Jen from Lords of the Manor tagged me a few days ago for this Meme and because of sick kids and sick husband plus a Fall Fest at church that I had to help with I am just now getting to it.
5 Life Classes to Fix My Sorry Existence Meme:Devise a list of 5-10 courses you would take to fix your life. It’s more fun to be in classes with friends, so include one class from the person who tagged you that you’d also like to take. Tag five.
1. Organization 101: I am not organized at all. I have often wished that someone somewhere offered this as an actual class.
2. How to deal with crazy family members 101: Between my in-laws and my mom, not to mention my brother, I need help.
3. French 101, 201, 301...: I think I could be perfectly happy with learning about French grammer for a long time. Doesn't everyone think about the construction of a sentence? I could spend all day doing french exercises in a workbook. I love it.
4. Parenting 101: I just need help....But doing my best!
5. Photography 101: I just want to be able to take pictures better. Something as basic as family pictures or taking pictures of my kids that you can hang on a wall. I just don't want to spend the money at Walmart, Sears or any of those other stores..
6. Time Management 101: I am horrible at this. I have no idea where the time goes in a day. On my mission I did pretty well, but as a mom of two small kids, there really isn't much of a schedule other than nap time and eating time...Not to mention making the time to do necessary things in my house like cleaning, starting to pack....
I am going to tag Shell, LeeElle, and Emily. I'll see you in class!!
Friday, November 9, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
I love this stuff
I love polish pottery. I fell in love with it while I was in Germany. It was everywhere! The above picture is of my stuff that a friend bought for me when she went to Poland last March. I myself have been to Poland twice to buy pottery. I loved both times. I have pictures of the second time, but I just want to talk about my pottery right now. It is so much cheaper in Poland than anywhere else. My pattern is the daisy pattern you see on the bowls. I have dinner plates, dessert plates, small bowls, casseroles, large serving bowls, a small pitcher, small canister, salt and peppers, butter dish, and even little buttons. Plus what you see above. I always wanted blue and yellow in my kitchen, and daisies, and this pattern fit perfectly into what I wanted. I have other pieces in different patterns too. They sell it at most PXs and they have pretty good prices for pottery in the states. At the online stores, it gets really expensive. The reason I love this is that you can bake, microwave and put it in the dishwasher. It cooks food better than any pyrex dish that I own. And you don't have to grease it. A little bit of hot water, and it cleans off perfectly. This is one of the reasons that I want to go back, is so that I can get more of this amazing stuff. You put it in a cold oven, and you can heat your oven up to 350 and it will cook anything amazing. Sometimes you can find it at Marshalls, Ross, or TJ Maxx. I actually pulled out a bowl that I'd had for several years and realized that it was polish pottery once I was in Germany. But my husband broke that bowl. Lucky for him it wasn't my favorite bowl. If you have a chance to get some of this, do it. It might be a little pricey, but you will never want to cook with anything else ever again!!! I actually don't have the stuff above yet. I have to go pick it up from my friends neighbor who has since moved to College Station, TX. She brought it with her and I can't wait to get my stuff!! Some of the above are gifts, but the bowls and utensil holder are mine. And the magnets. I cannot tell you how much I love this stuff!!!
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Finally!!!!
We got our orders yesterday!! That means that it is official that we are moving, and that we are for sure going to North Carolina. For you non-military people, orders are just papers that are official military documents that give you dates and places for a soldier and all that are attached to him or her. You don't go anywhere without orders. Which also means we can start the process of getting on the waiting list for houses on post. I have about 6 weeks left in Texas. YAY!! I am just not a fan of Texas. I do enjoy warm (hot) weather, and I will miss that since NC can get very very cold in the winter. But, I have a good friend there, and we will be so far away from our families that they won't be able to visit very often. For some, that is a drawback, but for me, I like my family more when I don't see them very often. We get along better.
Dancing with the Stars was very good last night, once I got to watch it. I have to say, that I wasn't surprised that Jane got voted off. I can't help but wish that they would do something like that for us regular people.
Today at the park, there was a Texas grub. What is a grub? Well, it is yucky. It was at least 3 or 4 inches long, an inch wide, and had tons of legs. It looks like a huge roly poly/pill bug, but about 300 times bigger and yuckier. Andrew picked it up and brought it over telling us that it was a really big caterpillar. Uh, no. OK, just thinking about it is giving me chills and a yucky feeling in my tummy. I hope never to see a bug that big ever again. I should have taken a picture so that I could share it with all of you. Aren't you sad.
Dancing with the Stars was very good last night, once I got to watch it. I have to say, that I wasn't surprised that Jane got voted off. I can't help but wish that they would do something like that for us regular people.
Today at the park, there was a Texas grub. What is a grub? Well, it is yucky. It was at least 3 or 4 inches long, an inch wide, and had tons of legs. It looks like a huge roly poly/pill bug, but about 300 times bigger and yuckier. Andrew picked it up and brought it over telling us that it was a really big caterpillar. Uh, no. OK, just thinking about it is giving me chills and a yucky feeling in my tummy. I hope never to see a bug that big ever again. I should have taken a picture so that I could share it with all of you. Aren't you sad.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Well
So far, I have escaped the nasty bug that has hit everyone else. Don't know how I did it. I was the one cleaning up all of the messes....
I have something to put out there. Growing up, my mom would almost completely redecorate our house every month. In fact, every month my mom had a different theme. I am not joking. She had stupid little knick knacky things to put up, things to hang on the walls, center pieces for the dining room table and the kitchen table, and the island in the kitchen. Not to mention matching table cloths and place mats. It seemed as if every season threw up into our house. Luckily our rooms escaped the decorating fever, but it was every where else. I hated it. I hate it so much, that as an adult, when someone mentions decorating something, I want to run away. My mother continues to give me dust collectors to "decorate" my home for the different seasons. My sister feels pretty much the same way. We don't mind a little, but does every space need to be covered?? Anyway, we've told her we won't use it, we don't want it, but it still keeps coming. She even spent money on sending me decorations when I lived in Germany. I usually give them away to people that would use it.
So far, I haven't lived anywhere long enough to decorate at all. We might hang a few pictures on the walls, but that's it. I don't really have a color scheme, nor do I have much idea what I want other than I want it to have a french feel to it. Mostly the Eiffel Tower (my kids already know what that is. I had to change Andrews pants underneath it. Great memories....)
At church, when I see women spending time to worry about a tablecloth and a vase with flowers or whatever they might put on that table, I think they are crazy. Yes, visual aids are great, but do we need to spend five minutes worrying about a tablecloth that really doesn't matter at all? After we die, are they going to ask if we had a tablecloth without stains or holes on the table during our Relief Society lesson? My opinion is No. It will not matter one tiny bit. Nor will it matter if we decorate our home for every darn holiday on the calendar. Will it matter if our home is a clean, nice looking home that people want to be in? My opinion is Yes. Does having a tablecloth improve the quality of our lesson? No!! I want to try and eliminate those things in our lives that really don't matter that much in the long run. I feel that a lot of my childhood was focused on things that really don't matter in the long run.
I felt that a lot of what I heard from my mom is that our house had to be just so, and I would really get in trouble if the bathroom wasn't cleaned exactly how she wanted. My mom could have dealt with it much better than she did. It was a normal thing for her to get angry and for all of us to run for cover. It was always important to her that we had Easter and Christmas dresses. And that we matched. Um, I hate that, and will never do that to my children. How about we just look nice? Why stress out about it and sew late into the night for that one Sunday that we all match. Just not worth it to me. To be honest, I'm not sure yet how I'm going to deal with the chore thing and when they don't do all that needs to be done. Right now, and I do this already sometimes, I get down on Andrews level and tell him that I don't like cleaning up either, that it is hard for me to do it, and if we do it together we can do it. Or that we have to do it, even if we don't like it. It has only worked once so far, and those few minutes of hearing him tell me (after I had picked up his room some) that he was cleaning up his room, and look mom, I'm doing my part and you did yours. That was one of the best feelings I've had in a long time.
I guess the point of this post is to remind myself that so many things don't matter, but if you deal with them the wrong way (like losing it over the little things) they will matter. It is such a hard balance for me. I find that when I stress over things I don't treat those around me very well. So, do I keep my home spotless, be stressed out and mean, or do I let it be cluttered and treat my family nicely? I guess I need to learn to do both at the same time, but for now, I'm OK with a cluttered home as long as the important things are cleaned (like the bathrooms) and I treat my kids like they should be treated. It is also OK for those that enjoy decorating or doing whatever it is that they like to do, but for me it isn't worth it if those around us get treated badly because of it, or if more important things are neglected. Anyone have any ideas on how to balance all of this? Have you succeeded? Because I need some help!!
It might seem to you that I'm a basket case and you wonder how I function. You know, some days I wonder that same thing....
Lucy woke up crying a little while ago while I was typing my post and she had thrown up again...sigh... will this never end?? I am done with this bug!!!
I have something to put out there. Growing up, my mom would almost completely redecorate our house every month. In fact, every month my mom had a different theme. I am not joking. She had stupid little knick knacky things to put up, things to hang on the walls, center pieces for the dining room table and the kitchen table, and the island in the kitchen. Not to mention matching table cloths and place mats. It seemed as if every season threw up into our house. Luckily our rooms escaped the decorating fever, but it was every where else. I hated it. I hate it so much, that as an adult, when someone mentions decorating something, I want to run away. My mother continues to give me dust collectors to "decorate" my home for the different seasons. My sister feels pretty much the same way. We don't mind a little, but does every space need to be covered?? Anyway, we've told her we won't use it, we don't want it, but it still keeps coming. She even spent money on sending me decorations when I lived in Germany. I usually give them away to people that would use it.
So far, I haven't lived anywhere long enough to decorate at all. We might hang a few pictures on the walls, but that's it. I don't really have a color scheme, nor do I have much idea what I want other than I want it to have a french feel to it. Mostly the Eiffel Tower (my kids already know what that is. I had to change Andrews pants underneath it. Great memories....)
At church, when I see women spending time to worry about a tablecloth and a vase with flowers or whatever they might put on that table, I think they are crazy. Yes, visual aids are great, but do we need to spend five minutes worrying about a tablecloth that really doesn't matter at all? After we die, are they going to ask if we had a tablecloth without stains or holes on the table during our Relief Society lesson? My opinion is No. It will not matter one tiny bit. Nor will it matter if we decorate our home for every darn holiday on the calendar. Will it matter if our home is a clean, nice looking home that people want to be in? My opinion is Yes. Does having a tablecloth improve the quality of our lesson? No!! I want to try and eliminate those things in our lives that really don't matter that much in the long run. I feel that a lot of my childhood was focused on things that really don't matter in the long run.
I felt that a lot of what I heard from my mom is that our house had to be just so, and I would really get in trouble if the bathroom wasn't cleaned exactly how she wanted. My mom could have dealt with it much better than she did. It was a normal thing for her to get angry and for all of us to run for cover. It was always important to her that we had Easter and Christmas dresses. And that we matched. Um, I hate that, and will never do that to my children. How about we just look nice? Why stress out about it and sew late into the night for that one Sunday that we all match. Just not worth it to me. To be honest, I'm not sure yet how I'm going to deal with the chore thing and when they don't do all that needs to be done. Right now, and I do this already sometimes, I get down on Andrews level and tell him that I don't like cleaning up either, that it is hard for me to do it, and if we do it together we can do it. Or that we have to do it, even if we don't like it. It has only worked once so far, and those few minutes of hearing him tell me (after I had picked up his room some) that he was cleaning up his room, and look mom, I'm doing my part and you did yours. That was one of the best feelings I've had in a long time.
I guess the point of this post is to remind myself that so many things don't matter, but if you deal with them the wrong way (like losing it over the little things) they will matter. It is such a hard balance for me. I find that when I stress over things I don't treat those around me very well. So, do I keep my home spotless, be stressed out and mean, or do I let it be cluttered and treat my family nicely? I guess I need to learn to do both at the same time, but for now, I'm OK with a cluttered home as long as the important things are cleaned (like the bathrooms) and I treat my kids like they should be treated. It is also OK for those that enjoy decorating or doing whatever it is that they like to do, but for me it isn't worth it if those around us get treated badly because of it, or if more important things are neglected. Anyone have any ideas on how to balance all of this? Have you succeeded? Because I need some help!!
It might seem to you that I'm a basket case and you wonder how I function. You know, some days I wonder that same thing....
Lucy woke up crying a little while ago while I was typing my post and she had thrown up again...sigh... will this never end?? I am done with this bug!!!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Unbelievable
So, the morning of Halloween, Lucy started to throw up. Between 9 and 2, she threw up at least 10 times. So much fun. She was better after her nap, and hasn't thrown up since. Last night while I was giving Lucy a bath, Andrew runs into the bathroom and throws up all over the floor. He throws up at least 6 times. I kept both of them on the living floor on a towel. Lucy was harder to keep on the towel than Andrew. So, I slept on the couch with the lights on so that if Andrew woke up he wouldn't freak out. I haven't been feeling my best, but its probably because I was up way too late again. Matt got home from work, and told me that he didn't feel very good, but that he had gotten a flu shot yesterday, and that was probably why. Um, flu shots don't make someone throw up. Right now, he is laying on the couch. And if he throws up, it is going to be up to him to clean it up. I've cleaned up about 15 throw ups in the last two days. The funniest thing about Matt throwing up is because I told him that he better make it to the bathroom if he needed to. He said that he has only thrown up once from being sick. 20 minutes later he was hugging the porcelain. So, I am just waiting for my turn. I can hope that it will pass me, but I don't think it will. And I don't know how Matt got it when he isn't around the kids near as much as I am. The only good thing about this sickness is that it is very short lived. With any luck, Matt will feel much better by the time he goes to bed tonight. If I'm not back here for a few days, you will all know why....
Jen and MommyK: hopefully this weekend I will be able to get to your tags. Thank you MommyK!!
Jen and MommyK: hopefully this weekend I will be able to get to your tags. Thank you MommyK!!
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