Succulents

Back in April, I had been thinking about indoor plants. Sadly, we have none. Not one plant inside our home, real or fake. So while redecorating our living room I thought it was the perfect time to start looking for indoor plants. That's when I came across a post, What's up Succa?,  from the wonderful blog called, Young House Love. I thought what a wonderful idea. Let's try to recreate our own.

So on our regular monthly Costco shopping trip, I noticed some Succulent plants. They looked like great plants but they were a bit bigger than I was hoping but we decided to buy them for $6.79.

We stopped by a few stores on the way home to look for nice vases. Kiera had fallen asleep in the car so I just ran into the stores while Randy stayed in the car. To save the boring story, we found these vases. In the comment section of the blog from Young House Love, a reader suggested putting rock at the bottom of the vases so that he excess water would have somewhere to sit. Smart idea.

One plant at a time we began to replant them into our cute glass vases. There was a lot of dirt in the roots of the plant so we had to take some off and even cut some of the roots. It is advised to break apart the roots before replanting anyways.

This guy, aka: Aloe Vera, was a bit bigger than the other two and he didn't fit as well.

Finished. :D It took us all of 20 minutes. So simple and they have made a big difference in our home. Adding some greenery is always good.

Update: We have since transferred Mr. Aloe to a ceramic pot. He is much happier in his new roomy home with a lot more space and sadly, when we took our month long trip to VA, the two plants on the left got really sad looking. They possible may be dead. I say possibly because we are still trying to work on bringing them back. Defibrillator  anyone? Charge to 200, okay now, 1, 2, 3..shock! I refuse to give up just yet.

Pinterest Tuesday

I spend so much time pinning things onto Pinterest on a "To try" board or a "this is totally awesome" board but never EVER get around to trying out those super cool ideas. Are you with me? I mean, I can't be the only one who does this.

So I got an idea.....Welcome to Pinterest Tuesday. I WILL get one project/recipe/craft accomplished on a Tuesday. Why Tuesday you ask? Well, it just sounded the best. Pinterest Sunday or Friday just didn't flow as well. So this is my Pinterest Tuesday project. :D Yes, it is posted a day late. I had to clean my sink out first and yesterday, that just wasn't going to happen. I finally got my car back from the mechanics and we went hiking until like 4pm, then Randy had class. Yeah, I though yesterday was never going to end. Hiking with two kids, yeah, not cool!

Let's jump over to Pinterest to see what our project is.  

AWESOME right?! So I have seen this all over Pinterest. Using lemons, baking soda, vinegar and ice to get your disposal to smell clean again. I know my disposal is disgusting. Yours too right?! I was thinking why not make ice cubes with those same ingredients already in them and that's when I came across this pin. I am not familiar with this particular blog but the blogger seems to have a lot of followers. She must be doing something right! I decided to try them.

I didn't post any step by step pictures because well, it's suuuuuper easy. Cut up your lemon and stick them in the ice cube slots. One lemon filled this entire tray. Then take your white vinegar and fill it up. Don't dilute it. Just straight vinegar. How fun huh?! So now when I finish the dishes and washing out the sink I can pop one of these ice cubes in the disposal and voila, my sink smells clean! :D

Me likey?!

Next week, Toothpaste dots!

Anyone else do something similar to this? Or have another creative cleaning idea? Maybe a Pinterest idea that worked well?

missed you

it has been a while. we have been so busy with things around here and i kind of forgot about my blog. :(

update?

we have a little baby boy 7 wks ago. Blake William.

i quit my job. :D

we went to VA and came back.

paid off our car just to have it begin to overheat. :(

kiera potty trained at just over 20mo. mommy and daddy are happy campers.

blake has been an absolute blessing and an easy baby (overall).

randy and i have been trying to make way on out backyard remodel. slow progress is still progress right?

i cleaned out my junk drawer which i am quite proud of. i have been meaning to do it for weeks, well maybe months, heck who am i kidding? that drawer was a disaster long before i married randy!

No work.... All play!

Most of you probably don't know but I have been working since the beginning of the year. I work for a company that provides captioning for phone calls for the hard of hearing community. When I heard that this job was available, I jumped on it. I have been taking a lot of ASL classes and I have learned so much about the deaf community. I adore the deaf community and I am so grateful to learn their language and to be able to communicate. Right now, I am taking direction to become an ASL interpreter. I think I have finally found out what I want to be when I grow up. I say "finally" as if I am old. :yeah right:

I got the job and not because we were struggling financially but because we wanted to pay off my car and a few other things. Well, the job has helped us accomplish those things except paying off the car because instead, I am going to use that money to go visit my sister in Virginia. But that is okay. We are excited for the vacation. It is a much needed vacation. We are going to go to Busch Gardens like a hundred times. :D

Yes, I will be flying across the country 7 months pregnant. Don't worry, I will be good and make sure we know where the hospital is so we can skip on over if needed. I will be flying alone though with Kiera so I am a bit nervous. Randy is going to only come for a week or two and then he is going to drive back with Stacy and my mom. Did I mention that sister's husband is going on a deployment/training for 6 months so she is coming out to STG to visit us. But while her husband is gone they will be getting a relocation assignment so she needs to pack up her house in preparation.

So, my mom and I and later on Randy are going to go help her out.

Anyways, let's get to the purpose of this post. I quit my job today. It is official. I put in my two weeks notice. EEEK. I am so nervous but excited at the same time. This time will allow me to prepare for the newbie as well as go out and help my sister. I will miss the extra income that we have had. I haven't really spent too much time away from Kiera since I work at 5am plus I am only part time. She is sleeping almost the whole time I am gone. That has been nice. So, I will miss the income and the "me" time (whatever time that was) but I am so happy to begin to sleep in again. :P

Amazon Rainforest in St. George

I would venture to say that we are pretty good parents. Good parents to Kiera, even good parents to our dog, but I am quite embarrassed to say that we are NOT very good parents to our poor garden. Heck, we aren't very good parents to all of our plant life.

I have a dream. (Yes, just like MLK.) I want to have a lot of kids, a big house on 5 acres to acommodate our size and I want to live off the land. I don't have a dream to become this amazing farm or to pretend to be a hard working cowgirl! But I want the space to have a large garden, some milking goats, a cow or two for meat, some chickens for eggs.....you get the picture!

Right now, Winder Dairy is about as close as I can get for farm fresh eggs and farm fresh milk, not even goats milk. We do get fresh beef from my In-laws in which we are SUPER grateful for since meat can be expensive.

So, last night just as we finished dinner and we began to watch our weekly movie( we only have time to watch one movie a week together), I suddenly got the urge to go weed out our garden. It is massively over grown and it pretty sad looking. Randy wasn't too excited on the idea since he had been working outside all day already and got sunburned. But he was a good boy and came out to help me.

and to illustrate....

This is what the garden looked like when we began. We had our own personal Amazon Rainforest back there!

 Miss K-bug trying to help Daddy pull weeds.

 A little sensory play!

 And to taste the dirt...

 Oh, it doesn't taste very good. Well, yes dear, turkey poo is not very yummy!

I promise Randy was not doing all the work. I would have taken pictures of me working but somehow none of my shirts can fit over this dang belly and my tummy was hanging out the entire time. Not so pretty!

 Here Daddy! Let me help you by stomping on all those weeds! Good job baby girl!

 And then she tried to escape...

 Almost finished. You see those plants in the back? Those are strawberries. They survived the winter as well as the overgrown Amazon. Oh and the plant below, with the wood shoots coming out of it, that is a sage plant. It also survived the Amazon.

 Why yes, we let our daughter dance on the hot tub and play with the garden sprayer!

And we are finished. Doesn't it looks so much bigger with all those weeds gone. I was able to plant some flower seeds in some pots but I wasn't able to get any veggies planted. It was Kiera's bedtime and she was letting us know.

Taxes

Also, we finally submitted our taxes. We had them all completed but we were so depressed to see that we had to pay money this year that we were totally avoiding finishing them off. I finally told Randy that we needed to suck it up and just send them in.

There were two different areas that needed "reviewing" and once completed, we watching our tax return RISE! We couldn't believe it. We are getting money back and a lot of money too! :D

What to do with the money, you ask? We are going to pay off the last $600 we owe on my car and then put the rest of the money into our DIY budget. We are so happy to have the car paid off soon. Also, we pay off the midwife this month too. (As long as things to go plan and we stick to our budget!)

Oh and the best part of all this! We crossed something off of our goals for this year and after the car is paid off we can cross another item off.
Man doesn't that feel good?!

Replacement Parts

Most of you know me pretty well.

Well enough to know that I am not a very shy person. I am not afraid to make calls. When I was younger, my sister was ALWAYS so scared to go down to the basement to get some socks. We would be rushing to get to school and she would refuse to go down and get herself some socks. So, of course, I would go do it for her. I wasn't scared of some silly basement. Same concept has carried through my life. I will call up just about anyone (personal or business) and get what I need done. No one is going to do it for me nor do it as well as I can. :P

I just wanted to share my experiences. I am quite proud of myself. By the way, I would have totally taken my own pictures except that I wrote this blog while at work and it was quite spontaneous.

We own this 5.5 qt Crockpot and WE LOVE IT. We got it as a wedding gift and couldn't be happier. But one day, about 6 months ago, we pulled the lid out of the dishwasher to find the the hinge on the back had broke off. We were so disappointed because we loved the fact that our Crockpot had a hinge. It is so nice to take the lid off and not have all of the condensation/water drip all over the counter, etc. Instead the lid just sit up and all the water rolls right back into the pot.

I have checked the Crockpot site to see about buying a new lid. Every time I look it up, they are out of stock.

Back in September we were ready for a TV upgrade. We had this SUPER old 300 lb TV. It was just ugly and outdated. Randy lives by the motto, "If it ain't broke, don't replace it... and if it is broke, just fix the old one!" Lol. But I convinced him it was time to splurge a bit. So we bought this TV.

It is way bigger than we were planning but it was a killer deal and we have never seen the price as low as when we got it. Not even on Black Friday, after Christmas sales, or even after Super Bowl when they have the best sales! Well, about 2 months ago, our TV remote started acting up. Now, we have a 17 month old who is very rambunctious so she could have TOTALLY broke the remote, we don't know but the top two rows of buttons did not work but the rest of the remote worked. Which means that we had to get off our lazy butt and turn the TV On/Off but we could use the remote for everything else. Annoying, I think yes!

Next, about the same time that we got our TV, we also bought this table.

Complete with 4 chairs and two benches. We absolutely adore this table and we got it on a killer deal too! We love that it is so tall and I am IN LOVE with DARK wood. It is just perfect for us. But about a month after owning it, two of the foot rests broke on two chairs. I can't tell if it was something in the manufacturing or if it is because we did not screw them in right.





We also got a warranty on our washer and dryer.

They came with a 1 year warranty and then for $99 on each appliance you would get another 4 years on each one. So that is a total of $198 for a 5 year warranty on my washer and dryer. I thought that was pretty good. But I had been totally slacking on calling the company and registering the washer and dryer. I tried to do it online but it kept saying my receipt number was invalid. Whatever!

So I finally put my big girl panties on and picked up the phone and I am sooo glad I did.

I called up the Crock pot company to ask about ordering that part. I was informed that they did not make the lids with the hinges like ours so to compensate us they want to send us a WHOLE NEW Crockpot. WHAT?! I couldn't believe it. Below is a picture of our new Crockpot or so I think. Lol. She didn't tell me the exact Crockpot that she was sending but from what she described I am pretty sure this is the one. But when I get the real one in the mail. I will post a picture. :D Oh and did I mention they are also sending the little mini Crockpot too! I can't wait! I feel like jumping with excitement.

Next, I called up the TV manufacturers to get a new remote. They made me go through this huge list of resetting this and resetting that but in the end nothing worked and they are sending me a new remote! YAY!

I called the table company and they are sending me two new foot rests to put on my chairs. Say it with me, YAY!


And last but not least, I got the washer and dryer registered. :D I am quite proud of myself and I felt super accomplished that day. I had been meaning call these companies but just couldn't find time to do it. I think I was subconsciously avoiding it.

Goals for 2012

i am a list maker. i can make a list for everything. +simple goals. very simple goals. i love making goals and i love it even more when i can accomplish them. BUT i have a hard time sometimes doing that. i have all these great ideas but can't seem to always follow through with them. i want to make some goals for 2012 and cross them off as they are finished. if i don't accomplish them all, that is okay. as long as i made some kind of progress and i am crossing a significant amount off.


1. pay off car loan. (only $600 more!)
2. pay off visa card.
3. have at least $2000 in savings. (i expect more but we have a few expenses this year that may deplete that savings a bit. so i'd be happy to have at least $2000 by Dec. 31st after all our expenses.)
4. have a baby. *june :D
5. potty train kiera
6. have every room in my house clean at the exact same time then take a nap in it. :P
7. have a successful homebirth.
8. make a financial budget and stick to it.
9. set up the play room.
10. take my state board test for my cosmetology license. (yes, i have slacked.)
11. clean out my garage and keep it cleaned. (LOL)
12. eat out less.
13. lose my baby weight. (gotta have the baby first though.)
14. eat healthier.
15. to not get pregnant again this year. (i deserve a break!)
16. remodel bathrooms.
17. remodel backyard. complete with a sandbox. :)
18. finish the garden planters.
19. grow a successful garden.+++
20. build a composter
21. build a rain barrel

Spring Cleaning Challenge

I am going to begin my Spring cleaning today with this really cool blog. Click here to go to the blog and read up about the challenge.

I can't wait to get started. This is todays challenge. If you know anything about me, you know that I HATE cleaning. I really really really despise it. So I am hoping that the motivation of this challenge will help keep me going. I have so much to get done before the new baby arrives and I am trying to not get overwhelmed. I am a big believer in schedules and plans. I have always made lists of things to do, my goals, or my plans for the day, etc. I enjoy getting my thoughts out of my head and onto paper in words. Otherwise, I would go insane with all of my thoughts.

I also despise cleaning the bathrooms so today's challenge may not be so fun. I was debating on taking a nap today or get to cleaning. I don't function very well without a nap so I think I will take one and then get started on my cleaning. :D Would you like to join me in this challege? By participating, not only do you get your house cleaned but you also get the chance to win a new LG washer and dryer or a closet organizer, or a steam mop. How awesome!

Go to the site and take a look.

Morning Sickness in the 2nd trimester?

I wake up at 3:45am 4 days a week to be at work by 5am. It isn't that bad! I am usually asleep by 9pm. I shower at night so I don't have to wake up any earlier in the morning. In the mornings, I get up, get dressed and have breakfast. The most annoying thing about getting up so early to work is that I add an extra meal into the day. I have 4 meals instead of 3 which isn't really that bad!

This pregnancy has been great. I had very little morning sickness and I have been feeling great until....the 2nd trimester began and everything has seemed to just go downhill. I realize that I am still not having problems anywhere near what they could be. But I would like to be able to complain just a little bit.

One word... sciatic nerve. I hate you! I cannot believe how bad it can hurt at times. I keep telling myself that I am going to go to the chiropractor and everytime I call to make an appointment he happens to be closed on that day! Really annoying. Oh well. I will eventually get there.

Another problem.. this is really hard to explain. As far as I know, not many people experience this during pregnancy but I have had it happen every pregnancy for the full time. I had it with Kiera, with my 13 wk miscarriage and now I am 26 weeks and I have it this pregnancy. So bear with me while I try to explain.
I get this pain just under my boobs about where my belly begins. It is not surface pain like on the skin but it is deep down further. I hurts when I sit and scrunch up my belly. I have to constantly stretch out and I sleep with my arms above my head. Is this making any sense? I normally can get some relief from this CONSTANT pain by stretching and changing positions but this pregnancy I have had VERY VERY few times where I could get relief. It is actually quite miserable. LOL. I have talked to the doctor and my midwife as well. Neither seem concerned. I a m not sure if it is something to do with my organs being squished, which I doubt because the pain begins the second sperm meets egg. :giggle: Or if it is a muscle cramp or something. Either way, I would like it to go away. I am hoping the chiropractor can help in some way. If not, I do know that the pain will end the minute I deliver. At least that is what has happend previously.

My last but definitely not the least of my problems.... 2nd trimester morning sicknes. YUCK! I was pretty positive that I was out of the woods with this since I passed my 1st trimester with very little nausea. But nope. I was fooled. I get sick almost every morning, definitely the last three mornings. I have a trash can here next to me a work and unfortunately, it has been getting some use. Not cool, not cool at all. But for some good news, the morning sickness seems to last about 4 or 5 hours and then I am better again. Oh thank you!

Just a few incoveniences that we moms sacrifice for out children. Of course, I would not have it anyway and I would endure these annoyances anyday to be able to have the opportunity to create life. I am getting more and more excited for the arrival of this newbie and I really can't wait until I can meet him/her and of course, to find out the gender of the baby! Kiera is growing up WAY too fast for me and I can't hold onto the reins any tighter. She is getting so big. I need a new little one to squish and snuggle with. A child who will fit into my arms again because we all know that Kiera doesn't fit so well anymore. HA! Not to mention, she can't sit still long enough for me to snuggle with her! Busy body I must say!

Last thought, I hope you don't mind the constant blogging. I work so early in the morning and sometimes it is so slow and so I don't have much to do but keep blogging about my thoughts. This is probably becoming more of a journal. Tee hee! Kiera and I have so many fun things planned for the next few months and we can't wait to share them all with you. :D

Googled What....?

Really irked right now!

I have come to the official conclusion that the Internet is here to corrupt us. LOL. Of course, next month, I will be screaming that I love the internet but right now I am a bit upset.

I googled the most innocent search EVER! IT was about WAFFLES. Yes, the food waffles and the link that Google suggested WAS NOT and I repeat it WAS NOT what I was looking for. Pretty sure that I am scarred for life now. The image that was imprinted in my brain will forever be stained.

And no, I am not going to tell you what I googled. I would NEVER want to share THAT kind of wealth.

Just a thought. Be careful what you search. Just be careful!
:hangs head:

True Lemon, Lime, Orange

My midwife appointment on Thursday went great. I am measuring 25 weeks. I was only 23.5 weeks pregnant at my appointment. This is a VERY big deal since I never measured over with Kiera. Actually, I never measured on time with Kiera. When I was 40 weeks pregnant...I measured at 33 cm. I never got bigger than that. I had a lot of unnneccesary ultrasounds. Doc though baby wasn't growing but she was doing just fine. She was just helping mama out by not letting me get too huge, although I felt huge! Other than that, everything was just great. I am getting more and more excited for the arrival of our little one. I am also beyond excited to experience my first homebirth and I really hope thinks work out in my favor. Of couse, I am more than willing to deliver at the hospital if we feel needed but I would love to avoid that for not only my baby's sake but for me as well! I don't know if I could even leave Kiera for a few nights. That would break my heart and she would miss me so much, at least I would hope. :P
So, at my appointment my midwife gave me a few sample packets of this new, or at least new to me, product called True Lemon. They have multiple different kinds: True Lemon, True Lime, True Orange and I think they even have a True Grapefruit flavor, True Lemonade, True Raspberry Lemonade flavor.

Here is the site.

They have all sorts of stuff on there. The most impressive? You can use these little packets of lemon, lime, orange, etc.... to make dinner! They have recipes using these packets. The packets are very small and easily totable. The package is about the size of a Splenda package but it is made of a more sturdy material so it is less likely to break. Actually, I lied.... the most impressive part really is that this product is not made with Aspartame (Sucralose). That makes me so happy! We try to eat healthy at home and we try to use very little boxed foods with lots of additives and preservatives. This product is great to help us achieve that. It is basically made with real lemons, like they dry them or something. The Lemonade and the Raspberry Lemonade has Stevia in it for a sweetener but I am pretty sure Stevia does not have asparatame or sucralose in it either.

I know this sounds so silly. I am sure you really think I am psycho now. But I am just soo happy to have this produc in my life. There are very few things in this world better than a nice ICE COLD LEMON WATER. YUMMMM!

I introduced this product to a few friends of mine. One of these friends lives in Canada. True Lemon does not ship to Canada since they are such a small company and can't afford it. So they have agreed to send her and I both some samples and then I will forward those samples onto her in Canada. I can't wait to hear what she thinks of them too.

I can't wait to cook some lemon chicken or lime chicken or something with them. :D I am giddy!

Have you tried this product? Is this a new product or am I kind of late on the bandwagon?

P.s. I should be their sales rep! :D

Technology really a benefit?

I have been thinking a lot lately. I guess that is what happens when you work really early in the morning. 5am is the perfect time to do your internet surfing. Anyways, I have been thinkingn a lot about how much I would love to have a journal. I would love to write in a journal often. It is fun to go back and read some of my older posts and I wish I could get myself back into it. Yes, I have this blog that I can use as a journal which does work to some extent. But there is just something about handwriting in a journal laying in your bed late at night. It's just nice. I am old school like that, if I can say that. I don't care to use a lot of these technological advances that we have. I refuse to use bill pay through my bank. As much as I hate writing bills, I love writing out that check and physically putting it in my mail. That way I KNOW it was paid because I know that I wrote that check and because I have the duplicate copy of the check. I love being able to hold that proof in my hands. I also love using stamps. I don't know why. HA I also would rather take my scriptures to church instead of using my new fancy Droid phone or use our Touchpad. Again, it is something about having that physical evidence right before my eyes. Plus, I feel kind of bad that the church spends so much time and money printing out all of these books/manuals for us and then we never bring them to church and just use our phones. I love being able to write notes in my scriptures/manuals and use a highlighter. I LOVE a good highlighter. I am a huge list maker too. I always attempt to use my phone of touchpad to make my lists for chores or my to do list but I always end up reverting back to my index card and pen. Can you relate to any of this? Or am I just crazy?!

Update...

We are having another baby for those of you who do not know. I am 22 weeks along and we can't be more excited.

No, we do not know the gender of the baby since we have decided to not find out this time! It is definitely testing my patience but it is really fun at the same time. I figure that you have to wait almost half your pregnancy to even find out the gender what is just a few more weeks. HA!

New things???

Hmm... well, I got braces put on just over a week ago. So far so good. I thought they would hurt much worse but so far I don't feel anything but annoyance.

Randy: He has been doing a lot of projects around the house. He built some more shelves in my pantry. He also is making some saloon doors going into my laundry room. That room is soo small and there are three doors in that room, two of which open into the room. My poor washer and drying are so claustrophobic... Speaking of washers and dryers, Randy bought me a new set.

Aren't they beautiful?! Oh, I do love them. They are the new models with no agitator in the center. I was really concerned about how they were actually going to work without an agitator but honestly, they clean better than my previous front loader. I really like them and I would recommend them to everyone.

Kiera: She is the busiest 16 month old. She never stops moving and she NEVER stops eating. She is the cutest ever and we sure love her! She has been battling a crazy morphing rash since September and it is finally gone. After consulting with her Pediatrician as well as a Naturopathic doctor and many many tests, we have come to the conclusion that it is some kind of food allergies. I do really want to put her through a bunch of pricks to find out what the allergy is. So, we are just carefully watching what she eats and when and if it comes back we hopefully will have a better idea.
We switched Kiera to a toddler bed about a month ago. I was just so sick of bending over the crib so we decided to switch her over and honestly, it was the best decision ever! She has been so good and only got off the bed once or twice. She is really good and loves her bed. She actually has a huge bed that looks like a house. I will try to remember to take a picture of it for you! I think 14.5 was the perfect age to switch her over.

We went to the park the other day. We hadn't used out gift cards to Sonic from my Granny so we went and got dinner and then went to the park. Kiera had a blast although she hated the slides.