my new nook

I was fortunate enough to be spoiled at Christmas and I got a nook!!!! I am really loving it too. I'm pretty cheap... so the fact that you can "borrow" books from the library for FREE is really awesome. Sure it can take forever to get a book....... but I'm patient! Or at least I try to be. Right now I'm patron 15/15 waiting for "The girl with the dragon tattoo." So far I've read two books from the library. And I even got some classics like "Pride and Prejudice" and "Little Women" for free on the nook! I used some of my points from MySurvey.com to get $25 for barnesandnobles.com. I broke down and bought "Twilight" and "New Moon". Yes, I am a huge dork and I love the "Twilight" series!!! I bought the last two books in hard cover a couple years ago when I just couldn't wait to borrow them from the library. I at least got them fairly cheap from Half-price Books.

It also has sudoku!! How cool is that? I don't really like how it tells me how long it took to complete a sudoku puzzle though....... barely under an hour and that was on easy! Lately when its time to put Ceej down at night... I'll nurse him and "rock" him in the glider while I read on my nook. Or while I play sudoku. It's been working out nicely. He doesn't get bothered by me turning pages and I don't have to use both hands either. I just have the regular nook, not the color one... but I am thinking about renting some children's books and seeing if Bubba wants to read them with me. I dunno if he'll get that into it w/o the color... but maybe I'll check it out.

I love my nook!

winter....I'm soo over you

And so is this snowman....

I am so ready for spring to come... Usually I'm not all about time flying by any faster than it already is.... I mean Ceej is crawling all over the place, pulling himself up to standing constantly.... I can't believe he is 9 months old! And I swear Bubba read the word JIF in an add yesterday... he looked at it and I figured he'd say peanut butter but no he said JIF! But yea... .I need warm weather..... so I can get out of the house and not have to bundle up my kids in their coats, hats, mittens... I'm ready to go for a walk, or grill out...

Warm weather please come soon!!!

I DO NOT like the changes Netflix are talking about...

Netflix... I have bragged and bragged how much I love you. So why change a good thing? First you up your price b/c you now have more titles available on your instant viewing... At first I was mad, but hey I know it probably does take a lot of have all those on there. But now you're trying to get rid of your DVD rentals all together and strictly just have instant viewing? That is ludicrous!!!!

These might just be rumors... but you are taking off the ability to add movies to your Que from streaming devices like the XBox...

First off.... as far as TV Shows go, you can go on hulu, or the networks websites and watch the shows there for free........ so why would we want to pay to watch with you?

Secondly..... I enjoy having the DVD at home to watch. I can turn on the Subtitles if need be..... if I happen to be nursing Ceej or we're watching upstairs by the nice warm fire after the kiddos have gone to bed.... I am also a nerd and I like to watch the special features if they're available!! Bloopers reels are usually pretty funny... I feel like I enjoy the movie a little more after watching how it was made, the "behind the scenes" with the actors....

Also, if we happen to be going somewhere (which is rare... but still it does happen) then we can take the DVD with us in the car! I can watch it on our portable DVD player while we're driving. Or we can at least have it with us while we're traveling. I know its lame but I even took one camping with us one time and I watched while Bubba was napping! Its nice to have options ya know?

So Netflix... please don't get rid of your DVD's in the mail all together... if you do I might just have to get rid of my subscription :(

Diapers.com and Soap.com

I never use to buy things online... well rarely anyway... But nowadays it seems like that's the only place I buy things! Especially since having children. I can't remember how I heard about diapers.com... but I tell you what it is the greatest thing ever!!!

First off... if you haven't tried diapers.com you really should.
My Share the Savings Code:  LAUR4061
And if you haven't tried it you should use my code and you'll get free stuff!!! Or at least you'll get 15% off your first order! Your ENTIRE ORDER!! That's only if you haven't bought from them before...
I hate buying diapers... but the fact that I can just jump online... if my order is $49 or more (which is not hard to do when buying diapers and wipes.....) it ships FREE. And straight to my doorstep, usually within 2 days! I mean I just ordered some yesterday... and they were already here today. How awesome is that? I didnt' have to worry about them taking up too much space in my shopping cart. I didnt have to lug them around the store and then in the house from my car. I really like the pampers sensitive swaddlers and some stores don't even carry them... so no worries about that either. You can also find specialty items like sunscreen and toys. I just bought Ceej's 1st bday present!!!

Now I know what you're thinking.......... I don't have kids in diapers anymore.... or I don't have kids at all. Well you still need toilet paper.... and paper towels... how about shampoo and mascara?! That's why its so cool that they just partnered with soap.com. Seriously I was a little skeptical at first. But they lured me in with $15 off my first order for just trying them. And they even have free shipping after $25. So yea... once again... if you haven't tried either diapers.com or soap.com you should. Its free shipping..... and NO TAX!!! So its awesome. And most of the time they have specials going... and I know for a fact JDub just bought kleenex at the store... ok not Kleenex but Puffs Plus with lotion and it would have been cheaper to buy them on soap.com. So now I know!! Once again My Share the Savings Code: LAUR4061 its the same code for Soap.com and Diapers.com

You have the same sign in for both accounts. You can get stuff from diapers.com and soap.com all in the same order.... the same shopping cart.. so its awesome. I love it!!! The only downside is they don't have a lot of customer reviews for their products... but you can always go on amazon and find reviews...... Anywho, I really like it cause they have stuff I usually forget I need at the store. And I have to buy diapers just once a month... and then I can get those items I forget like dish detergent as well!

Oh wait there's more!

Oh wait I forgot to tell you one of the other things that totally sucks right now....... I CAN'T TASTE MY FOOD!!!

I could be eating dog crap and I wouldn't know b/c I can't smell or taste anything right now. Been like that since Saturday. Had spaghetti that night. Didn't matter if it was good... couldn't taste any of it. Sure not being able to smell can come in handy... like when changing a dirty diaper, or if your husband has gas. But it also sucks when you want to smell fresh laundry, a candle you just lit, or if you can't figure out why your babe is crying... oh wait you have a dirty diaper... how long has that been like that?!

I am hungry, but eating anything is depressing b/c I think ooo this sounds good! Oh wait... why even bother cooking when I can't enjoy it! Talk about going on a diet.... they need to create a pill that makes you not tatse and then you'll lose weight... but then you'll be more depressed than ever. I love food. I love eating. Oreos... eh why eat the calories if I can't even enjoy the sweet taste in my mouth! This better go away soon so I can enjoy my food again....

Ugh... ok really I think I'm done now....

Sick of being sick

WARNING: If you don't want to hear a lot of complaining and moaning then stop reading this entry now.... I don't blame you if stop reading now :)

I can't decide what's worse.... having sick kids... or being sick.... OH WAIT I KNOW!!! Being sick AND having sick kids at the same time!!! Yep that's pretty bad... Not only are you having to take care of your sick lil guys, but you also feel like absolute crap. Every time you have to wipe their little noses they're kicking and screaming and shoving you away. Like your head doesn't hurt already from the ridiculous head cold you have. Like you enjoy having to hold down your baby and get that green aspirator and suck an unimaginably huge amounts of snot from his nose and then have him cry more, creating even more snot to have to suck out again.

Here's a recap of the last couple weeks in our house...

Thursday: Bubba wakes up with runny nose. Constantly having to wipe and/or have him blow it. He's only 2 but does know how to blow his nose. He just chooses to run around wiping it on his sleeve, your shirt, the blanket on the couch, whatever he feels like pretty much. I am having to wash my hands constantly as well to try to not get sick myself, causing my knuckles to crack open and bleed periodically b/c of the cold/dry weather.

Saturday/Sunday: Am awoken to Ceej crying like a banshee in his room. I make JDub deal with it... cause well its the weekend and I need a night off every once in a while myself.. after a while of course he brings babe into our room and I am jolted awake by the sound of him struggling to breathe... I nurse him to calm him down... but he is still struggling to inhale. I burst into tears and say I don't know what's going on but we are going to the hospital... After recruiting my mom at 1:00 in the morning to come over (apparently even in your 50's as a mom you still don't get a good night's sleep....... sorry) and stay with Bubba, JDub and I head to the hospital. Only to have Ceej sound way better b/c turns out he has the croup... pretty much just a viral thing you can't do anything for. They did however give him a shot of a steroid to help the inflammation so he could breathe.

Wed/Thursday: Once again woken by Ceej crying at the top of his lungs. This time at least being able to breathe.. but still even nursing him would not console him. Thought I saw him pulling at this ears, and had been forewarned that croup can then turn into ear infections....

Thursday: Lugged both sick boys into the freezing car to the doctor's office we went... Only to find out $25 copay later his ears are just fine... nothing to do... That night MY nose starts running....

Friday: Wake up feeling like death... kind of wishing I were actually dead... Have to somehow pull myself together and take care of these children...... Thank goodness (I know its mean...) JDub comes home early around 1:00 pm he's sick as well... only not feeling as much like death as I do so I am able to take a nap for a few hours.

Saturday: Its my sister's baby shower... which I am hosting.. and all though my other sister was suppose to be there to help poor thing got the stomach flu and couldn't make it (I know her pain b/c all of us had that over Christmas). So yea had to get up and shower and look presentable, and thanks to some ibuprofen I made it. Later that night start to feel fluid in my ears and pain.....

Sunday: Needless to say we didn't make it to church... Ceej was still hacking and well I headed to urgent care to find out yep... I have a double ear infection. After leaving and going to Walgreens to pick up my prescription... oh wait... its only 9:15 am and the pharmacy doesn't open til 10:00.... GRAND!! I come back home and again wallow in my own self-pity. JDub was nice enough to head back out to pick up my meds.

Monday: Bubba is still coughing... and blowing nose a few times a day... But much better over all. Carter is still hacking away, the mornings are the worst... JDub is now feeling like death... but still has to go to work, just like the rest of us.

Tuesday: I think Ceej woke up in the middle of the night... and I thought.. ok.. I'll wait 3 minutes... and then whoops I hear JDub's alarm going off. So either I just fell asleep while he cried or he actually soothed himself... or I dreamt the whole thing. Its really hard to tell these days with all the sleep deprivation. So initially thought it would be a good day.. til I pull Ceej into bed and he proceeds to hack uncontrollably and then puke up all the milk he just drank.. on my bed...

So this is today so far... Tuesday... about 6 boxes of Kleenex........ 2 bottles of Robitussin......2 boxes of dayquil......and a bottle of NyQuil later......... we are still sick...... I am currently on amoxicillon so hopefully that will heal me up quick. Ceej does have a 9 month check up on Thursday so at least he DR will see him then.... and well JDub can take care of himself... at least he's not sick, taking care of sick kids, and unable to take the GOOD DRUGS b/c he's breastfeeding still!!

That is by far the worse... b/c Robitussin can only do so much (which feels like nothing!) and I'd much rather be taking NyQuil to just pass out at night too....

Ok I'm done now.... and I do feel a lil better...........

Brand Names

I find it funny how brand names really tend to stick with me. I'm not sure if its the catchy jingles that sometimes come along with them.... or just because. But here are some examples....

I don't call them tissues... on the contrary I call them Kleenex. I know they aren't really called kleenexes... but I just can't help myself. Its always "Can you pass me a kleenex please...." The funny thing is I don't even like Kleenex brand! I prefer Puffs Plus with lotion... but you don't hear me saying "Pass a Puffs please!" I fear I have passed this on to Bubba. He gets runny noses frequently... and you'll hear him yelling "KLEENEX" whenever he needs one.

Honestly I don't even know what you call Pepto-Bismal... except for calling it Pepto-Bismal! I buy the off brand sometimes but I still call it Pepto. I haven't seen those commercials lately either... where they are doing the Upset Stomach... Diarrhea... Heartburn... Indegestion DANCE. Oh man the first time I saw that I was laughing pretty hard. Can you imagine being an actor trying out for one of those commercials? Too funny!

I am stuck on Band-Aid Brand cause germs don't stick on me! I mean who seriously says "Do you have any adhesive bandages?" No one I know. It's "I need a Band-Aid please!" I kind of miss those commercials with the little kids falling and crying and lo and behold the next scene they're smiling and singing the Band-Aid song showing off their new band-aid on their finger/arm/knee...

Neosporin is one of those things too... what is it again? A topical antibiotic? Nope.. its known as Neosporin to me... brand name or not!

Do you call products by their brand names too?

New house

So I like our house... I do... but with any house there comes lots of issues and something that always needs to be fixed! Back when JDub and I were first looking for a house I did not like our house at all! I can't really remember why... I think I was one of those people that looks at all the decor, instead of the house itself. I mean this place was hideous! It's definitely better now. We have done sooo much to this place.. We've almost painted every room, refinished the hard-wood floors (professionally of course, if you need a number let me know cause that guy was amazing!!!), JDub installed new interior doors (9 doors upstairs alone!) and new trim in most of the house. As far as the outside goes, it doesn't seem like we did a lot of work but we really have. Maybe I'll post some photos of that later.... We'll stay inside for now.

Here are some before and after photos, most before photos are on the left and the after are on the right!

The hard wood floors... they had horrible stains... I never thought they'd look good but we still get compliments years later on how nice they look. We had to remove all the baseboards throughout the house and closets. It was a pain but well worth it :)

The hallway.......

Our basement. It was partially finished... but had concrete floors. We had to rip down some ugly borders here and there... and take down a ton of shelving.... we carpeted, but later had to rip some of that out b/c little Mango decided to pee on it!!





 

 We painted of course... and used the same baseboards down here. Its amazing what a little bit of paint can do to a room!

Here's our living room upstairs..... The pale blue paint was shiny and gross! And don't even get me started on vertical blinds......

I love love LOVE our paint in the living room now. JDub still claims he doesn't like it... and sometimes people think its a bit much. But I don't care. It's my favorite room of the house!

I'll spare you every room... but here's the bathroom we just finished up! Well... not completely finished up... I really want to paint that hideous window white... and we still need to do the trim. By "we" I mean JDub!! I know I've said this before... but he is VERY handy!! Its great having a husband who knows how to use his power tools :)

Now you would think with this being such a small bathroom it wouldn't take that long to re-do it... Well when people don't use the right kind of paint for a high-moisture area... you have to scrape all the paint off. Not just pieces already chipping. And then when you scrape off all the paint, you're also scraping off all the texture!

So not only did it take FOREVER to strip the wall of all the paint, we had to re texture the walls after, and then paint..... All I can say is Ke$ha on my mp3 player got me through this project.....No doubt!



This is partially scraped off paint... the left is off and the
white is what we still needed to scrape off. And there's also
a nice glimpse of the old light fixture!



 

I am very pleased with the way it turned out. We have a nice double hook by the shower to hang our towels just when we need them after showering. The double towel rack above the toilet should work well too. What do you think?!

Side Note:

Now I hate to want to move into a new house since I'm just now liking the one I have now.... but man I want my own bathroom! Every woman who is outnumbered in her home should really have her own bathroom.. When we were looking for a house I said it needed to have 2 toilets... and JDub said a 2-stall garage... well our next one needs to have a Master Bath... Sharing a bathroom with 3 boys is a scary thought!

I owe you....

I hate owing people money.... And I try my best not to owe people money... but if cash needs to be involved I rarely have that... and that's usually when I need to borrow some. I just feel bad! I'd like to say I'm fairly good about remembering when I've borrowed money and making sure its returned to the rightful owner in a timely manner. I guess some people might beg to differ, but I hope they'll agree with me.

Now what's even worse than owing people money... is when people owe you money but they haven't paid up! I try to be nice and give them the time they need to get their hands on the cash... but most of the time I think people just forget! I mean I get it... I forget sometimes too. The same thing goes with borrowing items from people. I've borrowed books, clothes, kitchen utensils... you name it, I've probably borrowed it. But I try again to do my best to return them to the rightful owners! Unless of course they tell me to just keep it or something...

There's nothing worse than having to ask repeatedly for something from someone... only to have them be like "What? I owe you what?.... Are you sure.... I'm pretty sure I paid you... No I gave that back..." Ugh I hate that! Its just so awkward.

Honestly though, if I owe you something and I have forgotten... just please ask. I don't mind. It really doesn't make it awkward for me. I'll give it back or pay you! I'd feel much better knowing its a done deal, and hopefully make it less weird for you as well :)

Mom moments

I love reading and hearing stories about other women who have those "special" Mom moments.... I say special b/c mostly they are the annoying/funny/ridiculous stories you can hardly believe you made it through it! You mom's out there should know what I'm talking about.. Like when you're running late (which I swear is anytime I need to go anywhere...) you have all the kids dressed and ready to go, you have your coat on and the car warming up outside... and bam... Bubba falls flat on his face while walking to the car. He's bleeding.. so you have to stop the car and get your keys and get an ice pack... all while poor lil Ceej is freezing his butt off in the car-seat on the ground beside you...

Here's a nice one we had at Hy-Vee yesterday....... Ceej is now big enough to ride in the cart!! But since I have 2 I like going to Hy-Vee b/c they have the double deluxe carts :) Where 2 kids can ride in the front part right beside each other....

Anyway....

Bubba: "That guy has no hair Mommy"

Me: "Yes honey.... you're right he doesn't..."

Bubba: "Why does he not have hair Mommy?!..... Is he sick?"

Me: "No sweetie... shhh..... its ok he shaves his head like that....."

Bubba: "But Mommy he has no hair? IS  HE SICK?!"

I still don't know if the man heard him... I'm still kind of lucky b/c Bubba can be hard to understand at times... so maybe the man had no idea what he was saying... but man... kids say the darnedest things!