More & More...and Some Randoms about Nora

Just a quick (read, long winded update on nothing) update on a few things: Nora now has a total of 7 teeth! Three happened to be popping through at the end of last week.  This morning she was grinding the top with the bottom....eww talk about nails on a chalkboard. 

Yesterday, I forgot my pump at home and Jake was off work so they dropped it off while they were out running errands and we had a chance to weigh Nora at my work.  Even though she was fully clothed (she isn't at the doctors office) it would be closer to the last weigh in at her 9 month appointment in December.  She is now 20 pounds (with clothes) and it sure feels like it.  We are in the market for the next step up car seat and that may be what we do in our "spare" time tomorrow. 

Speaking of "spare" time, it is used much more wisely now days compared to pre-baby.  Now, we clean, cook, shower, grocery shop, etc in our "spare" time where that was not something we would have done before. 

Today I realized that we sweep the kitchen floor more than we used to and that we need to start mopping the floor wayyyy more than we used to.  My bare feet almost stick like cement when I walk near her high chair. She feels the need to feed Jersey now, so on the floor food flies! The dishwasher gets a work out everyday compared to every 4-5 days when we were just a 2 person family.  It's a little monotonous to empty, fill, empty fill... but I'd rather do that (Jake empties, I fill) than wash each dish by hand (because I'm anal and have to clean the sink before I would wash dishes).  Other things we do more now: eat at home because it's just easier and we stay home in general more often than we used to for the same reasons.  Nora doesn't want to be held or couped up anymore and sometimes it's easier to stay home and play with her here rather than chasing her everywhere as she gets in to and disrupts a lot of things! She's curious and we love that, but it also is exhausting making sure she's not going to break anything or hurt herself. 

OK, enough on that.  Things are different, but an AWESOME different and we love it.  As I type I hear her beating on her drum that is speaking Spanish and "singing" along to it.  "Bailamos, Cantamos, Jugamos el tambor...." haha!

The Most Random Blog Ever

Usually I think about what I'm going to post about before typing away, but this time I decided to just type as I think. It will probably be the most random bits of stuff you have ever heard and some that you don't care about, but that's the way my brain does it ALL of the time...I just usually organize it! {side note: I just had to mute the TV so I could think! Who's ever heard of Xia Xia pets? Creepy!}

I feel like the last few days have actually been an entire month.  I was talking to Jake last night about how before Nora I thought I never had time for anything and now I really feel like that, but I've been very good at managing my time.  I'm quick and efficient with a list to keep me on track or else nothing gets accomplished. 

I've been working on the whole list thing with Jake and I finally have him understanding the importance.  Last Sunday, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for my brother, Beth, my mom, Alan, & my sister and the kids.  He had a list (in his head) of things he needed to get from the grocery on Saturday to be ready for Sunday.  He ended up forgetting 1 or 2 of the less than 5 thing list and decided it was a good idea to be a list maker.  I mentioned its a good thing we live 5 minutes from the grocery!

TV time has been cut drastically. The only shows I watch are Survivor & Pan Am and Greys, but only if its a new episode.  I've also come across 2 30 minute shows that with DVR are only 20 minutes: Mad Fashion & Fashion Hunters.  We have pretty much decided that our time is used wisely with out the function of a TV so when our "deal" is up in March we are ousting the cable & being more productive.  I say all that and then mention that Jake went out to get us smart phones-apparently we were part of 4% of people w/o them (phew, glad to be out of that category {sarcasm})-on Black Friday.  We have been filling a good amount of time learning about them, playing games (side note: if only Scrabble was titled "Words with Friends"...I bet they would have more business), etc on them.  Did I mention we have Angry Birds? Jackie & Al I bet you guys are proud right about now! Anyway, the best part about the phones for me is I can take pictures and videos of Nora & send to Jake when hes working. 

Speaking of Nora, who is so graciously napping, she is all over the place!  We have had a few more bumps, bruises, and scratches here lately due to her daring moves (aka reaching for other objects clearly out of reach and falling).  I squint when I see it from a distance & hope she doesn't cry.  I've been better about following her around and make sure shes OK. Jake tells me she has to learn somehow.  Last night Jake was working out and I was putting her to bed.  5 minutes after I laid her down she started screaming, so I went in, held her (come on just for a minute), laid her down & 5 minutes later she was "talking" and laughing so I went in again. There she was standing with a grip on her crib, bouncing up and down laughing & smiling so big! And there was the death grip on my heart, so we played for a while.  We played a game I made up called "No, No!".  Basically, she reaches for me and I say "No, no!" and she laughs. Or I hide and pop up and say "No, no" and she laughs! Trust me its more fun than you think! So we played for a while (more like 45 minutes) and then went to bed. 

One thing all new moms should know-if you don't already know it...the cute little $1 socks from Target Circo Brand are a waste, they don't stay on & only drive you nuts.  I've found that the Wal-Mart Faded Glory six pack are amazing & never fall off.  Of course this doesn't mean anything to you warmer weather friends, but up here its cold & toes get like popsicles!

I mentioned being busy, but I didn't mention with what. Outside of 3 Thanksgivings we've had a laundry list of appointments, tasks, get together planned and coming up.  I went up to Lafayette to get the oil changed in the Audi (cheaper than taking it to the North side and they give us a loaner so I don't have to sit around the dealership...totally worth it).  The check engine light was also on-it needs a new thermostat and temperature sender...all I see are $$.  Yesterday I had to work, then at 1pm we closed on our refinance.  In my eyes we pretty much paid 9 years of mortgage payments in 1 day lowering our mortgage to a 20 year at 4 1/8%.  That's a savings of over $76,000! Tonight Jake and I are going out for the first time (I know, give me a break, I have more separation anxiety than Nora does) with out Nora to Ruth Chris for dinner.  Tomorrow we have our Christmas party with our LifeGroup from Church. Yesterday I made cake balls for the first time to take to it....if the spoon was any indication of the actual cake ball I'm excited! Next week at Moms & Tots, we are having a Christmas cookie exchange so I plan on making Snickers surprise cookies for that on Sunday. Then next Saturday is our Thanks-Mas (Thanksgiving & Christmas) with my moms extended family.  Phew! That's enough about that already...

I'm in the process of getting our Christmas cards together. This year we will have 3 designs-not on accident, but to get rid of some of the ones we haven't used in the past.  Some will be cards with pictures in them that are not attached or in the card (for family to keep the picture), some will be cards that have an opening for the picture that is not attached to fit in and show from the front, and some that are made from Nora's Christmas pictures we had taken last week.  They will all have pictures just different.  We have already gotten our first 2 Christmas cards and we are excited to get more.  We love and keep them, especially if there are pictures! So sad to say that Jersey did not make the Christmas card this year, not intentional, she was just not present for family pictures, but we still love her & she finally is back to her old self again. She's such a good dog!

Christmas shopping is wrapping up (hah-no pun intended!), we don't have much more to get.  We discussed gifts for Nora and decided to keep them to a minimum, but when I got to the store all I kept thinking was aww, she needs this, oh, look at that, she would love that!...cut it with the nonsense Roxanne she doesn't need all those!! I'm sure it won't get any easier as she gets older. 

Holy smokes, just realized I wrote a book not a blog post! If you are still reading this you must be either really bored or really interested.  More updates to come and I promise no more random blogs for a while, but now my mind is clear!

Guilty Pleasure

It's bad...but I've been on a huge s'mores kick. I know you're probably thinking HOW is this a guilty pleasure?  Well, due to time, clean up and availability I make them in the microwave-12 seconds & BAM s'more.  I usually do 2, use 4 marshmallows (pulled apart to make like the number 4 domino on the graham), 1/4 Hershey bar, and Wa-Zing...S'MORE! They are so yummy I just wish the marshmallow had the crisp outer crust like texture you get from the fire.  If I had a gas stove...you know what I'd be doing-LOL. Until we have a fire in our fire pit, they will work as a guilty pleasure. Betcha never thought about doing that before!

3 Years in 2 Months!!

Time flies...our 3rd anniversary is in 2 months already! There have been a lot of events in those 3 years that we are thankful for. One that I'm ready to get rid of...the Bath & Body Works Vanilla lotion that was a bridal shower gift that is still in the spare bathroom. One of my college girlfriends gave it to me as a gift package for the bathroom-great gift, wrong scent. In her defense, only some high school friends would have known not to get me Vanilla Bean hand lotion scent. I use it, but prefer something different as it doesn't sit well with my sniffer. Funny that it's been around for as long as we've been married! It reminded me of 3 years ago when I saw it today.

Cable High

We are on a cable high here in the Standeford house! After nearly a year...we had the cable guy come out and set it up again. We originally tried when we first moved in, but came upon lots of problems with the installation so we just called to cancel and not get it for a while. We knew throughout the summer we would be busy and not really watch it & that we would have a lot of things to do to the house so we opted to save money (imagine that!).

Since December I have been craving more channels than 6, 8, 12, or 59!! The only thing that is ever on is the news-which I like to watch, but not all the time. Several weeks ago I was cleaning the house and needed a break. I sat down to watch TV and the only 3 shows on were the Magic School Bus (loved it when I was younger), the Suite Life of Zach & Cody, and a weight loss infomercial!! I stood up and went on cleaning-not. even. worth. watching. That night I cried because Jake was excited to watch the two football games that determined the Superbowl! Did I mention we were at Steak n Shake when this all happened. I was emotional and couldn't hold it in-it ended in a laughing hysterically with a combo cry! I couldn't stop! We laughed about it all night.

Before that night I had tried justifying that we were having our Life Group from Church over for the Superbowl and we needed it in case there was a storm and the bunny ears didn't work. He laughed at my attempt!

I think that's when he realized I needed something to do when I was "off my feet". And the baby is coming soon-I'll be home, busy with lots to do, but still some down time. So I'm soo soo glad to have it back. I've been missing lots of my shows I typically watch & DVR especially.

And.. the best part about it all is that Jake got a steal of a deal with Att Uverse where our Internet/cable (with DVR & 200 channels) was only $12 more than the Internet we were paying for previously. And...this lasts for 12 months!! Now that's cheap entertainment.

So, tonight I set up a million shows on the DVR (one that I'm excited about is Auction Hunters-I could totally do that) and am watching HGTV for the first time in our new house & loving it as I relax after a long day!

Ice Storm

I can hear it hitting our windows...another round of ice is hitting us and has been for a couple hours now. They haven't really gotten the roads cleared from last night yet-so it's becoming one huge sheet of ice outside. I came home today at 3:30-even though I work 5 minutes from home-to be safe and out of the weather, but Chase Bank doesn't believe in letting employees go home in conditions like these so Jake will be home around 7-7:30 depending on how long it takes him to get here...bummer!

Our furnace isn't working right...horrible timing. Well, it's been doing it for a few weeks now, but we've been slackers on calling a repair man. What we've had to do is turn it off, wait, then turn it back on and it works fine. I just had to do that because it was 64 in here-trying to get the temp up in case the power goes out! We are glad Nora isn't here yet for this reason alone! I'm not sure what we'd do if she was here-probably light a million candles in a small room and bundle her up...that's all I could come up with.

We should be good in all other areas if the power goes out. We have peanut butter to last us a lifetime, canned foods (and a non-electric opener), tons of snack foods that don't need to be heated & I'm about to start making stuffed peppers for dinner-hoping the oven will still work for the hour they need to bake! I filled up all the pitchers we had with water thinking it wouldn't work, but I think that might be a little over cautious because I think the water will still work. Flashlights are out and ready to go-we have the ones that don't require batteries, just cranking to get them to work. My phone is charging-in case of an emergency and we need to have a phone, but I can't think of anything else that we might need.

The only thing I wish now is that that 4 channels we get weren't all broadcasting the news-I'd like to watch something else if I could!! Oh well, the cable guy is coming on Friday (weather permitting) to install cable again (!!), but I just remembered that they have to wire the house-which means digging a hole for the wire which will be hard in the ice..grrr..right now I'll just pretend like it's happening!

This Weekend

So last night I decided to change my mind to Steak n Shake! It's OK, I do it all the time. The reason for the switch was that I never, ever eat at Steak n Shake for calorie reasons (unless we go with other people who choose-which hasn't been often-maybe 1 time in the past 2 years). It was deliciously greasy and the cheese fries hit the spot! After that we came home and relaxed for a minute while our stomachs settled then made home made doughnuts. My mom used to make them when I was little-and for some reason I had an urge to make them for Jake. He's never had them before. Another thing I never, ever do...deep fry! Blew that one last night too! Filled the pan with Crisco, high heat until ready...then we popped the biscuit rings and biscuit holes in until done then covered with cinnamon sugar! Mmm...they were so good-took me back.

On another note, I realized after talking to Rachael that the things I have been feeling that I thought was just the baby moving all around were actually Braxton-Hicks contractions. I had a million of them yesterday while I was moving around, organizing and shopping. I've probably felt them for the past 2 weeks, but didn't actually realize what they were. I drank water and relaxed to get them to go away-worked sometimes, but others not so much. I debated on calling the doctor, but I knew I wasn't in labor-I just wanted to know what was normal for 33 weeks other than the fact that I would experience them. I don't want to be the annoying pregnant woman who calls/goes to the doctor a million times for no reason and just to be sent home. So I held out on that one.

Last night and today they were equally as bad-although I didn't do nearly as much as I did yesterday. In the past few hours they have been coupled with, my favorite, lower back pain so I've had my heating pad out for relief. Have I mentioned I'm a wimp? I told myself I would never say this, but I'm ready for her already and to be able to sleep on my stomach, tie my shoes, or walk up the stairs without getting winded! Anyway, I'm doing fine, just problem solving as the problems come-any suggestions would help to stay comfortable in the next 6 1/2 weeks.

Nesting at it's finest

This morning I woke up with my to-do list ready to go!

So far I've been able to complete these tasks:

-Clean out the refrigerator which was absolutely disgusting with milk carton skids and spinach dip from NYE

-Do the dishes and a load of laundry (still have a few more left to do)

-Clean & organize our bathroom closet to fit the stuff from the spare bathroom-which will eventually be Nora's-so I could fit her bath time things under the sink.

Left to do:

-Line the dresser (which I was originally not going to use right now) with contact paper so that I can use it and know that Nora's clothes aren't touching the antique wood

-Return somethings from Kohl's & Target/get some things with gift cards that we didn't receive at the showers (last week we got the swing, breast pump & bouncer)

-Shop for a front door rug at TJ Maxx

-Drop off the old prescriptions, meds, and other vitamins and stuff that are outdated or old at the police station or fire department-tired of looking at them, but I don't want to just toss them or flush them (I heard once that they have tested some area water supply and found antibiotics in good amounts in the water!!)

Right now I'm giving Jake time for his stomach to settle-he ate too much of the leftover venison chili he made the other day! Hoping that after all the errands we are going to do he will be hungry again & willing to go to Bob Evans...I've been craving it for about 2 months now, but I haven't been in so long that I fear I might be severely disappointed if it's not a good trip! I better get up and get going again or I might find myself taking a nap!

Charlie Horse

Last night I experienced the worst charlie horse in my life! I sat up fast in the bed after stretching my legs-which led to the cramp. It hurt so bad I was talking to myself (Jake was snoozing & didn't even hear me-I was surprised). I had to physically pull my foot down and massage my calf to get it to go away. I can still feel some of the tightness right now! I don't know if it's something that happens a lot during pregnancy, but I've had several killers now since the second trimester. Hoping for no more like the one I had last night though! Any moms or preggos have/had this happen before?

Hmmm....

Jake and I have been wondering what Nora will look like and I started to think about what we each looked like when we were little. I just love this picture of Jake when he was younger-look at the long blonde, curly hair! Nora would be adorable if she had her daddy's hair. I don't have any really young pictures of me, but I had stick straight hair-same color as Jake's in the picture below. Makes you wonder..either way she'll be cute as can be.

Lesson Learned

So the past 3 days I've been at our National Nutrition Conference (FNCE) in Boston! Yay exciting because its a change of pace, but it gets dark at 4:30 pm, it was raining, and I was tired a lot of the time. However, I was in charge of booking our hotel. My boss likes to stay as close to the convention center as possible, if not in the convention center hotel. Well, that wasn't happening-we jumped on it too late. So, we ended up booking at the Intercontinental Boston (a 4 or 5 star hotel on the waterfront-hey it was the closest!). Probably the most expensive hotel I've ever stayed at before. Anyway...we checked in to them being over booked in the 2 queen bed rooms so we were upgraded to a suite! One with a living, dining, 2 bathrooms-glass shower and HUGE tub separate, etc you get the point.

I'm nosey and I like to see what everything is in the room, but I was trying to find the TV guide so that I knew what channel Amazing Race was on-turns out the guide was on the TV. Through my search I stumbled on the mini bar and the prices!! to the mini bar. Holy Cow! $5 for a 10 ounce diet coke, $8 for peanut m & ms, $18 for a shot of grey goose, etc you see the point here. Well, I learned my lesson with these highly expensive items when after I had touched and taken them out in excitement over the price I found out (from my co-worker Christina-who I didn't believe was right until we called the front desk) that every time you touch something-whether you eat or drink it or not, you get charged automatically! What?! I know you are thinking the same thing...how can they do that. Well, its an automated system that has sensors and can tell when you remove something and it is automatically charged to your bill. It doesn't make sense only because if you are nosey & excited like me I just took them out to show my boss how much they were and placed them back in their rightful places (I even "faced" them-made it so the label was in the front since that's how they were before my fingers touched them). So there it all is touched, but still there and they still charge! They still charge even though a guy comes around daily checking the mini bar and restocking it. I would think that he would see that its still there, but it doesn't matter. Wow! Fortunately, since we called front desk to see if it was true the receptionist said she would have it all removed providing that it was all there when the mini bar guy checked it the next day. Phew! That was a close one. I'm sure I wont have to worry about it in my personal future since we are cheap and go for hotwire.coms <$100 hotel rooms/night (not over $400), but remember that when you almost puke over the prices of the mini bar. I knew my mom always told me to look with my eyes and not with my hands! To be honest, I'm still shocked as I'm typing!

Taking over the cage

Thought this was too cute not to share! Ann & Nellie sharing Jerseys cage with her...I dont think she really wanted to share, but she didnt really have the option! I love it :)

You can call him a banker!

Jake is offiicially a banker, well last week! He started at Chase Bank in May and has since then been studying to pass a few standardized tests to be offiicial. I couldnt tell you what he passed other than it has to do with insurance, investing, and mutual bonds-all things I really know nothing about and am scared to think about. Lucky for me- I dont have to because he does. He is really enjoying what he is doing now and I'm enjoying him being home 3/4 weekends in a month and when I get home from work. We are both now sleeping at the same time-which makes life 10 times easier :) We no longer need to be quiet when the other one is sleeping and we are trying to shower and get dressed! Lots of huge perks of our new banker in the family. He is open to your business at 16th and Lynhurst in Indy. He would be more than happy to open a checking or savings account, set up direct deposit, get you a chase rewards card, etc for you and your family members! I would be more than happy too-he gets slight bonuses for each thing he helps customers with. Did I mention he looks so caaute in his black pants, chase button up, sweater and tie?? He's even had two grown men lately tell him "who are apparently not that way" that he is "good looking". I'm proud of him and things are going well with the house and Jersey-the best dog ever :)

~

Just a note for the bride-to-be...Miss Jackie will be a Dimitt beginning Saturday! We are so very excited for the wedding and all events to follow. Best wishes go out to Al for having the most stressful week of his life beginning today with the first day (yes there is more than 1 day) and wrapping up tomorrow..and then of course the wedding this weekend. The worst part is no results for 3 months, but I assure you he has not seen day light in about 2-3 years since the time he has spent studying the library has consumed his life. Its all over soon Al! Maybe you should take a trip to Austin and see the real "library" bar off of 6th street when you are finished :)

~

Shout out (who says that anymore?) to Austin, TX & the Allison's new baby on board. Congratulations guys :) We can't wait to meet the little one!

P.S. I hate it when I go into a blog with total intentions of only writing about 1 topic and then it becomes a random blab about everything on my mind! Please forgive me

Sweet Summertime

Can you believe its already the middle of June...and that next week marks the first day of summer? We've been very busy with several different things around the house along with graduation parties, birthday parties, weddings, baby and bridal showers...we are ready for a break! This weekend we will sort of get that break when we travel down to Nashville to visit Matt & Britt. We are very excited to catch up...its been way too long, but we're ready to be there already.

Pictures of the house are coming-I know some of you are waiting for them, but every time I plan on taking them it either rains or a tornado (not literally) throws laundry and dishes everywhere! That has been my primary goal for about 3 weeks now...doesn't look like it will get done before we leave for TN. But I will definitely try!

Happy belated 2nd Anniversary to my husband :) We celebrated late because of our craziness this year at a hole in the wall Italian place (Iaria's) that John & Rachel recommended. Two thumbs up if you ask me. We ate then bought Blue Bell ice cream-I've been wanting that for a while now, then watched Dear John. We ate too much so skipped the ice cream that night, but it is really good. I really wanted the banana pudding flavor, but Jake is such a plain ice cream eater so I conned him into "The Great Divide" chocolate & vanilla. Turned out yummy, but I still want the banana flavor! Dear John was good, I was wrong when I predicted the ending and that to me makes a great movie, well that and Channing Tatum. I was really angry at the girl (forget her name) for how it ended up, but I'm hoping for a sequel.

We've been watching a bunch of movies lately since we cut the cord on cable...I was addicted so I had to do something. After Dear John we've watched Avatar which was great and Alice and Wonderland which was so bad we watched the first 20 minutes and shut it off. Sorry Alice, it was really bad & I'm not a fan of Jonny Depp. Movies for me to watch for...Toy Story 3 and Karate Kid. We signed up for a month of Netflix so we will be making less trips to the Red Box...although I really love the Red Box-so easy, cheap, and convenient (well not really convenient considering 3 people in front of you and they all have kids they are trying to please...just pick a darn movie please!)

That's all for now..what movies to you recommend watching?

Slight Delay...Sorry and other details!

Ok, so there's been a slight delay in the relay of the information I promised would come this past Monday! I will post as soon as I can about it. But for right now, we are not pregnant & like Ellen said 4 days wouldnt have mattered anyways. I wish I were pregnant...mentally I'm ready, but financially, socially, physically, etc I'm not & Jake has said 2013!! (Yikes..I'd be 28! considering my Bday is tomorrow!)

In other details we officially closed on our house on Monday. It went a lot faster than we thought & what people had been saying it would take. Only an hour for us & the only way it would take 3 hours is if I read through all the papers & tried to figure out how to understand all the lingo in it (Jackie watch out..I fear Alex would be able to understand and try...therefore take hours to close! LOL) We are all ready to go on Monday to move in-so 5 days!

Saturday we are picking up our new bedroom suite! I'm really excited about it because our bed right now (which will become the guest bedroom-sorry guests!) is a little worn in! We werent originally going to get the whole suite, but Jakes dresser (which is a hand-me-down) is on the fritz & may not last long. Mine is from when I was a little girl & the drawers are already fritzing...it was time! We still havent found any bedding, but we are hoping to find some this weekend on the north side.

This is way off subject, but totally worth sharing. We got a gym membership at the Plainfield Rec Center...It. Is. Awesome! Complete gym (free weights for Jake) with tons of classes (my favorite part!), spin classes, an indoor track, indoor swimming pool, outdoor Splash & something water park, etc...its awesome. We are in Plainfield now (at our apt) so we thought we'd take advantage of the $200 discount the residents get for the year! Anyways, today I thought I'd go to 'total body toning' because thats really what I need. It was OK until we hit the lunges...then my legs were shaking-literally sh-a-king! But I was half the age as half the people there who were doing just fine so I couldnt. give. up.! I kept working as we tore apart our abs, triceps, buttocks, quads, etc as my entire body started to shake! After class I thought wow-that was nice...in a total-body-torture type of way. I decided to 'cool down' for a few minutes on a treadmill & when I went to step off the treadmill I about took a tumble right of it! I caught myself before I left my balance and thank goodness I didnt fall (how embarrassing!). So, I was leaving after that incident I had to walk down the stairs (was not taking the elevator!LOL) and I had to grip the hand rail all the way down for fear of falling because my legs were shaking and in so much pain...I'm scared for when I wake up tomorrow. You know if your legs hurt immediately following the exercise that you are screwed for the next two days when you typically feel the pain! Its funny to think about, but I dont think I'll be able to get out of bed tomorrow :) haha.

Ok enough with the other details...hopefully I'll keep up on posting when we are moving and I'll have pictures of the house up after we paint/decorate! Have a great Earth Day (4/22!)

I'm still here...and here is all the random stuff updates

I'm still here! Just sometimes I really really feel like blogging and other times I dont feel like messing with it! Things have been great lately. We are coming up closer to our closing date-April 19th, but not fast enough :) We are getting final things in order. & we have started packing (yuck,-I hate packing)As for the past month...

At the beginning of March, I went on a 5 day retreat to Carmel, California on a work expense paid trip for meetings/enjoyment. Our hotel was right on the beach & was awesome. A bit chilly, but I'll take that over cold/snowy anyday (although this weather we are having now is awesome!). After returning back it was a long week of catching up on sleep and work! I've been starting more classes-so that has been keeping me busy & the days seem to fly by.

We signed up for a volleyball league starting in May & I'm so excited. Something about planned, fun, activity really gets me going :} When we dropped off the payment forms we found out it was SAND volleyball-even better & will remind me of our time playing VB in Cancun last year! We are venturing in with a new team-mainly Standefords, but with the help of two girls I knew from high school as well. I decided we should be in the rec league to save us me the headache of losing-so hopefully we can win! These people who sign up for things like this are serious....and I am, but I dont know if all of my team mates are!

The mini marathon is less than 40 days away & while I wont be able to run the entire thing (due to my lack of training this past month or two) I intend on running most (more than 8 miles) of it & I consider that a success for the amount of training that I have put in. I'll do another one...maybe in the fall & really train! I've realized that running isnt my favorite thing anymore...I like the more fun, competitive things with groups of people.

Jake's doing fine, struggling with sleep due to the crazy song happy birds outside our window, but thanks to the #2 setting on our box fan, it has been helping! He's mentally prepping himself for all the projects he already knows I want to do in the house & he keeps telling me, "honey, we arent even there yet, cant we just wait?". Well, in my eyes its ours so lets get a move on!

We went to our my favorite store now, Lowe's (or Home Depot, Menards, or Garden Ridge) you know any house-esque store with lots of ideas for change, and we I was looking at paint swatches & I said, "hey, I have to use the restroom...find me a light brown that you like and I'll be right back!" I got back from the RR & said, "what'd you come up with?" He looked at me like I was *dumb* and said...,"All these paint colors give me a headache & I dont know green from brown remember?!" (he's color blind & sometimes I forget) So, we laughed and left as we can leave that daunting task for another day! Sometimes I have blonde moments, then you think "Oh yeah"...oppps

We're still alive...

We are still here...not much going on lately. We've been busy with the inspection (went well), roof inspection (went well too), and getting all things together for the house. We have been shopping around for bedroom furniture & purchased that Saturday. Still hunting for cheap patio furniture on Craigslist and other discount shops. Deciding on paint colors, etc for the house. Trying to sublease our apartment to cut double payments! Sell our washer/dryer we bought for the apartment that we dont need, things like that. Exciting, but lots of that kind of stuff lately.

Love/Hate Relationships

Hate is a harsh word and it's not what I really mean to say, but you get the point. And, I have discovered that I have a lot of these type of relationships. For example, I love clean clothes that smell like fabric softner, but I hate doing laundry! Another good one is I hate the government taking taxes out of my paycheck, but I love getting our tax return (got it yesterday-only 1 week after Jake did them online!). I could go on and on: love the snow, hate driving in it; love facebook friends, but hate every 5 minute updates (especially ones with cute babies that I want & the ones where it recaps the whole day-same as the day before and the day before). And finally the love/hate relationship that I have the most and made me post this....the one about Sam's Club! Love (and appreciate & praise God) that Jake has a job that can provide for us, but I hate when it takes our time away from each other. I'm sure you all can think of your top love/hate relationship-they seem to be easy to find!

Simple Pleasures

This is a blog that has been going around the blogging community (got it from Lindsey L, thanks) so I thought I would list some of my simple pleasures. As I was reading her list some of them we have in common! Here goes:

my comfy robe

time with my husband (its limited now a days)

cuddling to stay warm in our freezing cold apartment

raisin bran for breakfast

I agree with Lindsey on the heated seats in the car (I could add to that keyless entry, automatic locks, etc-since we only have that in one car)

awesome co-workers

Bible study on Saturday mornings

exercising to relieve stress

chocolate

time with family members-especially new babies

diet coke, fountain only!

our new portable space heater

my pink zebra lunch bag

a clean apartment-thanks to Jakes efforts

a dishwasher that works

an awesome job

*& many, many more!

What are your simple pleasures in life? Repost on your list!

Hidden Talents!

My husband is a very, very talented man, but he has some hidden talents that he has yet to express to me (for the past 4 1/2 years) since we've been together. On Christmas I was able to experience his wonderful talent as a 'yo-yo' artist! Yup, the yo-yo...it took him a few tries to get the swing going again, but eventually he was putting it to 'sleep' and 'rockin the cradle'! He wanted so badly to go 'around the world' with it, but there just wasnt enough room for him to do it without hurting someone! If only you knew how funny it was to see him light up when he could still do the tricks! It was like a toddler in a candy store..I love him for his hidden talents! I give him lots of credit because I tried hard to make the yo-yo go down and up and struggled...what a talent! Yo-yos take talent...are you good at the yo-yo?