Decorating for Halloween already!

I had extra time the other day and was kinda excited to hang my ghost banner.  Now I don't like ghosts and I am not a huge fan of Halloween but something about these ghosts makes me happy, and this print I just love it. :) 

On Thursday I had a dentist appointment at 8am (so early for me!) and then I had a hair appointement at 10am.  I made it to my hair appointment with 10 minutes to spare, I never thought a dentist appointment could take as long as it did.  They cleaned my teeth super well, did about 25 xrays (different machine than I have ever seen) and they found 3 tiny baby cavities that I am going to have filled all at the same time in a week or so.  I work the day I am having them filled so I hope the numbness goes away before work! 

The goofy robe they make you wear, my face with no makeup since I was in such a rush and my pulled back hair that looked like a mullet when it was down. 

I LOVE my new haircutter.  When I called I asked for someone who is good at bobs and short hair cuts.  My hair stylist says she loves cutting short hair and bobs and was excited when she saw that in the notes. She did a great job, cut conservatively and then fixed whatever I wanted.  I will definitely be going back to her!  

On Friday I went to my charge nurse, Vivian's, baby shower.  There were like 25 people there and we were all nurses or cna's, it was awesome.  So much good food, so many presents, good times. 

It took me 45 minutes to drive to the part of Puyallup the baby shower was in, but I drove by Tacoma Boys while going there and had to stop on my way home!   I love love love this store for their fruit and veggies.  I don't usually buy anything else because it is expensive, but they have amazing sales.  I got local pears for a dollar a pound and some honey crisps for a dollar a pound, best price ever!

I work Saturday, Sunday then have Monday, Tuesday off.  Monday Paul and I are going crabbing and Tuesday Paul has a dentist appointment.  I am kind of proud I have remembered to make hair appointments, and dentist appointments, and my annual exam appointment.  I have been putting off everything and finally made a hard copy of a list and placed it in my pantry so I would see a list daily of what needed to be done.  It has been helping so much! 

Have an awesome weekend!

Thursday Nights are the Best

Hi Girls!

I just finished catching up on the last few posts, and they were so fun to read.  I just love hearing about your lives and I receive so much encouragement from them.

I love Thursday nights, they are the end of my work week and Justin is gone playing ball hockey so I have the house to myself.  I'm sitting here thinking of all the things I can get done and projects to work on tonight, but I'm pretty sure that once I end this post I'm going to grab some ice cream from the freezer and watch a show.

This week has felt hectic because we were gone all weekend backpacking and got back Sunday night, and even though I didn't work Monday, I spent that whole day cleaning up and organizing from our trip and getting ready for class that night.  We had a great time on our trip!  Parts of it were tough, like at the end of the first day when my feet were killing me and my legs were sore from hiking and carrying our gear all day and we still had a few hills to climb...no my best moment, but thankfully the terrain was less rough the next two days and taking Tylenol sure helped!  The scenery was so beautiful and I really enjoyed just being with Justin. I think the time alone together was something that we really needed.  This past summer was really busy for us and we didn't see each other a lot during the week with work and school, and then the weekends were busy hanging out with others, so we didn't get much one on one time.

You might have seen my album on face book, but here a few that I didn't post:

This one is by the lake we camped at the first night, I'm wearing my swimsuit, but didn't make it too far in, the water was freezing!  I just sat in it for a minute which felt good on my tired legs, but changed quickly after I got out into warmer clothes!

This photo of the two of us is on fb, but I just had to post it again because I just love it, it sums up how the weekend was good for us and I like how you can see our backpack straps.

Oh, and guess what?!  (Amber already knows) but I am coming to Seattle in December!  My parents are going to be there for Christmas, and I'm planning on being there just over 2 weeks.  At this point I'm thinking of coming from the 8th or 9th till the 26th.  I would love it if we could all get together!

I now understand why you always have so many pictures to share, Angela...

Oh dear.  With a phone on me that takes pictures quickly, I am constantly documenting everything every day.  But it is so nice, because I love to look back on the week and see all the little moments that have brought me joy!  

We got through our first week of Preschool (and are excited for the next!) and had our first day of being cozy in fall weather.  I think we will start adjusting to our new routine soon, but I have definitely been drained of energy this week.  I had many  moments this week where God blessed me with bursts of joy from inside.  Do you get those?  When you are sitting there and suddenly realize something you are so blessed to have (usually something that is completely taken for granted), and then feel this burst of happiness about it?  God reminded me a lot of the gifts I have this week - even though it was kind of a trying week parenting-wise.  Shea is getting to be sooo independent and has quite the voice to vocalize that with now. Jeremy and I are definitely entering a new chapter of parenting with this little guy!  It is hard when it feels like everything I do to try and teach him to obey goes out in one ear and out the other to not lose my patience.  Oh, I definitely do.  I definitely make mistakes and have sent him to his room several times this week just so I can chill out and figure out what in the world I am supposed to do.  It is a VERY good thing that I can trust that God will fill in the gaps in my parenting.  I know I can never be perfect, I can never be all the things I wish my parents had been for me, and any good I do is only when I allow God to work through me.

Anyway!  I just uploaded my pictures, so why not post them?  They may seem random, but I have found a gift in each picture.  Back when I read "1000 gifts", I was very impressed with the power of finding blessings and being full of gratitude for them - it affects you heart in a way I never thought it could and makes life so much more simple.

Oh and did I mention - God has really taken care of us financially - like always!  Jeremy's old employer finally got more work and has been working with Jeremy's boss to schedule out time for him during the week.  I think this week he will be getting one of the biggest paychecks he's had since I stopped working.  Just in time for me to start having my dental appointments.  I don't know why I ever doubt (I don't think I do too much, anymore), because we are always given exactly (and more) of what we need right when we need it.

I'm thankful for...

fall weather and a cup of tea,

brewed in my favorite teapot and shared with my husband.

Finding my red tablecloth and having fresh, locally grown produce on our table.

Having more than enough clothes to keep my family warm (and at least a little stylish).

Having a healthy, chunky baby who loves to sit in her bath while I take a shower (meaning, I get to take a shower, yay!)

Hailey falling asleep by herself in her carseat while I worked at the preschool.  THIS was a big gift.  Normally she hates her carseat and has never fallen asleep without me bouncing or nursing her.

Going shopping with my hubby and getting TONS of produce and spending a naptime making it into fresh salads for the week.

Making cookies with my son.  We used our kitchen aid, and afterward he was spinning around in the kitchen and said, "Mommy, I'm mixing like a cookie!" 

Having a silly boy who loves to make others laugh.

My preschool class :)  This is after we read "ten apples up on top".

Taking out my espresso machine randomly to see if it would magically work after being broken for a few months...IT DID!  And my husband and I had two small lattes today.

My baby's soft skin, smiles, kisses, spit-up, cries, messy diapers, and calm sleeping on my chest.

I feel so much better today!

Enjoying the Small Things is such an inspiring blog, I seriously can't get over this picture of her daughter smiling with the dog (I know I posted it earlier).  Well my friend Ciara loves it too, she used to nanny a little girl with down syndrome (and I nannied her too) and she taught us both so much!  Anyway, this momma on this blog speaks loves in volume about her children. :) 

I woke up today feeling normal, so Paul and I went pants shopping and thank goodness we were successful because it is so hard to find pants in Paul's size. Apparently men are usually on the fat side or something because all the pants are so short and wide these days! 

Then we went to Olive Garden (because we had a 25 dollar gift card).  We both got the never ending pasta bowl and so with our tip we just had to use our gift card, no money, it was awesome! I ate like five bites before I was full since I hadn't been eating for two days but it was still a fun free lunch date! 

On the way to Ciara and Cody's wedding today we stopped at starbucks (groupon had a deal 5 dollars for 10 dollars worth of starbucks) so basically we got two for one drinks.  Paul got a Salted Caramel Mocha and I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte, probably my favorite part of fall!  I just wish Starbucks wasn't so ridiculously expensive (probably a good thing though because it it was cheaper I would drink it more and probably gain 10 lbs). 

The wedding was in Chehalis and I love the green but open land down there. 

The wedding was gorgeous and amazing.  Her daddy built the dance floor for her (the wood smelled amazing). Her dress was beautiful.  It was so so so fun helping her with her wedding because 1. there was not the stress of it not being my own wedding 2. I didn't have to pay for anything 3. I didn't have plan a thing, I just got to help!

We didn't get to stay till the end of the wedding because it would have been super late and Paul has to work early in the morning, but what we did see was super adorable!

Love. 

Love this girl!  Her and her husband may move to Covington; he is a lineman and looking for a job up here and she just got her Nurse Practitioner license and is looking for a new job soon! 

Forever and for always. My favorite wedding saying. Thanks Amber! 

Life lately.

Yesterday I was super nauseous and I was going back and forth on whether to call in to work or not (we have to decide by 1pm). I decided I could probably make it through work, but then at 1:15 I got way more sick, I put myself on the cut list but then when I got to work I knew I wasn't even going to make it that long.  Someone had anti-nausea medicine (such a miracle since I was still trying to get my md to give me a prescription over the phone).  I called my charge nurse and the staffing office at 3:30 (I had been at work for 30 minutes) and told them I couldn't stay.  They got me a replacement at 4:30, thank goodness because I couldn't take care of my patients. It took all my energy to walk somewhere.  I came home and slept all afternoon, tried to drink but was nauseous. Temp went up to 102.2 in the middle of the night, finally my fever broke at like 4am and if felt better.  Today I ate for the first time in 24 hours (after taking anti nausea meds) and I am feeling ok. Hopefully I can go to work tomorrow! 

On a happier note, last week Paul and I were supposed to go crabbing, so when I got home from work the night before I packed a lunch because we were supposed to leave at 7:30am.  Paul went to work early, and didn't end up getting home till after 8:30, we needed to get gas and chicken still and we would barely make high tide so we decided to scratch crabbing and just hang out at the house. 

We went to the river for lunch and it was absolutely wonderful!  The blanket looks super small in the picture but we both fit on it, really. :)

Sandy beached river bed, one of my new favorite things and it is only like 7 minutes from our house. I asked Paul why I never knew about this before!

Eric knows where we hide his toys!  Little twerp can dig under the couch cushions to get his most coveted toys. Cats are smarter than we give them credit for. 

I went to Ikea to get my friend a wedding present and I spotted this awesome organizing container.  I thought I was going to use it for tea but then I had the great idea of using it for washi tape.  I loveee how it stores it all so nicely! 

Here is my friends wedding present, I had so much fun wrapping it!  Washi tape, bakers twine, lace and fun paper. No way to go wrong there! 

On Monday we helped my brother move into his dorm at UW.  It was a super rushed trip because my mom had to get back over the pass before 6:30 because there was going to be 2+ hours of rock blasting.  My mom had wanted to take Paul and I out to dinner,  but gave us dinner money instead because she had to bounce.  We took that dinner money seriously and went out to vietnamese food and it was super yummy!  Best thing was it is only 10 minutes from our house. 

Have you ever seen more condiments in your life! 

Then we got milkshakes at Pick Quik, I got raspberry and Paul got butterfinger. So super yummy!

This place is so cute and retro.

Eleanor being a super goof, a surgeon and his crazy shoes, my artichoke lunch one day, and my amazing mpg (I love resetting the avg mpg when I am coasting down a hill after getting gas). :) 

And this is what I have been up to the last 2 days.  Laying in bed with this boy.  Yesterday I couldn't do anything besides curl up in a ball.  Today I have the energy to be on the computer, read, watch tv, eat a few crackers and a litter ginger ale and powerade.  Oh and I also started a load in the diswasher, a load in the washer, scooped the cat box, and showered.  I call that a miracle.  And probably not another productive thing will happen today. 

the last few days...in pictures.

Hi girls!

I've been busy, busy, but thought I would post anyway before I go jump on my naptime project today.  I accomplished a lot this past week, with getting school ready and other projects.  SO this will be totally random, because I just uploaded pictures from the week.

I re-organized and cleaned the guestroom/sewing room.  I love it now.  The closet may still look messy, but I know where everything is, and we're going to put up some curtains to hide it anyway.  My sewing area is much easier to get at and other than needing to be painted desperately, the room looks cute!

These are just random pictures of Hailey.  I was playing with an app on my phone.  YES I got a new phone. Have you seen my old one? it was nearly ten years old, so I went from nearly the stone-age of cell phones to one of the newest on the market.  FOR FREE.  We know a guy who works for T-mobile and when he saw our phones, he was completely appalled and said he had some extras for us.  Little did I know I would end up with a brand new Lumia Windows Phone!  Jeremy took the mytouch and let me have the nicer one, haha.    

So I have been loving having a camera on me all the time now to take pictures of my littles!

These are from Sunday.  We went to the mall to go to the tmobile store to get my new sim card synced, and the pretzel place had $1 closing time pretzels!  I have to remember this deal!  SO we bought two to share, Shea played with the train table at Barnes and Nobles, then we went to Trader Joes and Goodwill.  He also played croquet for the first time that afternoon with a family from church.  It was a fun relaxing day!

School started today, too!  I was up late last night doing some last minute laminating.  I had SUCH a fun time teaching today!  I'll have to upload the pictures of my classroom from my camera some time.  Hailey woke up right at recess and I had to nurse her back to sleep, and then she woke up about 20 minutes before the end, but Gamma Sue took care of her, so it seemed to work out almost perfectly.  Hopefully tomorrow will go as smoothly as today!

Remember way back forever ago when I said I was starting my Etsy store?  Well, I have been working, working, working on items this past week.  I have 5 items ready to list (after I take pictures and figure out postage costs), and a few more halfway done I need to finish up.  My goal is to have about ten items listed and ready to ship when I officially open my store, so probably by the end of next week I'll be set to go!

Tonight I think we are going to go to Red Robin to get my birthday burger and run some errands.  But right now, I need a cup of tea and to get to work on a blanket I'm making for my shop!

this week so far

Currently:  I am enjoying a cup of tea while two loaves of homemade bread are baking and two children are resting peacefully in their rooms.  Today has proven to be a much better morning than yesterday (in regards to how much more smoothly scheduling baby has been, and how much calmer I have been because of it).  Which is surprising, considering my morning started with a lot of poop.  Hey, you talk about your cats throwing up and peeing, I will talk about my children's poop.

Hailey "went" this morning at 6:30am.  And it started OOZING down her leg (she saves it up and it is runny.  No idea why, guess its just the way her digestive system is working right now), all over our sheets.  yuuck.  I jumped up and hosed her down in the shower, while Jeremy grabbed off the sheets (and then made his way to to sleep on the couch - such a boy! He came back and helped after I complained though).  We got tucked back in bed and the baby went back to sleep at 7, which turned out to be perfect for her nap, because she woke up at 8 and was ready to go down at 9:15 exactly (which is when I NEED her to go to sleep for preschool).  PHEW!  Shea also woke up and pooped while I was making breakfast.  I sent him to the bathroom to wait for me, and he decided to take off his clothes and dispose of his diaper himself...yeah, that was another wonderful mess for me to clean up.

At least you girls with cats will be ready for this fun aspect of child rearing. haha.

Anyway, I thought I would share my preschool binder with you.  I started out with a 1" binder.  Oh foolish me.  I have since upgraded to a heavy-duty 3" binder.  Here it is in all its glory.

And my to do list for today when we go to the church (it never seems to get much smaller, because I only get to one or two things before Hailey is crying or Shea needs something).

And a glimpse at my Letter A week...which, I think I finally finalized...I keep adding more things.  I think I am being very optimistic with how much we can get done. haha.  Oh well, it really doesn't matter if we don't do it all, better to have more than less though!

I think my biggest "problem" is that I want to make everything myself.  There are a TON of free worksheets and resources (many of which I AM using, because they are good enough and it is way less work than recreating it), but aesthetically, I don't like them at all.  I'm sure I'll get less picky as the year goes by, though.  My classroom is almost all set up and organized - I'll have to take a picture and show you soon.  I still need to finish one bulletin board though, and put up some more posters.  School starts on Tuesday!  I am so excited!

Jeremy and I have decided to go grocery shopping once a week with meals planned out.  I can't believe how much easier it was to shop this way!  I wrote up a meal plan (mostly dinners, but also some lunches for Jeremy), and then broke up the grocery list by type.  It is wonderful to see that we bought mostly fresh food (only one frozen item) and staying inside of a weekly budget seems much more manageable to me.  I hate getting to the last week of the month and not having money left in our monthly budget for food items and then we have nothing well-rounded to eat!  We also did all our shopping at our local whole foods store, and I have been trying out new recipes.

Yesterday, I made beef stew in the crockpot for the first time, and mainly used vegetables I bought at the farmers market last weekend.  We had Pho the night before (it was good, but I need to keep working on the recipe to get that broth down!).  I have been baking fresh bread every other day, and today I made ahead salads for us.  Two big salads, which will be enough for with dinner for our family, and two smaller ones that Jeremy or I can grab for lunch.   I saw the idea online, and I love it because our produce doesn't go to waste.  I used up all our lettuce, which usually goes bad because I don't feel like making a salad.  I put dressing, green peppers, sprouts, kidney beans, tomatoes and lettuce.  YUM.

I got to work out for almost an hour (did 20 minutes ab and about 20 minutes strength training), then I cleaned out our vacuum.  I mean CLEANED it out.  I got out a screwdriver and took it apart.  Cleaned the roller thing, took out the filters and compartments and washed them.  Then I got the hose unclogged FINALLY.  The vacuum has been barely working, and I think this will fix it.  I think the problem was that I never cleaned out the filter...and I've been using it for um, 5 years?  yikes.  That needs to be added to my annual cleaning list.

Then I took a shower, semi-straightened my hair, and found a pair of jeans that fit.  I just pulled out all my pre-preggo jeans, and most I still have a few inches to lose before I can really fit int hem properly, but at least I have 2 or 3 pairs I can squeeze into.  Here I am.  Messy-ish hair, no makeup, and my favorite hoodie.  Is it okay to wear the same hoodie like every day?  Because I love this thing.

And I HAVE to share this picture.  Yesterday Shea went down for his nap, and for some reason he wanted ALL of his stuffed animals in his bed.  I don't know why, but I found out that he has way too many stuffed animals.  Anyway, we had to wake him up early to go somewhere and when Jeremy and I walked in, his bed was completely empty, animals were thrown everywhere, and he was sleeping in a nook between his nightstand and his toy workbench on the floor.  I don't know how I didn't hear him doing any of this.  At least he was asleep though.