JenEric Family

New Years Resolutions

2011-01-09T22:36:00.003-05:00

I have not made my new years resolutions yet. I am trying, but I haven't actually sat down with no distractions long enough to actually set them down on paper.

Jacob is now 7 months and crawling! He is standing up while holding on to things, and he is going to walk by 9 months like my other children, I am reasonably sure.

Lizzie bashed her cousin tonight and caused him to get a head injury. Nothing Mom couldn't handle, she just had to go to the hospital to get the stuff to fix it. She is a head strong girl, and doesn't listen very well. I have to start working with her more to get that resolved.

Caleb still hasn't gotten his tooth in yet, but he is still loving school.

I am about to start my first semester back at school. I am going for my BS in aviation logistics, and I will be a pilot when I am done. I was just going to go to pilot school, but I found a BS that has a pilot concentration at one of the schools around here so I will do both. Yeah me!

Facebook is easier then my Blog!

2010-12-13T10:05:00.003-05:00

Look at Lizzie in the background! She loves to do EVERYTHING Caleb does! And of course play with the picture frames!

It is sad when my blog gets ignored in favor of the easier, faster, and more fun Facebook!

We are all still here. Tyring to decide what to do for the Christmas holiday. Go to Ohio early and have Eric fly up there, or with Eric after school gets out, or a week after Eric has flown up there first.

All my Christmas shopping is done, I just have to wrap them all, and make some goodies and pack those. I am attempting home made peanut Brittle to give as gifts this year. I love Peanut Brittle!

Jacob is 6 months now and has entered the Clingy phase. If he is not being held he is unhappy and crying. If I am not within eye sight he is crying too! It makes for VERY annoying mornings when I have to get up and get Caleb to school in the morning!

Lizzie is still cute and growing. She loves to sleep in a bed instead of her crib so I use that as leverage to get her to do what I want. LOL sometimes it doesn't work like planned! She is smart and using complete sentences! She LOVES Christmas time too. She always says Merry Christmas in the mornings when she sees the tree, and she often says it through the day too!

Caleb is still in school for the next week then he is off for 2! He thinks math is soo easy, and he is reading fairly well. He is in the gifted program and has run into some problems that come with being gifted. But we are working to help him get through them.

Eric is still teaching at Dubiski, He loves it and hopes to work there next year! He got the yearly winter illness and is just now getting over it. It happens every year just like I start coughing every winter. Don't know what it is!

I am doing great! I am going back to school to become a Pilot. There is a 4 yr university that is offering the Aviation Logistics degree which is what I am going to do. So I am registered for my first semester at TCC, my local community college. I still qualify for the pell, so tuition is covered plus some. I am so excited. I was able to find all online classes so I still get to stay home with the kids! Total blessing.

Two Months

2010-11-04T16:38:00.004-04:00

Two months isn't bad!!!!

Okay, pictures are of the state fair, all of us on the couch, and at the timeshare in tyler for calebs 7th birthday.

Eric is still teaching at Dubiski, and they keep asking more and more from him. He is now there until 530 on some days. But he still loves it.

I am about to go back to school. I am going to go to TCC and get all my gen. eds before I transfer to UNT for their aviation Bachelor of Science. I will have a 4 yr degree and my pilots license. I am most excited! Which tells me this is the right thing for me to do. I have not ever been excited about going to school before! I start Jan. 18 and I can't wait!

Caleb is in 1st grade. He likes it okay. He loves recess, and he is in the gifted program. He is really good at math, and he is reading pretty well. He is still very outgoing, and will talk to ANYBODY... and EVERYBODY!

Lizzie is 2 and is growing up so fast! She goes on the potty som3etimes, btu she is not quite dedicated to going all the way. I am not that dedicated to try and teach her just yet! LOL She loves to clean which I am so grateful for. And she loves to play and sing and dance. She is a little girl, and EVERYBODY thinks she is sooo cute.

Jacob is almost 5 months. He is sitting up on his own for a while now. I will start him on cereal soon I think. He is a pretty good natured baby still, and is content just being held. He is starting to grab for things especially the food I am eating.

Life is good

2010-08-30T00:40:00.003-04:00

Soooo ... School has started again, Caleb is in First grade. He loves it too. HE is in the gifted program this year and gets 90 minutes a day of gifted teaching time.

Lizzie is still her loud, full of life self, and she has hit the terrible twos. She gets into everything, and she still finds candy from I don't know where. Anywhere and everywhere that's for sure!

Jacob is growing like a weed. He can hold his head up and is almost ready to start sitting propped up on his own.

Eric has a wonderful job at Dubiski Career Tech academy. They are really the school for him. They are all about helping the student get ready for life after school. They don't hold the kids down they lift them up as high as the kid will go. That is sooo Eric's personality, it is a breath of fresh air for him to teach there.

I am good, still myself. Maybe slightly better at house work, I would like to think so anyway.
But still pretty much the same.

Jacob Alexander Walsh

2010-06-17T13:49:00.007-04:00

It has been a long time since I posted of course. Nobody's that surprised I am sure... Lots has been going on though that is FOR SURE!

I am going to document the birth of Jacob for myself most of all and so it might be a little more detailed then some of you want to read about... sorry. So here is the brief version:

Jacob Alexander was born June 10th 2010 at 6:30 PM, after only 2 1/2 hours of labor. I was very surprised and glad it was fast! He was 8 lb 8 oz, 19 1/2 inches long and had long dark hair. I had a successful Vaginal delivery and he was 9 days LATE! I was glad to have him out though.

I went to see a massage Therapist, Wednesday Morning, who does a massage that helps to start labor. At this point I was 8 days late and the doctor was getting anxious about the condition of the baby. He had me coming in every few days to check on the status of the baby via non stress test. So Wednesday morning I went to see Hannah, who was great! She had me lay down on her table, and she had great soft music playing, and she even had me propped up so I would not get uncomfortable. She worked on my feet and then my hands using special pressure points. Poor Eric came with me so I wouldn't have to drive myself. He just sat there for an hour poor guy. At least he had Internet on his phone so he read some newspapers and stuff...

We went home after that as we were pretty tired. That night I had a Primary Presidency meeting and I was able to clock my contractions at 20 mins apart. I wasn't sure if they were real ones or not as they weren't that painful, I could walk and talk through them very easily, and I didn't keep track of them that well so It felt like there were times they stopped. I was able to sleep that night with no interruptions so I don't' know if the contractions were there over night or not.

Thursday Morning I had another non stress test with the doctor. The contractions I was able to time again at about 20 minutes apart but sometimes not that regular, so I was still not sure they were real or not. The non stress test was okay not as good as a couple days ago but the doctor said it was fine. He did want me to go for an ultrasound to check the fluid levels to make sure they were still good. So we had lunch in which I had to drink like 6 cups of water, and drove back to the lab for the ultrasound place. After all the paperwork was filled out they called me back and took some pictures. The radiologist said the fluid levels were good but my placenta was looking aged and had some calcium spots on it. But I was still good for a few more days. I was not going to go past 2 weeks anyway so if this baby didn't come on its own by two weeks I was going to have the c-section. I was hoping the massage would work soon though!

After that we were so close to the mall, and I had a $10 off a $10 purchase so we decided to go walk around some more to see if I could get things going faster. I got a very cute shirt for .42, and then we headed out to the mall. While we walked around my contractions sped up to about 6 minutes apart but they would stop or slow down when I wasn't walking! I was very confused at this point was I in labor or not? Should I go to the hospital or not? We were done with the mall but we said a prayer to know what to do and we both felt like we shouldn't go home just yet. So we drove to a few more stores, and then just decided to go to the hospital to be checked. The worst they could say was I wasn't in labor and to go home. On the way to the hospital in the car my contractions were still at 6 minutes apart even though I wasn't walking around, but they still weren't that strong. I did notice a little increase in strength though.

When I got to the hospital, at 4 PM, I even decided to take the stairs up to the labor and delivery floor. I was still trying to get my labor going! I had to give my whole complicated story to the nurse there, and she said she would check me and had me change into the gown and hooked me up to the machine. You know the one... that tells the whole room, and sometimes even the next room over, the heart beat of the baby. As the nurse was checking me she said I was about a 3 and mostly effaced, but the baby was still pretty high, at that point I heard and felt a pop, and the nurse got a surprised look on her face. She had accidentally broken my water! Apparently my bag was bulgy and just couldn't take that one last check!

At that point my baby was going to be born one way or another soon! Well my labor definitely kicked in at that point. the contractions kicked in and got very much stronger. I also got VERY hot and sweaty! I sweated the tape off my IV and almost lost the IV altogether. The nurse called my doctor who said to give him a call when I was ready to have the c-section! The nerve of that guy! maybe he was joking I don't know, because he did show up for my delivery after all.

Anyway at that point things got moving very fast. My contractions were pretty close and very strong, they transferred me to my birthing room about 20 minutes after my water broke. They checked me when I got all situated and I was at 6, still effaced most of the way and the baby was lower but still not all the way engaged. I had to wait for most of the IV to empty and half the antibiotics as I was Strep Positive before they could give me my epidural, but I was extremely glad when about 30 minutes later they came in and gave it to me. I was sitting up for it and more and more fluid kept coming out. I soaked my entire pad while getting the epidural... I didn't know I had that much fluid still inside!

After I got the epidural I remember feeling a little light headed as the epidural kicked in, and at that point the monitor on the babies heart beat slowed WAYYY down. The nurses kicked into high gear, called for the anesthesiologist and had them give me something, they had me lay on my side, and they attached monitors directly to the babies head. After a minute or two the babies heart rate came back up again. The anesthesiologist came and checked on me a few more times after that but we were good. I remember no pain but a terrible pressure right around the babies head after the epidural kicked in. It was not too painful but I definitely did not feel nothing! After that the nurse checked how close I was and she said I was at 9, still mostly effaced and the baby was still not engaged all the way. She decided to have me push and see if that would bring the baby all the way down and put me at 10. So I got in the position and I pushed once and she said in a surprised voice... Oh, that did it! You are ready! Let me call the doctor!

The Doctor took his sweet time getting to my room... and then when he got there they took my bed apart, and I was ready to start pushing. When I was just laying in the bed I was able to feel the contractions as pressure, but when they put my legs up I was not able to feel them as well. But I was able to feel them a little so I pushed a few times, I remember my pushing this time was not as effective as it was with Lizzie. I was not able to feel my pushing muscles with this epidural like I could with Lizzie's epidural. It was very curious as I later examined the differences between the two epidurals. But I was able to push fairly well, and I only pushed about 4 contractions and little Jacob was born. Eric was able to cut the cord... which he had to cut twice to get all the way through. The nurses took him and did their thing. I did hear them ask what time it was and the nurse replied 6:30. Really! Only 2 and a half hours! It felt like longer then that! They say the more you have the faster things go... well for me it was soooo true!

After all of that I got exactly what I wanted. I had a successful vaginal birth after cesarean. I let my body get ready and my baby to tell me when he was ready to come. I stood up for myself and told my doctor what I wanted to do instead of let him drive my pregnancy. I listened to the Lord, and was patient when He told me to be patient. All that happened, even the delay, did truly happen for a reason. I am very proud of myself and I love my new baby very much. I love ALL My Babies!

Free MISD Activity

2010-05-13T23:00:00.003-04:00

So our ISD had a free kids activity night. It was super windy but we had fun. We got free hand clappers and lizzie loved hers.

Caleb got to take a picture with the astronaut!

And play on some bounce houses. Lizzie tried to go in but it was to rough for her. She ended up leaving soon after she got in. I had a picture of her laying down in the bounce house but right as it was snapped apparantly my hair flew in the way and totally ruined the whole thing!

It was rather windy but fun. They even gave us all a hot dog meal for free!

Misc. Pictures

2010-04-21T21:08:00.004-04:00

LIZZIE PLAYING IN A TUB SHE FOUND.

CALEB AT A SCHOOL CARNIVAL. HE LOVED IT!

CAN YOU TELL HE ENJOYED HIMSELF???

LIZZIE HAD A LITTLE FUN TOO!

All set up!

2010-04-03T17:07:00.002-04:00

I finally feel like I got the computer set up. I hooked up the external hard drive that has most of our early pictures in it. I even downloaded the pictures from my phone! I have not done anything with Tupperware for a while. I feel bad about that, but I did get my hair cut yesterday! I chopped it off for little Alexander just like I did for Lizzie. Time is sneaking up on us fast. Just two more months before he little guy shows up! Eric has his election in the mean time with his work and taks tests for his kids, I have to work, Caleb has to go to school, and we have to fit a major room rearrange in there after the election somewhere but BEFORE the baby is born. It seems like too much to do in such a short time.

Pictures of Caleb's party

2010-03-19T18:20:00.008-04:00

Old Post that never got posted!

2010-03-19T17:57:00.002-04:00

This is an old post I wrote at work but never got the chance to post. Hope you like.

I know it has been a very long time since I last got on. I am dismally sorry. I just have not been able to get on. The laptops have been down, I have been at work, I have been cooking, I have been reading to Caleb. There are Lots of different excuses. Sorry!

To catch up:

Jeanne bought a timeshare, we went to use it the first time and she was offered a good deal and so she bought a second one. We went out there a couple times and enjoyed it. They have a water park we like to go to when they offer us free tickets. They have lots of other free activities we like to do as well.

Lizzie is growing up, she can now say dada, mama, diaper, kitty cat, dog, and of course shoes. She loves to wear them all the time. She is very good about cleaning up too. She found a fork on the floor and wanted to put it away in the drawer! She is almost always smiling, she is so cute. And she knows where the diapers are kept so she goes and gets one when we ask her to.

Caleb had a wonderful party! First they played around until everyone get there. Then we gave them all whips and hats to go around. Then George told the story of Cleopatra heart, the last treasure Indiana Jones needed to get. So they had to go through some obstacles. First was a cart ride down the driveway, then they had to crawl through the cardboard boxes and then find a key in the snake pit (spaghetti) without looking. At This point George was telling them the rest of what they were supposed to do, and Eric pushed the cardboard boulder behind the curtain into the mass of milling kids. One little kid was too close and got ran over, but the rest were able to turn and run from it! They Were so thrilled with that part. It was soo funny watching them all run and scream, and one little kid get run over. Then after they made it back up the driveway and had all settled down they had to jump across some pallets to make it to the swing to be able to swing across the snake pit. They LOVED that part! Then they were able to make it to the sand pit where they dug for their treasure. One big treasure had a lock on it and they all tried their keys to see who got to keep the treasure with Cleopatra’s diamond in it. Of course it was Caleb; don’t tell them it was rigged! But the other kids got their goody bags with coins and good stuff in them so they weren’t too upset.

Then they all got to go back top the table and draw and write about their adventure in their very own Journal we made for them.

The piñata finally made an exhibit! The kids all lined up and each took turns giving one swing at it. I must have made the thing super strong because everybody got three turns and it finally broke enough for the candy to come out. It was a madhouse after that! No one was very nice, but I guess I didn’t expect them to be. Then it was cake and ice cream time. We brought out the punch that had a frozen ice cube in the shape of a big skull. It looked soo cool! And the cake turned out sooo well! Pictures will just have to say it all.

Everyone had a great time! Then we opened presents, and it wasn’t very organized and they all kept helping Caleb open his presents but I figured it was okay. After the presents it was time to wind down, and we turned on the Lego Indiana Jones movie projector. We found lots of mini movies online with Lego Indiana Jones which is very age appropriate. And we projected them onto the front of our house. The kids all kind of disappeared one at a time after that with their parents. But they all LOVED their goodies, whips and hats. I think it is safe to say they all had a great time! We were so tired after that! All told I think we had 12 kids there, with some parents, and lots of family. Looking back at it I am very satisfied. I can’t think of a single way to make it better.

Eric is still teaching at Cedar Hill High School. He likes teaching high school students. He just had his evaluation and he thinks it went over VERY well. This is the big one he can use as a reference to get a better job.

Caleb is still doing well in school. He likes to read and write and is getting way better at it! He has several journals he just loves to write in. He loves to play outside with his friends. He and Eric just slept outside on the trampoline last weekend. They had fun until Caleb got bit by one to many mosquitoes and they came back inside. He battled huge welts from mosquitoes for the next day or two after that. I have to do something about him being allergic to mosquitoes worse then I am!

We went to Chuck E Cheese a while back. It was Lizzie’s first time! We wanted to get the pictures taken on the picture game they have, and we waited till the end to do it. BIG MISTAKE! She was too whiny and ruined every picture. But she did have a blast climbing on their little kid area. And we enjoyed the food of course. I like their Salad bar. But I think George had the most fun with the tokens. He kept wanting more and more! I didn’t play that many games, hardly any really, but I didn’t go for the games. I went for the kids, and the food!

Eric and George are going to Ohio for Thanksgiving break to winterize the house and take down the rotted tree in the back so it doesn’t fall on anything. He is going to miss Thanksgiving down here so we are having ours all together a week early. Tonight! I cooked half of it yesterday. And I will cook the other half tonight. I cooked the cherry cheesecakes early. I am sooo tempted by them. I can taste them now, I just wish it were for real!
As far as me for Thanksgiving. I am having one tonight, one on Tuesday for work potluck, one on Thursday lunch that work is providing, and then one Thursday night. I am going to have LOTS AND LOTS of turkey. Good thing I love it so much! I wonder if I will get sick of it. Probably not!

2009 Update

2010-02-14T12:28:00.001-05:00

The 2009 year has been an interesting year. Time for the 1st annual Walsh Family update

Eric got a job teaching High School Physics. He enjoys working with older students where he can stimulate their interest with his sarcasm. He loves to do cool labs and is an inspiration to the other science teachers.

Jennifer got a job at the Department of Defense where she handles the Issues that involve the Vendors. She loves her job, but can’t wait to get home to the kids at the end of the day. She still bakes a little, and has gotten much better at making her French Bread. She has even made bagels, and pitas, YUM!

Caleb is in Kindergarten this year and loves it! He especially loves recess, and playing with his friends. He likes his teacher Mrs. Day, and even helped to convince her to give the kids stickers! He is so smart and learning to read and write. He has his own journal that he loves to draw and write in. This year for his 6th birthday party he had an Indiana Jones theme party. It was a lot of work, but it was very memorable for all of us!

Elizabeth is growing just like a little Princess. She has a sweet spirit and loves to help out. She will give you anything you ask for, and even pick up and put away things on the floor. She can Say Mama and Dada, Shoes, Diaper, Kitty Kat, and Dog. She loves to play with her Brother and just idolizes him. Anything he does is super funny! She has the sweetest giggle, and is very happy most of the time.

We have one last member of our family we have to write about; too bad he or she will not have anything interesting to say until June 1st, 2010. That’s right! We are expecting our third child! We are excited to add to our family again, especially Caleb. He is most excited that he will no longer have to sit in the very back of the car. This little bundle of joy has already messed up our traveling plans for the summer, but we don’t mind at all. Sorry Rach and Simon!

We Love You All!

Merry Christmas
And of Course
Happy New Year!

Finally Got on!

2009-11-21T12:08:00.002-05:00

I finally got on at Mom's. So of course it is going to be short, and no pictures. But that's not really different is it?

I had started writing this blog post at work, and it was a good one, but I failed to send it to myself so I could post it at home.

I just wanted to let you know I am still here. I am still alive. I hope to post more. I just can't seem to manage it. I am not very good at organizing my time at home yet.

Finally..... well almost

2009-10-09T18:55:00.003-04:00

I am finally off of a Saturday schedule and in a Monday- Friday 8-430 schedule. Only problem is to find a replacement for me they will require that I finish working on Saturday for a couple weeks. It is going to be hard to do my job that way since The people I work with will be emailing on Monday and I won't be able to do anything about it until Tuesday. Which means More work piles up. And then when I work On Saturday nobody is going to get my emails until Monday. Oh well. Hopefully it won't be too hard. I have my new desk, and I was trained for 2 days. Hopefully that is enough time. I have the feeling I am going to be asking a lot of questions though. I am going to enjoy my new work a lot more then my last work.

Caleb came home form school sick yesterday. Throwing up and a slight fever. We are trying to keep him away from Lizzie and everyone so no one else catches it. Hopefully it goes away fast. The school would not let him come back for 2 days. Poor Caleb! lol

We go to the fair on Monday! I am sooo excited. I started planning and have lots of things I want to do. We are going to take everyone, and I hope we can stay long enough for us to do everything we want. We are going to bring the wagon/ or a stroller if we can find ours. And I want to pack our lunch, and then just buy snacks. we will see how that works out though.

Lizzie is still fine. She misses Eric and I during the day. She is growing and learning more and more.

Eric is still teaching and loving his job.

We went to the temple last night. It was great! We stopped by the book store and got some more activity books, and then we ate Indian. It was good but a little expensive. We left directly after work, and then by the time we got home, Caleb was in bed, and it was time for us to go to bed too, so I hardly got to see the kids at all.

I am planning hard for Caleb's party. We are doing Indiana Jones theme adventure party. We are making snakes for the snake pit, and personalizing our Hats and whips that I made. Then they are going to use those hats and whips to go through he obstacle course. First enemies, then swing across a ridge on a whip swing (Prehung and tested of course), then they have to feel inside of a rock filled with insects (Spaghetti) to find the key to the treasure chest. After the they have to find a way through the snake pit with their torches (Fake of course, and made by me), and then they have to dodge the rolling rock. Finally they have to use the key to open the lock on the treasure chest after they have dug it up out of our little sand pit. I think it all sounds like sooo much fun. And sooo exhausting!

I am making our own pinata too, and then the cake of course!

I will take lots of pictures. don't' worry!

Life

2009-09-22T19:54:00.004-04:00

It's been a while. I have been filling up my days to try and get more out of my day and develop a better work ethic.

Life has been just that life. what to say.... what to say.....
trying to plan caleb's birthday.
Lizzie has a few more teeth. Some in the back to, but she is just sooo happy all the time.

I have to go finish making my bagels!

I am surviving

2009-08-26T18:39:00.003-04:00

I am just barely surviving.

Caleb loves school which I am sooooo grateful for! I think recess helps a lot to help calm him down in the classroom. Caleb did liek to ride the bus until it was late both days he rode it and now he does not like all the yelling on the bus. I think we are going to stick with it for a little while longer till the bus gets to a normal schedule.

Lizzie loves shoes and music. We had her 1st birthday party on Sunday/ I made a lady bug cake and a leaf shaped cake. It was cute for me and a first time but I could have done better if I had had more time. Of course not because I work, I had to go school clothes shopping, and then have beckys shower all week before the party.

Eric like his classes and teaching. He is in his element now. He got his first check and we had to get new phones. The old ones were broken beyond repair and still had Ohio numbers. So he go the palm pre. and I was goign to get one but I didn't want to pay 199 for a phone so I ended up going with the instinct. It is pretty cool!

I am still working, I am not drowning but I am not really flourishing either. I will just survive.

We are still trying to come up with doing something for our anniversary. No good ideas yet.

Sorry

2009-08-12T22:22:00.002-04:00

It has been a long time!
A long time with really no free time.
A long time of working.
A long time of getting up early
A long time of missing out of the post kid tv time.
A long time of going to bed early.
A long time of only having 4 hours to spend quality time with both my kids.
A long time of not having time to clean the house.
A long time without my family, immediate and extended.
Just a loooong time. I am tired of working already! I am truly my mothers daughter because Working INTERFERES with my life style!

Not much else going on. I still haven't decided what exactly to do for lizzies first birthday. I think I have decided on a lady bug birthday cake with a second one in the shape of a leaf. I am truly inspired by Ace of Cakes. I Love that show!

Getting it together

2009-07-28T07:58:00.003-04:00

Okay so I am still working on this whole working thing and trying to get it all in order! I definitely do NOT have enough time to do everything I want! It feels like I barely have enough time to spend with the kids before I have to go to bed! But I am thinking I will get used to it and be able to stay up a little later. I am currently used to more sleep and I always have needed more sleep then Eric to feel rested. I was going to get that looked at but I am still looking for a time and place and means to do that.

Okay so on to AAFES. I am a customer service associate. I answer the phones in the catalogue call center. So I Will be placing orders for people, checking status for orders placed already, changing orders, or shipping, or canceling orders, or any number of things that they might call in for.
Right now in training though we look at PowerPoint's, and talk about certain situations, watch these old movies with the phone doctor to make us better on the phone, and practice with someone else on how to order things.

It is training. what else can I say. I am tired, I got up early to straighten my hair. I got up early yesterday to make a trip to CVS before work before all the good deal supplies were gone. Still half of them were gone!
But I did make some good deals yesterday night. I got three crayons for three cents! WOOHOO! I am doing very well on my school supplies list and getting them for free or really cheap! Gotta go to work!

One last thing. Caleb can ride his bike or pedal down the hill of our driveway on his bike. I got pics, but no time to post them now. Lizzie almost turns one! And we almost hit our 7th anniversary!

Not tomorrow

2009-07-22T18:55:00.003-04:00

So it is not tomorrow, and I have been to work for 3 days so far, so sue me for not posting! LOL
I like it so far, it is training.... what else can I say. I am learning a lot and I hope to be kind of good at it by the time training is over. In a week and a half I will start the on the job training portion..... actually helping real live customers. I am a little scared I have no idea what that would be like, but we did some of that kind of thing with a partner today so I am feeling a little better about it.
I was soooo late yesterday. I don't know what kind of accident it was or what but they were routing EVERYONE off the freeway and blocking off cross streets and using the on ramp as an off ramp for the cars still on the freeway. I did call in and tell them I would be late. That was my saving grace I guess.
But Not much else going on. I am going to bed early, and getting up early. And managing to fit in everything else in the 5 hours I have from when I get home till I go to bed. The personalities are starting to come out in the other employees and it is fun.
More updates later.

Tomorrow is the Big Day!

2009-07-19T17:53:00.003-04:00

I start my new job tomorrow! I am not very excited but I guess I could be if I wanted to! I am officially done at Michael's for now. And I might be staying at aafes for 6 months. If we could do that, continue to live on the amount we have now, and put as much as possible away we might be debt free in 6 months and have enough saved for our trip to Europe next summer! I so hope we have figured in everything Right! I would hate to miss our mark!
So all is well, or will be when the paychecks start coming! We also have to be VERY careful not to overspend our money. It is easy for us to go without for so long and then when we get a little more wiggle room to spend it all on the things we did without for so long! We just have to be careful!

Rach went back to Denmark, I miss her!!! WHAAAAAAAAAA
Beck has about two months left till her little boy comes!
Lizzie is walking all the time now!
Our 7th anniversary is coming up
Lizzie turns one next month!
Caleb starts school on the 24th! ALL DAY! Kindergarten!
This is going to be a little harder with Eric and I both working! We will try and make it work as best we can. But we will finally have good insurance...... I hope.
We are really appreciative of Jeanne and George who will be taking a lot of the slack while Eric and I are both gone.

Not too Bad!

2009-07-13T16:35:00.002-04:00

My feet do not hurt so bad today, after my shift. But I did get some good news. I got the job!! I was hired at AAFES! I start on Monday and I am full time and I get paid more then at Michael's. I am excited! I am sorry to be leaving Michael's I liked the discount. But I did tell them to keep me in mind for seasonal. Cool! I start on Monday!
I got some good deals at Michael's. I searched through their clearance and was able to find some that I could use additional coupons on. And then I used my employee discount on some dollar items for my kids, cool!!!

I am also looking forward to starting the school supplies shopping. I am going to go get some free stuff from CVS later today! I hope they are still there though! Sometimes they run out! Last year I just bought it all in one trip because I had to. This year I am determined to shop the sales and get as much free stuff as I can! I am determined to drastically reduce my costs for supplies this year.

Great Fun!

2009-07-11T00:14:00.002-04:00

We had a super time at our timeshare this last week. We left friday, later then we planned of course. I guess I should say, like always.
And then it was super hot on the drive because our van does not have air conditioning. we got to moms and loaded their stuff onto the trailer. Then we had the idea and so, the kids and I drove with mom to the timeshare... in the air conditioning. It was nice. When Eric got there he was so overheated! Poor Eric. We swam, and played mini golf, watched movies in their theater, played their video games and our own. They had a water park that we went to on thursday. We went after 4 so we got the discounted rate. It is a pretty small one and a little kiddish, so Caleb had a whole lot of fun. Probably more fun then the rest of us. On monday we tried to go to the first monday trade days the only problem was when we got there, there was NOBODY! We finally found one lady and she said that it was more of a friday saturday sunday before the first monday thing now. How LAME! Anyway, they need to change the name of the park it is held in from first monday park to something else. LOL
We also went on the lake monday afternoon and all evening. It was sooo fun! Mom rented a pontoon boat for our base, and a ski boat and a guide to tow us around for tubing, skiing, and wakeboarding. It was sooo fun! AND we all managed to stay pout of most of the sun. Only a little did we get sunburned. Lizzie liked it, Caleb had a blast tubing and swimming. So did Eric and I. And we got to try out our new canoe! It pulls well behind a pontoon and a little jet ski boat that mom has. And Eric and I can row well enough to go where we want to without getting too upset with each other.
Tuesday was a rest day for sure! We were so sore! But I had fun rereading harry potter. We did go swimming in the pool. And we did play one game of mini golf. The whole time Lizzie was just walking away! That's Right! WALKING! She took her first few steps before we left, but she really didn't start walking until she had motivation at the timeshare. Grandma and Grandpa weren't there to carry her everywhere she wanted to go!
Wednesday we went and picked some blueberries at a berry picking place. We had fun! And the berries were super good! We had enough blueberries left over after eating to make blueberry pancakes Thursday morning.
All in all it was super fun. My Mom has some pictures up, I don't have them downloaded yet. I am so bad!
Had FUN, HAVE TO GO TO BED BEFORE MY KILLER 8 hour shift tomorrow. Sorry about caps, I am too lazy to go back and change it. I HATE doing that!

KILLER SALE!!!!

2009-07-02T11:50:00.006-04:00

KILLER SALE ALERT!!! Tomorrow Old Navy has their flag shirts on sale for $1! There is a limit of 5 per person! But $1!! WOW!

Update! There are reports of some old navy stores not having this sale. I called the three I would be able to go to tomorrow, two said they were out of those shirts, and one said they weren't having it anyway! BUMMER!!!!

I am also packing for Tyler tomorrow! COOL Can't wait!

Elizabeth was okay in her crib last night. Hope it continues to work!

One more update. I found out my phone does not work! I am expecting a very important phone call and my phone decided not to work! I called to get it fixed, but I did not find out soon enough to get it fixed BEFORE the holiday, so it is scheduled to be fixed on MONDAY! I emailed the guy who gave me an interview and told him my cell number. I hope it all gets straightened out!

The Battle has Begun!

2009-07-01T00:17:00.003-04:00

I put lizzie to bed in her crib for thew first time! and boy is she MAD! She is still screaming. 30 minutes later! She is old enough and she is not really breast feeding to eat she is just doing it to go to sleep. Well I am not going to breast feed her for the rest of my life so she can go to sleep every night, so in the crib she goes. I don't think it is going to be very easy. She is sooo spoiled! A lot of it is not my doing! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

I hope it all works out okay!
Other news, Eric found a super deal on a canoe and we used my first michaels check and the extra from his last school check to purchase it! We own a canoe! It is nice, plastic and a three seater! COOL!!! WE can't wait to try it out this weekend at our family get together in tyler.

Oh I also got a phone interview with aafes. I think it went well. They said I might hear back from them by tomorrow, friday at the latest. I hope I got it!

I almost forgot!

2009-06-27T00:15:00.003-04:00

I almost forgot to mention my super deals! I got like 4 free 8X10s for fathers day, and I also got 2 sets of 50 prints free for signing up my cvs cards on cvsphoto.com. I was soooo excited! I love them all. I even found some cheap frames with some half off coupons at Michael's. I LOVE IT!!!!

2009-06-26T23:47:00.002-04:00

Okay it has been a loooooong time! I am so sorry. I have been working and then recuperating and then taking time with the kids. I am well and I work tomorrow. But I am going to watch the Princess Bride first! I love that movie.
Lizzie is well, she stands by herself for long periods of time but doesn't quite walk yet. She always goes down to scoot when she doesn't have anything to hold on to. But she is jabbering away. She is starting to point and she has been throwing royal fits for a while now!

Caleb is good and still talking almost non stop. It drives me nuts sometimes. What am I talking about it drives me nuts all the time! But he is good and taking his reading lessons at least okay. We are practicing for kindergarten. and he loves the weekly summer activities with the ward. And he has discovered video games. He loves to play them all day long. We have to watch that but all in all it is okay. It has been too hot to play outside. Over 103!! and a heat index!

Eric is doing well in his schooling for his teaching certificate. He has a job at cedar hill next year. They offer a stipend and a signing bonus. We are excited. We just have to survive the summer.
I have to earn enough money to survive until his paycheck comes in. Michael's was fun but not enough money. I am still trying for a job at aafes. I JUST got a phone interview on Monday for one of the 30 or so jobs I applied for. I hope I get it.

I am still working and trying to balance it all.

Jobs

2009-06-03T14:54:00.002-04:00

I work at Michael's again tonight. And then again on Friday night. But I am starting to hear from my ideal Job AAFES. Army and Air force exchange service. It is a government job so some people I know who worked there said you had to commit murder practically to get fired. And they take a long time to get things done. I don't know. I have applied to a LOT of different jobs there and I am starting to get filled notices. So hopefully soon I will get an interview email. The first few job applications for AAFES I used a generic resume so I expect to be turned down for those but after that I got some help from dad and Eric and my resume was awesome so I expect to get some calls from those. In the next week or two is when I expect an email. And they do everything by email so cool! No phone calls to miss! AAFES also needs a typing test for some of their jobs. And I went and took that one yesterday. I did so well! I knew I typed pretty fast. I found some online typing test and found out around 40 a minute. I started practicing on a full size keyboard instead of a laptop size. I went and took it and it was super easy and I got to take it three times and I worked up to 53 words per minute with 94% accuracy! That is sooo better then I thought I could do! I am so excited. The jobs require 40 and so by getting 53 I am well more qualified! I am so optimistic.

First Day

2009-06-01T15:54:00.002-04:00

I just got back from my first day at Michaels. It went fine I only worked from 930 to 2. Not bad. I am still wanting a job at aafes. I am waiting to see if they call me for a second interview. I am certain I will be called I will just be called later on. This IS a government job after all. They take forever! LOL
Lizzie is good. She has 4 teeth now. Her front 4 teeth.
Caleb is almost done with school and very excited.
Eric is almost done for the summer. He is looking forward to being done with his school too. He gets to stay home this summer and he is looking forward to that.

WAITING STINKS!

2009-05-20T01:12:00.002-04:00

I have been very busy applying for jobs and then nothing while I wait! I am so close to getting a job I just have to wait for them to stinking call me to set up training and such! I hate this waiting phase. It is all anxious and nervous inside. I don't like it!

I had a wonderful tupperware party! It was soo fun and I managed to sell enough to get some free stuff!

Lizzie and Caleb are still good. Although Lizzie has a rash that is just not going away. I went to the doctor and got a prescription. And it went away whiel I used it but when I stopped it came back again. I am a little worried about it. I think it might be allergies to some food she is eating. She is only nursing at night and eating a lot of REAL food. Maybe she is allergic to something. I hope not. At least it is just a rash and not something more serious.

Long Time!

2009-05-11T13:50:00.002-04:00

WOW! It has been a long time since I last posted! I have applied to several places for a job. I need one for the summer. I hope I get one soon.

We just spent the weekend at Holly Lake timeshare. It was fun! We swam, and played mini golf, drove through the area, did some archery, rented a paddleboat, and had GOOD food! It was a lot of fun!

Nothing Much!

2009-04-23T22:16:00.002-04:00

Nothing much going on here.

Eric did get a job at Cedar Hill. He likes the school the area, and the BENEFITS! Oh they are so awesome! It will help a lot. Unfortunately he will not get hired this summer so we have to plan for income coming from somewhere. So Eric and I have decided I will get a job. Elizabeth is old enough. Eric can stay home and work on the house. I applied at Michaels today. We will see what happens.

Our garden is still doing fine.

I taught the releif society how to make homemade dishwasher detergent and baby wipes. They are wayyyy cheaper then the store stuff and just as good. Jeanne taught them how to make homemade laundry detergent. Same story it is MUCH cheaper and just as good. We had fun.

I got my tee-shirt, subway card, and baby shoe bronzing gift certificate this week from my sweeps. COOL! I redeemed my pace picante sauce free coupon earlier.

Eric leaves for his guys getaway tomorrow. And the kids and I go to moms for our sleep-over. FUN!

Easter Fun

2009-04-13T18:52:00.003-04:00

Lizzie and she is wearing the dress mom and I made. It is all scrunched up but it is cute!

His Haul!

This is a little Lizzie dress I made. It needs some shoulder straps. I will add those later.

Okay, so I like to reserve Easter Sunday for the family and a spiritual lesson. I do not like how much the world has commercialized this most important of seasons. So I do not do an easter egg hunt on Sunday. I wait get all my stuff on clearance monday morning (IF I buy anything at all, this year I used what we had around the house) and have one monday instead! My kids don't notice the difference, and they learn about the Atonement on Sunday instead.

Catching Up!

2009-04-07T21:13:00.003-04:00

Here are the pictures! I promised to post them and here they are.
Here is little Lizzie! Caleb took this picture. Pretty good!

These are my bagels I made. They turned out pretty good! Of course all of them got eaten the first day! So much for all my hard work!

And these are my pitas. They were so good with some chicken salad, and I even used tuna salad! These both will definitely be added to my repertoire. They were great successes.

I made pretzels today. I was not impresses with this recipe. This recipe calls for them to be boiled. I am not exactly sure why they are boiled but I think that is the way they do them commercially. But they do them much better commercially then I do. They kept falling apart and they didn't really taste like pretzels just bread or bagels cooked in the oven. I liked the taste of the bread to be sure, but it was WAYYYYY to much work for a loaf of bread tasting pretzels.

The garden is still alive! HOORAY!

And Rachel and Simon are coming for a visit!

OOOPPPPS! :)

2009-04-04T21:16:00.002-04:00

We are sooo in trouble! We are doing really well on our garden this year. The tomatoes have not died, the peas are still growing, and we have some corn and cucumbers coming up. We have been really good about watering and even weeding a little bit ....until today. We woke up to the door bell, and Eric rushed out there to see who it was. It was our neighbor telling we were flooding his property next door. We suddenly remembered we had left the water on last night.... all night. We had sprinkled our crops to death! We are going to have a HUGE water bill this month! I hope and think it is not tooo much water. Maybe they will all survive.
I love my herb garden! I have some seedlings coming up and most of the plants are still alive. Although my sweet basil has dark spots on it for some reason. I hope it is not a disease that will kill my whole garden!
I have pictures of my pitas. I will get around to posting them sometime. I really need to make the pretzels I have the dough already made for. I would not want them to go to waste!

Wow, Time has flown!

2009-03-30T10:48:00.003-04:00

Wow I can't believe it has been so long since my last post! But looking back not a whole lot of note has happened.
Eric is still trying to get signed this year. Caleb is still going to school. We went to Mom's last night, it was fun! I am NOT going to mention the two games we played that I LOST both to Eric!

Lizzie is still inching her way along. She is getting closer to crawling, but she has entered the clingy phase. She needs to be held most of the time. She needs to see me most of the time to. If I walk past her and she sees me she starts throwing a fit!

I have won three items in instant win games so far. COOL! I love becenstable.net I went to one of their classes. I loved it! I am thinking about becoming an educator.

I did my first BPO. Hopefully they will be coming more frequently now.

Our garden is still going. Hopefully it will produce this year.

I have been baking fresh bread and I love it! I tried a whole wheat recipe yesterday. It was sooo good! I Never thought my father in law would ever say that about whole wheat, but he liked it too!

I am going to try home made pitas today. I would have tried croissants but I can't find the book the recipe is in! I hope I find it soon! I would LOVE to have wonderful home made croissants.

I am going to try my hand at making baby wipes! I found a good site that offers a recipe (is that what you call it for non food items??????) They said it costs less then a penny a wipe! I could definitely use that freeing up in our budget! I am still not ready to try cloth diapers yet, but we need to do a little shaving in the budget. I think this might be a good way to! At 2.50-5 for about 80 wipes that can be quite a sum over the life of a baby.

I am also still struggling with house work. But I have lost 5 pounds since I started my weight loss competition! I got to go to macaroni grill as a reward! I LOVE their BREAD and PENNE RUSTICA!!!

Too CUTE!

2009-03-22T23:39:00.004-04:00

I have the cutest kids! This video is long but it is worth it to watch the whole thing. At least for me it is. LOL I think it is just hilarious! Caleb has such a personality!

This video is of Lizzie and her extreme cuteness. She has been a little more solemn today. Thus the laughs to make her smile and participate. She is teething her second tooth and being very needy and clingy. But the rocker is not on I PROMISE! You can see her rocking, and also if you listen and look real close you can see her blowing kisses. I am of course blowing some too to help her want to blow hers. And After listening to this I almsot didn't post it.... forgive my horrible voice!

I have now done 60!

2009-03-22T18:30:00.002-04:00

I did talk to Dad and I did visit Italy. Funny story about that. Ask me some time, although it involves a toilet. Nothing crude though so never fear! I laugh remembering it! We had some good times in the Alps!

2009-03-21T12:49:00.002-04:00

This is a game I found when I was blog surfing. Rules: Anything you have done has to be in colored, bold, and/or underlined. How much have you done? It only takes about 5 minutes…Just do it..it's fun!The things I've done are bold.
1. Started your own blog (duh)
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland!
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a Praying Mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched an amazing lightning storm (I love a good thunder and lightening storm)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (French Bread Making IS an art! lol also scrapbooking)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning...
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (In the process!! Last year we had a teeny tiny carrot! and the rest flopped big!)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping (although it was a hot tub and not a pool)
27. Ran a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community!
36. Taught yourself a new language (I had help with all my languages! LOL)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David (I don't remember I have to ask Mom and Dad)
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (No thanks to MOM! LOL j/k)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (This movie had a VERY select audience! Me and some friends!)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood! (Although I couldn't for a period of about 10 years due to living in France.)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (I Will soon!)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (Nope, and that's a GOOD thing!)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (Does a dislocation count?)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (Ok, everyone has doen those school project books!)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury (Almost, I was slotted too but they canceled at the last second)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Visited Italy (I have to ask Dad, I think Italy might have been on the list of our tour through the alps)

59! With a few Not sures, and a whole lot of Soon's! Kind of cool!

Great News!!!

2009-03-18T11:22:00.005-04:00

Eric Passed!!!! He passed his test and now he can be hired on as a permanent teacher! He is going to as soon as spring break week is over. Well He is going to tell the principal that he is interested in staying at this school with these classes but if he does not sign a contract then will the principal be a good reference for him to find a job elsewhere. Hopefully that will motivate the school to sign him fast! Yeah!!!

I also got about $55 of items for $34! I HAD to spend $34 because we were just tooo low on diapers. We had like 5 left! I know, I know, We could have held out for another day or two right! lol Now we are stocked up on diapers for a LONG time! Anyway I went to Target and used some fabulous coupons, and got some great deals. My best deal was a big refill pack of wipes normally 5.99 for .99! and of course 2 free trial size deodorant, one free trial size tide, lotion, zip loc bags, and band-aids. I love free stuff and good deals! Oh I also found a box of crayons for .48 and a pair of scissors for .47 COOL!

Long time gone fast!

2009-03-16T18:28:00.002-04:00

It has been a long time since I posted but it has gone by very fast. I am working outside to get our garden ready this week. You wonder why I have all this free time? Spring Break! Yes the time that most everybody deserts their states (like my family who is in the Dominican Republic!!!! You stink Mom! LOL) and goes on vacation I am still here in Texas getting my garden ready. My arms hurt!
I have to move some old wood we have and then pick out the bits that won't go well in the garden plastic and all that just isn't good for the plants, go figure! I also had to trim some of the trees and the sidewalk so we could actually walk around it. And then later I have to get the free lumber I was talking about before and outline the garden area. We are going to mulch this year so hopefully it will go better. Apparently we were like the only ones in Texas to not know you have to mulch or everything will die! And we got the approved varieties of some vegetables we like so they have been proven to grow in Texas! It is NOT HOPELESS this year!
I am also going to be starting an herb garden. I have found my absolute favorite herb to grow (to grow, not to use) which is called lemon Thyme. It smells soooo good! Only because I love the lemon smell so much. But I LOVE it! I like to crush some of the leaves and just smell it all day!
I have lost some weight! I lost last weeks competition but I did lose some weight! I am going to whoop her butt though this week! She is in the land of Temptation. Well one anyway, known as the ALL-INCLUSIVE Resort! HE-HE-HE We'll see who has lost weight at the end of this week! LOL
I am hopefully going to go see the pre-screening of the movie Knowing for free tonight. Although If Eric doesn't get back soon we might not make it in time. We might not make it in time to get good seats anyway. They say some of these things have people standing in line for hours. We will see. This is my first one so I will get the feel of it tonight.

Great Weekend! Great Deals!

2009-03-09T11:40:00.004-04:00

I went to CVS and got some toothpaste and some stuff for Mel on Saturday, and I only paid 1.49 OOP. And Mel was like COOOL!! I need to learn how to do that!
I LOVE getting good deals!

Oh I almost forgot to mention the other good deals I got. This weekend was busy, First I started it off going to Home Depot for their first Saturday of the month kids craft. I have gone a few times and they have the neatest crafts. Lowes ahs one as well. i wonder if I could go to Lowes and then Home Depot on the same day! It is soo cool. Caleb loved this months craft a race trac thing. I even have pics. Although the two cars are missing and one of the pegs to hold up the track is missing too. But that just goes to show how much Caleb loves playing with it.
Anyway I was on my way home from Home Depot, and from getting my free small sub at quiznos, and then getting my free small candle at creekside collections, and I saw a Garage Sale sign. I almost passed it up but made a last minute turn to try and find it. Maybe it was the spirit telling me to go, I don't know, but I sure am glad I went! (Usually those last minute decisions are the spirit. After I have thought about it and convinced myself not to go, and then last minute I decide to go anyway, those promptings usually have very good benefits.)
I had a hard time finding it, their signs were not very good, but I did find it and I saw a bike child carrier attachment! I was so excited. I got out and then someone else started looking at it. I waited for them to finish and they kept looking so I was going to go ask the lady how much it was to see if I could out buy these people, since they couldn't make up their minds if they wanted it or not. But before I could ask they walked away so I went and looked at it. Hardly used, good condition, two seater! Handle and front wheel so it can be pushed when not on a bike. Plastic cover to keep cold air out, screen to let in breezes, removable straps and seats so I can carry other things besides children if I want to. It was nice. She wanted 45, I offered thirty! She took it!!! YEAH! I had to run and get some cash from the bank but I got it! I love it! So does Caleb, and Lizzie sat in it as well. She didn't scream so she doesn't hate it, but she didn't laugh so she doesn't really like it... yet. I am glad we got this! They are WAYYY expensive in the store. I Mean even-on-sale-I-could-not-afford-one-without-saving-for-a-few-months expensive!

Here's a general picture of my family all playing together. Right before we read scriptures at night!

I am the weiner!!

2009-03-09T10:49:00.004-04:00

I am the weiner (winner)!!! It's a Carver thing! Thanks Grandma! I did win the weekly competition. But by points and not weight loss. But at least I didn't gain anything. I just didn't lose anything either. I was wayyyy too loose with my snacking habits. I am DETERMINED to be better this week! I have already cut up the carrots and the celery for some ready made, healthy, low calorie snacks. I am going to drink my water and then I am going to work my butt off outside making our new garden area.
Our neighbor had some old posts that were warped out by the curb to be thrown away and so we snagged those to outline our raised garden area with. They don't have to straight if they are going to be sitting on the ground! We have saved sooo much just by picking up some useful items that our neighborhood is getting rid of. Our neighborhood is the decluttering King!!! Although it is probably done by the queen not the king, but you get my drift! I am MOST proud of our prelit NICE Christmas tree, and the several totes Christmas and Halloween colored I found! YEAH GO ME!!!!
Lizzie is so close to crawling. I have to get serious about babyproofing our house now! Here she is outside!

Yes, those are weeds! BUT THEY'RE PURPLE! I just love purple on my little frilly frilly girl! Did your voice get all high and dolphiny when you read that??? Good, so did mine!

Important Person

2009-03-05T09:55:00.002-05:00

I am an important person people! I am so important I was invited to a prescreening. I get to see an advanced copy of the movie Knowing. Like I said I am sooo Important. NOT. I found this website that offers prescreenings for different movies in different areas and Dallas is showing the Knowing. That is so awesome. Something I have always wanted to do!

Elizabeth my best friend had her little boy. Andrew Miles Duncan, 7lbs 12 oz. He has the MOST hair I have EVER seen on ANY baby! But he is a darling.

Caleb is good. School is still hard for him. He is too independent. He likes to do his own thing too much. And he does NOT like to be told what to do. I had to have a little training meeting with him showing him that the little I do tell him to do is better then what I COULD be doing to him. After being told every little instruction for about 2 minutes he was VERY glad I don't boss him around so much.

Elizabeth is good, not crawling yet but I am not worried at all. Her explosions are coming more under control. And the surprise of the year, Elizabeth does not like peaches or pears. I don't know why! Caleb loved them all children that I know love them. Why doesn't she? Maybe She just needs to get used to them.

Eric is good. Flexing his teaching muscles. We have run into some snags, but nothing we couldn't handle or, to be honest, nothing we weren't expecting. Ethics are strong in our family though and we did the right thing. Eric hopes to get a permanent teaching position soon. He takes his alternative certification test on the 14th. Then 5 days later he will know if he passes, and then he can get hired for a permanent teaching position. His principal likes him, so maybe it will happen the way we hope (dare we say, plan) for.

Fun Days

2009-03-01T23:03:00.003-05:00

I had a Pretender sleepover Friday night- Saturday with Mel. We watched ALL the Pretender shows we could cram into Friday night and then Saturday till about 6. It was soooo fun! We watched all of season one and got one episode of season two in. I love The Pretender. It has not been on in 12 years but you can get it on dvd. It is a good story and pretty clean. I let Caleb watch a few of them. The only thing is all the technology used in it is advanced..... for its day...... Back in 1996!!!!!!!!! They used windows 95 and the old thick laptops with all the old bulky plug in cords, and VHS tapes. And the cell phones are the big ones with the flip down bottoms, or the really fat ones. It is funny! I just have to remember this came out a LONG time ago and I can overlook the ancient technology!

We had Stake Conference today, we got there 15 minutes late but we managed to get a pretty good seat, near the front on the padded fold out chairs. It was fun and then we went over to Moms afterward. Becky and Ariel were there, and Michelle and Dan were there too. They are moving to Plano. It is going to be fun. They were here looking at houses.

I have all of my Real Estate Stuff done! I joined the board, and now I am official and have access to the MLS service. Hopefully some BPO's can come in now. I am going to call the companies tomorrow to see if there is anything else I need to do to get some BPO's. Just to let them know I am ready to work! I hope it all works out!

Winners

2009-02-22T23:18:00.002-05:00

I had my family over for dinner tonight. Jeanne did all the cooking, she had dinner planned for a couple of days now. I had to send caleb to bed super early. I was tired of all the early morning complaining. I hope this helps.

It was fun eating and then playing catan. Mel won one, and then Eric won the other.
Congratulations also go to Mom, April, and Michelle Sanford who won my giveaway. Even though they didn't start their own giveaway doesn't mean they can't win mine! I will be sending them something handmade in the next year. I have a couple ideas. I hope they like them!

Busy week next week. But should be fun! I hope to do a lot of exercising, and clean some house! I also want to do a little bit of painting in our bedroom. I have had the paint for a while but held off in order to do the whole room at one time..... Yeah, Not Happening! So a little at a time it is! Wish me luck!

I feel Loved....

2009-02-20T18:52:00.003-05:00

Awww Man guys! I have had my giveaway post up for a few days and I have had only one response! I thought more people read my blog then that! Oh Well, I choose to believe you guys are all facing very important life changes that leaves you too busy to come check ANY blog much less mine!
Michelle I am sorry I didn't have it posted when you came and checked my blog. I am sure you would have put your name on there if it had been up. You can still come check my blog again and put it on there!
Anyway on to the news. I had my bank card restricted for fraud. They thought it was suspicious when I made two purchases on my card at walmart and one of them was over 500 dollars. I was buying my EFX machine I have been wanting for along time! Yeah I can exercise at home now! I have done several sessions already. Unfortunately they I am sooo out of shape that they were all very short! But I am doing it! I am getting better and I am determined to get back in shape. I cleaned out the little side room in the kitchen for it to go there. I do NOT want it in my living room and I simply have no where else to put it. Eventually I would like to put it in the spa room. But that won't happen until Jeanne goes through some more boxes. She has not had the best health lately So I don't see that happening soon. She has said she didn't want the little kitchen room to become a gym room, and I feel bad turning it into that if that is not what she wanted, but she has not done anything with the room so far, and has not expressed any ideas about what she does want it to be. I am not going to sit in limbo until she does. So I made it into what I want. I will certainly give her the room back as soon as I have somewhere else to put it.

Lizzie is doing well, Caleb is doing good, Eric might be hired before the summer. That would be sooo nice! I am sooo close to having an ACTIVE real estate license. I have signed on with North Texas Real Estate Professionals! I just have to wait for my license with TREC to state Active before I can sign up and start doing BPO's. I am soooo close!!!!!! It would help a lot for extra income!
And so we are all good!

Pay It Forward!

2009-02-17T00:12:00.001-05:00

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me (yeah for handmade!).

2. Winners must post this challenge on their own blog, meaning that you will pay it forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember it’s the spirit and the thought that count!

4. When you receive your gift, blog about it! If you are not one of the first three to comment on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! It's all about paying it forward.

(Original post from Jen Ward)

2009-02-05T20:03:00.002-05:00

Okay, This was taken on the camera so quality is not very high. This is Elizabeth rocking. She loves to rock. She rocks all day long! She will sometimes stop and do other things but then she just goes back to rocking! She is sooo cute! She got rocking so fast at the end the poor camera could hardly keep up with her!

Promised Pictures!

2009-02-05T19:49:00.002-05:00

And the coveted SUPER MONSTER at FreeBirds! It was HUMONGOUS! It was enough to feed 6 people! It was 13 dollars but that is worth it! This picture doesn't do it justice.

Caleb in a jet engine of the SR 71. At the airplane museum on the base a few weeks ago.

Elizabeth tonight

Elizabeth when she was born.

Forgot to mention

2009-02-05T15:41:00.002-05:00

I forgot to mention I was on the phone with the IRS because I tried to efile but the adjusted gross income I had on my return was not the same they had on theirs. SO they rejected my return. That is why I had to call in and get my correct AGI. When I compared the two I was only off by $14! How frustrating!

I was off by 14 Dollars!

2009-02-04T18:19:00.004-05:00

Okay while I wait to get my adjusted gross income from the IRS for last year so I can efile this year. I have time to blog. They put me on hold with an estimated wait time of 10-15 minutes! Outrageous! That is okay though I have lots of blogs to read, and my own blog to update.

Yesterday Was a doozie! Eric and I had a fun time playing catan with Terry and Elizabeth last night. We tried out this new place called free birds. It was pretty good. I have to get a picture of Erics burrito on here. It was hilarious all night!

But the doozie part came before I could escape for the night! Caleb went to the bathroom, good news: He actually used the right bathroom. Bad News: He dropped the tp and got poop all over himself. How he got THAT much poop on himself just from what he says happened I don't know! Anyway it was evident to me that he needed a bath! So I started the shower and got it warm and then got him in. He said he would have fun and he wanted a long time in it. I said we'll see and got doing my other things. I did some laundry and some other small things and then checked on him, all good. Then I went to do some dishes. I heard him yelling and yelling and calling for me so I ran to see what was wrong. I knew something was HORRIBLY wrong when I stepped in a POOL of water! not a puddle, not a little stream, a POOL! A FLOOD! I rant o the bathroom and turned off the water. I saw the toilet bubbling up, I heard Caleb open the door and a wash of water come out. I asked him what had happened and he said he sat on the drain so the water would come up but then it came up and up, and then he didn't see it was so high and he opened the door and it all came out. Wow! I grabbed some towels and started soaking up the water. I ran and grabbed some more that were close in the laundry room. I put those down and they were instantly soaked, it was so wet. I had to run down the hall and get some more! I must have used thirty towels! I got him dry and then sent him to get dressed., I continued to soak up water. I then had to get a laundry basket to get the completely soaked towels out of the way and put down more towels. Jeanne did a lot of the fine work. I just moved the heavy towels and put down more. We are still washing them all out!
So Then Eric got home from work and found me on the couch taking a break! He jokingly asked what I had done all day and I told him I cleaned up the flood! Anyway it was a doozy. Looking back I can vaguely remember Caleb saying something about sitting on the drain. I should have been listening harder! And when I sent him to his room I could see the drain pattern on his bottom! He is such a character!

Okay, Okay, I'll post already!

2009-01-27T17:07:00.005-05:00

I know, I complain when other people don't update their blogs and then I go and don't update my own! We had a wonderful time at Hill Country. We were able to visit all the places that Eric went to when he lived there a long time ago. Some of those were a wash where we found sand dollars, fossils, and heart shaped clams. We also went to his old house and the park that he mowed. And then the best place we went to was this old cave off of a hidden road he found. We hiked up there and sat by the spring that came up at the back of the cave. It was cool! We also attended church up there. And then we spent one day in San Antonio. We went to the river walk and ate lunch, we drove by Georges grandmothers grave, and then we went to this airplane park at the air force base. We did stop by the commissary to see what they cost. I have heard that they are cheaper then a regular store but I could not see it. They had a box of diapers for 28.99 that is sooo not a good deal. I can get them for 20 at target and walmart! So I was disappointed. It is free of tax but that is not enough to make up for the price hikes! Anyway that was fun.
Then we spent one day at the timeshare. We played battleship, we swam in the pool, we played a cool set of mini golf, we wanted to play ping pong and shuffleboard but the people working the counter didn't do it right and kept giving the equipment to other people even though we were waiting first. We played chutes and ladders, connect four, Caleb entered a Simon Says contest. He didn't win but he had fun. We brought all our food and we ate well. Jeanne and George bought some stuff that we didn't really need and so our trip back was not any more comfortable then our trip there. It is supposed to be because you have alleviated all this extra room from the food being eaten, but this was their first time so they didn't really know.

Great Weekend Planned!

2009-01-15T09:19:00.002-05:00

Hey guys we have a GREAT WEEKEND planned! This weekend Caleb has a 4 day weekend from school. And Eric was able to get off those days too! He had to fight for them. Get this, they told him he needed to give 2 week notice for a PERSONAL DAY! Yeah A Personal Day! uh doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of a personal day! I can understand vacation but not personbal days! So anyway he went and talked some more and was able to get them off.
So anyway, we are going to go to the timeshare, but not inTyler. We wanted to but they didn't have any openings there. They did have some openings in their Hill Country location. It is located between San Antonio and Austin. So a little longer drive but still fun. I have never been there so I can't wait to see what it is like!
So we are going there for 4 days! cool! We are going to be able to check out Austin and San Antonio too. How awesome!

Slow Days

2009-01-08T14:49:00.003-05:00

Not much going on. Still liking my hair cut although I washed it and slept on it wet last night. You know the music on Nemo when Darla walks into the dentists office. EEK-EEK-EEK-EEK!?! Well My hair did that this morning. EEK-EEK-EEK-EEK! It was sticking up and curling on half and just a BAD hair day! That's okay though. I KNEW it was going to do this. I chose the cut because it is a cute cut but I knew I would have to do a little more to it. SO I got out my hot Iron and went to work. I was NOT prepared for my Hot Iron to completely FAIL at making my hair as nice as before! Okay Okay. It was a cheap one. I got some of it flat. So all was not lost. But I was severely disappointed in my flat Iron. I now have to go and buy a better one.

Caleb got one smiley face this week and the rest have been ok faces. I don't know what is going on with this kid. We have tried disciplining, we have tried incentives, we have tried talks, we have tried practice. We have tried more sleep we have tried happier mornings. I don't know what else to do. I am almost at the stage where we take everything away and he has to earn it back piece by piece. I DO NOT want to do that. And I know if I do I am going to have to contend with my husband and my in-laws. I will give it a few more days and continue to think of solutions but it is not looking good.

Elizabeth is fine. She is Growing and still spoiled. She likes to be held all the time. And he is definitely coming into definite nap times. I don't think she liked getting up so early this morning. But I needed to take Caleb to school so We could talk and remember and work on getting a smiley face today.

Not much else is going on.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T21:42:00.002-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!! We are in the year of 2009. New years was fine. We stayed up and used the stuff we got from Tyler. Caleb had to take a nap before midnight and we told him we would wake him up, that boy did did not want to wake up!!!! He had a hard tome waking up. If we werent so obstinate in waking him up he would have gone back to sleep for the night. And then he seemed a little dissapointed in our meager celebration. We watched the ball drop and hten had soe treats. Back to bed after that for us!

Other news I got my hair cut. I teach tomorrow. I have finally taken down my christmas decorations. I will start taxes soon. I like to do them early still! We ahavent been married long enough for me to dread taxes yet! LOL j/k

2008-12-29T01:48:00.002-05:00

Caleb cracks me up! He is sooo funny! Right now he wants to microwave everything! not only that he says he wants to do it to the melting point of the cheese! So he asks how many seconds for the melting point of cheese? I tell him about 10 and then he looks at it and it is not melted enough so I tell him to put it back in and he says how long ONLY to the melting point of the cheese mom? Where does he get this stuff?????????

Christmas Going-ons!!

2008-12-29T00:36:00.003-05:00

Starship Catan one of Erics gifts!

Caleb making cookies using one of his gifts! A chefs set!

Elizabeth doing VERY well at opening her presents, for her first christmas!

Sorry for the long time between posts. Especially over the CHRISTMAS season. We had a wonderful Christmas and Christmas eve.

I avoided all the stores like the plague the week before Christmas. I DID NOT want to get caught in all the last minute shopping lines and stuff. I had all of my gifts so I did not need to go anywhere. And we had all the dinner food already purchased.

I did not work on my untalent until the day before and the morning of Christmas eve! How bad I am!! What is an untalent show you ask? My husband kept asking the same thing when he heard about it. Well it is a talent show of sorts that you do not have to be talented in anything to participate in. Everybody hears talent show and they all say well I am not talented in anything! Well for this you do not have to be talented! Now we have had our talented ones for sure! But the ones that mess up are cheered for more then the ones that are flawless!

Some good ones over the years... flossing your nose (missionary), playing the french horn and the trumpet at the same time different parts to the star wars song (Missionary, AWESOME!), the circus roll with two people (John and me), Rachel took a song from her music book flipped it upside down crossed her hands and played it while laying down so she couldn't see the keys flawlessly! Dad remembered he could play the guitar after forgetting for like 30 years! Dad telling the story of Sam Mcgee is always good. We made up our own version of the 12 days of Christmas with broken light bulbs 7 bags of garbage which was sooo true back then! Mel and Eric did their version of the airport tram voice, and then the things you had to do at the airport.

Anyway I can go on and on, but one more was added this year, Becky and her husband Ariel were the Grin chs band playing guitar hero with beckys one hand playing one half of the drums and the other hand strumming the guitar, while ariel fingered the guitar and played the other half of the drums! It was soooo hard and they weren't able to finish the song it was soo hard but they got 68% and true to form they were cheered all the harder for failing to finish. It was soo funny to see them play!

Mel sang the 12 days AFTER Christmas FUNNY! Eric played his missionary badge like a kazoo! Caleb did the Chinese finger traps which Becky promptly played up to her blond roots and got her fingers stuck! Dad told his politically correct speech about the Christmas season. Hilarious! I taught how to make a poinsettia flower out of ribbon, and a present bow that will come off with one pull from one hand and fall to the floor like it always does in the movies. COOL!

The best part of the whole show was Rach and Simon participating through skype all the way from Denmark!! COOL Simon did his one push up (first year for participation) which wasn't too bad because he is 6' 5" and they have a teeny tiny apartment. The fact that he was able to lay down in there was a feat of sorts! Rach played twinkle twinkle little star on the violin (Impressive and scratchy, more cheers!)

Then we all went through this Christ story that had been planned for a choir in sacrament. It went through like 8 songs and a story or narration between each one it was sooo fun to sing parts with my family again! Even though we didn't have tunes to follow we just sang our parts as best we could, We did well on most of them. Only one or two had places that needed work, and one I did not know at all so I stuck with the melody. That was the best ending to the untalent show! We all felt the spirit.

As far as food goes we all snacked all night. Mom did a pumpkin roll instead of pumpkin pie this time. I was soooo glad it was to DIE for!! It was all gone in one night except for one little piece which I stole later. It was soo good! I HAVE to learn to make it!

Christmas morning I am not crazy and let Caleb sleep in as long as he wanted. He is not old enough to wake himself up early in the morning yet. So we got up at 9 30 and then opened presents! Caleb got sooo many presents it is not funny! He got one from Santa, one from us, and then one from Janie and one from Grandma and Grandpa, One from Mel, one from Beck and Ariel. And to top it all off he got 7-8 from Grandma and Opa! Caleb made out exceptionally well this Christmas. And then We all lounged and played with toys, well Eric and I put them together for HOURS and then Caleb played with them! We had a Christmas walk to gather samples for Caleb to see on his big screen microscope. Jeanne cooked a good dinner, and then we all lounged and snacked some More!

The day after Christmas was just as fun. Mom called out to Tyler and managed to get a room! So we drove out there and had a great time! We played Catan and had good left overs and went to the water park out there for free. Mom got some free tickets and we used our previous free tickets. Lizzie went in the water for the first time! She did not like the shallower colder water, but she did not mind the warmer lazy river. Cute in her little pink bathing suit I found on sale for a couple bucks! When we went out to Tyler we were in the middle of a heat wave! It was sooo unfair!! Well we started at the water park in the morning and then it started to rain. No big deal right? WRONG!! The rain brought on the cold front! It went from hot to cold! We had to run for home we were not dressed for the cold weather! None of us had brought cold weather clothes to Tyler! Caleb had to wear an extra shirt of mine for a coat! That night Tyler had a live band that was fun. We played some pool, mini golf in the cold, and got lots of new years stuff they were handing out. Plus some free nachos which are always good, and some root beer floats! YUMMY YUMMY!!!

We had to leave after that so we could get home at a decent time. I still had to plan my lesson. And Caleb had to get enough sleep. All in All it was sooo fun and a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Okay some pictures. Dad has the Christmas eve pictures. And we did not get Tyler pictures this time. But I do have Christmas photos and a photo from tonight.

Round of Sickness!

2008-12-20T00:51:00.003-05:00

So we have had the round of sickness again! We are all pretty sick with runny stuffy noses and coughing, and just feeling bad. Lizzie has chest congestion, Caleb and Eric have thrown up a few times. I had to drive Eric home from work today he felt so ill.
I have most of the gifts made and wrapped. Just a few more finishing touches on a couple of them. Can't wait. Have lots of plans. Hope all goes well.
I still need to learn to tie a bow for the untalent show (Family tradition). I just can't wait. Can't wait to feel better, can't wait to eat good food, can't wait to see smiles on faces for the gifts I have given, can't wait to be with family, can't wait to play games, can't wait to participate in traditions. JUST CAN'T WAIT!

Christmas Lights!!

2008-12-14T23:34:00.004-05:00

We went and saw the Christmas lights show last night. It is this huge neighborhood and they all put up a bunch of lights. Mel, Beck, Ariel, Caleb, Eric, Lizzie, and I all went in the van. We made some hot chocolate to drink on the way. We had a little problem getting in. There was along line of cars that looked like they were turning and so we got in the other lane to pass them all and then the line kept on going past the light, so when we got closer to the neighborhood where it starts we realized we had cut in front of a WHOLE bunch of people. We had no choice but to get over as soon as possible but we still passed a bunch of people. Oh Well! I'm not complaining too much. LOL So then when we got to the neighborhood we popped the trunk and Caleb and I sat in the back and looked at all the lights. It was fun. Then Caleb went and sat in the front and Mel joined me in the back. We drove around some more. At one point there was a blow up that was tipped over and we wanted to see what it was. We were going slow so Mel jumped out and went and pulled it down and fixed it! Then she jumped back in. That was her good deed of the day! lol
All in all we had a great time!
Sunday was fine at church. Lizzie did her typical exploding and I had to take her tights off. And when we got home we went about our day until Eric asked where his shoes were, I asked what for and he said because the house down the street is on fire. I was like WHAT! sure enough the house was on FIRE! Eric ran over there and got the neighbors hose and started spraying the side of the house not on fire and the house on fire! It is a good thing he did so the fire did not spread to another house. There was a MAN on the roof of the house. Crazy Man! Everybody told him to get off the roof several times! He finally did. The fire department came and it took them 20 mins. Then they spent ten minutes setting everything up before they actually turned on the water. I don't know how it runs and all the prep work required but that seems like a long time! They got it out eventually but that delayed the rest of our day. Our Home teachers could not come down the street the police stopped them. So that delayed me from going on my visiting teaching. And I got home late and delayed Eric getting to his scout meeting!
Today I get to pay more bills and some tithing. Finally! I hate waiting for paychecks to come in! We have a plan and it will take a while but we will see through and be clear eventually!

Extra Post

2008-12-11T18:57:00.002-05:00

I just looked at my blog and one of my newer posts got bumped to the next page. Be sure to check it out!

Garland

2008-12-11T15:15:00.002-05:00

http://j-a-girl.blogspot.com/2008/12/and-herewego.html

There it is. The most GORGEOUS garland I have ever seen! I want one! check it out!

Finally Pictures!

2008-12-11T01:36:00.001-05:00

Lizzie 2 days ago! With the outfit I got at JCPenneys for 1.97! I just had to bring that up AGAIN!

Mike and Linda when we went to Lunch.

2008-12-11T01:29:00.004-05:00

Look how thin I look!!!!!!!!! I havent looked this thin since HIGH SCHOOL!

All of us sisters at the Temple!

Eric and Lizzie a month ago or so.

2008-12-11T01:11:00.003-05:00

Caleb loves to dance! Check out my Cool Moves he says! He is such a character!

Rachel and Simon when Mom flew him out here to surprise her!

Caleb Opening presents for his birthday at Tyler timeshare

This is Caleb and the cake I made for his birthday. He wanted a pirate party. We didn't get to have a party with friends but we were at Tyler so he had a Great time anyway! Now it looks a little bad but I am Extremely proud of this cake! I cooked it at a Timeshare and not in my own kitchen and it came out this well! I had a SMALL oven a 13x9 pan would have a hard time fitting. I had to bring my own pans, and then use their crummy knives to cut it. I had to cook in their outrageously small and definitely Unevenly heating oven. With the ingredients I brought which were not quite enough of a few items. I had to improvise. That turned out the cakes worse then normal! and then I found a bag that I could use to pipe the frosting out and so an uneven bag mixed in with my bad skills at piping (I never pretended to be good at frosting) made it look like this. But it was harder putting it on when it was already standing up.

Anyway this cake was just supposed to be the part with white frosting on it, but I wanted to make a 3-d pirate hat so I kind of copied the front and made up the rest of it! THAT is why I am EXTREMELY proud of this cake! And Caleb loved it anyway! Note this is a good cake for LOTS of kids. If you don't have a lot stick with the front section or you could end up with 10 lb on your hips instead! or cake in the trash.

Finally Pictures!

2008-12-11T00:28:00.003-05:00

Okay so I got a little distracted between my last post and my photo post I was supposed to be doing. But I did it! These are Elizabeth befoer Halloween, and then all of us for Halloween.

Love it/ Hate it!!

2008-12-10T19:30:00.002-05:00

I have been in a love hate relationship. My mother had a dear friend go with her to Denmark to help with Rachel, do the hair and the bridal bouquet and the cake and the centerpieces and the chair backs and the table clothes and all that stuff. She is sooo good at that kind of stuff, she has done it all before. She did my whole reception and made my cake, she helped with Becky's and made Becky's cake, and she traveled to Denmark to do Rachel's and I'm sure she will be around to do Melanie's too! Anyway Mom wanted to do something nice for her friend after it was all said and done. So she decided to do a scrapbook.

Okay you have to understand my Mother, she does not DO crafty! She hates to do anything crafty unless it involves a power tool like a band saw. She can do those ones just not the ribbons, the scrapbooks, the flowers, the painting and all that. So she asked for my help. Not only does she not do the crafty stuff she hates to shop so when we went to go shopping at Micheals she almost had a heart attack. She got sooo stressed at doing this book. I had to reevaluate my approach to this book. Peel and stick were all we could go with. She found a premade book and I made her get some friend stickers and some wedding embellishments. I MADE HER get them! I promise you will use them and it Will be easy I said! It is a good thing she trusted me! She got them and she used them a lot! So yesterday after shopping she pulled them out and was going through the pictures and trying to put them in place and it was becoming messy and she slammed the book shut and said she had reached her breaking point after only 5 minutes. I did not give up on her! She came over today and we took just the pictures and separated them to the pages that we wanted and stuck them directly in the protector so we did not ave to rethink it all over again. That was not so hard for her. Then we started at the front. She would have been soooo stressed out if I had not had the glue the scissors and the creative thinking (she only needed on the first page or so and then she got going) right at my fingertips. I did give her some extra creative suggestions and she took the ones she could do and let me know which ones were over her head. She got going and she did real good.

We had to stop for lunch when this oil company guy came over to talk to Jeanne and George. We went to Charlies hamburger grill. It was pretty good. They had the hugest portion of chili cheese fries I have ever seen. They came out in their own mixing bowl it was so huge! And they were good! Then when we came back she went to work again. she got it all done that she could, there was a page that needed some photos that didn't print when she ordered them. So she will finish those after she has printed them out.
She did it! She did the thing she HATED, and I helped her do the thing I LOVE!

Other news: I Have PICTURES! The ones from my camera anyway. The ones on my cell phone cannot be downloaded yet. The phone is not syncing to the computer. I know I know lots and lots of excuses. I can't help it!
We are going to Tyler this weekend. We have some water park tickets we need to use before they expire.
Caleb is starting to have more trouble in school. His regular teacher is out on maternity leave and the substitute and the assistant teacher do not handle him the same. Either that or his cute behavior no longer balances out his more annoying behavior.
Lizzie is Good. Still growing, still head butting me.
Eric is good and still in training. He has some tests he is taking soon. He will pass of course but he is sure that some of the people will not and they will be let go then.
I am good. Still losing weight even though it is slowing down. I am keeping up on the house. Mostly because of the oil company guy coming over today! And Christmas decorations are coming along. I found this site that has the most gorgeous garland on it. And she made it out of all these items that were on sale! I will have to find it again I found it on the other computer that will not turn on reliably. When I find it again I will tell you.

Christmas Spirit

2008-12-07T13:27:00.003-05:00

I have been in the Christmas spirit for a while now. I actually have almost all of my gifts bought and wrapped and given to the recipients. I had to with Rach in Denmark my window for giving her a gift through mom who was going there for Rach wedding was the 3rd. An then I did an advent calender in a nice box thing with drawers for each day before the 1st for my Mother in Law. I then had Calebs. I thought it would be a good idea and fun for Caleb to give it to him early. But he keeps getting frustrated he cant open his gift yet. I should have waited. I am working on my sisters gift. Yes I have to make it. I like to make things and I saw the perfect gift for her but it was WAY too expensive for the concept. I can make it much cheaper. I think anyway! You know how these projects turn out!
So Rachel is married and living in Denmark. Eric is working and still going through training at his new job. We are still trying to make ends meet. We are almost out of the woods, I can't wait! But the Christmas season is a little more expensive then all the rest so it delayed our financial plans for a few paychecks.
We finally found the Christmas tree. It has been shuffled here and there with all the moving and cleaning. it had been MIA for a while. We even made a trip all the way to corsicana to look in the storage sheds of my In-laws to see if it was there. But we ended up finding it in our spa room.
We have been decorating the house with all of Jeannes decorations and it looks cute. And now that we have the tree we can finally put it up. The only thing we haven't done is put up the outside lights. we have started and have been planning on finishing it for a week. It just has not been done yet! OOPS! We will get it done soon though.
We went to a Nativity special event that Arlington Stake is holding. They took hundreds of different nativity sets and set them up all over the different rooms and then people come in and look at them all. They have a choir and some movies and different things. It was fun. They had a scavenger hunt for the little kids to find a certain set in each room to keep them entertained. And then they had a live set where you could dress up and get your picture taken as the different people. Cale was Joseph, I was Mary, Eric was a wise man, Jeanne was an angel, and Little Lizzie was Jesus! pretend of course. It was a good picture! They print one out for you and everything. I liked it it was fun.
I had a fun time a while back decorating for Christmas with Melanie. And playing games with my family. I read the one trip report my mother sent from Denmark. I hope she sends more. I am anxious to see more pictures of Rachs wedding. I cant believe she is married and mel is the only one left at home!

To my Surprise!

2008-11-27T14:23:00.002-05:00

My visiting Teachers came over to give me some stuff, and she told me I looked like I had withered away! I knew I was sick, and It hurt to much to eat a whole lot at a time. but I didn't know I had lost so much weight. I weighed myself this morning.... 233!! WOW. I am going to gain it all back today of course! But I hope I can keep on going.

Sick!

2008-11-24T22:37:00.002-05:00

I finally caught it! I finally caught the winter bug that has been going around. I have been soo sick! Sore throat so sore it hurts to swallow anything! a head ache and if I move to fast or get up too fast I get a little dizzy. And my neck and shoulders are aching. They are just killing me for some reason. But my glands were so swollen it hurt to turn my neck yesterday. I am finally getting over it and it should be gone in a day or two. I had to miss church, and for the FIRST TIME EVER I did not absolutely stuff myself on thanksgiving dinner! It hurt too much to eat so I only ate a little bit. I know it is not Thanksgiving but Mom has to work on thanksgiving night so she decided to have it early. It was good I wish I could have eaten more but it was not to be. At least I got to take some left-overs home to eat at another time. I would have felt severely gypped if I had not been able to do that!
On other news Eric's job is still going well. I finally have insurance for all of my family. I can now go to the doctor for my lingering delivery symptoms. and the dentist to have my wisdom teeth out that are growing sideways according to my last dentist.
Eric can get his braces now he has so wanted for a long time. I do NOT look forward to kissing my husband with his braces but I guess I can to live.
Pictures are still coming. I am such a slacker at least I have had an excuse the last couple days!

Busy Busy!

2008-11-15T11:00:00.002-05:00

I have been busy busy busy! Most of my free time has been spent over at mom's spending time with rach before she leaves to go to Denmark! I am soo excited for her. Getting married is so wonderful! And in Denmark no less! She will not have the money for a honeymoon but who needs a honeymoon when you will be living Denmark! That is like a long extended honeymoon, ONE IN WHICH SHE NEVER NEEDS TO GO HOME FROM! Anyway she and I drove to Austin yesterday. She needed a single status verification paper. So we drove 3 hours there stood in line for 20 minutes, and then drove 3 hours back. While we were there though we saw some cool buildings and the capitol of course. and then we ate lunch at spaghetti warehouse. I had a coupon for a BOGO free! That was sooo awesome! and they come with all you can eat salad or soup, so we had a couple salads and took some of our lasagna home with us! And then rach DESTROYED my take home box, so I had to stuff my leftovers in a bag so they wouldn't leak all over the place! We stopped at the outlet malls in Hillsboro on the way back too. I needed a couple things at the kitchen store. And then they had a store closing 70-90% off!!! I got a pair of shorts and a skirt for $2.57!! AWESOME, I LOVE good deals! I also got a one sided cookie sheet that can double as a pizza peel until we have the money to get a better one. My last one was one of those cheap ones that come with the small pizza platter and it Broke in HALF! I was sooo upset! I couldn't bake any bread for the last week and a half! So I can bake some more now and get back into the swing of things.
Rach and I had a great time and we talked about soo many things. It was great. And we were aware that this was her last game of Catan that we played after we got home, and so we let her win out of charity! It had nothing to do with how good she was as a player! But then she challenged us again on Sunday so she has already won her one game so I can beat her now!
I am trying to go to Tyler next week but there are no openings yet. I hope something opens up soon!
Pictures are still coming. I have to find the wire to connect the laptop to the camera. And I am not sure it will connect to the only laptop that is working right now. sorry!

Great Patterns!

2008-11-06T17:08:00.003-05:00

I found a site that has some great patterns on it! Sense and Sensibility Patterns offers some great patterns that are based off of the dresses in that time period. They have even converted some of their patterns into epatterns that are easily downloaded. Some of them remind me of what Elizabeth Bennett wore in Pride and Prejudice. I love that movie and the dresses that she wore! Check it out guys! http://www.sensibility.com/pattern/main/?page_id=50

SHOUT OUT!

2008-11-05T12:32:00.004-05:00

I would like to give a SHOUT OUT to my sister Becky Ayerdis! Thank you for all the help and love you have given me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! What does that make you? 30??? LOL J/K I am only 24!

Another SHOUT OUT to Micheal Palsky! My younger brother, and Becky's twin brother! Thanks for the love and understanding you have provided to me and my Family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

Catching Up!

2008-11-05T11:41:00.004-05:00

Okay I did get to meet simon. I like him. He is definitely Danish but very nice. He is good for Rach. Which is good because she is marrying him whether I approve or not. She is getting her endowments here on the 7th so she can go over there and get married. Then she is having her bridal shower the next day. This might not be her going away party yet. I think she is having another one of those so her guy friends will want to come. But whether they will want to come anyway is unknown I mean she is leaving to get married over in Denmark!
Our home teachers never made it over. But that is okay, The house looked nice then and it still does now. I have been much more successful at keeping it clean. I have even started Caleb on Jobs! He has one a day except sunday of course. He is okay about doing them but I do have to watch over him to help him along. Doing it by himself will come later after he is a little older and has been doing them by himself for a while.
I have been making bread up a storm. Everybody loves my bread. They are starting to say it tastes even better then then restaurant breads! WOW! I don't know about that but I do enjoy making it! My rye was a success and It is not my favorite type of bread but I thought it was still good!
I want to try some pita bread and some wheat bread next. I want to try the pita because we recently had some pita bread from the store and it was not the best. I bet I can make some that is better!
Halloween was a blast for Caleb this year. He got to go treating with his ward and then Mel called to borrow my cloak for hers so we went to that one too. Then we took him around the neighborhood on Halloween night. Our neighborhood does not have a lot of people doing Halloween night but he got an entire bucket full just from the few houses we went to. Some even gave them play-doh!
Any more I can think of will have to come later! Oh and Pictures to come soon!

not much time

2008-10-26T15:53:00.002-04:00

not much time to post.
home teachers coming over, going to moms to play with rach and simon. I found the cutest dresses at jcpenneys for 60% off. I had to get three. and I found her christmas outfit.
I made some bread last night and it was so good and gone by lunch today, I am making more. the next batch I make, after this one, I am going to try a rye bread.
Liz is good, 12 pounds now. Caleb is good, had fun trunk or treating last night. Cute in his primary performance today.
Down to 242 lbs. Some pants are to big to wear now they keep falling down.

Tyler Texas

2008-10-17T23:14:00.004-04:00

The timeshare out at Tyler is soo fun! Mom bought a unit second hand for really cheap and we have used it like crazy! I haven't used it really till recently when I moved back to Texas. We get one week every year guaranteed and with it comes all the bonus time we want that is available of course. But we got this week and you read we got it a couple of weeks ago too!

There is sooo much to do here. I just got done playing ping pong with Mel (my sister). Don't ask Mel who won! We played a little tennis earlier and Eric and Caleb went to the pool! This is all after our dinner and party for Caleb. Meatloaf and baked potatoes yummmmm! And I made a pirate hat birthday cake for Caleb which he liked and it turned out okay. Caleb did destroy one of the pieces when he ate some of it early. Oh well. He got a stunt remote control car and a remote control jeep and some pokemon cards. He liked them all, how shocking!

Mom and I stopped at an outlet mall that is right on the way here and I got a bathing suit for Eric for super cheap, and some bread baking stuff. A better stone, a silicone brush, and a thermometer. I found this bread pan that is sooo neat! It is two long curved bread holders molds whatever they are called. This is for my French Bread! They will be much better shaped now! I was sooo excited to see it! I never thought they would have anything like that!

Eric has two sub jobs for next week. so far... I am glued to the posting site site to get as many as I can for him. But just one or two more and he has earned enough to pay for my real estate licensing! That would be cool to finally be licensed and making money!

Tomorrow we are going to go swimming and mini golf playing. Probably more tennis and ping pong too. Pin ball machines and some pool, maybe some movies. We are not even going to the lake this time. We could have brought the boat but we didn't feel like we would spend enough time on the lake to warrant bringing it all the way down here. and what else to go with all this then good food! the only thing to make it better would be a softer bed, and my french bread for lunch!

I received an email from Donna telling me my sling was in. I thought about calling her to see if it had come in this morning, because this is the perfect place to try it out! I didn't but I should have! I can't wait to see it though. It is an awesome black with pink flowers. And I can hold Elizabeth I can't remember how many ways, but a whole lot more then anything else I have ever used!

Bread in 5 minutes a day!

2008-10-14T23:55:00.003-04:00

Okay talking about this bakery thing, Michelle asked for my bread recipe. I can't just give you the recipe, I have to explain a few things. This is not the easiest bread to make. It is not a typical recipe. The beauty of this recipe is it follows the once a month cooking line. I make one batch all at once that makes about 4 loaves or if doubled 8 loaves of bread. And I can refrigerate this bread for up to 2 weeks in between bakings! So I don't have to cook all 4-8 loaves at once! This is sooo simple and easy! And that is where they can boast you can make a loaf of bread in 5 minutes every day!
Elizabeth is trying very hard to be held by ONLY me for 24 hrs every day! She has not been cooperating at all lately. she has been super fussy. Every time I lay her down she instantly goes into this 'I'm dying' crying mode. She doesn't build up to it like she normally does. I have been trying to do the best I can. And because I cannot type fast enough, while holding her, to not get frustrated and give up till another time, I have to finish giving the recipe another post another time.
Tomrrow we are taking Caleb to tyler for the weekend for his birthday. More updates later!

Dead Zone

2008-10-12T20:40:00.002-04:00

Okay I have been present and all that but I am in the Dead Zone. I have been helping Jeanne and George move and they only have DIAL UP! I have to make myself get on here today to let you know I am still alive! I am alive and well, we are almost done moving Jeanne and George. Caleb is good, we had fun at tyler, Lizzie is good. Eric got some subbing jobs. Dad got his new job at aafes started. I have so much fun making my bread that I now want to open a bakery! I am trying to think of good names. If you have a good idea please tell me!!! More to come later!

exciting weekend

2008-10-01T17:31:00.002-04:00

We have an exciting week end planned. And yes I did spell that right. Tomorrow after Caleb gets out of school we are going to drive to Tyler Texas and stay with Mom and Dad and Mel at the time share. This is Dad's last week as a free man! He starts his new job on Monday! He now works for AAFES. The same place Terry and Elizabeth once worked.
We have to come home from Tyler Friday evening. Mom wants to be home for General Conference. So it is indeed the end of the week and not the weekend!
Other good news Caleb has broken the school record! He now has 9 smiley faces in a row! tomorrow will make ten! I hope he makes it. He got to go to chuck e cheese for the first five. that was the reward. And camping this week end will be the reward for the other five.
Lizzie is good I think. I don't know what she weighs, I have a doc appointment the 21st, Erics birthday!
Eric is good. He almost has his subbing license stuff in order. Just a few more days! Then he can sub for schools and make some money! That will be nice. Then we can save up and get I my license down here and I can make some money too! Things are looking up.

Answers!

2008-09-29T01:15:00.004-04:00

This is a long post! Sorry!

Elizabeths questions and answers.
1. What has been the absolute funniest moment in your marriage... so far?
I have to say it would be barfing on Eric’s leg at least from my point of view that is the funniest. I can’t think of anything funnier at the moment, but if I do I will let you know.
2. What is the best thing about being a mom? The worst thing?
The joy and love that swells up and engulfs you every time you look at your children especially when they are sleeping. The worst, Knowing that anything you might say or do in a moment of weakness can alter their lives, their personalities, or their views on life, and make them stray from the path.
3. What's your biggest regret? Would you go back and change things if you could?
My biggest regret is praying that I would become pregnant no matter what Heavenly Fathers plan for me and my family was. I believe he answered my prayer and yet it was not time for us to have another child so I had a miscarriage. Whether that is what happened or not I won’t know until the next life, but that is what it feels like. And yes I would go back and change it. There are so many questions about if I received that child to live with us for eternity or not based on many deep doctrinal issues. But to think that I could have lived without that pain and insecurity in my life if I had just trusted a little harder will always affect me and stay with me. I almost went with my second regret on that question just to make it easier. But I said I would be honest and answer anything.
4. What's your guilty pleasure?
Not burping Elizabeth in the middle of the night feedings because I am so tired I just roll over and feed her (she sleeps on the bed with us). I don’t want to wake her up so I just let her sleep through the burping part. Sometimes I fall asleep before she is done! Now if you had asked me 6 weeks ago it would have been way different! LOL funny how kids can drastically rearrange your life to revolve around them!
5. What do you think are the most important qualities in a friend?
listening, and doing a lot of the talking if you are shy like me! At least trying to understand the other point of view, and not judging others.
6. Where would you like to be in 10 years?
10 years wow, well you do pick the hard ones! I have had long talks with Eric about this because until recently I had no other goals in my life then to have myself and my kids make it to the celestial kingdom. I was just letting the world pass me by claiming I was ENDURING to the end. That is not what it means! So I have tried to set goals for myself. Here they are. I want to learn to fly a plane AND a helicopter. I want to sing in the mormon tabernacle choir with my sister Mel when we are older (you have to be at least 65 to join). And to be able to keep the house clean on a regular basis! Also very recently I have been kind of struck with how hard the market is and how close we are to another great depression. I want to learn to do many things I take for granted on my own. For Example: I want to can and preserve food grown from my own garden. I would have been able to do that if our garden had worked out this year LOL! (another thing to work on in this heat). I want to bake our own bread… all of it. I found a good recipe where you make a bulk batch of bread dough and then you can refrigerate it up to 2 weeks and basically make a loaf of bread in 5 minutes every day. It really works I have tried it!! And it is GOOD bread too! I want to learn to make cheese. I found some recipes I just haven’t tried them yet. I want to have some chickens to collect their eggs. If eric wants to kill them and clean them he can, I myself will not! And I really do want to have a cow for fresh milk!
7. What has been your greatest struggle? Your greatest victory?
My greatest struggle would be coming out of my shy shell and learning to talk to other people. Many of you have no Idea how unable I was to do that until after I got married and had to learn how! My greatest victory is having another child after the miscarriage, and the especially long wait between my first two children. One of the couples from my pre-marriage ward was asking about my kids and I told them their ages and they said well that is perfect timing isn’t it? What???? I said to myself? How can this be perfect timing? I was not planning this at all! I STRUGGLED to get pregnant after Caleb two different times! All the while fighting the urge to be jealous of my friends and family who got pregnant by accident, without trying, or trying and doing it in one month! My idea of perfect timing is 2 years apart not 4 1/2. But I got through it, and who knows what my future holds?
8. Your house is on fire and your family is out safe, but you have time to grab one thing. What would you grab?
I would grab 2 actually. My laptop first and my picture case second (they are close together), so I could save all of my pictures.
9. What do you think is your best quality? Your worst quality?
I really have no idea what my best quality is. Eric says he thinks my best quality is when I really have a Testimony of something I do it and stick with it no matter what. I don’t know about that one. My worst quality is probably expecting my kids to act and listen and learn and remember like adults, when they can’t. That leads to all sorts of problems!
10. If you could eat only one food item the rest of your life and it was guaranteed to be nutritious, what would you choose?
Macaroni and cheese!!! Anyone surprised by that one!! Probably not! At Buffets my first plate is ALWAYS macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes and gravy! ALWAYS! I might throw in some rice and gravy if they have it.
11. What is your biggest pet peeve?
When people go around and check on the things I do, watch me, or go through the things I throw away to make sure I did it right, they couldn’t do it better, or didn’t throw anything away that they THINK has value.
12. What can always make you laugh? Bringing up old memories and jokes. The ones that don’t go away, and are your Legacy from then on!
13. What's the longest you have ever gone without shaving your legs? (This is mean, so let me answer for myself first: a month! LOL)
Wow you make a month sound so bad. LOL Well, with all of the circumstances I have had to go through: working on the bathroom in Ohio, moving to a nonworking hot water house in Texas, taking out the floors so the bathtubs don’t work even though the hot water is fixed, and then of course being pregnant, and then hating shaving with a passion, and not having a husband who rides me to do it I think I am going on 10 months or so. Lots of excuses huh! I honestly cannot remember the last time I have shaved my legs! And I really don’t care. I am so bad! Actually I am starting to care. Being in Texas in a BIG ward with lots of sisters has made me a little more self conscious. I am almost at the point where I will shave. I just have not because of the no tub thing. And a shower stall is not the easiest place to shave Even though I am no longer pregnant!
14. What is your idea of a perfect day?
One in which there is no fighting, Caleb gets a smiley face in school, I show my husband I love him in some way, We have some sort of fun as a family, and I do LOTS of stuff in the house be it cooking or cleaning! I love to feel productive.

Michelles questions and answers.
1. What is your most embarrassing moment? When I ate too many cheese sticks and got horrible baaad smelling gas on our honeymoon of all times! That is soo embarrassing but Eric and I still laugh about it!
2. What was it about Eric that made you fall in love with him? His love for, knowledge of, and commitment to the gospel. It shown in every fiber of his personality which was attractive as well. If he could be that committed to the gospel then he can be even more committed to a family.
3. Describe yourself using five words. Quiet, experimental, strong, striving, spiritual
4. If you could live anywhere, where would it be? The weather and green land of Ohio with the Wonderful people of Texas, away from Hurricanes, tornadoes, with a ward, and a temple, and a lake, and nice choices of places to shop. How about lots of land, yet lots of people, and things to do! Does this sound fictional yet? I still haven’t found such a place! But I hope I do!
5. Do you get dressed and then do your hair or do your hair first and then get dressed? I get dressed and then do my hair. At least I do my hair every day now, because I have to take my son to pre-k and back!
6. What was you favorite church calling? Least favorite? Favorite would be relief society chorister. Least would be Youth Sunday school teacher (which I am now). I just can’t relate to them very well. I don’t know why. And I try to be cool and not be to strict, and make a point in my lesson, but I wonder if it really works.
7. What is your greatest desire for you children as they grow up? To not get hooked on drugs. I have a fear about my kids or even myself getting hooked on drugs that borders on paranoia. I don’t even watch TV shows that have a regular theme of abusing drugs. Like House. It just makes me SICK!
8. How many kids do you guys want to have? Well I always say as many as I can have, what I really thought was I would have 6 like Mom. Truthfully something I realized very recently is I was banking on having lots of kids like I had to, to earn a spot in Heaven or something, and With so much time between Caleb and Lizzie I was almost panicking that they would all be like that and I would not be able to have that many kids. I was just being silly. I am perfectly fine now having a small family. Aunt Susan is kind of my mentor with only 4 kids. Seeing her family on her blog really brought it home to me, it is OKAY to not have 6 kids! It is OKAY to only have 2 kids not that we are going to stop trying or anything. It would probably be better for me anyway, I get really frustrated and angry and lose my patience a LOT with my 2 kids as it is!
9. What is the craziest thing you've ever done? Apparently it was go back to church only 4 days after Lizzie was born. Everybody told me I was making them look bad, and I was very brave for coming back so soon! Did I miss the 6 week memo or something? LOL
10. If you could pick, what game show would you like to play on? Wheel of Fortune! I like to watch that show when I can. Nobody else in my family does though! :(

Okay you guys asked for it, probably not as in depth as I went, but It was nice to air out some stuff! You can ask some more if you like, this is fun! Did I shock anybody? LOL

Long time No Post!

2008-09-25T00:24:00.004-04:00

Lots of time has passed but not a whole lot has actually happened. I have just been going on with life. A little bit of packing at Jeanne and George, taking Caleb to school, trying to not let the house over run me. I did go and have a meeting with a Real Estate broker. They are a really good fit for me but I have to wait to join till I can come up with $650 dollars to join the Board.

Lizzie is fine, but she is still fussy all the time! she won't let me put her down she is sooo used to being passed around and around. And she still acts like she is starving every hour and a half! I cannot feed her that often! I refuse! I need my own time. And time for me to catch up and produce more milk! what gets me is when she is sleeping in someones arms she goes three hours easy, or in the bed with me at night she skips a feeding and goes three hours sometimes. Am I being stubborn or cruel? Am I not getting the right cues from her or interpreting them wrong?

On another note she has officially started smiling at me! She is soo cute!

Okay one last note. I want you guys to ask me any and all questions you might have for or about me. I am not shy, and I will answer them all! My friend, Michelle, did this on her blog an I loved it so I want to do it too. Ask Away!

Bummed out!

2008-09-19T13:16:00.002-04:00

I am soo bummed right now! I went to CVS to get my weekly deals yesterday and some last minute things I really needed. And I tried to use two coupons on a BOGO free sale they had. They said I could ONLY USE ONE COUPON! because it was BOGO already! What a stupid thing to do! They apparently changed the policy a couple weeks ago. Do they realize how much business they are going to lose because of this?? Just from me if not all the other thousands of coupon queens who will no longer buy these items because they can't get them really cheap??? And on top of that they changed the sale dates from Sunday to saturday to Friday to thursday! So now I have to watch the sunday and FRIDAY papers to get their sale flier or make an EXTRA run to the store for their flier. I mean come on. You CAN make it easier on the shoppers not harder!

Caleb almost had a full week of smileys! But NOOOO he had to go and take one of the cars from school and sneak it home. And then when I returned it with a note she went and changed one of his smiley faces to an okay face. So now he is back to the same old pattern. It is IMPOSSIBLE for him to go more then three days straight with all smiley faces. I thought we had that one beat but no. We have to work on it some more.

Eric got turned down for the job he had the phone interview with. We also have researched the substitute teacher route. Being a teacher would be a good thing for his political aspirations as well.

I have some more pictures waiting to be downloaded. I might get to them soon. MY SON IS NOT LISTENING TO ME RIGHT NOW! He is making me irritated. He got to do one of the Home Depot craft things. He made a pirate ship! It was so fun. He got a pair of goggles and an apron too! He looked so cute! But my phone is not downloading photos so I will have to wait till Eric can get it done!

Mom and Dad are still in Hawaii. The interview went well and they asked him to stay for some more meetings. So they are staying and looking at housing on the cheaper side of the Island.

Lizzie is still good. She is starting to get rolls! And she still skip a feeding in the night. I am still tired though! I take quite a few naps!

I have some good deals planned at Target. I don't think I can go back to CVS, well, maybe for their toothpaste sale. That one isn't BOGO free.

I like couponing!

2008-09-15T18:05:00.003-04:00

Well since I last posted nothing much has happened. I do have more deals I want to put up!
But first family news. Ummm... Caleb got a happy face Today. He got two sad faces in a row the last two days last week! We had a hard time talking about those ones. One was for saying a BAD WORD!!! SO he was not allowed to watch mythbusters for three days because of that. You would have thought we had beat our son within an inch of his life from the reaction to that news!
We finished our last book and have now started The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. It is good. I do have some more coming on the way too from Paperback swap! It is a great site!
Eric had a phone interview today. He thought it went well.
He also went to help the red cross this morning. He had a journalist come and take pictures of him too! He will be in the paper!
Dad and Mom are going to Hawaii today for a face to face interview tomorrow. So we have been over at their house a lot of last week. We play a lot of catan!

Okay on to the good stuff! I am soo happy! Every time I think of the deals I got I get very happy!
I will only tell you what I got the items for. If you wonder how just ask and I will post the scenarios.
I went to Target because they had a diaper deal and then Walmart because I had some coupons that were expiring that I really wanted to use.

At Target they had diapers on sale buy 2 and get a $5 gift card. So I bought two and used the $5 card for the rest of the stuff I got there...

Tide Total care $8.00!
Palmolive Eco friendly stuff 2.49 My coupon had expired and I had not noticed. Aww Man!
Huggies wipes tub 1.99
Huggies Baby shampoo .79
Electrasol tablets One powerball, one gel pack, both with 25% more for ONLY .54 each!!!!!!
Scrubbing bubbles toilet starter kit 1.54!!!
1 free purina dog food can
2 Juicy Juice individual juice packs for it was supposed to be .69 each but they had them mispriced or something so from the receipt it looks like I got them for 1.25 each.
I used the gift card and payed only $12.70 for all of it!

At walmart I got some things at full price because I needed them right away. So I will only post the sale items.
I got a kids flushable wipes pack and refill for only $2.72!
4 ten packs BIC pens for .38 each! 2 will be saved for school for next year along with the glue I found for a great price!
Daisy cottage cheese for 1.94
I found milk at Walmart for $2.50!!!!! WOW! I don't particularly like the taste of walmart brand but for $2.50 I can live with it!
And I got my 2 pack of Sunday newspapers for 1.50! Dallas morning news has been sending out .50 coupons!

By far my favorite deal was the electrasol packs! Normally they are so expensive! and the 25% more was super! It made me feel so good to find a super deal! All of my hard work on couponing is paying off!

Coupon Update!

2008-09-09T15:27:00.003-04:00

Okay so I went to 2 stores yesterday, CVS and Walmart. I used a lot of coupons and got some GREAT deals and free stuff!!

CVS Deals

1 Rightguard Deodorant on sale 2.99
Used .75 Coupon
Received $2 ECB
Making this .24!

2 Soft and Dri Deodorant on sale 2.99
Used 1.00 & .75 coupons
Received $4 ECB
Making this deal .23 for both!

1 18 oz. Act Rinse bubblegum flavor on Sale 4.49
Used 1.00 coupon
Received $2 ECB
Making this 1.49!

1 Rightguard professional Deodorant on Sale 6.99
Used 1.00 Coupon
Received $5 ECB
Making this .99!

2 womens schick quattro 3 pack on sale BOGO free 7.99
Used 2 $4 coupons
Making this FREE!!!! Wowza! 6 Nice razors!

1 Aquafresh trial size
Used try one free coupon
Making This FREE!!!

1 Zyrtec childrens 6.99
Used 1 $2 coupon and 1 CVS $2 coupon
Making this 2.99!

I used $8 in former ECB and paid 10.93 OOP! And received $13 ECB for next time! Wow!
To Day I saved $40.78... To date I have spent 40.18 and Saved 104.10! I like that!!!!

WALMART Deals
Now I am not going to put down everything I bought on here. I had to buy some regular items that I did not have coupons for. And these items brought my overall price up.

1 can mighty dog food .57
Used get one Free coupon
Making this FREE! I also found another one I missed and will use it soon!

2 Pert Plus larger bottles 4.34
Used 2 $3 coupons
Making this 1.34 EACH!

1 Johnsons buddies no slip grip soap .97
Used $1.00 coupon
Making this a .03 money maker!

2 elmers glue on sale .05 for next school year! WOW

2 Softsoap hand soap 1.67
Used 2 .35 Coupons. I was under the impression that walmart doubled coupons and they DO NOT! I would not have gotten these if I had known that!

2 Kotex small packs 1.00 Each
Used 2 1.00 coupons
Making these FREE!!

4 Pedigree dog food .83 Each. These WERE marked down to .63 each but I didn't catch it in time.
Used 2 BOGO free coupons!
Making these .41 Each.

2 Glade air freshners .86 each
Used BOGO Free coupon.
Making this .43 Each!

3 Schick Disposable razors 10 pack 1.97 Each
Used 3 $2 coupons
Making these each .03 money makers!!!

Total OOP for these items only $7.77!!!!! Good deal!

I saw this cute pink diaper bag at Walmart! I want it! but I already have a blue one from Caleb so I will just make do with that.
I did Get some money from Grandma Carver to spend on stuff for Lizzie!!! THANK YOU GRANDMA! I have not decided if I want to spend it at Walmart or try for some Sales at JCPenneys yet. I like that store!

So Exciting!

2008-09-08T12:30:00.002-04:00

So, exciting news, Caleb has his first school fundraiser ever!!!!! He has been asked to sell the entertainment books! you know the ones that have all the coupons in them. He is especially excited about the prizes he gets if he sells so many. George has agreed to buy one so far. You can also buy one online for your area. Let me know if you are interested and I will send the email with instructions. I do need to have your email address, so leave that in your comment. If you are security conscious I can also delete the comments after I have read them.

Other news Lizzie is feeling a little better. and is still cute. I do have to say I am MUCH better this time about dressing the baby. Lizzie has such cute outfits it is hard to NOT dress her in different outfits. SHe actually skipped one of her feedings last night. She slept straight from 1AM till 7 this morning! I was flabbergasted! Grateful but flabbergasted! And a little full this morning!

Eric is good and still looking for a job. So am I. I need to find a broker to work for. I am hoping to find a member who is a broker as well. That would be nice.

The pool is just about cleaned out! Eric even turned on the pump system and it still works!Slowly but surely we are getting closer and closer to having a working pool!

One last bit of good news. I now weigh 252 lbs!!! I am soo excited and thrilled! I was 275 before lizzie, 281 right before she was born, and then 260 after she was born. Now I am 252! I am doing really good! With caleb I ate the same before and after, but with Lizzie I don't eat the same now. I am just down to eating for one. As Lizzie takes a little longer between her meals I am hoping to add a gym workout to my day.

Sick

2008-09-06T13:15:00.002-04:00

Poor Lizzie!!! Lizzie has a runny stuffy nose, and a cough! She started yesterday and she got worse last night and today. She does not feel too hot so I am not that worried. I think we are just going to ride it out. We are not going to church tomorrow so I had to cancel my lesson again for sunday. Maybe next week I will be able to teach the youth their sunday school lesson.

Other news, Dad is being interviewed by Hawaiian Airlines for a job. And guess where? In HAWAII!!! If he gets that job he will be paid to relocate to HAWAII! HOW cool is that! And you can be sure that all of her family will still come to see her! Maybe more then they do now!

More of the same!

2008-09-01T22:27:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was More of the same. Taking care of Lizzie, taking Caleb to school. Although I did have some sort of episode Thursday night. I had uncontrollable chills and had to use to blankets I was soo cold one night. I woke up later and then I had to get up and get some water. I think I dehydrated myself is all. But I did get Caleb to school for friday and thenI went to mom's to stay near people. Eric had gone down to corsicana to help move some more stuff Thursday through Saturday. I worked on the blessing dress Friday and then I was not feeling so well so I stayed at Mom's that night. I worked on the dress all day Saturday too. I got most of it done except for some hand sowing. I did most of it Saturday night LATE, and then some during sunday school! But I did get it done on time for the blessing! It is soo cute! But I have not taken a picture of it yet. I was a little frazzled sunday trying to get to church on time.

Sunday was good though. Lizzie was more alert and awake this time. She has started to be passed around a little. And the blessing was so special! Most of my family was able to be there and participate! Mike, Dad, Ariel, Eric, George, and then the bishop, and Brother Williams (who is one of our good friends in the ward) were all in the circle. If John were there it would have been PERFECT!

The blessing was so special and spiritual. She was told a lot of things. One of the things I remember is she was blessed to be known for always having and sharing her charity! I hope she gets it from me which means I will have learned to have charity myself!

After church we all went to Becky's for a get together. She made lasagna, I brought a salad, and mom brought dessert and garlic bread. It was soo good. And then Becky's in-laws came with more good food! We played manners and then Catan. It was fun!

Today didn't feel like a holiday, it just felt like saturday. I didn't do a whole lot! I couldn't have done a whole lot if I wanted, Lizzie has had some sort of gas or something. She has been whiny, and acts hungry but then doesn't latch on or eat very much, she won't sleep and has to be held. And she acts hungry less then every hour. I feel so bad not feeding her until at least an hour, but I try to stall and make it every two. Everybody thinks she is hungry and I just don't think she is. I see how she eats when I do feed her and I am just not convinced. I think she wants to be nurtured and soothed is all. But she won't take a pacifier. I only have those clear silicone ones. I don't like those. Maybe it is too stiff for her to really like it. I need to go get some of the other ones and then some gas stuff. And her umbilical stump fell off today. I looked it up online to make sure it is okay to fall off this soon and still bleed a little. It is. It has been sooo long since Caleb I do not remember much of what happened to him and what is or is not okay.

Caleb is doing good. He still likes school. But he does not like when Lizzie cries. We were reading our nightly book and Eric brought in lizzie because she was hungry and crying. Caleb was like Daddy take lizzie out. Take her out till we are done reading our book! And his hand was waving her away. It was cute but eye opening. We still have to work with him so he accepts the crying better.

First day of school!!!!

2008-08-25T13:44:00.006-04:00

This is a picture of my hair if you can see it.

Caleb had his first day of school today! Pre-k that is only half a day, 8-11. And they have breakfast instead of lunch or a snack. He had a good first day. The teacher said he had a hard time listening and following directions but he was overall good. I can believe it! We have been working hard to get him to listen and follow directions so maybe today was just first day trials. He gave us a hug and then immediately went to go play. No crying or anything. No crying from us either. We were excited to see him excited.

Now lizzie is doing well. She is still a little jaundice but she is at low risk so she needs just a little more time to filter it out. She has gained an ounce from her original weight, and that makes about 5 ounces since the typical weight loss right after birth.

I went to church yesterday. Everybody was amazed that I was there. It was only 5 days since I gave birth. But I made it through. I was a little sore. And lizzie slept through pretty much the whole thing. She did wake up for the last speaker in sacrament meeting. So I changed her and fed her pretty much till church was over and then we went home. We have sacrament meeting last, which I don't care for particularly. The sisters have been nice to us and have brought good food. And I am feeling much better. I was having pelvic pain like I was out of whack, but I think that has mostly worked itself out. I am so glad for that! It is really hard to get dressed when you can't lift your foot but 4 inches off the ground. My contractions have finally calmed down a lot. they started to calm down after some clots came out. I guess they're called clots. My milk seems to be regulating itself. And I do not mind too much the getting up in the middle of the night. I usually get one good nap in the middle of the day and that seems to ease my interrupted nights. I think I can begin lifting things like laundry baskets full of clothes tomorrow. I need to get some laundry done!

Elizabeth Theresia Walsh!

2008-08-23T14:36:00.005-04:00

Welcome to our family Elizabeth Theresia Walsh!!!!!!

Yes Little Lizzie was born Wednesday August 20th at 8:39 AM. She weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20 inches long. She has long dark brown hair! Lots of it!

I went into labor Tuesday night late. It came on VERY fast. I timed them at 4 min and then when I timed them correctly 2 1/2 min. And So we drove to the hospital and I received my epidural. I had to wait for a little bit but I eventually got it. I was able to sleep for a while till they came in and checked me at about 7 am. I was dilated all the way and ready to push! So push I did. I nearly pushed my brains out! I was told that pushing usually takes an hour and I was ready in 30! I had to stop and wait through some contractions till the doctor could make it! I did have some tearing so the doctor had to suture that up. But then family got to come in and meet lizzie. Some of the family thought I would take longer then I did too so they got here a little bit late! But I got to see everybody.

I got moved around and got some rest, and got to see lots of people. So I recuperated all Wednesday, got checked Thursday and went home Thursday afternoon. Thursday night there was a parents meeting for Caleb's school. Eric and I went to that. We had a fine first night. And then Friday we had to go and get immunizations for Caleb so he COULD go to school on Monday. That night there was a meet the teacher so we took Caleb and he got to see his class and play with some of the toys. he really enjoyed that! So he starts school on Monday! How exciting!!!

Lizzie is good. She is a little jaundiced but not enough to be worried about. She had her follow up billiruben appt this morning. She has a weird eating schedule. At the hospital it was 2 hours very constant. Here she might sleep for 3 and then eat if she is being held she can sleep for 4 and then eat. And then yesterday night she ate like every 45 min for a while. It was confusing. But she knows what she needs I guess. I try to wake up the poor girl for some sort of consistency but she will not wake up! It is like I am holding a piece of wet limp cardboard!

I am sore and having contractions that are NOT fun. But I guess I will live. My milk is coming in and that adds to the soreness. Breastfeeding is going fine. I am sure it will get better. I still cannot sit down for very long or in certain positions. And walking is still slow. but I am getting better.

I think what kicked the labor into gear was, one Dad put my name on the prayer roll at the temple, and 2 I went school shopping for Caleb. It was like 4 hours of walking and standing! But I got everything and found some cheap clothes too! And I got to have a natural delivery!

Still Pregnant!

2008-08-18T11:07:00.003-04:00

It has been over a week and I have been anxiously waiting to see if I go into labor. Nothing yet. I am still humongously pregnant. I get slower and more uncomfortable with every day! I have been going back and forth between corsicana and Mansfield trying to get Jeanne and George packed and moved out of Corsicana. Don't worry no lifting for me! I just sit in a chair and pack things. I get eric to move the boxes when I need more room for more boxes! So with no Internet in Corsicana which is AWFUL! I have not updated in a while. We have only come back up when we had doctors appointments or scouts or church. I did get called to teach Sunday school to the 14-16 yr olds. I think it is just that group. Sometimes they combine. I think he said I have about 10 kids!! I hope I can do it well! I have had a hard time relating to teenagers before.

I have been to the doctors a few times. I am dilating a little and effacing a little but not that much! And the doctor pressured me to set a C-section for Friday. I did but I have had a blessing since then and I have prayed and fasted (I was promised that I could fast and do it safely from the blessing) and I am going to move the C-section to monday or tuesday. I think I am going to go into labor on Friday.

I have had some contractions but they are just fake, and I did lose my mucus plug Saturday! well some on Sunday too. So I think that means that I have dilated and effaced enough for it to just fall out. That does not mean I will go into labor anytime soon though! AWW MAN! Yeah I looked it up and women lose their mucus plug anytime from three weeks before labor to not until the water breaks or the second pushing phase!

So today I am going to go register Caleb for pre-school. I have been such a slacker! They start next week and I have not done it yet! And then I am going to go to CVS and Kroger. Maybe walmart. I might also go with Mom and my sis's for a little road trip. And then I have a doctors appointment today at 3:45 for a non-stress test. I am going to change my c-section date as well.

Great DEALS!

2008-08-09T13:07:00.004-04:00

Memorial Day Trip a While back

Okay so this week I finally got my hair cut! I went to JCPenney because I was in the area when Eric went to this one Office to try and meet more pharmaceutical reps. I went with him because I had some things to do in the area and why waste gas for two cars. It was a good thing I did too. Mom needed a ride back to house! My hair is now short. About chin length in the front and even shorter in the back, off my neck. It is sooo nice! I do not have to put it up any more! No more hot neck! Nor hot head for that matter! She thinnned it a bunch! The only drawback is now that my hair is constantly down you get a nice look at all my gray hairs!!! When I had to pull it up they were hidden! I might have to start highlighting or something. Any ideas on hair anything? I have never colored highlighted whatever it is, and I have no idea which is best.

Anyway this week at CVS I had to make two trips and I should make one more if I can, and hopefully they have what I need. I got some great stuff too!

Trip one:

2 crest toothpaste on sale for 2.49 each

used .75 coupon making them 1.74 each

1.50 each ECB back making it .24 each!

1 gillette fusion Power razor on sale 9.99

used 4.00 coupon making it 5.99

3.00 ECB back making it 2.99!

Used $10 ECB oop (out of pocket) $0!!!!!!!!!!

Received $6 ECB back!

2nd Trip, because they had run out of the rest of the stuff I wanted when I went first trip!1 dawn on sale on sale for .88

used .50 coupon making it .35

1 colgate advanced toothpaste on sale for 2.99

used 1.00 coupon making it 1.99

2.00 ECB back making it FREE!!!

2 sure deodorant on sale BOGO (buy one get one free) 2.99

Used 2 1.00 coupons making it .50 each!

I didn't use the BOGO coupon they said I should use (to make it free) as it came from an earlier paper then I had started coupon collecting. So I made do with the coupons I did have available.

My best deal of the week!

1 Advils infant medicine on sale for 5.79

used 1.00 coupon from Advil.com making it 4.79

5.79 ECB back which means I made a dollar!!!! WHOO HOOOO! lol

my total came to 8.15 I used 6.98 ECB oop (out of pocket) 1.17!

And I received 7.79 ECB for another purchase! AWESOME

I still have one dawn soap I can get, and 2 free pert plus but the sales end tomorrow and I might not be able to find them in stock if I go again. No biggie if I miss them I say.

I do not have the deals for next week yet. But I have received some coupons this week to use next week. I go and scan my card at the little kiosk thing and it prints off random coupons aqnd one coupon I got was 1.00 off of 3 CVS toothbrushes. And for August they are giving everybody a gift and my gift is a free CVS toothbrush. So getting 3 toothbrushes, I get 1 free and 1.00 off the other 2 should make them really cheap!

Tasted better then it was supposed too!

2008-08-06T00:57:00.002-04:00

Well swim class was a lot of fun. In fact it tasted better then it was supposed too! We went to the swim class and no one was there!! We were a little late but not too late. We waited, and then we decided no one was showing up. Too bad! So then we felt like doing something so we decided to put some ice cream coupons to good use! We tried to find a baskin robbins but no luck so we went to Brusters instead. It was good!

Not Ready!

2008-08-05T17:16:00.003-04:00

I went to the doctor today and he checked to see if I was effaced or dilated. No such luck!! He did say that we could wait to see if I needed to schedule a c-section. He might even be willing to go over my due date. Maybe if I keep stalling.... I am trying my hardest! Unfortunately I can't induce because I had a previous c-section and inducing with hormones causes higher chance of risks.
I plan on doing a little bit of walking with the treadmill that our neighbor generously gave us after he says it slows down after 20 minutes. COOL! Any other suggestions to get things going I would love to hear! I am also going to the swim class again tonight! Oh and at the doctors office I had dropped to 281! down from 284. I just have not been that hungry lately. I cannot get the energy to make anything if I don't feel hungry either. I bet Eric doesn't like that at all!

Weekend

2008-08-04T17:36:00.002-04:00

This last weekend I helped my best friend Elizabeth move into her new apartment. Then I went down to Corsicana and helped Jeanne pack some mroe boxes. Of course I had to take a lot of breaks. I did not get as much done as I wanted. But I did get the entire desk cleaned off. and another portion of the same room as well. It is going slowly but I guess it will get done. I did not go to church on Sunday. Caleb was sick and Jeanne and George were sick, but they can not handle throw up so I stayed home. We came back up today and I have been going through my newspapers for the coupons. I am going to get some good deals this week.

The biggest news of all! I finished Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer. IT is AWESOME! I read it in 2 days but that is only because I read faster and faster when it gets to the good parts and there were TONS of good parts! But that is okay gthat I finished it so fast, I now get to go back and read it over and over again!

100th post!!

2008-08-01T21:24:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I have had this blog so long. a year and a half! It seems to have flown by! Well I am soo close. My next doctors appointment is tuesday.

I went shoppng today. I picked up the next monthly CVS book. They have some items in that that correspond with some coupons. I still am waiting for the next week coupons and circulars to come out!

We also qualified for reduced YMCA today. Eric is looking forward to that. We are going to register him for their fall soccer league.

I am more then half way done with my baby blanket. Still working on it slowly. Same with the baby blessing gown.

I am jut moving slower and slower these days! More and more uncomfortable!

I am looking into making some home made cheese. If you guys have any good site links or recipes let me know!

Good times

2008-07-30T16:34:00.002-04:00

I went to my Ultrasound yesterday. Eric and Caleb came too. Caleb liked seeing the baby. The tech was taking a measurement of the head and he told Caleb it was the head, and Caleb said "you mean that big circle is the head? That is a big head! Why is the head so big?" We had to explain that he had a big head too when he was born. The tech is still reasonably sure it is a girl. And Lizzie has turned and is facing the right way! Now making sure she stays that way is impossible. I just have to hope she stays that way! The next thing to do is see if I go into labor before my due date. If I don't I might try and induce. My next doctors appointment is Aug 5.

This morning I took Caleb to Chuck E cheese. It was a playdate. We were a little late but it turned out to be okay. Only one other sister showed up and all her kids were older. She had a better coupon than I had, so we got 40 tokens, drinks, a pizza and two salads. Eric and I ate the salads. They had some gooood selections! And the pizza was good too. Caleb loved to run around and play the games. This is the first time we let him go and run around on his own for a little while. He is old enough to not require constant supervision now. Especially at Chuck E Cheese with their good door security.
We did go around with him a few times just to watch and help if he needed it. He had a lot of fun. And he ended up with 102 tickets. He ended up getting one of those eye glasses attached to a nose and a moustache mask thing. and some bugs of course, A snake and a lizard.

Yesterday We ended up going to Target for a while before my ultrasound. And of course Caleb wanted a toy. I said he could have a toy if he told me 5 for a small toy and 10 for a large toy letters off of a set of blocks. We have been trying to teach him the alphabet letters so he can start to learn to read. He took a long time but he managed to get it. He got this spy case toy. It has a dart shooter and a flashlight, and a spy scope, and a motion detector all worked into the case. He loves that toy! It was a good buy, and I know that he is learning the alphabet at least. We only have 16 more letters to go! I got a little coupon holder for myself. It is one of those small baseball card books, but it will work fabulously for my coupons. If this small one works and I need more room, then I might go large scale. But I have tried a couple of other methods that didn't work for me. This one is small enough to stay in my purse so I never forget them. I had that problem with one of my other methods. The cover is a pokemon toy theme so I have to cover it! But that shouldn't be too hard!
Oh okay so about the coupons. My ward had a CVS coupon night. We were taught about shopping at CVS and different things with coupons and grocery stores. CVS has this program called extra care bucks (ECB). They are coupons that can be used just like cash but only at CVS. and you get them when you purchase different items that change every week. And What is so good about this program is sometimes you can get things for free. You might pay 1.00 but you get one dollar in ECB that you spend next time. Sometimes you get them for free, if you have a coupon sometimes you even make money. And you just buy things mostly that gte you more ECB bucks or are free each week. Sometimes you don't buy anything sometimes you go back more then once. It is cool. I got some cool stuff on my first trip! I got zyrtec a 30 pack for about 5 bucks over all. I got a free glucose monitor with a coupon, and band aids for like 50 cents! Since this was y first trip I had no ECB to use so I had to pay a little more out of pocket but I spent $23 got 14 back in ECB for the next time. I had purchased some expensive stuff too. The glucose meter, the Zyrtec which is Expensive! some band aids, neosporin, and some feminine care products all for about $10. COOL! I can't wait to see if they have anything next week.

I WILL POST!

2008-07-24T14:21:00.002-04:00

I have been back from the wedding for a few days now. I just haven't gotten up the umph needed to write about everything. I WILL DO IT NOW! Here goes:

The flight was fine. I got there in time got through security fine. I didn't check any bags that was soo nice! I hate waiting for the bags to come! They always take soo long! But we, Beck and I, did have to roll a few flights. And then there was a little concern that we might not make the flight that was before Mom's flight. If we didn't make it then we would have to compete with Mom and Family to get there and we would most likely not make it. But the flight before Mom's got delayed four times, and moved gates three times! So because of that they got Everybody on! And then Mom's flight which was supposed to be after ours actually left BEFORE ours. That was good because they had the car rental. So we all landed within twenty minutes of each other. That was nice. I did not have any problems with the flight. I got up to walk around a few times, and I did not have too much trouble witht the small bathrooms. So I was glad for that! We got the car, and the only reason we all got in the car was the airline had lost Mom's luggage! They said the luggage for her family would be there the next morning at 10:30! Poor Mom and family! They had to stay in the same clothes for the whole night! So we got the car. Went to the hotel and checked in. We had two rooms. I got a nice big bed! I am glad I really did not want to sleep on the floor or pull out couch! Then we went to In N Out for dinner. It was really good! I tried their fries animal style. It was interesting! That is like an everything style, where they put all the stuff on top. They put cheese and chili, and onions, and their special sauce too. It was good. Then we went back to the room and talked and played Catan. Aunt Susan and Aunt Judy and Grandma Carver came over to see us. Then we all played rook. It was fun! They left, and I needed some vegetables! I had eaten fast food all day pretty much! I knew I was going to suffer with no vegetables! So Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Beck and I got in the car to the local grocer and got some food. I got vegetables! So did Beck. I did get some cherries because they looked sooo good! And by the time I checked out I didn't pay attention to the prices. So when I went to pay I was amazed that I paid $23 for my small stack of groceries! I looked at the receipt and I paid $14 in cherries!!!! $14 dollars!!!! That is more then half of the entire purchase! I only got a little over 2 lbs too! Moral of the story DO NOT BUY CHERRIES IN SAN DIEGO! They are incredibly expensive! We went back to bed, and I did not have the best night! I got up a few times with unpleasant things you don't want to hear about! LOL That was wednesday.

Thursday I got up super early!!! My body has this thing that I cannot sleep past 930 especially if I get up to go to the bathroom. Well in San Diego time that is 730! So I got up super early! I was the only one up in our room. I went to see if Mom was up and she was! She usually gets up early, going back to her seminary teaching days. So we went and had breakfast! It was a good breakfast. They had their made to order omelets, and pancakes! And some fruit! I had some good stuff! So then when we were almost done the rest of the family trickled down to join us. Then Aunt Susan Judy and Grandma came over from thier hotel and had breakfast at ours too! So we all got to eat again! Yummy! Then we all sat around and discussed what we wanted to do today. We had to check out of one hotel and check into another one. So we did that but we had a little more room with Judy's car. And Dad went to go get the luggage. on the way to the hotel we stopped at the mall, and did some shopping! Mom was looking for some good shoes! She found some really cute ones at a great price too! Only $100! LOL I can't pay that much for shoes yet! Then we went to the hotel. We tried to book the spa. I was going to get my hair cut and styled for the wedding but the hair dresser had gone for the day. Mom couldn't get her nails done either they did not have enough spots open for Mom, Rach, and Mel. So they found a local place and went there. While they were there Judy, Susan, Grandma, Beck and I went for lunch at this little local cafe. It was good. But a little expensive. Then we went back to the hotel and I took a nap! I needed one after getting up so early! I missed the spa, but I did not want to pay the 25 entrance fee if I could not use all of the amenities. So I took a nap. Susan, Judy, Grandma, and Beck went and all got massages. I did go swim in the pool at the hotel with Rach and Mel. It was a saline pool, and tasted salty. It stung my eyes a little bit. Then the girls wanted to go to the hot tub, and I just sat at the side. I did put in half of my foot though. It was nice. I got to rest it on Mel's knee. That was nice! Everyone was super nice about making sure I did not do anything too strenuous! I did not miss out much on the spa though. The hotel had a saline pool just like the spa, Rach did my hair, Mel gave me a little massage which felt soo good on my legs, and Beck did my nails! How nice! We finally got a call from Mike and Linda when they got in to the hotel that night. And we were told to be at the temple by 830 in the morning! I thought it was going to be later than that! I went to bed and slept fine.

We got up and then made the mad rush to get ready! We had to move all our stuff out of one room into the other so we could check out of some rooms, and then we left to go to the temple. I was getting really hungry. But when we found the temple, we had enough time to get a fast breakfast! Lucky for us we found a mcdonalds not to far from the temple. We ate breakfast really fast and tried not spill on our nice clothes! We did get some funny looks about going into Mcdonalds all dressed up! LOL So then we went back to the temple, got there in time. Beck gave us a little scare though! She got her recommend RIGHT before she came and the guy who was supposed to record it went on vacation without recording it. So it didn't register! They almost didn't let her in! But she explained and they let her in anyway! WHEW! Rach and Mel had to wait outside! Poor girls! I made sure I went to the bathroom so I would not have any incidents!

The wedding was wonderful! The ceremony was just beautiful. And then when she came out in her dress she looked radiant! It was a handmade dress of course. Linda's mother is sooo crafty like that! And then I helped carry her gown so it would not get dirty. I helped arrange it as much as possible. And we took pictures all over the place! It was nice! We got some really good ones! And then we split up. Mike and Linda had to return their car and get some photos developed for the reception and then they had to hurry back for the reception itself. So The rest of us went back to the hotel to decide what to do. Beck, Rach, and Mel, went to the beach. I really had no desire to go. Dad went parasailing, Grandma and Grandpa watched. And the rest of us slept lounged and talked. We all met back at 145 to go to lunch and then the airport to go back. We were going to go saturday but the flights looked so good Friday night we decided to take those.

We went to Bucca De Beppos for lunch! It was sooooo good. I love Buccas! We had some good alfredo supremo! and some mashed potatoes! and then some ravioli and stuffed shells, and then some veggies! and of course their Marvelous cheesy bread! We had 11 people there! and the table had a spinner thing in the middle that we could send all the food around and around! Whee it was fun! It was soo good. And I actually got some good tasting water! San Diego water is NASTY! I was a little parched the whole time because of that, but I managed to get enough.

We had to leave from there and get to the airport fast! But we made it. Rach almost didn't get through because her license was expired, she didn't have her passport either! She got through on a credit card and an EMT tag I think. She did get pinged to be searched though! but we all made it! Rach, Mel, Beck, Judy, Grandma, and Grandpa, and Me! Susan and Grandma were flying back to Utah, and Mom and Dad didn't want to compete with us and the flights for the next day looked good.
We all got on the flight no problem! and I even got first class!!! It was nice. The peanuts, the drinks, the dinner! which I got even though I was not hungry after Buccas! Shame on me!!!! LOL I did skip on dessert even though it looked good. I felt good about that at least! I did get a little bit of sleep and I did get some crotcheting done as well! I did a little here and a little there through the whole trip. It was nice. The flight back bothered me a little more then the flight there. Mostly because of the not so wholesome food I had eaten basically the entire time! But nothing too bad!

When I got home I met up with Eric and Jeanne, and then we took Judy to her hotel. Then we had to go to Walmart to get Caleb some frogs. He was promised some frogs if he cleaned his room really well. Funny story about the frogs real quick. We wanted to get some fish and some frogs as well. We decided to put them in the same bag to save space. We looked and decided on some neons. They always look cool! So we got 5 neons and two frogs and then when we went to double check the count we only counted 4 neons! What?? We checked the net and the sink. and then we saw a little orange tail sticking out of the frogs mouth!!!! The NERVE of that frog to eat our neon!!! We laughed at that one! We offered to pay for it anyway but they wouldn't take it. So we put the neons back and ended up getting two female guppies and one male guppy. The next day or two one of the females even had some baby fish! but they didn't last long with those frogs though! We might still have one left! Anyway Then we went back to the reception hall to help set up a little bit with Kim and Thomas for the reception the following night. It was late and they wouldn't let us stay because Kim and Thomas weren't there, so we ended up calling Kim and she said she was running a little late. But she could use our help carrying the center peices to the reception hall. So we drove to her house. Loaded up the center pieces. Drove to the reception hall and unloaded them. By that time it was super late! or early in the morning! So we went back to the house and back to bed.

We got up and then had to get cracking! The house still had some work to do for our big family dinner that we were having on Sunday! And the whole time I am coordinating with Mom and Rach how to get Mom and Dad their reception clothes. They ended up missing some flights and got in later then they wanted! Almost missing the reception! We got a call before the reception saying one of the groomsmen couldn't make it so Eric was a stand in. So we showed up a little early to help with that. And then we saw linda and mike and took pictures and talked. And then the reception was just wonderful. There were lots of things going on. and the food was great! especially the fruit! and the cake was soo good. There were several different kinds but I loved the lemon the best! I got to dance a little bit with Eric and Caleb, and Caleb loved to dance with the other kids! He had a great time talking to our relatives! And we had a surprise guest!!! JOHN AND AUBREY!!! They came to Mike and Lindas reception!!! It was soo awesome! John even gave the best man speech and it was great! Mom and Dad showed up towards the end but they got to see everybody, and dance, and all that. Eric and I did not stay the whole time. We ended up leaving a little early. we were soo tired! We came home and then I went to bed, Eric stayed up and worked.

Sunday we got up and went to church. I made it through the first two hours and then sacrament, after that I had to go sit in the hall. Elizabeth was just kicking and moving and no matter how I sat I could not get comfortable! So I went to sit in the hall but the hall speaker was not working. So we all just went home. We had too much to do, and I was not feeling well. So we got home. I started the rolls because they would take some time. Then we got to cleaning, and painting. Eric had to have the bathroom and the entryway painted in the color we chose. The white primer was not enough. So we had to push dinner back an hour. But we got it all done and then Kim and Thomas said they would be a little late from cleaning the reception hall but they were bringing Cake and Meatballs from the reception!! YUMMY! Mom and Dad especially enjoyed dinner because they were in a hotel and did not have any food purchased! They went on and on about how good my food was! I am glad they liked it. It was good, and then the meatballs and cake were good! And then we all talked and talked. Mostly about the wedding and the reception and all the little stories that happened along the way and such. Then us kids went and played a game of Catan. We didn't get to finish it because it was late but it was fun to start. After everybody left I think we went straight to sleep we were all soo tired!!

Monday I had a doctors appointment. I was a little worried he would ask about the wedding. I didn't want to tell him I went, but I didn't want to lie to him either. He didn't say a thing so of course he did not remember. But it was a short good visit. I go in for an ultrasound the 29th. I am full term on the 27th. I finished my nursing cover. It looks sooo cute! I do have one bug to fix. I am not quite sure how though. The best way without showing too much you know! This was not done on a pattern so I have to figure it out all on my own. I can do it. I started the blessing gown today. I do not like how long the pattern is. You know the christening gowns are like floor length they are soo long. So I think I am going to leave it unhemmed on the bottom and wait till Lizzie is born measure a good length and then finish it. I think I can do that. Have the rest of the gown all made just the hem unfinished.
So that is what I am doing. I hate having such looong posts. I need to update more often!

I PASSED!!!!

2008-07-15T17:23:00.002-04:00

I Passed my exam!!! I am so excited. My baby shower was great! It was fun and I got some great things! All really cute!
Sunday was fine. Monday was studying most of the day with a doctors appointment squeezed in there. The doctor recommended that I not fly to San Diego for Mikes wedding but that is just not going to happen. I am going! I am confident I am not close enough to the end and I believe I will not have any problems.
Tomorrow I fly! I have to check in early in the morning. And then be there by noon. I hope I get first class! That would be awesome!!

Goings On

2008-07-09T14:33:00.004-04:00

My doctors appointment went fine. I preregistered for the hospital. The only thing is the doctor wants to schedule me for a C-section on the 13-15th and if I go into labor before then then we can go that route. I really don't want to do that. He did say we could wait till we looked at the shape of my uterus or something like that.

We ended up watching Wall E right after my doctors appointment. It was soo close because I took the time to preregister at the hospital I had to ZOOM to the theater and missed most of the credits. It was great though. I loved it.

Tuesday we did not decorate the bike. I forget exactly what we did. But Eric and I went to go see Forbidden Kingdom at the dollar theater. Then we were invited to go see Mike and Lindas new apartment so we hung around until that time. We went to the Irving Mall and got some stuff. We went to several stores and just walked around. We got some ties for Eric. And then we had lunch at a little pizza place. By then we went to Mike and Linda's saw their new bed and couch, talked for a while and then went to Eric's appointment at the church. By the time we were done it was late at night and we had spent all day out and about.

Wednesday we went to the church play date. It was at this local fast food restaurant because they have two playgrounds. He played and played and played! He loved it! We were even given a coupon for a free ice cream cone. We both liked that. And of course we brought our lunch so we did not have to pay to eat out. It worked out well. Then we got home and decorated the wagon and Jeannes wheel chair. We were all set for our fireworks and parade.

Thursday we went to our play date. Caleb liked it, but a lot of the time he was playing by himself. What a different kid!! They had some legos and he loves those so he was playing with those. We tried to get him to play a game or something with the other kids, but it was not until they pulled out a video game that he came and sat by and played with the other kids. It was nice to sit and talk with this lady though.
Then we came home and loafed around for a while. Then we packed an ice chest and went to our first fireworks. We went before dark so Caleb could play on their bounce houses and courses and stuff. Then we went to our spot and sat for the fireworks. It was pretty cool. Jeanne used her wheel chair on the way to the fireworks because we had to walk a ways. I almost overtaxed myself on that walk and Jeanne was scared of Erics driving so I used it on the way back. There is no way I would have made it back going up the hill. We went home and then went to bed. We were tired and it was late, but it was worth it.

Friday morning we got up early and got ready for our parade. Calebs wagon float worked beautifully and looked very nice. We drove down to the University and walked a very short ways to a good spot in the shade. We got there early so we could get a good spot so we had a while to wait. Then people started walking around handing out free stuff and then the parade started. Now is it just me or does everybody think that a parade should be noisy? People should be cheering and clapping and yelling! I have taken Caleb to two parades and have been disappointed with both of them! They have been completely silent!!! What is up with that?????
Anyway I was not going to sit silent for the whole thing so I was the only one who cheered for pretty much every float. Some of the other people joined for the patriotic and soldier ones but pretty much I was a one woman show! Oh well. We all enjoyed it and then we all got a little testy on the way home because we all got up early and went to bed late. But we ate at Dickeys for lunch or rather took Dickeys home and ate it there. Then we all took naps!
We got back up and loafed around for a while and then got ready to go to our second city fireworks. This one had More bounce houses and stuff. we met Mike and Linda there and Caleb enjoyed playing for along time. But Mike and Linda did not stay long at all. They left before the fire works even started. There were a lot of people there and we had no desire to stand in all that traffic we knew was coming afterward, so we got back in the car and drove to the side of the road where we could see the fireworks just fine and miss a lot of traffic on the way out. I stayed in the car but Eric and Caleb went up to the top of the hill next to us. Then it started and these were worth the wait! It was awesome. They must have spent a fortune! They were setting off 3-5 at the same time over and over again, all kinds and shapes and colors. For the LONGEST time! We kept seeing ones that looked like the finale but weren't! Then we came to the finale and it was AWESOME! It was like world war 3!
We made it home in good time and all fell into bed. I wish! No we packed up some clothes and stuff and then drove down to Corsicana. We are helping Jeanne and George move out so they no longer need to rent. So we went and got a storage shed and started boxing. They had a truck that we could use and loaded up all the heavy furniture. We ended up going to church in Corsicana, and then coming back Monday.

So now this week Caleb's soccer class started. He enjoys going but has a hard time listening and following instructions. He gets sooo excited and wants to do nothing but kick the ball and play with the other kids. But we try to teach him to listen.

Same on Tuesday, he is learning how to play soccer though. He has fair control. And then we have company coming soon so I am making a good effort to clean and organize our house. I feel confident we can do it! But we did watch spiderwick chronicles late at night. We had to stop the movie a few times to take the scary away for Caleb. But we all watched it and had a good time.

Today more cleaning and organizing. Caleb had to take a nap he was so tired. And then Soccer again. Today they actually kicked around just one ball on teams! It was so cool watching him play. He did have the same problems but he enjoyed it. We are trying to work on his skills at home too. I think that helps.

I got a pattern and some fabric for a blessing gown. I could NOT find a cheap completely white dress anywhere! So I am going to make one.
I also am having my baby shower this friday. Mike and Linda are going to the temple for their endowments Friday night. and there is a primary activity saturday. Monday I have a doctors visit. Tuesday I am taking my real estate exam, and then wednesday I am leaving to go to San Diego.
It might be a while till I post again. I hope not but I have a lot to do and I might not get to the computer as much. I have to do a lot of studying and cleaning. You read all that is going on!

Busy week

2008-06-29T17:30:00.002-04:00

Next week is supposed to be pretty busy. This past week we got the hole concreted over. One of them anyway. We still have to do the one in the bathroom. But we are progressing. Most of the living room is clean and organized now. It has been vacuumed for the first time in a long while with all the carpets and boxes and stuff out of here. Can you guess what is going on tonight? End of the month, last minute huge cleaning spree? Yeah you guessed it... Home Teachers!
I do love when the home teachers come because my house gets a good cleaning. I am still pretty bad with the daily cleaning thing. I am trying to work on that.
Next week... I have a doctors appointment on monday. Monday night we are having aq scripture party for reaching the middle of Alma. We usually do at the end of eaqch book with some of the smaller ones combined, but Alma is soooo long we cut it in half. WQe are going to go see Wall E. Caleb has been dying to see it. He loves robots and movies and cartoons and snacks. So this is like a quadruple treat to him. Tuesday we are going to decorate our wagon and bike for the 4th of July. wednesday we have a church play date. Thursday we have another play date with some kids from church. We tried to get together last week but the kids got sick so we are doing it this week. Friday we are going to the parade in the morning and then to the local fireworks display at night. Before the display starts they have some free actiities and some bounce houses and stuff. I think Caleb will enjoy that very much. Saturday will probably just be a recuperation day!

2008-06-26T17:33:00.002-04:00

I now have a dishwasher and a washer and dryer. And the laundry room is mostly painted. I only have a little trim work to finish. But now that I have all these appliances I have to use them so I have a good schedule down. I do one load of laundry a day. I take my time with it, no rushing but no leaving it in the dryer. When it is done I take it and fold and put it away. And then before I go to bed I put the dishes in the dishwasher and do a load. Then I put them away the next morning. Wow so exciting right?

Just getting things done. Trying to get the house ready for company in July. Mom was able to get out of the country. She had a hard time with expired passports and a broken oven the day before they left, and some other troubles. She did not get the house totally clean and is paying me to go clean it before the company comes.

No problems with the pregnancy yet. I am making a little layette set for Elizabeth to wear on her blessing day. I think I can get it done. I have most of the little jacket done already. I also am going to make a little nursing cover blanket. Reversible, one purple the other blue, and then some lace at the bottom for trim. I hope I can do it. I don't have a pattern but I am going to copy the pattern from the one in the store I saw. They were expensive so I thought I would try to make one better then the one in the store. More customized that way.

I am going to a recipe exchange tonight. I am making a 4th of july creation from my favorite magazine Family Fun! and then a little silverware holder thing from the same magazine. They look so cute.

Work day

2008-06-20T14:06:00.002-04:00

Today has been designated a work day. I have already cleaned out a little of the tv room, the kitchen and, spent a lot of time in Calebs room. He has just too many toys. He never keeps them put away which is partly my fault. And he still has five boxes of toys that have not been unpacked yet. So I went through and took out some of the younger toys. I saved most of them for Elizabeth. And then I threw away some loose toys, some cheap toys, some broken toys, some that are missing peices and such. I hope we can keep it clean now. I still have to tackle the other half of his room. But that is mostly clothes. I do not know what to do with his clothes. His dresser is breaking and we were going to move Elizabeth into it anyway. It goes with the crib and changing table. So now for Caleb, I have these four shelves in a cabinet that have been built into his room. They are awful and not at all efficient. The clothes keep falling out and he pulls some out when he looks for an outfit to wear. So We are going to clean his room right up and then spend fifteen minutes every night keeping it clean. Because my new motto is.... you can do anything for 15 minutes.