Things are looking up

So I was actually able to get those dresses zipped so no need to go shopping. As long as I don't eat much.

I'm off for a manicure and spray tan instead.

I took my inbox from 180 to 52

I am really bad about leaving items in my inbox if I intend to follow up on it later. Something that's reallly not that important but not unimportant enough to just delete. Fast forward two years and I decided I'm probably never going to read that unread message from 2007. When in fact last night I actually did open these. I had many. There were all from a coworker who likes to send me various webinar invites or sales lead emails. Turns out I feel I could have deleted without opening. Most are not relevant to me. No offense, coworker, but I have enough emails in my inbox.

I recently have been given some direction at work. This gave me the opportunity to open these emails, recognize they are not a priority, and delete or file them.

So I went from 180 to 52. This feels really good. I'm determined to completely eliminate everything under the heading of "Older" in my Outlook inbox.

I am boring.

Seriously, what did I used to blog about? Apparently I have zero excitement in my life in the winter. I worked over 40 hours last week so I've just been consumed with this and then not wanting to be on the computer much I guess.

Tomorrow is Red Ball. I think I need something to wear. I'm getting ready to head into the closet and try on all these dresses I'm pretty sure won't fit and then go shopping and look at myself in those horrible mirrors and then decide to go on a diet and start exercising. Yup, I'm pretty sure that's how it going to go.

When I was single and needed motiviation I would tear out pictures of models in magazines and tape them on my kitchen cabinets and my bathroom mirror. But now that I have Anna I feel this sends the wrong message. Maybe I could tape pictures of myself when I was skinny to the bathroom mirror. That doesn't seem so bad. Or hang that bikini up to stare at every day. Honestly though, it works better when they're on the kitchen cabinets.

Ho Hum. Is anyone even still reading this? Is this thing on? Hello? Buehler?

25 Random Things About Me

1. I used to win ribbons for my gymnastics (floor work only) when I was in 3rd grade. Then I hurt my knee and I've never been able to go back. I'm glued to the TV when Olympics gymanstics is on. And I still think of those gymanstics meets at the gym at William Jewell that my mom would take me to and sit through all those other kids just to watch me.

2. My dream job is to be a backup dancer for Britney Spears. I'm obsessed with her. So much so that I don't want to be her I just want to be one of her backup dancers.

3. I'm a die hard Royals fan. We've had season tickets to 20 games for many years now. In the past we have always done this with another couple, various couple friends over the years. This year we're on our own. Just me Kevin and the kiddos. They love it. And they are really great at the games. People always ask me how I get them to sit there that long. I feed them constantly. What can I say? My kids take after me and they love to eat. Carter's been singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game for the last few weeks. I'm counting down to opening day. And I"m excited they signed Zack Grienke to a 4 year deal.

4. I managed sending almost 7 million emails in December. My husband calls me a spammer. I call it email marketing. What? If you sign up it's not spam!

5. I'm addicted to Starbucks - grande nonfat light whip white mocha. No seriously. I'm friends with one of my baristas on facebook and we email back and forth. When I was pregnant with Carter, my second, she was pregnant with her first. Long story short she was the first person I told that I was preggers again, other than my husband, I think only because it was weird that I ordered decaf that day and she did a double take. Turns out we were due something like 2 days apart and both had boys via c-sections. Ok I'll stop there.

6. I love Mexican food. But not with my Starbucks.

7. I was a cheerleader in highschool. And in college. One year at UMKC for Roos basketball. I even got a scholarship for that. All of the other girls thought I was shy because they had cheered together before so they had a clique going and I just didn't know when to interject. This is funny to me now.

8. I hope my kids have as good of a relationship with each other as me and my brothers do.

9. I loved dogs until I had kids. Now they are just more work. But someday I'll have a Golden Retriever.

10. I watch the Amazing Race, American Idol, The Office. I like to quote The Office in my Friday morning meetings at work. Sometimes our CEO sounds just like Michael Scott.

11. I love the internet and I'm so glad I get to use it all day for my job. We're encouraged to be on facebook, twitter, blogging, etc. I can consume a lot of information at once. But I'm really impatient when it's slow. I also hate it when something is underlined online but it's not a link. It's a weird pet peeve I have.

12. I'm an excellent multi-tasker but with each kid I find I have to write things down more or I forget. They suck your brain cells.

13. I still consider myself a runner even though I haven't run in four years. I still wish I could find a way to get back into it. Someday.

14. I won the Opal Heatherly writing award my senior year in highschool for creative writing. I'd like to get back to writing more.

15. My current creative outlet is scrapbooking. I love to scrapbook pictures of my kids.

16. I don't like people who don't work hard or aren't resourceful. If you could find it if you tried why should I find it for you?

17. I used to work at J. Riggings, J. Crew and Abercrombie and Fitch. I can fold a sweater with a paper insert, space hangers evenly and make a mean poplin wall. I met one of my best friends working in retail.

18. I'm not naturally blonde anymore. But I'm still blonde. And it's true, we do have more fun.

19. I hate the cold. HATE IT. I also hate static electricity.

20. I wish I could be tan without getting cancer or orange hands.

21. I worry that my dad will lose his job. I remember when this happened when I was in 6th grade and my mom had to go back to work full time. I remember watching my parents balance the checkbook at the dining room table and my dad looking for work for more than six months until he got another job.

22. I was in the business fraternity at UMKC - Delta Sigma Pi. But other than that I was a GDI.

23. I went to Northwest Missouri State University for one year.

24. I am a Google Adwords Qualified Individual.

25. I love that I am off every Thursday because it means I never have to work more than 3 days in a row. I love the Thursdays when I take my one of my kids to do something special so they get some mommy time.

Cabin Fever

Last week started out with Carter being sick and me leaving work early on Monday. It ended with Anna being sick and me getting in another partial day on Friday. Yesterday I felt achy and very sleepy. Took a two hour nap and have basically been a pharmacy dishing out drugs to anyone who wants them.

I feel covered in germs. The kids have runny noses and this horrible wet cough and keep forgetting to cover their mouths, and seem to always hack up a lung near or around my food or face. The house definitely needs a detox.

Anna was still running a fever at 2 am last night.

This is the time of year when I am done with winter and unfortunately have about 3 more months to go. The tornado sirens actually went off on Friday night when it was snowing. Very bizarre. We were going to call 911 because the announcement kept saying to take cover immediately, which of course we didn't, but we couldn't find the phone - the only benefit I've decided to having a non-cordless phone from the 80's. Everyone knows that tornados come in April between 4-6 pm, not in January at 8:30 pm.

It's bitterly cold and snowing again today. The kind of cold where it is also blusterly windy and even though you are wearing a sweater, coat, hat, mittens and scarf you are cursing the weather and seriously asking yourself why you live here because it's not possible that anyone actually enjoys this. It makes me not want to leave the house, which is good for my pocketbook but bad for my mood and motivation.

And means the kids watch entirely too much TV and the house is destroyed because somehow they manage to move toys from the top level to the bottom level and everywhere in between in about 2 minutes flat. Carter keeps asking "Go Bye Bye?" every five minutes. I think he's tired of being here.

They are yelling "HIP HIP HOORAY FOR SNOW. CMON CARTER LET'S RIDE TO THE PARADE IN SNOW." Then hopping on their ride on toys and driving around the house. Don't you have big wheels inside your house for transportation?

We watched Miss America (or whatever beauty pageant was on tv last night) for about 5 minutes last night and I thought it was hysterical that although it was the swimsuit competition rocking out to JT's Sexy Back and each tiny tall model was wearing an itty bitty black bikini Anna only seemed to notice the hair color of each model. "She has the same color hair as me" or "She doesn't have the same color hair as me" and of course "You have that song in your car mommy."

So c'mon SPRING!

"Mommy you're a good cook when you don't fire dinner."

That's right, I totally started a fire in the oven tonight. Everyone's salmon was done except Kevin's cause I had made his a little thicker and I wanted to finish it off so I put it on the top rack just for 2 more minutes under the broiler. I even set the timer. Opened it up to check it right before the timer and flames were all over. My reaction.

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! Anna who was already eating at the table started to flip out.

Think. Close the oven door.

Enter Kevin who took it from the oven and put it in the sink and doused it with water. Smoke everywhere. We had to open the windows and let the 20 degree bitter wind blow through the house to air it out.

The kids were all worked up about it. We talked about fire all through dinner.

Kevin ate tortilla cheese rollups while the rest of us enjoyed the potato chip crusted salmon. Sorry babe. Especially sorry if I ruined the oven.

"Mommy you're a good cook when you don't fire dinner." Thanks Anna.

Week In the Life Album Completed

Earlier this fall (yes about 3 months ago) I followed the Week In the Life project with Ali Edwards. I completed nearly all of the album by Thanksgiving but just recently added the final touches and got around to taking photos since it wasn't blowing 80 mph or 20 below outside.

Monday - Friday each have two two-page layouts. Saturday and Sunday each have three two-page layouts, just because I had more pictures on those days.

I created a formula of
Layout 1
Left Page: Large photo with ribbon
Right Page: Divided page protector with photos & pattern paper

Layout 2
Left Page: Back side of divided page protector with photos & pattern paper
Right Page: Journaling with ribbon

The journaling uses two of the Ali Edwards Digital Designers downloads which I customized into one for my purposes. I did this part in Photoshop.

Cover


Opening


Monday Left


Monday Right


Monday Left


Monday Right


Tuesday Left


Tuesday Right


Tuesday Left


Tuesday Right


Wednesday Left


Wednesday Right


Wednesday Left


Wednesday Right


Thursday Left


Thursday Right


Thursday Left


Thursday Right


Friday Left


Friday Right


Friday Left


Friday Right


Saturday Left


Saturday Right


Saturday Left


Saturday Right


Saturday Left


Saturday Right


Sunday Left


Sunday Right


Sunday Left


Sunday Right


Sunday Left


Sunday Right


Close

Hello 2009

Hello New Year.

2009 will be a big year in my mind. Anna will start kindergarten, which is hard to believe. Carter will likely move to a big-boy bed and be potty trained, at least during the day. I will have been at my job for 5 years on Monday. We will have lived in this house for 5 years in February. 2004 was a big year for us with job changes, a move, our first baby. This marks the 5th year since all of those life changing events.

When I meet a New Year I tend to think of everything I would like to do this year. Lately this seems to be more home-focused, rather than work or family focused (although I have goals for those too).

Making my list of "I Should..." on the right side of the blog helped me stay accountable for things I'd like to cross of my to-do list and remind me that if I ever were to be a SAHM I would not be bored, there is always something to do.

Of the 11 items I managed to complete all but 3.

- Get a double curtain rod so I can hang Anna's valance.
- Open and use the scrapbooking laminator.
- Wash and put away the foam letters (still piled in the back corner of my laundry room)

I did also do a few more things that weren't on the list, like framing and hanging all of the 8x10 photos I have had taken of the kids over the last 4 1/2 years. We purchased our first artwork to hang in the living room. And we had a family photo taken by the guy who did our wedding pictures, so they turned out amazing.

SO - I'm starting a new I SHOULD list, but renaming it to "TO DO IN 2009". I'm including the list in this entry and then will move it to the right side, replacing last year's.

Here goes...

- Paint the kitchen, hang a valance over the window above the sink and artwork on the walls
- When Carter is ready for a big-boy room, likely this year, pick a theme, paint, move him to a new bed
- Find an exercise plan that works for my life
- Be financially responsible, meaning pay off my credit cards, make a budget, stick to it, save for vacation and christmas presents, the kids' college, be more "we" oriented with our finances
- Clean up the guest bedroom (which translates to get rid of the old unnecessary furniture and organize my extraneous scrapbook stuff)
- Have a garage sale
- Get Anna to where she can ride her bike on her own (for more than 1 block) while I walk and push Carter in the stroller
- Take the kids to Worlds of Fun for the first time
- Take a family trip to visit my friend Molly (and her hubby) and meet their new baby
- Travel to visit my brother Ben before he moves later this year
- Have more date nights with my hubby

Also for 2009...

My one little word is Patience.

My resolution is to have better posture (and lose weight, just like everyone else)

What are your plans for 2009?

Hello December

This evening Anna has been singing Christmas caroles from her program at daycare. They do a Christmas play and she is an angel she tells me.

I've been having a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit this year for some reason. I'm not motivated to buy presents, haven't gotten a single decoration out and haven't made my Christmas list. Even with our first snow on Sunday morning and having a snow ball fight with the kids and sledding down the hill in our mountain of one inch of snow, I haven't gotten excited yet.

But I was slightly inspired by the "pa rum puh pun pun" that Anna kept singing over and over and over and over while I was making dinner tonight. She also knows all the words to silent night and away in a manger. I was very impressed. I don't even know all the words to away in a manger.

Ali is doing a Daily December album. I had considered doing this and maybe I still will later after just documenting in the blog each day (although I missed yesterday but I could write about the first snow or Cyber Monday for my job - we sent about 750,000 emails) but with so many unfinished projects looking me in the face I decided not to start another.

Carter went "pee on potty" twice today and received a cute certificate for doing so.

NOW HERE'S something I'm excited about! Britney announced a tour this morning and tickets were already on sale. Thank god my friend Ramsey had emailed me about this - it was the first email I opened - scrambled to get Ticketmaster open and search for tickets - wait, what are premium tickets - how much are those - what are these packages - Candi, candi, I must call my friend Candi before I buy tickets. Whew - after all was settled I am happy with our Section 107 Row 21 seats. But imagine what we could have gotten if I had just received that email one hour earlier. Or turned on Good Morning America instead of the Today Show. Oh well. Now I just have to wait for April 2nd. Kind of like a Christmas present for myself I guess.

SAHM

Today I am playing SAHM (stay at home mom) on a week day because I have the day off. Of course, as a working mom with an extra day off I tend to overload my to-do list.

1. Finish putting pictures in frames, possibly hang some
2. Finish week in the life album: Print my journaling, Laminate the cover, Finishing touches. Photograph. Post online
3. Laundry
4. Dishes
5. Vacuum

Anna is begging me to take them to Paradise Park so I'm trying to decide if I'm up for that adventure today and how that fits in with a possible nap schedule.

I also need to do something with the four boxes of clothes a distant relative gave me. I think I am going to just give these to my mom to use as extra clothes for the kids when they are at grandma's house. It's no secret I love to shop so I really don't need any of these clothes for the kids. I think last time she gave me all this stuff I took it to Goodwill so someone else who really needs it could use it.

I am trying so hard to purge, not keep extra stuff, find some organization to my household. And then somehow more junk - lots of it - boxes and boxes - somehow make it into my house. Seriously, have we met? We never unpack all the boxes after each move we make so what makes other people think they should give us more old stuff that we will never go through and only have to move later?

And then I think, I should be thankful that I have too much stuff.

I'm voting for

Obama. And so should you. Especially if you live in Missouri.

Lite Brite

Did you know lite brites are completely different than when we were kids? They are plastic and lay down flat, not tilted up like we had. I had kind of forgotten about this toy and we found it in Anna's room. Someone gave this to us when she was 2 which is a bad toy for 2 I think with all the little pieces. Anyway - this is perfect now because she is really in to spelling so she can figure out what color starts with the letter V, Y, P, R, W, etc.

********************

My life seems to be all about rescheduling this week.

We were supposed to have family pictures done outside this morning but it has rained for the past 3 days and the high this morning was in the 30s. So we have rescheduled for Sunday.

We were supposed to go to the Pumpkin Patch at some point in the last week but weather or other necessary errands (like finding a pink dress to be Elle Woods) have forced us to keep post-poning this. Perhaps Saturday this weekend - it is supposed to be 62.

Got a third opinion on Anna's cavity. He said he thought capping it seemed unnecessary so we are going to have it filled with this dentist next Thursday. Need to cancel the other appt to have it capped in Nov.

Carter was running a fever most of the day Sunday so I had to stay home with him on Monday and reschedule an interview (someone interviewing at DEG not me interviewing. I am one of the interviewers).

Go with the flow right?

********************

One more quick item - this morning at breakfast Anna said "I had a dream about firemen last night!"

Excited About Pulling This Together

Just read Ali's entry where she has already pulled practically this entire album together. Really impressed at how quickly she did this. I'm sure I won't be quite as fast, but it is motivating to see how quickly this can go when you follow a template formula.

I have my supplies including divided page protectors like she is using but some with different sizes (will post pictures tonight) but not my actual pictures yet. I will need to order these online because I don't have a printer to print at home. Typically I do this off of Kodak Gallery but am considering using scrapbookpictures.com because it is cheaper and you can print in up to 30 different sizes, like square, etc. Hope to get to this tonight in hopes that pics will be here prior to this weekend to work on this. The other option is to print and pick up at a store and just crop by hand. Haven't decided yet.

Fun creative process!

Sunday

- Trains this morning
- Off to grandma and papas to see uncle zach and aunt kristen who just moved here and start their new jobs tomorrow
- stop by starbucks. my cup reads
"If you've got a dollar and you psend twetny-nine cents on a loaf of bread, you've got seventy-one cents left. But if you've got seventeen grand and you spend twenty-nine cents on a loaf of bread, you've still got seventeen grand. There's a math lesson for you."
Who can get a loaf of bread for twenty-nine cents?
- anna and carter play with the kitty cats that zach and anna brought with them. one of the cats kept hiding behind a mattress in the basement
- I head to Gymboree to spend my gymbucks on clothes for Anna. Also stop at baby gap and use my 30% coupon on clothes for Carter
- Eat lunch by myself at panera. Mom calls to ask how long it is ok to let Carter cry (he's down for a nap). I say 15 minutes. He's only at 10
- Head to Archivers. Pick up an album for this project, use my 30% coupon + get some page protectors with different sized slots + some white and brown bazzill cardstock
- Back to my parents house to pick up the kids
- anna had baked cookies with papa
- kristen had made lasagna for lunch
- chat with kristen about her new job
- pile the kids into the car
- phone rings, oh crap, i was supposed to be at a pumpkin run picture at 4pm. completely 100% forgot. i feel horrible
- head to the grocery store. meal planning in my head but i can only get through 3 days
- remember anna is supposed to take a white piece of poster board + pictures of all the family for a family tree project they are doing
- home, make chicken enchiladas for dinner after shredding a roasted chicken from the deli of the grocery store
- dishes. carter cries and tries to push me away, hanging on my leg
- locate all the pics for anna and label
- put carter to bed