I Quit My Job

Sort of. I am self-employed and my friend and I own our own company and have had a contract for the past three years with the federal government. It has been really stressful for us. Our contract ends tomorrow and we opted not to bid for it again, even though it was almost a sure thing that we would get it. We are going to let our company wind down and then dissolve it at the end of the year. I feel such a sense of relief right now. My only worry now is finding enough work for the amount of money I need to make. I have put my name out there to three companies who are in the same line of work and I just hope they call me for jobs. My friend isn't too worried about finding work for herself since she is having a baby in a few months and doesn't know if or how much she'll want to work afterwards. Besides, her husband makes a ton of money so she doesn't have to work if she doesn't want to. What a nice position to be in. Unfortunately, I'm not in the same position she is in and I have to work. I don't want to work a lot, just enough to pay some bills. Luckily I have a job on Monday afternoon, so I hope that is a good sign. I am looking forward to not be in a constant state of stress. In fact, I feel so good about being relaxed that I am going to go make a blueberry cheesecake and eat the whole thing myself. Just kidding. Even though I would like to, I will have to let the rest of the family have some, but I am going to have the biggest piece.

Book Giveaway

If you'd like a book that sounds really good go to Overwhelmed With Joy and enter her book giveaway. You can never have or read too many books.

Works For Me Wednesday

I think as mothers we all feel that there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done that we need to do. At the end of the day I always feel like I haven't spent enough time doing activities with my kids, and I haven't spent enough time doing things around the house to get it in order, and I haven't spent enough time working on projects for work. Well, recently I decided that instead of focusing on all of the stuff I didn't do during the day, I will focus on the things that I did do. It has helped me tremendously. I keep a list (right now I just keep it on a piece of paper, but I might change to a dry erase board where I can see it better) and every time I do something meaningful I write it down. That way at the end of the day, even though it doesn't feel like I spent enough time with the kids, I can see that we read books together, played games together, watched a video together and wrestled around on the floor together. Even though it doesn't feel like I spent enough time on the house I can see that I cleaned the kitchen, did two loads of laundry, folded them and put them away, vacuumed and dusted the family room and trimmed the rose bushes. Even though it doesn't feel like I spent enough time doing work I can see that I edited 50 pages of one transcript and proofread 25 pages of another transcript. It has worked wonders for me and brought my level of stress down to see that I actually do accomplish a lot during the day.

For more tips go to Rocks In My Dryer.

Tackle It Tuesday

I haven't done much around the house since last week because we were out of town again. All I am going to tackle today is to clean Hayden's room (which is still organized from last week and just needs dusted and vacuumed, yeah!), the bathroom (although I might wait for Mike to get home from work and make him do it since it is his job, I hate bathrooms), the hallway (just dust and vacuum), the family room (unpack stuff from our trip, dust and vacuum) and catch up on the laundry. The only reason the family room is somewhat messy is because I haven't unpacked yet. In fact, there is some stuff from our trip the week before that isn't unpacked yet, but the suitcase is still in the family room. Right now I am only worried about keeping the rooms I've organized clean. I've nagged at them so much so far that the rest of the family is actually helping me keep things clean. It is a good feeling. Oh, yeah, and I have to finish a job for work. I guess I do have quite a lot to tackle today. Darn. I thought I could be lazy today but I can't.

Carson, however, is going to be tackling something: his bedroom. It is almost as bad as Hayden's was last week. To be honest, I am just too darn lazy to take pictures of it and post them right now. I will take pictures, but only just before he actually starts cleaning. At first he was all excited because I had a project for him. For Mother's Day he made a card for me that has a flower pot on the front with a bunch of flowers stuck in it. On each flower is a chore that I want him to do and when I pick a flower he has to do the chore. He was all excited to do one of the chores, until he found out it was to clean his room. Then he started crying saying, "Noooo. Noooo. I don't want to clean my room." Before I even told him what chore it was I knew that is what he would do so I told him there could be no whining or crying when I told him what it was and he agreed not to. That lasted about 1 second after I told him what it was. I am going to set my trusty timer for 15 minutes and he will need to get as much as he can accomplished in that 15 minutes. Then he can take a break for 15 minutes and do whatever he wants to. The cycle will continue all day until his room is clean, breaking only for lunch and dinner (I hope it doesn't take that long).

During this next week I will help him organize it. It is already organized, it's just messy, but we'll see if some things aren't working very well and need to be changed or if he needs some new containers. That would be an excuse for me to go to the dollar store.

Anyway, since I have no before and after pictures, here are some pictures of our trip showing why I'm behind with just general cleaning and have to tackle that today.

Carson washing my ball.

Carson and me in the golf cart.

Mike teeing off. (I do realize the ball is still there because I took the picture during a practice swing because I didn't want him to get mad if I took it during his real swing and the sound of the camera messed him up.)

Carson climbing all over the cart.

Update on The Golf Trip

During Saturday's golf tournament we all golfed horrible. Of course, every once in a while you get a good shot in, and Mike ended up winning over $200 on one of the closest to the holes. He probably would have won on another one but his first shot went out of bounds and he used a mulligan for his second shot, which ended up right by the hole. We each bought three mulligans for $5 which you could use anywhere, except if you used one on a three par and won it didn't count. There was a guy that actually won a car because he made a hole in one. He bought everyone in the clubhouse a drink. We all golfed bad, but it was still a really fun day. Towards the end we were all just laughing because we expected to hit bad shots. There was a bottle of wine on the tee box of every hole. They weren't too appealing, though, because they were sitting out in the sun and were hot. People were drinking them, though, because the further along we got the more empty the bottles were becoming. The funny thing about this tournament is the drink lady that drives around with snacks and drinks also has a full bar on her cart. It's a real party out there. I have to say that Mike is the only one that got anything off the drink cart that had alcohol in it.

After golf we went back to Joe's and showered and relaxed for a few hours and then went to dinner at the golf course. They have a really good dinner there and there is tons of food and drinks. Carson played with the other kids out on the putting green and had a great time. Joe ended up winning 4th place (yes, in this tournament you can win even if you golf bad) and he also won a couple hundred bucks. They have a raffle with some cool things. I usually win something from that but not this year. It was a good time.

Mike drank way too much. He still has a hangover from Saturday night. I think it's just because he's not used to drinking very much anymore. He was so drunk he could barely walk. I was really ticked at him on Saturday night. He actually passed out at the golf course. We went home and he just fell into bed. Then he actually woke up in the morning and pretended like he didn't have a hangover. We were going to go to breakfast and we were going to leave him behind sleeping. Besides, I knew after the night before he wasn't going to feel like eating. But he wakes up and says, "I'm starving. Let's go eat breakfast." Liar. He just didn't want me thinking he was as drunk the night before as I knew he was. So we go to the restaurant and he orders a huge breakfast, then proceeds to eat about two bites and let the rest go to waste. He knew I was mad. He told me to take the cost of his breakfast out of his golf winnings, which I am still tempted to do. Finally he couldn't pretend anymore. He gave up. We got back to Joe's house and Mike laid on the bed until we left. I packed everything and carried it out to the car while he laid there. Then he slept the whole way home (three hours) and laid on the bed for the rest of the night. He got up for work this morning and is still sick. IT SERVES HIM RIGHT!!

We took Spot to a kennel and they close at 5:30 on Sunday. I was watching the clock at my brother's house, but being the idiot that I am I forgot there was an hour time difference. All of the sudden I realized that we needed to leave or we wouldn't be home in time to get him. We sped out of there and I told everyone in no uncertain terms we would not be stopping until we got Spot, so if anyone had to pee, they had to hold it. At one point I didn't think we were going to make so I called my sister and her husband to see if one of them could get Spot because the kennel is about five minutes from their house, but they couldn't because they were having a party. I think if I was having a party I would have left it for 10 minutes to help them out, but, no, they wouldn't. Luckily we got there with eight minutes to spare and picked up the wild maniac.

Then I had to go pick up Hayden and Amaya from Mike's parents house. I was so tired I just wanted to get out of there. I had to put their car seats back in the truck and as I was getting back out of the truck, ready to go, I notice that Mike's mom had just given them each a Popsicle. Why would she do that when she knew we were seconds from loading up into the truck? I was extremely annoyed, but there was nothing I could do. Why don't people think before they do things? So I had to sit there for another 15 minutes and then load them into the truck all messy and sticky to go home. We came home, ate and went to bed. In fact, as of right now Carson and Amaya are still asleep.

It was a very busy and very fun weekend, but I'm glad we don't have any more trips planned for a while.

July 4th Giveaways

For some really cool products go to 5 Minutes for Mom and enter their July 4th Giveaways. They have some really neat products for summer that you can win.

We Sucked

I knew we would. We golfed horrible. Well, I did okay personally, but as a group we sucked. My mom can only hit the ball approximately 50 yards on a good drive. Unfortunately, we had to use each person's drive at least twice on nine holes, so the two holes we had to use hers really hurt, especially since Joe and Mike out drove her by about 200 yards. Oh, well, it was fun anyway, and the good news is they give money for last place.

Carson rode along and had a lot of fun. We had him work, though. We had him run and get the balls we weren't going to use anymore. We had him replace the pins in the holes when we were done. We had him run up and mark our balls on the green so we didn't have to hurry. I know this wouldn't be permitted in a regular tournament, but this tournament is more like a party than a serious tournament for most people. I mean there are a few who take it very seriously, but the rest of us want to do good, but we still have a good time when we don't.

After golf we went to the clubhouse to have drinks and chorizos. They also had a big bowl of lamb fries, otherwise known as lamb testicles. I passed on that unappetizing dish. I will admit that one time I did taste one just so I could know that I wasn't missing out on anything, and I wasn't. I haven't had one since. My mom loves the things. That's all she ate. I stuck with the veggies and dip and the chorizos. I love those things. So does Carson.

We ran into some friends of ours who come just for the party because they don't golf. Some of their relatives are the people who run the tournament so they just come to socialize. They have two boys who are 10 and 7 so Carson had someone to play with for a while. Jace and Jack and Carson had a great time running around the putting green being the wild boys they are.

Now we are home (Joe's house) and Joe is cooking up some ribs on the grill. We've got to go to bed early tonight because the tournament tomorrow starts at 8:00. It was supposed to start at 9:00 but for some reason they moved it up. It's going to be a long day. As soon as we walked in the door the cat started meowing and Carson was so excited. He came running to me and said, "When I came in Simona meowed at me. She's happy to see me." He's so cute.

I did take some good pictures today, but realized I didn't bring the cable to my camera so I can't download them. I didn't bring it on purpose, but if I'd stopped and thought about it for two seconds I would have realized that I would need it. I'll post them when we get home.

Our Second Trip In A Week

We are in Elko, Nevada for a golf tournament. We are staying at my brother and his wife's house. Hayden and Amaya stayed home with Mike's parents and we brought Carson with us. He is going to start taking golf lessons next month so we thought it would be fun to bring him with us.

This tournament is a really fun tournament and Mike, Joe, my mom and I are all on the same team, so it won't bother anybody if Carson rides along with us. This tournament is just like one big party. My mom and dad had come to it for years before Mike and I started coming. My dad knew a lot of the people because he worked with a lot of them and he grew up in Elko, which, at that time, wasn't very big. Mike and I started coming about eight or nine years ago and have continued ever since. The only year we missed was when my dad was dying because there was no way he could have come, and he died about two weeks after the tournament. It is still kind of sad because every year someone has to come up to me and tell my what a great guy my dad was, and they usually get all teary eyed and make me cry. But it's also a good feeling to know that my dad was such a great guy that he was loved and admired by a lot of people.

Today at 2:00 we have a nine-hole scramble and then there is a free cocktail party afterward. Free food and free drinks! You can't beat that with a charred chorizo. Afterwards we will come home and Joe is going to make us a yummy barbecued rib dinner.

I will post our sad score later. We always suck at the scramble. For some reason when the four of us golf together we really screw up. I don't know why. But at least we go in with low expectations so we aren't disappointed. I figure I should do pretty good because I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open (damn cat) and when I'm tired I usually golf better because I'm more relaxed. I can't wait to get out there on the golf course in the nearly 100 degree weather because my brother keeps his house at about 60 degrees. I actually am wearing a jacket over my pajamas right now.

I'm off to eat lunch and get dressed.

Our Trip to Denver

Last weekend we went on a little trip to Denver. We left on Wednesday and we drove. The kids were really great on the trip there. They kept themselves entertained and were nice to each other. My great aunt lives in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado in a cabin so we stopped there Wednesday and stayed overnight. In the morning she showed us around the little town and the restaurant where she works. She's 82 years old and still works. It is an amazing area, but it makes me a little nervous with her being the age she is and no medical facilities anywhere close. Her husband died 10 years ago because he had a heart attack and they couldn't get him anywhere soon enough. She is so good with the kids and really loves them. It was sad to leave her because she was crying and saying she didn't know if she would ever see us again. We are going to try to go visit her again, but it is such a long drive for us.

Thursday we left Red Feather Lakes and drove to Greeley, Colorado where a friend of mine lives. We visited with her for a few hours. It was nice to see her. I haven't seen her for about seven years, so it was nice catching up. She is might be coming to our city in the next month so hopefully I can see her again. It's kind of funny it's been so long since we've seen each other and now we may see each other twice in a month.

After we left her house we drove to Denver and got there about 5:00. Mike has a friend who manages a hotel, so we got a great deal on our room. We had a suite with a kitchen and we had free breakfast every morning. It wasn't the typical continental-type free breakfast either. We had ham and eggs, biscuits and gravy, waffles and sausage, plus assorted cereals, muffins and fruit. The kids ate more for breakfast than they usually eat because they were excited about all of the choices.

The reason we decided to go on this trip to Denver was for CCAI's annual reunion. CCAI is the adoption agency we used when we adopted Amaya. Every year they have a reunion. We always figured we'd go to it every once in a while, but not this soon. The reason we decided to go this year is because in addition to the reunion they were celebrating their 15th anniversary, so some of the reps from China were going to be there. Only one of ours ended up coming, but it was great to see him. We figured we should go because we might not have the chance to see him again.

Friday morning we went to an open house at the agency and they had a lot of fun activities for the kids and free lunch. We stayed there for a few hours and then headed to the zoo. We had a great time at the zoo. Amaya fell asleep toward the end and was slumped over weird in the very uncomfortable rental stroller so Mike and I took turns pushing the stroller while tipping it backwards a little bit so she could be in a better position. She slept for a long time that way. When we got back to the room we went for a swim in the pool. Well, the kids and I went for a swim. Mike was too big of a wimp to get in because it was kind of cold. Then we went back to the room and showered and went to bed.

Saturday was the reunion. It was at the park in Denver and there were a lot of people there. We had nine couples in our adoption group and, including us, five of them were at the reunion. Unfortunately we didn't see one couple, even though we know they were there because someone else had seen them but we could never find them. It was fun hanging out with the people we were with in China and seeing how much their girls have changed. They are so cute. The girls didn't really play together, but one of them was really taken with Carson so he played with her and kept her entertained quite a bit. We've decided we are going to try to go to the reunion every few years, as long as someone else we know is going. I don't really want to go unless there are people we know to visit with. When the reunion was over we let the kids play in a water area with fountains for a while and then had ice cream. Then we left to go eat dinner. We drove all over looking for somewhere to eat and finally found somewhere. As we were getting out of the car we realized Carson and Hayden still had on their wet shorts. They had dry shirts on because they took those off while in the water. We debated a brief minute on going back to the hotel to have them change, but we were a ways away and they said they weren't cold so we went into the restaurant anyway. We felt kind of bad about making them eat dinner with wet pants on, but we were too hungry and tired to go back.

We left to come home on Sunday, but before we left I wanted to go to The Container Store, which is the closest one to us. That is one of the coolest stores I have ever been in. Unfortunately I couldn't buy very much because we were very limited on space, but I did buy a few things. I had to hold a couple of them on my lap for the next eight and a half hours, but it was worth it. The trip home was a nightmare. The kids fought constantly and when we were about an hour from home I couldn't take it anymore and I turned around in my seat and screamed at them at the top of my lungs. I must have threw them into shock because they were completely silent after that. I should have done that about seven and a half hours earlier. I did feel a little bit bad about it, but I felt even better not having to listen to them whine and fight and cry.

Overall it was a really fun trip and we hope to go to the reunion again in a few years.

We are out of town again. This time I will try to update while on the trip because while trying to write about what happened last week I realize it is sounding really boring. It's either the fact that it's been almost a week and I'm thinking about the trip we're on now instead of that one, or it might be because my brother's stupid cat only let me get five hours of sleep on top of giving me the worst allergy attack I've had all year, or it could be because we're in a different time zone and my inner clock is all messed up. Whatever it is, I'm very tired.

Happy Birthday Hayden

Hayden's 5th birthday was on Monday, June 18th. I can't believe he is 5 already. Since we had just gotten back from going out of town we really weren't prepared, so Carson and I went shopping for presents Monday morning. After Mike got home from work we went out to dinner at a restaurant of Hayden's choosing, then we came home and he opened his presents. I bought a strawberry shortcake and we ate that after he opened his presents. He said he wanted a white cake and he inhaled it. But then the next day he told me I shouldn't have bought that cake because he didn't like it. Gee, he sure could have fooled me. I always make birthday cakes for my kids, but I didn't have time to do that Monday. We are having a real party for him in a couple of weeks (since we are out of town this weekend again) and I will make his cake for that party. He said he wants a Cars (the movie) cake, so we'll see how that goes.

Here is the birthday boy.

Happy Birthday Hayden! We love you.

Photo Impressions: I Love...

This is the first installment of Photo Impressions hosted by Heather at Digging A Hole To China. The object of this challenge is to get us to pick up our cameras often and hone up on our photography skills. After seeing Heather's pictures, it is painfully apparent that I need to learn to take much better pictures. I am going to blame part of my lack of ability on my camera. It is a simple digital camera with automatic focus, so I don't have a lot of options when taking pictures. I'll have to practice with my camera and figure it out a little more than I have. Maybe finding the owner's manual and reading it might help.

Anyway, here are my photos:

I Love...

...the loves of my life.

...Amaya admiring herself in the mirror.

...Mike playing with Amaya.

...that my kids have an extra grandma (my great aunt).

...a huge banana split on a hot summer day.

...him when he's looking at me with his adorable puppy dog
dog eyes, but I hate him when he's ripped the cover off the kids' sandbox for the tenth time in one day (which is now totally ruined and we have to make another one).

...a beautiful day on the golf course.

...a par putt that I actually made after this picture was taken.

...a serene mountain lake.

...my roses.

Name one thing that stands out in your mind regarding this first photo challenge: I need to focus more on taking specific pictures instead of just taking a bunch of random pictures and hoping one turns out okay. Also, for really great pictures I may need to use my 35mm camera, which is a much better camera than my digital camera, and then have the pictures put on a CD so I can put them on my computer.

I am looking forward to the next challenge which is all about colors.

Works For Me Wednesday

My tip this week is another travel-related tip. I love Mapquest.com. On our recent trip I printed off five different maps for our different destinations and it worked so well. Each map gives you step-by-step directions, mileage, estimated travel time and a visual map. I never looked at the visual maps, but everything else came in handy. I also use Mapquest for work. Sometimes I have to go to jobs that are in a city or town that I'm unfamiliar with so I will print up a map so I can easily find the place. On our trip our first destination was my great aunt's cabin. The last five miles was traveling on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Mapquest took us right to her driveway and the estimated time was perfect. Our next stop was a friend's house a few hours away. This was the only glitch we had the whole trip. It took us to her neighborhood but didn't take us to her house. Luckily I had my cell phone and she directed us the rest of the way. The estimated time was actually more than what it took us. Our next stop was our hotel in Denver. We drove right to it within the estimated travel time. While we were in Denver I decided I wanted to go to The Container Store, which is the closest one to our house. I went on the computer in the hotel lobby, went to Mapquest.com, and printed out a map. We drove there in 9 minutes, which is what the map said it would take. Our final destination was home. We didn't use the map for this because we knew how to get home, but I had printed it off anyway because I was curious about how long it said it would take. It took us an hour longer than the map said, but with three kids in the car we had to stop about five times and we ran into construction, so I'm sure that's what slowed us down. Anyway, Mapquest.com is what worked for us on vacation and what works for me around our own local area when I'm going somewhere unfamiliar.

For more tips go to Rocks In My Dryer.

Tackle It Tuesday

I didn't tackle anything in the last week because we were out of town from Wednesday until Sunday. Monday was Hayden's birthday, which I was totally not prepared for. Yesterday my mom babysat Hayden and Amaya while Carson and I went and bought presents for Hayden's birthday. Before each child's birthday I like to go through all their clothes and toys with them and we decided which things to keep and which things are too small or for a younger kid. This will make room for their new clothes and toys and let us hand their toys down to their next younger sibling. I admit I haven't gotten rid of anything yet. Since Amaya doesn't have anyone to hand stuff down to all that stuff has just gone in boxes and bags in the garage. That is a future tackle, to get rid of all the baby stuff.

Anyway, I started yesterday helping Hayden go through his room. We didn't get very far because it is such a mess and we had other things to do for his birthday. I did manage to clean out and organize all of the inside spaces: the closet, the toy box, the dresser drawers (except for the two lowest drawers with clothes in them). He actually found quite a few things to give to Amaya.

Having the kids' rooms messy drives me nuts. I can't even say how many times I've organized them only to have them be messy again in a very short time. We have a new rule now, though. They can only have one toy each out at a time, and if they start getting more than that out I set my timer for 15 minutes and anything that's left out gets given away. Nothing has been left out yet. This rule has worked wonders for the family room, so now I'm hoping it works for the bedrooms, too.

I usually like to do my before and after pictures at the same time on my post, but getting this room clean and organized is going to take a good part of the day, so I am putting before pictures up now and will update as soon as we (Hayden is going to help me) get the room finished.

Here is the black hole before:

As you can see from this pigsty, there are portions of the floor (most of it) that can't even be walked on. To get clothes out of his dresser I have to make my way to his bed and then lean over it and open the drawers because I can't even walk to it. One thing that makes me crazy is when toys that have a lot of pieces are missing some. I am making a list of all the pieces that are missing and then when I finally get the whole house organized and haven't found the pieces elsewhere those toys will be trashed, unless the missing pieces don't really matter.

And, yes, I do admit that my kids have too many toys. I love toys.

It is now 10:00 and I will sign off for now and see how long it takes to get through this embarrassing mess. Check back later for the amazing results.

*****UPDATE*****

Okay, I did it. It took me five hours and 10 minutes, but I did it. Hayden didn't help much, but I think he would have slowed me down. Besides, without him in there I could get rid of a few things without first asking him. Anything I really thought he would want to keep I did ask him. Every time I would ask him he would say, "Do you think I'm going to say 'yes' or 'no'?" That's why it would have slowed me down to ask him every time. The thing that took the longest was the small pieces of things all over the floor: puzzle pieces, game pieces, small miscellaneous junk, etc. I did have to retake one of my after pictures because I realized the ice-cold beer I had to resort to in order to finish was in one of the pictures, so I took another one without it there so people don't think I'm an alcoholic.

Here is the finished room:

Here are a few afters that didn't have before pictures, but I am so happy with the room I took a few extra pictures.

And here is the mischief-maker himself (notice the ripped-off wallpaper border next to him).

He is excited that his room is clean because now he can play in there. There are two new rules, though. One is that he can only have one toy out at a time, and the other is that every night before bed his room must be picked up, which should be easy if he sticks to rule number 1. Of course, mom and dad will help him keep it clean by reminding him of the rules if it starts to get messy again. Carson is excited that it is clean, too. He wants to get the Hot Wheels tracks out and play in there. Carson shouldn't get too excited because his room is next.

Works For Me Wednesday

Since we are leaving for a vacation tomorrow, and are going to be driving for about eight hours, my tip for the week is to buy an adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter of your vehicle and has a real plug on the other end, as opposed to having an end that you need numerous interchangeable adapters to plug into different things. At one time I bought an adapter that plugged into the car, but the other end had about eight different plug-ins for different accessories. If whatever you needed to plug in didn't take one of the adapters, you were out of luck. Last year I found one that has a real plug on it so you can plug in anything. Whenever we are driving long distances I usually bring my computer so I can get some work done. The boys always like to have their Gameboys on long trips. I can even charge my camera batteries with it. When my cell phone needs charging I plug it in, since I don't have a car adapter for it. I keep it in my vehicle at all times so it is always there if I need it. I got it at Office Max and I think it cost about $75. It has been worth every penny.

For more tips go to Rocks In My Dryer.

Something I Saw At The Dollar Store That I Would Not Buy There...

...is a pregnancy test; although I guess that would be better than buying birth control at the dollar store, then you really would need the pregnancy test.

Tackle It Tuesday

I had quite a few tackles this week, since it's my summer goal to get my house organized. Most of the work was in the kitchen and our one and only bathroom.

This drawer had a variety of kitchen stuff thrown in it. Most of the time when I would open the drawer something would get stuck preventing the drawer from opening and I would have to reach in and find whatever it was and get it out of the way so the drawer could open. It was also hard to find a specific item that I needed.




Here's what it looks like now. I did take some things out and put them in a more convenient area, like the can opener and vegetable peeler. Since I use them all the time I put them closer to the area where I use them.

Next was the junk drawer. I had a glitch with my pictures and I would upload the picture of the messy junk drawer, but when it actually loaded up it was this:

Now somehow the picture of the messy junk drawer is lost. I don't know if it is hidden somewhere or gone forever.

Here is the junk drawer after. I moved the batteries from the opposite side of the house in the basement to the kitchen because we need them all the time and it is really pain to go all the way downstairs to get them. Usually when the kids need a battery for a toy I will say, "I'll go down and get one in a while," and then I never do and their toys end up not getting played with when they want. I think this will help a lot. I just need to find a couple of extra screwdrivers to keep with the batteries for opening battery compartments.

Here is another before picture of a kitchen drawer with miscellaneous stuff in it.

Here it is after:

Another before of a kitchen drawer:

The after:

Now on to the pantry. Yes, this is my complete pantry. It sucks but it's all we've got room for. I have always grouped like items together, but eventually they would get all mixed up again.

So, I went to a couple of dollar stores (my new favorite places to go) and bought some cool, cheap baskets to help keep items separate.




Next was the bathroom. Here is the medicine cabinet. Notice the precariously positioned vitamin bottles. This cabinet was a mixture of medicines and hair products and lotion. It is right over the toilet. Every once in a while when trying to get something out something else would fall out. Since it is right over the toilet, it would fall by the toilet, thereby contaminating it, and I would have to throw it away. I hate toilets.

Here it is after. Only medicine and vitamins in here now. Hair products and lotions are elsewhere.

This bathroom drawer has hair accessories for my daughter, hair accessories for me, and an assortment of combs and picks for everyone in the family. You can't really tell from this picture but the large basket is hanging on the top of the drawer. There is another smaller basket underneath, which to get to it I would have to pull the larger basket out first. Very inconvenient.

Here is the drawer after, only combs and picks and my daughter's hair accessories. I want to find some kind of container to put her stuff in besides baggies but I haven't looked for one yet.

Here is where all of my hair products and accessories ended up. How cool is this?




It is made of a slick material so if something spills on it it can wipe of easily. It contains all of my hair products: gel, hairspray, curl enhancer, etc. in the inside pocket. The outside pockets have my combs, pick, barrettes and clips in them. I love this thing. This will sit on a shelf in the linen closet where I have my nail polish box and each person in the family will eventually have their own tote with their own personal hygiene products, since our bathroom is so small that there isn't room in it for everyone's crap. By the way, this cute little thing is from Avon.

So that is some of the projects I tackled this week. My tackle for today is to pack clothes for five days for five people in one suitcase, since we are going out of town tomorrow and instead of taking our truck (because of gas prices) we are borrowing my mom's car and we are very limited on space. I only want to take one suitcase, one toiletry bag, one bag per person for books, games, etc., a playpen and a stroller. We won't know until the last minute if the stroller will fit so that would be the only thing we leave home. Other than that, I get to take a break from tackling household projects while we are on vacation. Yeah!

Amaya's Sleepover

Here is Amaya excitedly awaiting Grandma coming to pick her up for her sleepover. My mom, her neighbors and Amaya ordered pizza and watched the basketball game. At about 9:00 Amaya said, "Tired. Sleep." She walked into the room where her bed was and waited for Grandma to come in and get her ready for bed and put her in. She woke up in a very good mood and stayed there while I took Hayden and Carson to the dentist. Then we picked her up and brought her home and put her down for a nap. From the time she woke up from her nap until she went to bed every time she would talk to any of us she would call us, "Grandma." It was so funny, especially when she was calling Mike, "Grandma." Hopefully she'll remember who we all are tomorrow.

On Being Seen in Public in a Swimming Suit

Okay, what is a woman's worst nightmare, besides having something bad happen to her kids? That's right, it is shopping for a swimming suit and then having to wear it in public.

We are going out of town on Wednesday and the hotel we are staying at has a very nice pool. Mike and the kids are definitely going to be going swimming, and unless I want to sit in the room alone, or, worse, sit by the side of the pool fully clothed, I have to suck it up (my courage, not my gut, although that needs a lot of sucking up, too) and dare to be seen in public in a swimming suit. In the last 10 years I think I've been to a public swimming pool two times. Once was at a family member's condo, and the only reason I did it was because Carson and Hayden wanted to be in the pool, and they were both young enough that Mike and I both needed to be in the pool with them. It would have been too much to handle for Mike to try to keep track of both of them at the same time. The other time was when we went to China. We went to the zoo one day, and I think it was the hottest weather I've ever been exposed to. Carson and Hayden both looked like they had already gone swimming, but it was just sweat. I knew if I didn't get in the pool I would probably pass out from heat stroke. Besides, it was the first time Amaya was going to be going in a swimming pool and I was willing to be publicly humiliated to be with her the first time she went swimming. The sacrifices I make for my kids. Some friends of ours have a pool and several times throughout the summer we are invited over for a barbecue and swimming party. I always just hang out on the deck and watch everyone else. Did I mention they are all skinny and I'm fat?

Anyway, back to the swimming suit shopping trip. I actually found a swimming suit that looks good on me. I'm not saying I look like a swimming suit model or anything (well, maybe a plus-size model) but I don't look half bad. I am actually excited to go swimming at the hotel. I might even go with Mike to the local pool when he takes the kids. I don't know if I'm brave enough to wear it in front of people I know, though, so I'll have to decide if I'll wear it to our first pool party, which is in about a month. Maybe I can lose a few pounds between now and then and then I will feel even better about it.

I can't believe I am this excited about a swimming suit. Today is a great day!

Update On The New Neighbors

Today the Realtor stopped by the house to pick up the signs, and Mike knows him so he got the scoop on the new neighbors. The guy that bought the house is a single guy who has a girlfriend. No mention if she is moving in with him or not. Then he's got a roommate who is a single dad with three sons. I'm thinking that the kids might not be there long term since their dad is just a roommate, especially if the homeowner and his girlfriend end up getting married. I don't know too many newlyweds who would