M.I.A.

Well I've been M.I.A. (missing in action) for the last couple weeks.... and here's why...

Bubba came down with the flu (vomiting and diarrhea.... yay) Wednesday before Christmas. Which then meant we couldn't go to our family Christmas' in town....... Ceej came down with it shortly after.... and then Christmas Eve JDub and I had it..... Waking up Christmas morning was hard... considering JDub was in the basement bathroom... while I ran into our bathroom upstairs. Simultaneous puking is not very fun..... I couldn't handle Bubba for the day...... NO WAY. I had to call in reinforcements! Thank goodness we have family in town. Our first Christmas with Ceej was not exactly how I pictured it... but whatever I'm just thankful we are all alive and well (Now anyway.......).

In the midst of this... JDub decided we should finally fix up our bathroom upstairs.... Due to the idiocy of the previous owners of this house... paint was chipping everywhere in the bathroom. We had to hand scrape all of the paint off.... patch parts of the drywall that came off in the process... and spray texture on the walls... Not an easy feat when you have 2 little ones to attend to. Today is our day of rest............ sort of... we have to wait for the texture to fully dry before painting tomorrow! I am exhausted....... whether its still from the flu... or just needing to work out.... I am ready for bed every night by 9:00 pm....... sad I know! with it being New Year's Eve I doubt I'll be able to stay awake to see the ball drop!

I am looking forward to the New Year.... I hate resolutions... but I really want to try and work out 3 days a week... I think I can manage that. I also need to work on my temper..... I have had a short fuse these past couple weeks...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Hope you all party tonight... cause I'll prolly be sleeping once 2011 hits :)

Why are commercials so loud?

Ok I'll admit I like TV... especially on these cold winter months when there is really nothing to do but be inside with the kids. Sometimes you can only do so much coloring, reading, playing... whatever.... and then you need a little break. And I especially like to watch a little TV when Bubba is down for a nap and Ceej is still awake. He's too young to know what I'm watching so it doesn't matter if its inappropriate for children. So I'll be sitting there... nursing Ceej and he'll almost be asleep... when BAM! One of those annoying, LOUD commercials comes on?! I mean what the crap right? It is beyond annoying. I can't tell you how many times he'll be out of it and then he'll wake up and be alert because of the loud interruption.. It has forced me to put my TV on mute and have the Closed Captioning on too. I may not be deaf but I have used that plenty of times!

And then I came across this article.... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/15/politics/main5982822.shtml

Its basically saying someone came up with a Bill to end loud TV ads! I know there are probably more pressing items out there... but I would think this would please alot of people... and I know I'm excited about it! I'd vote for the person that came up with it!!

Now if they could just do that in movies as well.... I swear JDub had a TV that would adjust the volume... but maybe I was just dreaming that one. I know at certain times its good to be a little louder... for suspense or whatever, but I'd rather not have to turn the volume up and down and up and down all the time...... You'd think they'd be able to control that with all the technology out there! Not to mention I know my Mom wishes her TV on the porch would have done this... she might not have busted her lip and hurt her knee back in the day :) (that's a VERY funny story if you haven't heard it you should ask me sometime)

World's strongest babe...

So the other day I'm upstairs doing something... can't quite remember what but I'm sure it was cleaning or picking up... b/c well that's ALL it seems like I do! JDub was downstairs with the boys. All of a sudden... Ceej starts crying. And its not that, I'm fussy cry, its the something awful happened, not normal cry.... So I rush downstairs and I'm like "What is going on down here?!"

Apparently he had crawled over to my 3 lb weight, picked it up, rolled on his back and then dropped it on his head.... Now I can't get too mad at JDub b/c yesterday I left Ceej alone in the living room and he apparently got poked in the eye with something.. what I'm still not sure... but yea Ceej is freakishly strong... And the funny thing is I try to warn people how strong he is... Just because I want to be nice. But its like they think I'm bragging or something. The don't believe me... its like that friend that you have that over-exaggerates everything! So you never know how serious something is you just assume they're over-shooting it. But really I'm not... Ok I know the title of this entry was a bit much... but that was just to be funny. But he is really strong.. For example I have a nice chunk of hair that is just now growing back b/c he ripped it out of my head... not just one little hair... it was a nice handful. He's ripped out Bubba's, and Mangos... you think oh cute he's grabbing my hair and then next thing you know you're in pain and he's putting the stray hairs into his mouth!

So just another warning... If you happen to hold Ceej and he grabs on to your hair... get it out of his hand as soon as possible or you will lose it....

Coupons

Coupons are great right?! Well sometimes they are.... I thought coupons were suppose to be nice incentives to buy a product! But then there's the fine print..... you have to spend $25 before you can use this coupon.... you can't use it on sale or clearance items....

I mean is it really worth the headache to cut them out, then remember them at the checkout... sometimes I wonder! So my mom and I went shopping at Gordman's the other week. It happened to be one of those days where you got the chance to scratch off and see if you won $10, $20, or $30 on your next purchase of course... Its NEVER for what you're buying right then. Its always nope, sorry! You must pay full price for everything you're buying now... and then come back and spend more money just to use this coupon! Oh and the fine print on these puppies?.... You can't use your "free" $10 on shoes.... which is totally what I wanted to buy!

So anyway, JDub and I end up going back and getting some more little Christmas stuff and a new sweater dress for me! Mom ended up giving me her $20 that she won so I had $30! Now of course... could I use both of them together on the same order? NO!!! And then the lady at the check-out tells me she's not suppose to let the same family use 2 coupons. What are you?! The coupon police? I could easily make up a name and address and write it on your stupid coupon... not to mention I could leave and come back to a different line with a different cashier and you woudln't know! I tried to hand JDub some cash to pay and she freaked! So he had to spend $5 on his credit card... ridiculous......

I mean I love the items they have at Gordmans... but honestly their coupons SUCK!

I use to be a member of the Dairy Queen Blizzard club or whatever too... They'd send you coupons for buy one get one blizzard every once in a while and then a free one for your birthday too! But any time I'd try to use them at the DQ's around here... they'd tell me they don't participate in that promotion! Well how come when I signed up they specifically asked me what DQ I would be going to and your store was an option?! Can you tell me that?!

Ok so I rarely go to Panera... just because its not that close to where I live and its not that convenient to have to get out of my car and go in with kids... But they had those punch card things... ya know you buy so many specialty drinks or bagels and you get some free! Or at least they use to... of course I've been saving this card up for years.... and when I finally get it full and want my free drink they deny me and say "Oh we got rid of those a few months ago...." Seriously?! Can a girl get a break... apparently not!

I know... I should just learn to pay full price for things... its just sooo annoying though! Why even have the option of coupons if you're going to make it practically impossible to use them hassle-free?!

cloth diapers update

Ok so when Bubba was younger I decided I wanted to be green and get cloth diapers... I even posted about it waaaaay back in Aug '09. I was super excited and ended up going with gDiapers. Ya know in genereal they worked really well... But Bubba complained about them... he hated wearing them, and well I got lazy so I stopped. And he's potty-trained now anyway!

Then came Ceej... Now I'm sorry but newborns go to the bathroom ALOT! And well, breastfed babies seem to poop alot more too. It seems like every hour you're changing a disposable diaper... So the thought of doing cloth (which you pretty much have to change every 2 hours...) when he was just a teeny lil babe did NOT interest me at all. But once he got a little bit bigger (and was sleeping better so that meant Mommy was sleeping better and a little less lazy!) I thought I should get them back out.

I was disappointed. It seems that the gDiapers liners have broken down over time, or from being washed alot... I dunno. I'm sure they'd blame me on the type of detergent I was washing them with too (apparently 'free and clear' is not really free and clear of everything...) But anyway. Instead of just having to change out the cloth insert, I was not only having him soak through the liner and diaper, but his clothes and pants were getting wet too! No thanks... That's way too much laundry for me. So I thought about giving up on the cloth all together.

But then I found econobum cloth diaper covers :)  These are great! No worrying about snaping liners in and out... its all one piece. Another nice thing is its a one-size diaper. With gDiapers they have small, medium, and large.. but with econobum they have one diaper with several snaps that you can adjust to size your babe just right!

I was a little hesitant about the snaps. But they are working very nicely. I like it even better than the velcro. When I need to wash them I don't have to worry about the velcro getting attached to everything else in the wash! OMG I hate it when I'm switching the laundry over and velcro from bibs and the gdiapers would be attached to a shirt or blanket and just shred it to pieces!

Now I know this might sound a little gross... but I dont even have to wash these every day! I can use these 2 diaper covers all day long. I start with the green, then switch to the blue and let the green one air dry. By the time Ceej needs a new diaper the green one is ready to use. And while I didn't have much luck with the gDiapers... the gCloth inserts work great with these econobum covers! So I didn't have to go out and purchase a bunch of cloth inserts.I still use disposable at night. And usually when I'm out and about... But I'm able to use them during the day while we're at home! So while I'm not fully green... at least I'm doing a small part :)

"I need to Pray Mommy"

Bubba has tried every stalling technique in the world when its nap time or bed time... "I need to go potty"... or he needs a special animal to sleep with. "Cover me up again... I need to kiss Ceej or Daddy or Mommy or Mango"... "I need a kleenex"... and the list goes on and on. Its a little ridiculous... I mean its sad at 2 he already knows how to do that! But my favorite stalling technique of all... "Mommy I need to pray" he says!

I started praying with him a few nights and he got the hang of it. I'll tell him to start and he says "Dear God, or Dear Lord... Thank you for........." Now I'm not sure where this all came in... but everytime he prays lately it has to include all of the kitties he knows... It usually starts with my sister's cat Mr. Flakers.... I wish you could hear how cute it sounds when he says it too! Its more like Micker Fwakers... anyway. Then he moves on to Mango, Charlie, Hobson, Guillermo, Tucker, Sasha... these are all relatives of mine, whether its aunts, sisters, grandmothers' you name a cat he's met, and he will pray for it! So just FYI if your cat needs prayer let me know.... send a pic... and I'll be happy to have Bubba pray for yours as well!

snapfish vs shutterfly... and SHUTTERFLY WINS!

Everything seems to be done online these days.... which is convenient and a little annoying at times. But one really cool thing I like having online is a place to store my photos. I am not the best at taking photos.... or even remembering to bring my camera to certain events, but once you have kids taking pics is very important! You want to make sure to catch those "first" events, and other funny events along the way. Especially when you have family that might want to see them as well!

So when I first heard of shutterfly and snapfish I couldn't decide which one to go with... I'm sure you've heard of them... its an online database where you can store your photos. They also have cool gift ideas and other resources for your photos. I've used both of them to share photos with friends and family, make photo-books, mugs with photos on them for all those coffee drinkers out there, and calendars all as different gifts for different occassions. I made a photo book for JDub for our 3 year anniversary. I gave one to my dad for Father's Day. I also do my Christmas cards every year on them. JDub and I didn't do Christmas cards until there were kids in the picture. I mean who really wants to see a pic of just us? I didn't! But once we had our cute little red-headed Bubba we just had to do a photo!

Last year's Christmas Card was by far my favorite! We bought them from Shutterfly. It was a simple design that didn't take too much way from the stunning photo we had a friend take. Bubba looked like a little ceramic china doll he was sooo cute. It was super easy to upload the photo and order them. They came straight to the house, envelopes included! We got so many compliments on them too. This was last year's design stirling snowman card '09

So when thinking about Christmas cards for this year I was wondering where to turn....then I got a notice in my email the other day........ Snapfish said if I didnt make a purchase this month all of my pictures would be lost forever. What the crap right?! I was a little shocked. So that pretty much made my decision final! BUH-BYE Snapfish... HELLO SHUTTERFLY 24/7! I mean I just read on another blog how I can get 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly for being a blogger! That sounds soo much better than having all of my photos gone forever..... What do you think?!

Pyro? oh yea!!!!

Ok so JDub is really the fire pro around the house... mainly b/c I am constantly attending to a child in need (or in "want" really...) which can make it hard to attend to a fire as well. We were fortunate enough to have a very generous family at church who gave us a bunch of free firewood!! And I mean a bunch... his entire truck bed was full of the stuff... He even made a holder for the wood out of 2x4's and that thing was overflowing! So while it looks like this outside.....

It looks feels like this inside :)

Bubba is doing very well with the fires too. He knows he needs to stay away or he'll get hurt. I still find him messing with the ashes or wood when the fire is not lit... but he's learning. He is only 2 after all right?! Ceej is a rolling machine these days. He's not really crawling, but he does manage to get halfway across the room just from rolling around. He is sitting up very well which is great. Soon I think I'll be able to move him up to the next car-seat and not have to lug that heavy thing around anymore! You'd think I would have built up my arm muscles enough... but no. I am weak!

On another note... I cannot believe Christmas is almost here! I'm excited to see Bubba open his presents this year. He was still kind of out of it last year... but seeing him on his birthday was too cute. We really didn't go nuts with the presents though. He has soo much stuff already. I am almost done shopping! So that's exciting... I just need a few stocking stuffers and a couple more little presents for people and I think I'll be done. I even have most of them wrapped! Not bad for December 4th :)