2 more weeks!

Hi Everyone!  This will just be a quick note, but I want to say hi.  The last four weeks have been absolutely nuts with work+school, but I have two more weeks left and then I'll be done.  The end of last week was especially trying.  Thursday is my last full day of the week, and that day after work I was biking to the train station and nearly got hit by a van.  I thought the van saw me as he was making a left during going against traffic, but he didn't see me until it was too late.  I slammed on my breaks and lunged off my bike.  My ankle was sore afterwards from all the pressure of the jump.  The back tire of my bike ended up underneath his front bumper, but amazingly he didn't hit me or the bike.

Then I had to continue on my ride to catch the train.  I was so shaken up it was hard not to cry while I was biking.  Once I got to the train platform I called Justin and just bawled because it was so scary how close I was to getting hit.  Thankfully I had a 40 minute train ride to calm down and once I got to Toronto I was no longer on the verge of tears.  However. Once I got to class I found out it was cancelled.  So I hopped on the subway hoping to make it in time for the 6:15 train.  I got to the station and ran to the platform only to realize I had read the board wrong and watched my train leave without me.  Then the next train was delayed half an hour.....needless to say I was not in a good mood when I got home.

Friday we left for a camping trip with our small group from church.  This weekend was such a gift.  We hadn't realized that everyone would be arriving late late Friday night or Saturday, so we ended up having all day Friday to hang out just the two of us at the campsite.  Justin and I really needed the time to just be together and do something fun.  We don't see each other very much during the week since Justin works during the day and I have evening classes four times a week.

We had a great time with out small group too.  I just love everyone in the group and I am excited for the fall when we start up meeting regularly again and have Bible study.

I'm feeling positive about this week.  We have a long weekend coming up with a holiday next Monday.  I seriously can't wait to be done with class and go back to cooking dinner and feeling on top of things.

I've missed not having the time to even read your posts, but tonight I got my reflection written early.
I enjoyed hearing about how things have been going.

Love to all,
Candice

laundry soap uggggh

Yesterday and today I made becca's laundry soap recipe from here.  After months, I've finally saved up enough milk cartons (I bought the other things I needed months ago before realizing I had nowhere to store the soap after I made it.)

Well.

First step was to grate the bar of soap.  I admit, I hated this.  It was like grating a frozen crayon.  I have a bad history with grating my knuckles badly, so I was very careful and probably took a lot longer than I needed to.  But I did it.  It looks like cheese!

Second step was the melt down the soap.  She said to do it in 4 cups of water on the stove, and that it would take about ten minutes for the flakes to dissolve.  I stirred for twenty minutes watching to see if my lumps were getting any smaller.  Then I added another cup of water and they dissolved in relief.  Talk about a super saturated liquid.

Next step was to stir it with five gallons hot water.

 I have no idea why the picture has those weird lines on it; my computer's been trying to tell me this SD card is corrupt for a while, maybe it means it takes retarded pictures.

As instructed, I let it sit overnight.  Here's what it looked like this morning:

Lovely.  Joe really wants me to post this on Facebook and say that we collected our snot...I'm surprised he'd suggest something that juvenile because that sounds like something I would do.  This was like jello, seriously molded to the form of the bucket.

Here's where I ran into trouble.  It needed to be stirred again, but using the broom handle only stirred the jello around in circles - it didn't break up any chunks.  I submerged my arms and squeezed the chunks as well as I could, but it didn't help that much.  My first problem:  Chunks splash.  As I slowly poured the gunk into the funnel, it wasn't a steady stream of liquid.  It was more like diarrhea.  It splashed everywhere, and I had to be careful not to get it in my eyes.

Something else it did, was the chunks took longer to get down the funnel.  So the funnel kept overflowing.

Look closely on the floor to see all the soap that spilled.

The recipe makes 5 gallons of concentrate, to be mixed with an equal amount of water for the final product.  So my 5-gallon bucket was supposed to make 10 gallons soap.  It made 8.  I hate to think that much soap actually spilled on the floor, so I'll just go with the theory that I didn't fill the bucket up all the way.

Finally, I'm paranoid.  Because this recipe is supposedly low suds for high efficiency washers, but as I was filling up the bottles, some of them had no suds and some of them had more suds.  I think it's because the concentrate never got properly mixed so now I have some bottles that are going to work better than others.

Nevertheless, here they are.  I'll keep you updated.

This summer is flying by far too fast

This blog is going to be completely random, but hey, that's kinda how life has been lately.  I have been going with the flow, trying to enjoy summer, get a lot of projects done, and also find time to chill and rest.  The latter is the hardest. 

My mom came to town about a week ago and we painted the laundry room and then I hung the shelves after she left (we didn't have time and Paul went to bed super early the last night she was here).  To say I LOVE my new laundry room is an understatement.  We got it done in less than two days and I was oh so happy it was a fast project because I was making quite the mess with all the tools and everything in the spare room.  If you girls ever want to hang shelves, Ikea is the way to go for cost and convenience.  These shelves just hang on a rail that is screwed into studs.  So awesome. 

My cat's have decided that my succulent tastes good...these lovely bite marks definitely weren't there when I picked out the plant! 

I finally cleaned out under the deck! The old nasty plastic is gone, the wood is moved to the back wall to make it easy to repaint the deck, and the dirt is raked.  Love it. 

Paul and I have been making an effort to do things other than just watch tv in the evenings these days.  The weather has been perfect for evening walks and the mountain looks so beautiful as the sun sets! 

One night we went to the park.  As you see we still have troubles breaking away from technology as Paul is fiddling on his phone and I am taking pictures with mine, hey, at least we made it outside. 

I haven't been seeing much of my hubby lately as he has been working quite a few 12-15 hour night shifts and been sleeping during the day.  One day we went to Jason's coffee shop again just to chill together. 

I have said it multiple times, but I love my work and my coworkers.  We have these things called candy bar awards and we can write each other up for doing nice things.  It is so nice to feel appreciated at work sometimes after crappy shifts.  I have been having a ton of amazing shifts lately but the crappy ones kind of put me in a bummer mood for a few days.  Being appreciated helps! :)

My cats have been soooo cuddly lately.  I love it when they are sweet, cute and cuddly.  Last night they decided it would be a good idea to knock a vase full of water and a rose over at 4:40am, and after I cleaned that up and went back to bed they were back on the kitchen counter knocking more things over.  I wanted to shove them in a closet.  Needless to say I didn't fall back asleep till 7am (I had only had 2.5 hours of sleep by this point) and ended up waking up at 11:30.  

These pictures are seriously out of order because it has been two weeks tomorrow since finishing the deck.  I tore out the whole deck by myself and Steve helped me put it back in.  We did all the pieces where the edges had to be cut at an angle and Paul and I finished the rest a few days later. 

 We went to an awesome lumber yard where my father in law picked out all the wood and I just paid for it.  So much easier than having to make all the decisions and ask all the questions myself!

My friend Carmen came over to visit and we had a wonderful day.  She just moved 10 minutes away from me with her husband Nolan.  So glad to have my twin back in town! 

Steve and Kathy got a new house a few blocks from Amber and Joe and just under 2 miles away from me and Paul.  I am so jealous of their garage and all the storage!!! The guy who used to live there made cabinets for the Street of Dreams and the cabinets throughout the house are amazing and beautiful! 

The house was a foreclosure but the people were able to live in it for the 9 months it took to get bank approval for Steve and Kathy to get the house.  They definitely didn't do any yard work during that time...or for the last couple of years. 

The [almost] finished deck!  We need Steve to help us put in one more board and then I need to paint it.  I love how the natural wood looks but the whole deck is painted so it would look weird to leave this part natural. 

The sounders game was AMAZING even though they lost!  This picture doesn't do it justice because all the stands that you see were packed, this was just during warm ups. I really didn't take any pictures during the game because everyone was standing and they wouldn't have turned out. 

Paul and I ended up kinda having our anniversary off together.  Paul had worked from 10pm to 11am.  We went out to lunch at a fabulous Thai place in Tacoma and then went to Ruston. 

Ruston was awesome as always.  The water was this weird creamy teal color, I have never seen it that way. This picture doesn't do it justice! 

Paul was too tired to fight me taking pictures. :)

I LOVE these pictures of us and I am pretty sure Paul doesn't even know they exist, haha.  He was busy sleeping on the grass basking in the sunshine and I was laying there taking pictures and loving every second of our quick afternoon cuddle. After Ruston we went home, watched some tv, and then around 4:30 headed out to frozen yogurt for desert.  Paul went to bed around 6:30 and I stayed up and read my book.  Pretty dang good 2nd anniversary in my books. 

My cats at 1:30 in the morning being all cute and stuff. 

My friend from nursing school, Ciara, is getting married in September and I have been helping her with wedding planning and making rsvp cards, save the date cards, and every card you can think of through email.  She also just finished school for becoming a Nurse Practitioner (she is only 25) and I helped her format her final paper.  As a little thank you she bought me this awesome starbucks cup and I LOVE IT.  She also got me a starbucks gift card and a few other things.  She is too sweet, I definitely wasn't expecting any gifts when she came up for a craft day where we spent 8 hours working on wedding stuff.  We wrapped twine and raffia around hundreds of mason jars.  It was a perfect day.  

Tired after a long day of work.  I love that the ceiling of the elevators is basically a mirror.  Lets just say sometimes I look up and go, holy cow I look exhausted! 

I had the sweetest patient the other day.  Her husband bought a ton of roses and put a sign on the bucket that said Thank you Dr. Ahmed and all the nurses, please take a rose!  (this would be the rose in the vase my dumb cats knocked over). 

And that ladies is the end.  26 pictures. 2 weeks. Lots of randomness. :) 

its all from You...

I had a mini breakdown last night.  In my bedroom, in the dark, with a fussy baby, I just started sobbing.  No, I don't have postpartum depression.  I was just feeling a little overwhelmed.  The day had started out pretty good.  I braved taking both kids out to a local park where they have a kids garden and master gardeners come and teach them how to plant and let them play in the garden.  Shea loved it!  Especially watering the plants.  I need to get that kid a watering can.  Anyway, it was a nice start to the morning and when we came home, we had lunch and all took a 2 hour nap.  I even did an ab work-out that morning.


Jeremy got off early so he called and asked if I would mind if he went disc golfing with his co-workers.  Of course not.  He was trying to sweeten the deal by telling me to drop Shea off with his parents and then meet him for dinner.  But I wasn't feeling up to getting Shea ready.  Plus, I don't know if I've shared this on here, but my sister-in-law, Tawny, lost her baby again.  This is her third or fourth miscarriage this year, but it was a big surprise, because the other ones she lost very early on, and this time she was into her second trimester.  Anyway, she wanted to bury the remains of the fetus that night, and so she asked me to watch the kids for a little bit.  Plans changed and they put the kids down at their house, and asked if Jeremy could just come over and sit at the house until they got back.  Well, by the time he got home, I still hadn't gotten Shea in bed, because Hailey would not let me put her down.  So he quickly put Shea down and then ran over there.  Neither of us ate dinner, and I ended up going to bed exhausted at 9, because I couldn't really do anything.  So I didn't see my husband, I was hungry, and I felt like I couldn't handle things on my own, since I had been trying to calm down Hailey for three hours so I could give Shea his normal bedtime routine.


That's when I started crying.  But it was a good cry.  You know, that kind of healing, I really needed to cry, cry.  And this morning, I woke up so refreshed.  I realized a couple of things.  Yes, being a mom of two children under 3 is a lot of work.  YES, if we have another, I definitely want to wait until my youngest is 3.5 or 4 by the time he/she is born.  But, I got to figure out how to make it work.


So this morning, we went for a trip.  I took both kids, by myself, to 3 stores.  This might seem silly, but wow I was so scared to do it!  I just had to put baby in a front pack and Shea in the cart, and getting in and out of the car takes forever, so I have to be strategic about what stores I go to in what order and when.


I got a new shirt and skirt today at Target.  I picked up my pictures and finished the baby announcements during Shea's nap (with Hailey in a front pack sleeping - at least she lets me sit while she's in it.  She is in it right as I type this now, in fact.) - they're all stuffed in envelopes and addressed.  I just need to go buy postage.


I even made a pie.  Strawberry-rhubarb-apple.  Yum.  do you know how long it has been since I made a pie?  I have dinner in the oven even.  I don't want a repeat of no dinner for me and Jeremy tonight!

My day has been showered with goodness and gifts.  I have been a little short with Shea, but the constant joy in his eyes and voice and love for his little sister just warm my heart so much.  This is a song that has been in my head lately and my heart.  Trying to remember that "every good and perfect gift is from above", and to actually spot them during the day.  I want my kids to see a mother who sees the goodness of the Lord and shares it with those around her.  What a hard task to turn into a constant habit!

OK and isn't this pictures so funny?  Shea is adorable, but Hailey kind of looks like a stunned fat-man. sorry...I'm a mean mom.  the picture I posted on facebook makes up for it.  Why is it so hard to get a cute picture of both your kids though??

I'll leave you with some cute baby feet.  Hanna sent me a just a few of the newborn pictures - I can't wait to see the rest!  But at least I was able to get our announcements done with the ones she sent over!

a little bit of a break!

Thank goodness for Day Camp at church today!  I get free babysitting where Shea gets to run around outside with kids, sing songs, do crafts, have a picnic, and be entertained with puppet shows.  SO nice to be home with just a newborn for a bit.  And I dropped him off at 9:30 and don't have to pick him up until 1:15!  Super long day for that little guy.  He's technically 1.5 years to young to go, but since Gramma and Papa are running it, they let him go.  I stayed yesterday to see how he did, and he did OK...but my mother-in-law told me not to stay today, so I took full advantage of that offer.  I had a killer headache, because baby did not sleep last night, and I guess I get headaches when I am sleep deprived, because I've been getting them all week.  I was kind of bad though...


...instead of going home to rest, I drove out to Kingston and got an iced latte.  Then I came home and did some de-cluttering while baby slept.  I finally packed away the toys that Shea has been dumping out every day, and I packed away/gathered for goodwill a shelf of books that he is either too young for, I can't stand, or we had duplicates of.  I also went through his clothes and have a big bag for the consignment store.  He had way too many shirts that he just didn't wear.  So nice to have it be more simple.  He still has way too much of everything, but we're getting there.  


Don't I look like I need a coffee?  I actually have barely had any for months since our espresso machine broke, and haven't felt the need to drink any since I've been sleeping during nap time a lot.  But it did take away my headache and give me energy to get some stuff done.  Hopefully the caffeine will wear off at naptime so I can get some real rest...

Hailey is still sleeping...been asleep almost 2 hours now.  

I think she is super tired since she didn't sleep well last night.  Look at her little double chin!! haha I love that her face is so chubby.  Although, I know she is not that chubby of a baby, she seems so huge compared to how little Shea was at 2 weeks.

I finally got a moment to do something fun the other day too!  I prepped our birth announcements.  I still haven't gotten the newborn pictures from Hanna though, so I can't finish them until then.  I printed all the envelopes though.  Here is a sneakpeak, although you'll have to wait to get yours in the mail to see it!  

The weeks go by so fast!  I am already losing my baby belly even though I haven't really started exercising yet, although we did go on a long family walk yesterday, which was so refreshing to be outside (I'm allowed to start exercising this week, so I might try to go to Zumba on Saturday), because I am up all night breastfeeding and feel so hungry all the time.  It is hard to remind yourself to eat good food when you are trying to stuff something in your mouth before a baby starts crying or your 2 year old needs something!  Shea is doing a lot better now though (and I think I am learning to be a little more patient too).

Friday Jeremy and I are going to try and go out on a DATE.  He really wants to go see the new Batman movie...on opening night. haha so I guess I have to go out that morning and try to get tickets, and we're going to attempt bringing baby and try to go when she is sleeping...which should work.  I think. ha.

Anyway, my kitchen is still a mess, there are food crumbs and dirt and grass all over the house for some reason, and I'm trying to not wear myself out wanting to get everything done today, but I feel like I should because I actually have some energy...but I think it might be fake, since I was totally a zombie this morning.

Life lately

Life has been so so busy lately, and busy makes time fly!  I need time to slow down so I can enjoy every drop of this warm weather we have been having. 

Wednesday: Amber called me at 7:45am saying Becca was in labor and she (amber) was going to leave her house at 8:45 and that I could come.  I had to work and when I did the math of the driving and making it to work on time I would have only been at Becca's for an hour.  I got a call from work at 1:15pm saying I was on mandatory standby and would be the first person called in if they needed someone . I live an hour and a half from Beccas, but Becca's is only an hour away from the hospital.  I decided to risk it, took a shower and was in my car by 1:25.  By 2:45 I was at Becca's and she was laboring gracefully in the tub. At 5:07pm little Hailey made her entrance into the world.  She was perfect and beautiful!

I had been reading this book Bloom a few days before Becca gave birth, which is probably not the best time to start a book about a Momma who gave birth to a down syndrome baby and how she was in deep utter dispair for a few days.  The book is about how she learned to love deeper than she ever knew.  I am still reading it and though I have cried more times than I can count already I recommend it to all you girls.  This momma has an amazing heart, and as I read it I realize that God doesn't give us anything we can't handle and if God chooses any one of us to have a special needs baby we can do it.  I will admit I was quite happy when Hailey came out just as we expected. :)

 Thursday  I ended up doing 5.5 hours of yard work.  I mowed, weeded, weed whacked, flattened and moved dirt to get ready for the rock that would be delivered on tuesday.  I swept the driveway, trimmed up all the bushes, trimmed some trees, cut down some blackberry vines that were winding their way through the trees into our yard, and took down some nasty plastic paneling stuff from under our deck.  I was so beat by the end of the day.

I jammed my finger into part of the house that sticks out while I was mowing.  This poor little pinky is still recovering, it is bruised under the nail and still tender and it has been 4 days now!  It is much better than it was though. 

Paul called me Thursday afternoon and asked if I wanted to meet him at his store, we could pick up something for dinner and go to Ruston for a quick mini date.  So glad we did this because we hadn't seen each other for 4 days and after the couple of hours we spent together Thursday wouldn't see him again until Tuesday morning.  

I really need a hair cut, I have been wearing my hair in a mini pony for months now.  I got a new dress on super duper clearance from Banana Republic and had this belt from a friend and it made the perfect combination.  I also have been looking for a new small purse for a long time and finally found the perfect clutch.  It fits my phone, cards, gum, bluetooth, and keys. 

No matter how warm the house is my cats insist on snuggling, they have been super snugglers lately.  I woke up from mini naps on Sunday and Monday before work to see them cuddling just like this. :) 

Amber and Joe are in Ecuador and I am taking care of their house.  I love love love the garden fresh strawberries I am getting to eat!   (Dont mind the slug bit one...that one I didn't eat). 

Friday I worked till 11:30 then Saturday I had to be back at 7am.  I worked until 11:30 that night. ( I was quite tired but they pay you so much for working doubles and when you don't get 10 hours off between shifts I couldn't pass it up).  On Sunday I got up and went to Amber and Joe's to take care of the cats, then headed to church.  After church I took a power nap and then went back to work. Monday I worked as well.  Lets just say by the end of Monday night I was ready for a break from the hospital.  I needed to take care of myself rather than taking care of other people. 

That brings us to Tuesday morning.  Paul went to work for a few hours and was back before I woke up at 9am.  He bought Birthday Cake Oreos (which are amazing!!!!) and I woke up to one by the side of the bed.  Best surprise ever.  The rock was delivered at 9:15 and we got to work.  I laid landscaping fabric while Paul wheeled load after load of rock to the backyard.  When we were about halfway done we took a break and went to Amber and Joe's to love on their kitties.  We came home, ate Pho for lunch, and went back out to work.  All in all I think it took like 4 hours to lay all the rock.  We are so so so glad we decided to pay to have the rock delivered because if we hadn't we would have moved that couple thousand pounds of rock twice instead of once. The picture on the top left is the only one I have of the yard when we moved in, it barely shows the immense amount of weeds that were in all the beds, but I am glad to say all weeds are now gone and we have the low maintenance yard I have always wanted! 

Paul was a champ loading all the rock into the wheelbarrow.  He would load and I would push the wheelbarrow (after I finished the landscaping fabric) because he was starting to get blisters when he was loading and pushing.  Teamwork is awesome. 

This picture is from Thursday, I was sitting under the deck talking on the phone with Paul because he had called while I was ripping that nasty plastic crap from the deck.  I don't know whose genious idea it was to nail it up there ( I think they wanted to make it waterproof under there) but it was dirty nasty, cracked, and falling.  So glad it is gone! 

Comparison from Thursday pre-pruning and pre rocks to Tuesday the finished product. 

We treated ourselves to Mexican for dinner after all our hard work, so so yummy!  

Then we stopped by Safeway on the way home where I made my love check our stuff out at the self check out on his day off. :)  We had to buy ice cream to go with the root beer we had at home to make a yummy dessert!  

And that my friends was the last week of my life.  It FLEW by. 

on my feet again...

Oh girls!  I have almost reached one week with our little girl as part of our family!  I finally feel today like I have energy and actually did quite a bit - which I realized later in the afternoon was a little bit too much for me still. 

 Yesterday I was in bed all day.  I woke up in the morning with shivers and was so weak I could barely walk!  Jeremy went to work, and I thought if I just slept I would feel better, but I didn't get a chance to sleep and wasn't feeling better, so I finally called my mother-in-law.  I was so overwhelmed I could hardly talk on the  phone, and when she showed up I just started crying!  I had no idea why.  Probably because I was totally worn down (we had a lot of visitors, and even though I was resting when I could, I don't think I was resting as much as I should have been) and didn't know how I could take care of Shea, Hailey, and myself.  I am sooo thankful for my mother-in-law though!  We are pretty sure I had a clogged milk duct which led to an infection.  She tucked me into bed, put tons of food and water by me, gave me a tyenol and hot wet towels to help with the clog, helped me settle down baby (she had the worst bubble and couldn't keep anything down for a while, which meant no sleep for me), and then took Shea for the day.  I don't think I actually slept that much, because I was so uncomfortable, but my fever finally broke in the late afternoon and I felt 100x better!  I don't think I got out of bed until 6 or  7 when Jeremy came home.  Today, I feel so much better that I decided to do laundry (baby was out of clothes), dishes, vacuum, and tidy the house.  I think I shouldn't have done QUITE as much as I did though.  Then Hanna came over and we did newborn pictures, which took like 2 hours.  I got maybe a 15 minute nap during the end of Shea's nap, but he woke up a little sooner than I expected.  Hopefully I can rest a little tonight when Jeremy comes home.


Hanna gave me some of the pictures from the labor today!  I LOVE how they turned out and can't wait to see the rest (these are just the ones she edited and will probably post in her portfolio).  I think I might post some on my other blog at some point, when I have time to write Hailey's birth story.  She also gave me all the maternity pictures, but I haven't gone through them yet (there are sooooo many!).  But here are some of my favorites from the birth:

Anyway, that is definitely all I have time to write about today!  Tomorrow morning is my first outing with Shea and Hailey by myself - just a quick little appointment nearby.  We'll see how I do with two kiddos, ha.