Time Management

How do you manage your time. Mine always seems to get away from me. I "like" the idea of getting up at 7am and starting my day while the boys are still sleeping but I am such a night owl that I don't. I would rather sleep. So my day really doesn't start until 8 or 9 and then I need to wake up...have my coffee, check my email etc... I do feed the boys and get them changed before I do that, but it seems like we just take it easy in the mornings and really don't get anything productive done till noon. By then half the day is gone and I feel like I am not going to get anything done, everything from chores, cleaning, shopping and errands.
I was thinking over the past couple of days what i could do to fix this problem of getting up earlier and here is what i have come up with. I am going to start slow, but jump in full force if that makes sense. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I am going to commit to getting up by 7 and starting my day while the boys are still asleep, whether its putting in a load of laundry, emptying the dish washer or picking up the living room, I will be doing something productive while my coffee brews and once that's done then I can sit down enjoy my coffee and check my email stuff. That way when the boys wake up I am that much more ahead of schedule. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be mornings that we can take it easy, I can sleep that extra hour and start the day a little later. Maybe once i get used to this schedule I can bump it up to getting up at 7 everyday, or if this schedule works then just keep up with it!
Anyways that was my thought for the day, I am hoping that this will stick and not just be another "great idea" that I had. I tend to have a lot of those, I think i get it from my parents....=)

16 weeks and organization

Well tomorrow marks the 16th week for me. I am feeling great! Nothing weird has been happening so that makes me happy. The baby is the size of a large avocado, 4.5 inches long and still only about 4 oz. Really the next big thing is to find out if we are having a boy or girl, then we need to start thinking of names. Any Suggestions? We do keep the name we decide a secret until the baby is born but I would love to hear your suggestions! Give me both boy and girl names since we don't know what we are having yet! I am excited to see what you guys come up with....Now I am talking serious names. Jason always has a tendency to throw out names like Latonya or weird combination names not that there is anything wrong with names like that but I wouldn't name my kids that. It is hard sometimes to tell if Jason is being serious or joking when it comes to names.

Anyways, I feel like I have been drowning again lately in "stuff" that needs to be put away, picked up, or cleaned. I Know I have written about this before and here I go again. This is the thing that I struggle with the most when it comes to keeping an organized house....the fact that I really don't know how to organize my whole house. I do fine with little parts of the house but overall I suck at it. I also am very organized when it comes to planning a vacation or a party but why I can't organize my house I have no idea. I have tried so many different things, all of which have failed miserably except one and that was the way I organized toys.
I know for a fact there are a couple of things that will help with the overall organization of the house I just need to find a good routine to stay on top of it. Some of which include:
Doing the dishes right after dinner
Doing a load of laundry every day
Bringing the "need to go upstairs" pile sitting at the bottom of the steps, upstairs every night
Putting the load of laundry that is folded away once I am done folding it

Those 4 things alone would help a lot. But yet I can't seem to stay on top of it. Simple tasks and I can't stay on top of it...What is wrong with me. I know I get easily side tracked...hehe and that is half my problem, whether it be a phone call, shopping, meeting with friends, finding some project that I started last month and decide to finish, playing with the boys, being so tired that I don't care or just being on the computer. All have become excuses for not getting something done at one point or another.

So again I am going to attempt to try and stay on top of those 4 things. I want to do it for a good week so that I get used to the routine and then it will just be second nature. I want to accomplish those 4 things before I start to make a set schedule for things like, mopping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms. One thing at a time right? One way I am going to try and do this is every night before Jason or I go to bed we will take 5-10 minutes and just pick up the random things that get left out and put them away. The dishes will get done right after dinner. Every night, No exceptions. After I get the boys there breakfast and before I sit down with my coffee and check my email I will put in a load of laundry and then change it out before I take my shower. Then once the load of laundry is done drying I will take it upstairs, fold it and put it away right then and there. With me doing this I think it will cut down on the "to go upstairs" pile so then at the end of the day when Jason and I go to bed we each can take the few things and put them away upstairs.
Thats my plan and I am stickin to it! Let's hope that I can force myself to do these few simple things without getting side tracked. I can always do most of the things that side tracked me when the boys take a nap or go to bed. I will let you know how I am doing come this weekend. Feel free to ask me as well. Accountability! =)

Bo overcame a huge hurdle!!!

For months now Bo will go pee on the potty! The candy method worked like a charm for him. Everytime he would pee on the potty he would get a piece of candy. Once he accomplished peeing on the potty we started to work on getting him to poop on the potty. Getting him to go was a chore, he just didn't want to go. I don't think he was scared, he would just rather hold it in until we put a diaper on him at night and go poop then. We tried candy, that didn't work. we tried telling him that once he went poo on the potty we could go to the toy store and get a new toy, that didn't work. Stickers don't work either. I was running out of ideas and this morning Bo asked me if we could go to Monkey Joes. Then I told him "If you go poo poos on th potty we can go to Monkey Joes!" He said Ok, but I didn't think anything of it because he told me ok when we offered other things to get him to go on the potty and he doesn't go.
Well Bo was sitting on the floor playing Legos and all of a sudden he jumps up hold his butt and yells "Mommy, Mommy I need to go poo poos...." and he takes off running for the bathroom. I ran in there thinking he probably already went in his underwear. But I sat him down on the potty and he had not gone in his big boy underwear! YAY So then I asked him if he wanted me to leave the bathroom He said yes. So I stood outside the door and just waited for him to call me when he was done. I hear lots of grunting, and little whines like he was scared to let it come out and then all of a sudden he Yells "Mommy I went Poo poos...SEE...you wanna see" Sure enough he had gone! I praised him and told he did a good job and I was proud of him. I got him cleaned up dumped the potty and wiped it out and then Bo says "Mommy I got to go poo poo again, I went big poo poo now I need to go little poo poo." I was like OKAY....are you sure cuz you just went and there was a lot of it. I let him sit back down and no joke he went again! I was shocked and yet so proud of him!
We have been trying to get him to go poo on the potty for months and I guess Going to Monkey Joes was a big enough incentive for him! I am hoping now that he has gone that he will continue to go...We won't be going to Monkey Joes every time but I will have to fill up my jar of candy to give him a little reward for when he does go!
YAY BOAZ!!! Way to Go!!!

Night and Day from Hell....

Friday was the first day of our yard sale and it went really well! I was extremely exhausted though Friday night. We went to Jasons vollyball game and then went to Thips Thai for dinner, because I was to tired to cook. I got Pad Thai and a Thai ice tea and all of us split an order of crab rangoon. After we finished eating I started to not feel good. I thought maybe I had just eaten to much and needed to digest it a bit. That was not the case. We came home and I was feeling like CRAP....I had major stomach pain and back pain. I tried to sleep but it was very difficult, it felt like something was eating the inside of my stomach and that was causing back pain from my lower back all the way up to my shoulder blades....Not fun. it hurt to lay down, it hurt to sit up....frankly it just hurt. I hurt more than Labor when I had the boys. Needless to say I did not sleep very well last night. This morning, I got up and showered. I stepped out of the shower and asked Jason to get me some OJ (the only thing that calms my stomach) and before he could put his feet on the floor I was over the toilet vomiting. My stomach was still in knots and my back was hurting even more because I did not sleep well.
I mosey on over to the garage sale and still feel like crap, but for those of you who know me being sick was not going to stop me. It should but it didn't. I help get the yard sale going and then just sit down manning the money station, all the while enduring the excruciating pain. Finally around noon I was starting to break down because I was in sooooo much pain, and my friends finally convinced me to go lay down and they were going to call Jason. Because I wouldn't....Do you think I'm stubborn? Jason get's there a little after 2:00 and takes me to the ER. While there they did some blood work and took a urine sample. While we were waiting for the lab to process everything they gave me a shot to ease the pain. I felt like a NEW woman! The pain was gone and I was able to relax. Exhaustion soon set in. The doc finally comes back and says that My gallbladder levels were elevated. So they diagnosed me with abdominal irritability and possible gall-stones. They put me on a NO dairy, fat, creamy, spicey diet and told me eat lots of fiber to clean all my systems. They also prescribed me Tylenol with codeine in it.
I am supposed to follow up with my doc on Monday or Tuesday. They are still going to do the ultra-sounds of my kidneys to make sure I don't have kidney stone....I hope not...
SOOO needless to say I think the Thai food put me over the edge, I guess my body can't handle certain things right now.

Anyways, please pray that this diet will help clear things out and that the pain goes away, because it is so unbearable. I must say that through all this Jason and the boys did great! They helped me out a lot and Bo is very good at empathy! I love my boys and my Husband!

Mothering frustrations...

I recently read this post about loosing the joy in mothering and it really hit home for me. I have been feeling that lately. I get so frustrated sometimes because I feel like things don't get done because I have been chasing after the boys all day cleaning up the stuff they manage to get into. For instance, literally 10 minutes ago I was on the phone with my friend Tami talking about yard sale stuff and I wasn't on the phone with her but maybe 5 minutes and I here Bo say "Oh NOOoooo" I get off the phone and walk into the kitchen and Joel had taken the box of tea bags I had in the pantry and opened them all up and there is Bo with my swiffer mop trying to mop it up without a pad on it. So now I have wet sticky tea and tea bags all over my kitchen floor. I tell the boys to go sit on the couch while I swept the mess up and then ran the mop to clean up any excess cleaner. It took me maybe 5 minutes to get it all cleaned up. I go back into the living room to "Chat" with the boys and there they were sitting in a huge pile of Cheezit crackers....Yup they took the box and dumped it on the living room floor, where sitting in the pile and breaking the crackers up. I just sat on the couch and started crying. It was all so overwhelming.

Things like this happen allllllll the time and I do not know how to get in control of it. I have tried every trick in the book and nothing seems to work. They do this with everything...my make-up, fresh fruit, bread, games, movies, things in the pantry and even their dresser drawers. Now some of you may be thinking that I should put these things away and keep them out of reach of the boys. Well, I do. My make up is in a trunk on my bathroom counter, Fruit and bread are in containers on the kitchen counters, they open their dresser drawers and just pull clothes and blankets out (why? I have no idea) Movies are in a Cd type case in a drawer in the living room and yet they still seem to get into everything. When things like this happen, I get overwhelmed and once I fall behind in keeping things picked up I get even more overwhelmed and then don't know where to start with the mess and I just shut down. I know that shutting down doesn't help anything...When that happens is where I need to stop and deal with that selfishness. I struggle with that for sure and sometimes don't know how to move forward...Only by the Grace of God do I move forward and eventually pick things up again.

I do love being a stay at home mom, I just wish I knew how to manage and deal with the chaos when things like this happen, because I KNOW they are GOING to happen. It is just a matter of being prepared, patient and staying ahead of the game.

Spring Cleaning!

Today I woke up really tired, I even went to bed a little earlier than I usually do but I was still tired and had no motivation to do anything. Last night Jason and I worked on folding all the clean laundry, which was about 7 or 8 loads that we got washed over the past two days! So this morning I put it all in laundry baskets and now it is ready to be taken up stairs and be put away. I took a few things upstairs on my way to go shower and while I was in my room I was like "man I really need to dust". See, Joel somehow managed to rip the curtain rod out of our wall so my curtains were sitting there needing to be hung back up, so I had a ton of sunlight coming into my room and it showed me that probably 2 or 3 months worth of dust was waiting to be cleaned. So I grabbed my rag and windex and went to work. Once I got done dusting and cleaning off the dresser and end tables I changed the linens, put some clothes away and went through a few more things for the yard sale. So now my room is all shinny and clean! I just need to vacuum and bring the yard sale stuff down to the garage. My hope is that tonight, while Jason is working at the Blues game, I can focus on finishing that up and then get to work on pricing garage sale stuff. I am going to make it a goal to not go anywhere, turn the tv on, or "play" on the computer till I get this stuff accomplished!
So here is my list to do tonight and this weekend: (Hopefully I can do most of it tonight)
vacuum bedroom
bring yard sale stuff to the garage
finish putting away laundry
straighten up my bathroom
price yard sale stuff
and of course I need to do the dishes!

Things that need spring cleaning:
the boys closets
the guest room
the linen closet
kitchen appliances
front of kitchen cupboards
wash door handles and windows
(I hope to be working on these over the weekend and next week as well!)

What are some things that you do for Spring cleaning? Do you have any tips or tricks that you use?

Anyways, if you don't see me online very much over the next few days that means I am getting things in order around the house (which is good for me) and you should just call or text me if you need to get a hold of me!
Ta Ta for now!

Rough Night...

For about a week now I have been feeling great, Tired, but at least I am not sick. Yesterday I felt good again and I was able to get some stuff done. I did the dishes, picked up the living room, washed a load of laundry, and I worked on a baby blanket all afternoon. When dinner time rolled around I just grilled up some Chicken breasts and added them to a Zatarans rice mix. While I was cooking my stomach was making some loud rumbling noises, I was sooo hungry. Well we sit down to eat and all of a sudden nothing that I made sounded good, so I only had a few bites of rice and like a half cup of green beans.

Jason had a volleyball game last night and he left around 7. While he was gone I went down hill and fast. I was sitting down to check my email and out of the blue I had this sharp pain run through my right ankle. On a scale of 1-10 it was a 10. I have never felt anything like it. Then I started getting a lot of pressure built up behind my ear and that then caused me to get a headache behind my right eye and it felt like someone was pressing on my eye and it was going to pop out. My heart was also pounding, I had tingling all over my body and my feet and hands and arms would fall asleep. Whenever I get the pressure in my head the right side of my neck gets really tense and sore as well. Between the pressure, headache, and ankle pain I was miserable. I was even crying. I didn't know what was causing it, or how to get rid of it or what I should do. When Jason got home at 8:30 he noticed i was in a lot of pain, but there really wasn't anything that he could do. He told me to go take a hot bath. So I did. I lit candles and shut the lights off so I could relax. I just laid in the tub and soaked for like 45 minutes. Soaking in the tub helped with the pressure and headache. But my ankle would not stop hurting. I was trying to think of what I could have done, but all I did all day was make sew, and do the dishes. So I still have no idea what could have caused that. The ankle pain went on for about another hour. I finally took some tylonal and that helped a little.
While I was sitting there I realized I was really hungry, I thought back to what I ate all day,
Breakfast: a bowl of kashi cereal with milk, Lunch: a cheese and turkey Quesadilla, Snack: Sweet Tea, Dinner: a few bites of rice and some green beans. All in all I didn't eat very much and I started wondering if that would have anything to do with my blood sugar and the tingling and pounding heart? I don't know, I am going to look it up on Web MD. Anyways, I went and had a bowl of cereal and I drank some more water. I started to feel a little better. I also only drank 1 liter of water when I usually drink 3 liters.
Today I feel tired and worn out. I am going to take it easy today drink lots of water and remember to eat. I have some stitching to on the baby blanket and I have a lot of ribbon that needs to be organized, so I am going to work on that today.
I am just curious if any of you have ever had anything like that happen to you during a pregnancy? I have my first doctors appointment next Tuesday and I am for sure going to talk about it with her it just doesn't seem normal.

To Cute!

My friend Laura and I were out and about doing some shopping on Saturday and we were both blessed with only having to bring one child with us. I brought Bo and she brought Violet, who is the same age as Bo. While sitting at Chipotle both kids were being really good, eating there food. Bo then takes his cup of sour cream and offers it to Violet to dip her chip in. It went something like this.....

Bo " Here violet....want some"
Violet "Ok, thanks"
Bo "you're welcome"
Smiles and giggles

Me "Awe, you guys are being so nice to each other......(to laura.....maybe they'll get married?=))
Laura to Violet "Violet do you want Bo to be your prince?"
Violet "YEAH!!!!"
Bo "ok"

Potty Training...

This past weekend Jason and I really focused on Bo and his potty training. I am happy to report that I think he has got it a good handle on it! He came to us on Saturday morning and wanted to go potty, so he went and we put underwear on him. He kept them dry all morning and afternoon. He even kept them dry all through his nap. Saturday night we had several friends over and I think there were 7 kids running around the house and he still kept his pants dry up until everyone started leaving, then he had is first accident. But hey only one accident, I can live with that.

On Sunday he had a diaper on during Church but then he was in underwear the rest of the day, again he kept them dry through his nap and for the whole day except during dinner he had a accident, because we forgot he was wearing underwear and while we were eating he asked to go potty and we said he had to finish eating first....oops now I have to remember he is wearing big boy underwear and can't hold longer than a minute or two.

Today he has been doing great as well, no accidents yet! Now he has not gone #2 yet on the potty, I think he might be holding it in cuz he has not gone in his underwear either, but once I put his diaper on for bed within like 10 minutes he has a poopy diaper. So we need to work on that but hey Bo is making huge progress and I am so happy and proud of him!

weight-loss update...

I know I have failed at posting about my weight-loss fails and successes since I started back in Ohhhh October? Well here is an update on some things that worked and some that didn't.
First Jason and I joined the YMCA back in October. We also invested into some good cookbooks, workout apparel, Shoes, and food journals.

**Let me start off by saying to be effective in your workouts having the right gear is essential, Esp. Shoes. Spend the money and get a good pair of shoes.

Initially when we started this whole thing, we were writing everything we ate down. We were working out on average 3 days a week at the Y and doing a lot of Low fat foods. Now let me expand on what worked and what didn't here. First of all I found that writing things down worked for me initially to help me realize how much I was really eating. After a few weeks though, I found my self eating things just to fill my calorie count for the day and I was not necessarily hungry. I was thinking that if I had calories left for the day I might as well use them. However I think that hindered my weight loss a little. So Now I do not write things down but I do take more time when it comes to menu planning and using a lot of fresh veggies and fruit.

Second, we tried doing a lot of low fat foods or fat free foods. In the end it is disgusting. I found it harder for the body to process the fat free foods esp. when it came to anything dairy. So we will not be doing that anymore. Plus if you think about it there is probably more junk in the fat free stuff that will hinder weight loss than if you were just to eat a smaller portion of the normal healthy versions.

Third, going to the gym is proving to be more difficult that I originally thought. I HATE working out, however when I do I feel good after all is said and done. Up until Jason's job got really crazy with long weird hours we were going together 3 days a week. I have not been going regularly since about the middle of November. I have done the occasional day or two but nothing consistent.
Now since I am not working out regularly I need to be watching what I eat. A friend sent me this website, which I think I posted last week, and I have found it to an absolute life saver. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it! Eat at home cooks! Try it! Also with Jason working long hours I have found that I am eating less in the evenings because I am not make huge meals. PORTION SIZE, PORTION SIZE, PORTION SIZE! I started serving dinner on our salad plates instead of the huge dinner plates. I eat less and yet I am satisfied. I also don't eat breakfast, I know there are those of you who will say that is the wrong thing to do, but I am not a big breakfast person. On average I will eat breakfast 3 days a week, and even then it is usually a piece of toast, a granola bar or a bowl of high fiber organic cereal. I almost always have a small glass of juice and a cup of coffee with creamer. Hey it works for me and if I weren't seeing results I wouldn't do it. For lunch I usually eat a deli sandwich, quesadilla, salad, mac and cheese or leftovers. I always have a snack mid afternoon of either popcorn, a handful of candy (for my sweet tooth), whole grain crackers and swiss cheese or pita chips and salsa. I have been making our dinners from the menus on the above website! I drink water, coffee, diet coke and tea a lot. I also love the Hansens sodas and sparkling juices from Trader Joe's! Trader Joe's is my new prefferred grocery store!

One more thing that has helped me is that I am staying busy around the house. I have made a chore chart for myself and I am doing a lot more moving, cleaning, going up and down stairs, and playing with the boys! Now if I can just get ahead and start fresh with all the chores and upkeep then it would be a lot easier. I am really going to tackle the cleaning, organizing and chore cart this coming week. I need to finish the upstairs.....No it is not done yet but I am managing to do a little bit each day. It will get there!

So since the week before Thanksgiving I am proud to say I have lost a total of 14.2 pounds! I have one pair of jeans that actually still fits and all the others are really loose and I have to keep pulling them up and I get the saggy crotch after wearing them for like 10 minutes. I have lost most of the weight in my legs, neck, and a little in my waist/breast area. I would really like to loose another 10 pounds in my waist/stomach in the next month. I am going to TRY and get to the gym at least 2 times a week to do some biking and ab workouts. My ultimate goal is to loose a total of 75 pounds, but I am setting small goals to help me get there otherwise I get overwhelmed and tend to give up. So the small goal would be another 10 pounds by valentines day. I think that would be enough to justify buying a smaller pair of jeans. After that I would like to loose another 30 pounds by July 3, my birthday! Because Jason has told me that once I loose 50 pounds he will give me a $1000 for a new wardrobe! Wouldn't that be an awesome birthday present!

I know this has been a long post but thank you for reading. Let me know your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. Also, what has worked for you when it comes to house upkeep, weight-loss, working out and eating well?

Chore Chart...

This afternoon when I had a free minute I searched online for a chore chart that could help keep me on track to get things done. I Found one that I liked but I didn't want to pay for it. So I changed a few things by adding chores that are unique to me and mt family and this is what I came up with! I am hoping that this will work for me.

Take a look Here

Let me know what you think. The Check boxes are missing, they didn't copy over to Google Documents but you get the gist!

Renewed energy and a cool website!

So today I took the challenge of setting the timer for 1 hour and getting as much cleaning done as I can get done in that hour. I must admit once the hour was up I still kept working, which is great! I was able to vacuum and edge my living room, clean out and re-organize my TV cabinet, put a new box of diapers away, pick up all the toys, and hang up a few jackets. Then I moved to the kitchen, I did the dishes, organized my spice cupboard and coffee cupboard, cleaned off the counter tops and I made dinner and got that in the oven! I felt so much better after I got that all done. I still have to do about 5 loads of laundry tonight so that I can pack our bags tomorrow for our trip, but other then that I am going to read my book tonight! I think the 1 or 2 hours a day is something that I can keep up with!

As for this cool website, My girlfriend Tiffanie sent me this awesome website that I totally fell in love with after browsing it for about 5 minutes. It is called eatathomecooks.com. This mom plans out a weeks worth of dinners and puts together the recipes, shopping list, side suggestions and even a dessert! Plus within each meal she has some of the recipes that are for the slow cooker, others you make two of so that you can put one in the freezer for later that week of to portion out for lunches. Also, what I like about her site is that she uses a lot of fresh, natural, healthy ingredients. I think she has about 30 weeks of menus planned. It is so easy all you do is open up the menu that you want to use, print it off and then go shopping! Talk about easy!
If you choose to use this site, let me know what you think!

I am going chopping tomorrow! So I will let you know how it goes!

Staying on task...

Thanks Karen for giving me the idea for this post! I am trying to figure out a routine/organizer/time management/schedule for everything that I have to do around the house. My question for everyone out there is what are some things/tools that you use to stay on top of everything that needs to get done. Everything from feeding the cat, doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms, meal planning, date nights, bathroom cleaning, play time with the boys and relaxation. Do you set one day aside for laundry or do you do a load everyday? Do you clean all three bathrooms in one day or again space them out? Set specific times each day for relaxing, cleaning, cooking, playing etc....?

I am trying, and failing I might add, at finding a way to manage everything at the same time.
Karen, my sister-in-law, gave me the idea that I should set a timer for an hour and do whatever i can in that hour. Or maybe I will do that twice a day once in the morning and once in the afternoon? So I figured I would try it starting tomorrow!

I make all these lists of things that need to get done and yet nothing seems to get done even though I am working on them? I am also known, at least when it comes to things around the house, for saying that I am going to get something done today and then by the end of the day it is only partially done or not at all. Then I get frustrated and then Jason gets frustrated and that is just not good. So any and all ideas are welcome and hopefully I can get into some kind of routine that works and will stick.

Playing with flour!

The other day I was doing dishes and the boys were "helping" me load the dish washer. At one point the door bell rang and Bo & I went to answer it. In the time it took me to go answer the door and get back to the kitchen, Joel moved the chair to the island and dumped my canister of flour that I had out because I was going to make cookies. Needless to say I didn't have any flour left to make cookies.

Ooops.....

Aren't I cute mom!

Unfinished projects.......

For those of you who know me well, know that I have a problem with starting projects and then starting more projects before the other ones are done. This has been something that I am really trying to fix, because not only will it help me be more organized but it will also cut down on the "project clutter piles" that are around the house. The Misc clutter piles are what have really been annoying me lately. All these different projects are sitting there and every time I walk by them it's like they are calling out saying "Finish Me", but something else always seems to come up. Yesterday I started yet another project, that being, I gave the boys their own bedrooms and did a lot of rearranging upstairs. So today's goal is to finish putting everything away, all the toys, clothes, and the decorations. I also need to clean the bathrooms and while I am at it I need to dust upstairs, I don't think I have done that for the past month or two? In my picture perfect world, everything would get put away after using it, the bathrooms would clean themselves, the boys wouldn't get sick, and the laundry wouldn't pile up.....BUT since we live in reality that is not going to happen. I guess what i am saying is that I need to learn to "roll with the punches" better and not let the little things throw of my whole routine. I need to manage my time a little better so that the projects and house cleaning get done in a timely manner...SO I am now off to tackle the unfinished projects upstairs so that it is nice and clean by the time Jason gets home and then I can really relax playing with the boys, making cards, watching old movies all while enjoying a clean house!

Our Christmas Tree:

For those of you who know me know that I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! I love the smells, the lights, the music, the baking, the getting together with family and friends to celebrate Christs birth! This year I got to set up our Christmas tree a little early. I was doing a big open house the day after Thanksgiving and I wanted the house to be all festive and pretty. I always like to do a color theme for my tree. In the past I have done red, silver and black, which I love! I have done red, green and white. This year I did Chocolate brown, red, and green! I love how those colors look together! I get most of my ornaments from Hobby Lobby, they have a great selection and they are always on sale!

I am known for getting tall and fat trees, however this year I was able to find a tall and skinny one that I liked! Well here are a few pictures of the tree, it definitely looks better in person with the lights on at night, I will add some more pictures a little later.

To do list part 2

Well I must say that my to do list has gotten a lot shorter! YAY! I have finished everything for the baby shower and it was a HUGE success! Now I am working on everyday stuff around the house and trying to keep up with it and I am also working on my open house that I am having the day after Thanksgiving! More details and info to follow...

My to do list:

Well this week and next week I have a lot of stuff to do:
So in no particular order:

- Make Bo some gymnastic pants
- Finish hemming curtains for my bedroom
- Work on making a baby gift
- Finish baby shower invites
- Address and mail 45 baby shower invites
- Work on baby shower party favors
- Work on baby shower menu
- Make baby shower bingo game
- Attend Pampered chef meeting
- Plan Black Friday Vendor Fair Open House (at my house)
- Start planning Christmas lists/gifts
- Go shopping for Baby Shower Decor
- Get Ready for Pampered Chef Vendor Fair next weekend
- Clean house for Halloween party on Saturday
- Close Pampered Chef Catalog show
- Prep for Pampered Chef Show
- Put laundry away
- Do more laundry
-Drink lots of COFFEE!!!!

Childrens Museum Part one...

You might be asking... What is on Bos face? Well they had a self face painting station, so Bo drew on his face!

Joel loved the hand puppets!

Gone Fishing!

TWINS GAME!!!

Jason and his cousin Jared at the game!

Jared made an awesome sign!

This was an awesome play!!! You had to be there. Bases loaded and Delmon Young hit a
GRAND SLAM!!!!

JOE MAUER warming up!!!!