantry, fridge and cupboards this last week. I knew I needed to get rid of any prepackaged foods, outdated items or tempting junk food. Therefore I ate the purple bag of sweet & spicy dorittos (I can feel the pounds falling away), threw out the old food, and sent the remainder of the food to work with Patrick for everyone else to eat (insert evil laugh here). Later in the day I sat down, opened the paper and whola! Check out the paper. Too funny.