Getting the house ready

My chore for the summer given to me by the husband: Get the house ready to sell. We did a lot to it since we moved here 3 years ago- new tile floors in the kitchen and bathrooms and wood floors in the common areas, new oven, painted everything...almost twice, and a few other things like new fans, light fixtures, and new hardware. It's amazing how much we have done and how much more there feels left to do. We need new blinds for the back half of the house, paint work done on cabinets and trim, and the outside needs some loving as well. So yesterday I had my house cleaned - like SPRING CLEANING. All the baseboards, fans, and lovely corners in the window seals. Ahh! It feels good. So now I am ready to start on the projects...mainly calling and getting prices and coordinating being there. Good thing we have a great friend who has a business that can help A LOT. Also, this mean little Bailey's room color has to change because you can't sell a pink room with black stripes...although I would love it if I walked into a house with that. This also means it will not look like a toddler room anymore- sniff, sniff! I love her room - it's my favorite room in the house because it expresses my creativity. One of these days we will get a house where we will stay for 10+ years and I can go crazy. I love turquoise and brown...but I also change my mind A LOT. Maybe it's best to just accessorize in those colors.

Another year older

My birthday was this past weekend...this was the 3rd year in a row Blake has not been here for it. He did get me a Coach coin purse for my birthday before he left so he did good. He also woke up at 4:00 AM in Qatar on my birthday to skype so he could wish me a happy birthday - (awww!!) I went to spend the weekend at my parent's house - although it was only 30 minutes away it was nice to "get away" for the weekend. I planned a yard sale for my mother a month ago and Saturday was the big day so on Friday I was busy putting up signs and pricing all the items with my sister while mom kept finding "junk" throughout the house. I/We had a very successful yard sale of $417.00! They did good and mom let go of her "treasures". Later that morning Bailey and I attended a baby shower and a bridesmaid luncheon for the wedding Bailey will be in next month. Later when I got home my sister-in-law and I went to get baby shower supplies for a shower she was throwing when I remembered seeing a blog on "how to make a diaper cake". So we went and purchased roughly 90 diapers, a bag of rubber bands, and blue "it's a boy" ribbon. We had enough to do a 4 tier cake and it looked great! I think I will make one of these for any baby shower I have to attend from now on. That night me, 2 of my sorority sisters, and my 2 sisters went to dinner at Sa Za's. Their specialty drinks are bad and brace yourself...one of the girls found a fingernail in her pizza the next day! AND while we were there this waitress barely missed our heads and whacked some lady in the head with a plate. So...I don't think I will be going back...we still had a great time and wish we would have found that fingernail while we were there so we could have caused a scene and got our meals for free...but oh well! Thanks to Amanda for making me a birthday cake - my favorite, red velvet! I got some fabulous presents and birthday cash to spend on a shopping trip that is much needed!

Cookies Published

When I started my cookie decorating hobby this website was used by a lot of decorators for their prices. They do business all over the U.S. and are commonly used by cookie decorators. I sent them a picture of my breast cancer cookies and they posted my picture on their website! http://www.thecookiecuttershop.com/cancerribbon/cancerribbon1.shtml

How neat! I can't believe how excited I am over this...it's the little things I guess!

New Priorities

I've started a new devotional that is about making the best out of life - it's a 30 day workbook/devotional. I like the kind you can write in. Each day it asks you to write down your priorities and things you can do that day to make it better. It is challenging because not everyday you have priorities or even time to make it better. Well last night was day 3 I prayed about my priorities, dreams, goals before I started because truthfully I don't know what they are anymore. I used to have lists and lists but some things just aren't as important as they once were to me. So it came to the part where you list your priorities and the one thing I know is my priority is Bailey. And pretty much all the bullets after that were ways to spend time together and improve our relationship. One of the things I said I wanted to do this summer is work on "school" with her. I bought a workbook a few months ago that has tear out pages to work on numbers, colors, shapes, and letters. We did a few pages when I first got it but I didn't stick with it. So as I was running an errand for work I stopped in the dollar tree for some poster board that I needed for a yard sale this Saturday at my parent's house. I walked out with 24 darn things! Can you tell I haven't been shopping?! I got an itch! Well I went down the school isle and found all sorts of stickers and workbooks in her favorite characters. I bought a letters and numbers book, princess stickers, tinker belle crayons, and a few other little gifts for rewards. I never would have gone in there but I had to go by the office store which was next door - I think it was meant to be. So now I am really excited about getting on a schedule in the afternoons about 30 minutes to an hour working on "school". I already bought flash cards with characters on them a few weeks ago and she likes going through them so I think she will really like this one-on-one time learning new things. I also want to do crafts with her - something I used to not do because of the mess, but messes can be wiped up and I don't have to be OCD about it anymore.

11 days down...109 more to go

Busy Dance Week! I was never in dance or an activity at the age of 3. I had a much older sister and brother who were active in things as well as living in Germany at the time (military family). I don't think I cared that my parents didn't put me in classes, but when we moved back to the states I did get into gymnastics and swimming around the age of 8 to 12 years old...then I decided to be a fat kid and watch TV (another reason I got rid of cable this summer). My parents didn't push me to do things so I quit and ate ice cream. Wow...lets get back to the original story...So this was my first time EVER going to a dance recital much less helping with one and being a mom at the same time. We went to the dance rehearsal on Monday and I had the kid who was scared and crying - she did calm down but had to use her tu-tu to wipe the snot dripping from her nose...hysterical.

I couldn't stop laughing and neither could the parents. She did okay but when it came to the second dance she stood there with her bottom lip poked out. So last night we show up early to make sure we are not late (like the night before...oops I wrote the wrong time down). I asked the teacher, "So do we need to all come back here and change their clothes or are certain moms doing that?" the teacher replied, "Oh great! Here you go - this is what you need to do....." FABULOUS! So now I have to run back and forth during the recital and be invisible because I knew Bailey would cry the whole time if she saw me. Well another mom stayed behind stage the entire time so I was able to go back and forth being unnoticed most of the time. Bailey did FABULOUS! I was so proud of her, she didn't cry and did both dances to the best of her ability. She even got a cute little trophy at the end.

As we were leaving and saying our goodbyes to family and friends she was emotional (very tired and hungry) that she cried, "I want my daddy!" and earlier when we were getting ready she said, "I want daddy to see me in my dance dress." Ugg...it was one of those moments where you don't know what to do or say besides "I want daddy to be here too baby." It has been hard on her having him gone again but this time she notices it a lot more that he isn't here. We haven't been able to skype in a few days since his flying schedule has been unpredictable and the time zone change makes it difficult as well. So 11 days down...109 more to go.

Day 10 of Being Frugal

Well I am pretty proud of myself. The only thing I have spent money on the past 10 days were necessities (food, baby shower gifts to make, gas, and Bailey got a princess toothbrush and princess toothpaste, around $10 on entertainment). Also we have survived 6 days of no cable! I did rent a couple of movies this weekend - I haven't done that in months! There were a bunch of chick flicks I have been wanting to see, but Blake hates chick flicks so we always rent action films (happy medium). Another thing I have been looking into is free events for Bailey and I to attend. This past Saturday we went to a local restaurant that had princesses there from 2-4. Bailey dressed up as Belle and we went with a few little friends (I mean...Snow White and 2 Ariel's) from our Sunday School class. She had a great time but toward the end she was really tired and ready to go. I think I paid $12 for our meal that I got "to-go" for dinner that night since it was at an awkward time. We have a busy two days ahead of us - dance rehearsal and dance recital. I'm excited to see her perform and hope she doesn't just stand there or worse - cry! I wish Blake could be here and I know she wants him to see her dance.

Being Frugal 101

I have been wanting to do this post for some time now but wasn't quite ready to announce it/be held accountable. With Blake leaving in 2 days I have been thinking about my summer plans without him. Blake built Bailey a swing set to keep her occupied in the summer and away from the TV. My girl LOVES TV and I am right there too, but I know it isn't good to be so attached so this summer I am getting rid of cable! Yes, all 900+ channels. Now before you think I am going Amish on you - I will watch my 4 or 5 favorite shows on the Internet. I do that anyway or I record it on my DVR so really there will not be a difference except an extra $85 a month we will be saving. Plus Bailey has like 30+ DVD's so the girl won't go without her shows/movies.

So I was looking on the internet and found a blogger who posted this article:
http://www.blogher.com/year-not-shopping

I LOVE IT! I think I am a simplistic person. I don't buy trendy items that are only 'HOT' for the month. Every now and then I find a trend that I like but usually I back out of it or only spend a few bucks on it after researching sales. Plus I like to be a leader - not a follower and I don't like looking like everyone else. So I have decided that I am going to go through my closet and make up new outfits that I have not tried before to make my wardrobe stretch. Also, I am going to go through my pantry and make up meals with things I already have instead of buying randoms at the grocery store. I can do all this because Blake will not be here. I get half of my closet back so I can see all my clothes again instead of it all squeezed together. And since I don't have but myself and Bailey to feed I can make up new concoctions for dinner - if it fails then we can have cereal. Also when I find clothes that I truly do not wear I can donate it, have a swap party with the girls, or put it in my mom's yard sale later this month. I love having a yard sale twice a year because it keeps me from hoarding things that do not matter and it makes me think twice about buying 'stuff ' throughout the year because I like my house to be clutter free.

So starting May 7th - May 21st I am going to put a halt on spending. I know that is only 2 weeks, but that is pretty good considering I LOVE TO SHOP! I will find things in my house to do instead of watching TV and shopping. My birthday is May 22nd so I kind of want to buy a nice lounge chair for the back yard to lay out it while Bailey plays in her fort all summer. After these two weeks I will post how I did and see if I can do it again and even stretch it out. I just really want to save a lot of money this summer while he is gone so when he comes back we will have (1) down payment for a truck, (2) more $$ in savings, and (3) money to repair anything around the house before we sell it next year.