It's true, today is the last day of November! Can you believe it?!? Only 31 short days left of 2010. Only 25 days till Christmas. Only 33 Days until my "baby" turns 2! How is that possible?!? I swear I just started this blog...but I have 334 days down, and 31 to go! WOW!Today was an OK day. I'm still a little bit of an emotional wreck dealing with my pity party carryover from yesterday. I know things are going to get better, and I know things can be MUCH worse, but it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, ya know?!Christian got a few hours of OT today, so that was good. After work I picked the girls up, fed them quickly and waited for Christian to get home so we could do some shopping. So, we picked up some food, a few more Christmas gifts and a couple other necessities. Oh Target, I think I keep you in business!Amelia passed out on the way home from the store, so Christian got Olivia to bed while I actually got a chance to eat some dinner myself! Then, it was time to feed Amelia and put her down, and we were right behind. I guess the 4 loads of laundry waiting to be folded and put away will have to wait...again...and get more wrinkly! Oops.Here's a picture of my little cutie pie today. She sure loves watching Spongebob!
Well, we are not having a good stretch right now. Aside from some personal stuff I won't put out there for the world...My car is STILL not fixed. It is still leaking transmission fluid, and we don't know what to do. Christian is probably going to be taking it to his parent's house again this weekend to give it one more shot. If they can't get it, we're really in a pickle. We can't afford any major repairs, but we also can't afford to have the transmission blow out either. I refuse to just get rid of it, and buy a cheap, used car to get us through...because I'm sure that wouldn't be any more cost efficient than keeping this one running anyway. This is when I get so mad at Christian! About 6 years ago his car gave out on him, so he decided to buy a new car. We were not married or anything at the time, so I had no say whatsoever. One day he comes home and "surprises" me with his stupid little 2-door, 2-wheel drive pick-up truck. Really? First of all, this is Minnesota - you don't buy a 2-wheel drive pick-up truck. Secondly, he's always wanted kids, so, knowing that you are going to have a family in the near future, why would you buy a little 2-door pick-up? So, a couple years later he traded that in for the big pick-up, and we still have another 2+ years left on that loan. If he would have bought this truck to begin with, we'd be done paying for it. Grrrr. So, I have to keep driving my 1999 car with 150,000 miles on it, and try to keep it going until the truck is paid off. NO FUN!Next problem...the house. I feel like we were completely led astray when we bought it 3 years ago. We didn't have a down payment at the time, but Christian was insistent that we buy rather than wait another year...so, we did. The bank asked us what we thought we could afford a month, we told them our thoughts, and they approved us for that amount. We bought a house at the top of our scale because we knew it was going to be our "forever home"...no starter homes for us. We had to build in mortgage insurance into our payment since we didn't have a down payment...we also have our property taxes and homeowners insurance built into our payment. Our banker assured us that the mortgage insurance would drop off after the first year, and our payment would go down. Well, our payment has gone up all 3 years, we are STILL carrying mortgage insurance and were just told we have to continue until we pay off a certain percentage of the loan AND our escrow has fallen short...again, so we owe the bank a nice chunk of money...again, to make up for it. And the banks wonder why everybody is losing their houses and can't make their payments...it's like they tell you what you want to hear and set you up for failure. I don't get it.Anyway, it just seems like the issues pile up over and over. Every time I think we're making some headway on our debt, bills and finances in general, something else happens. Every time I think things are getting better, something else happens. But, I know, in the end everything will work out and everything will be just fine. Right now, I need this:God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next.
Anyways, other than that, today was a pretty low key day. I wanted to get some more Christmas shopping done after work, but Christian had to work late, so I picked up the girls and headed home instead. When I got to his parents house, I knocked on the door and peered in the window to see Olivia running towards the door. She saw me in the window and started yelling "Mommy, Mommy" over and over. As soon as I walked in the door she gave me the biggest bear hug, asked to be picked up, wrapped herself all around me and kept yelling "Mommy" with the most excitement I've ever heard. She was handing out hugs, and kisses and "I Love You's" like they were going out of style. It's like she magically knew I needed that...I needed to be shown that as long as I have my girls, I'll never be short on happiness, joy and laughter. In the end, what more could you really ask for?Here's a picture of my little Amelia Badelia, learning to sit up by herself (supported) so well!
Well, today was the last day of a VERY busy long weekend. I think we need a long weekend to recuperate from our long weekend!
We were all up bright an early this morning. Christian started Olivia’s breakfast while I fed Amelia and got started on my “chores” for the day. I quickly got the kitchen cleaned up, the dishes done and started the laundry. Olivia finished eating and got in some play time while I grabbed a bite to eat…then she and I got ready for a shopping date! I quickly fed Amelia again, and we were off.
Our first stop was Sam’s Club for diapers. Seriously, two in diapers is NO fun financially…Sam’s has be best prices I’ve found so far (Olivia HAS to wear Pampers, otherwise she breaks out really bad, so we don’t even risk it with Amelia)…but still, it’s $78.00 for a box of each of their diapers there! After that, we were off to Target for our weekly shopping. Our fridge is still jam packed with Thanksgiving leftovers, so we could only get some essentials to get through the week. We hurried through the store, then scurried on home.
Christian got Amelia down for her nap while we were gone. Olivia ate a little lunch while I put the groceries away, then it was time for her nap, and the Vikings game for us! The head coach was fired this week (finally), so we were anxious to see how the game went with the new coach. And, they WON! YAY. Hopefully they can finish off the season strong. Most everybody has counted them out completely at this point, but I won’t give up hope yet!
After the game, my dad and stepmom came over for a visit and to go to dinner for my dad’s birthday. We were just going to order in because Amelia is usually so difficult in public, but we decided to give it a whirl. I fed her and we were out the door. We brought her Bebepod Chair for her to sit in since she hates her car seat, and it actually worked out really well! She made it pretty much through dinner with little fussing, and even hung out with my dad for a while! She started getting fussy right as we were paying the bill and getting ready to leave (and Olivia, like usual, was no problem at all – thankfully, she is SO well behaved in public), so it was really perfect timing. However…
There was a guy sitting in the booth behind us, and he kept looking back at us giving us dirty looks – like we needed to get her under control or something. She wasn’t even crying, just letting a whimper out here and there, AND, we were leaving so I’m not quite sure what more he wanted from us. I was so focused on getting the girls ready and getting out the door that I didn’t really stop to realize how upset I was by this man. First of all, we have just as much right to be out as you, sir. Secondly, we were at Applebee’s, a FAMILY restaurant…what do you expect? Third, you are here by yourself…if you saw you were being seated next to two young children, and that bothered you, why didn’t you ask to be seated somewhere else, or sit at the bar? Finally…like I said, we are packing up and leaving, what more do you want us to do for you? Ugh, needed to vent, it was really annoying, and I really wish Christian or I would have said something to him.
After diner, we headed home for some family time. I finished up some more laundry, we played with the girls for a while, gave them their baths and it was off to bed. It’s hard to believe our long weekend together is over already, and it’s back to work. It’s times like this that working mother’s guilt starts to set in…
Here is a picture of Amelia with my dad at dinner (Olivia, like usual, refused to take a picture)…I think it’s just too cute!
Today was another [mostly] fun-filled, busy day for us! The girls and I hung out all morning and while Christian took my car over to his parents again to do some MORE work on it. The transmission fluid is still leaking – Christian has been having to fill it up every time I leave the house! It took them a few hours, but they got it done, and hopefully this finally does the trick! I’m so sick of car problems, and I’d give anything for a nice, new, realizable vehicle…but this car MUST last us at least 2.5 more years. Ugh…that sounds like a LONG time to keep a crappy car alive!After he finished working on the car, he met up with our neighbor to finish hanging the outside lights while I got the girls down for their naps and cleaned up the house a little bit. I think we both were ready for bed and the day had barely begun!After naps, it was time to head out to a birthday party! My cousin Lindsey’s little boy is turning 3, and she had his party at Eagle’s Nest, an indoor playground. I’ve wanted to take Olivia there forever, so I was extra excited to celebrate with them. They all of these nets and stairs and slide and tubes to crawl and climb through, and they have a separate area for kids 3 and under. Well, Olivia was bored to death in that area, so we took her to the bigger kids’ side and she had a blast. Of course, that meant Christian or I had to follow behind her everywhere…and let me tell you…Eagle’s Nest was NOT built for adults. We were both in so much pain and just plain exhausted by the time we were done in there! After dinner, cake and presents, we were on our way home. We got in a little play time at home before baths and bed, then we finally got the chance to finish putting up the indoor Christmas decorations. We decided to just decorate the entry, the upstairs living room and the kitchen this year since those are our main living areas now, and I just LOVE it! The house looks so bright and fun and festive. It’s going to be sad when we take everything down! Finally, we crawled into bed and passed out! It’s been a long day, a long few days, and we have another long day tomorrow. Now, if only Amelia would let me get more than 2/3 hours of sleep at a time, maybe I could recover!Here are some pics from the birthday party fun!
It’s hard to believe, but our amazing high maintenance little girl is 4 months old today! She has pretty much mastered rolling over this month. She can scoot and spin and move herself all over like a pro, but just this past week she has been rolling like a champ. She gets on her tummy and gets so shocked by it, then rolls back and again, it completely shocked! I love it. She’s still not a very good sleeper….I get a good stretch about once a week, otherwise I’m up with her every 2-3 hours. It’s frustrating at the time, but then I remind myself, this will all be a distant memory soon enough, so I really just need to enjoy my time with her. Even though she’s a lot of work, and such a fussy little thing, she still loves to smile and laugh, and has the BEST smile and laugh ever. She still spits up quite a bit, but rarely gets fussy because of it like she used to…she seems to be adjusting well. She is still swimming in her 0-3 month clothes and PJ’s, and size ½ diapers. I’m guessing we’ll get another 2-4 weeks out of them. At least she’s getting plenty of use of her clothes, that’s for sure! When she is propped up on the couch/bed/floor, she can pull herself up to a sitting position (but, can’t stay there, so she just kind of falls over...). She still hates the car and hates being in her car seat. We pulled out the jumperoo this month, and she loves that thing! We can usually get a good amount of stuff done while she’s in there, so it’s great! She is still sleeping in our room, in her bassinet, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. She is so alert and interested in the world around her, I just can’t believe. She is so focused and just looks like she constantly thinking and taking everything in…I don’t remember Olivia being this into her surroundings this early. All in all, she’s just amazing as can be! We just love our little peanut to pieces!
Other than that…today was our traditional “turn the house in the Christmasville” day. We had some breakfast and hung out for a while this morning. Then, it was time to get to work! We pulled out all of the Christmas decorations, rearranged the upstairs living room to make room for the tree and got to work. Once it warmed up a little (and I mean, a little…it was super cold and super windy all day!), Christian went outside to hang up some lights. This is our first year hanging up lights, so we’re pretty excited. Hopefully there will be some good sales on outdoor lights after Christmas so we can get some more! Our neighbor came over and helped him since I was “stuck” inside with the girls, which was very nice. While he did that, I got to work putting up the tree. We have a fake tree…I’ve never been into real Christmas trees…they make a mess, and I don’t really like the scent of pine trees, or the expense of buying one every year. So, we put our pretty fake one up every. I had it all set up by the time Olivia got up from her nap and she was SO excited to see it! Once Christian finished up outside (which took a trip to Menards to get more lights and a timer), he came in, we started blasting the Christmas tree and we decorated the tree. Olivia just loved hanging ornaments and was having the time of her life. She was VERY upset when we were out of ornaments. Amelia was very intrigued by the tree, she just stared at it in amazement the whole time. It was great fun!
Finally it was time for baths and bed. I started unpacking some of the decorations, but was just too tired to do much. So, that will have to wait until tomorrow! Here are some pics from our decorating fun!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! It seems that every year we have more and more to be thankful for; and that is such an amazing feeling! We’ve always had a great family and some really great friend. We are very lucky to have good, stable jobs that we enjoy. We don’t have a perfect relationship, but we sure love each other and are so lucky to have each other. We have the most amazing little girls, and are lucky enough to be celebrating a “first Thanksgiving” two years in a row. We have a beautiful roof over our heads…an expensive one that steals most of our money, but it’s there! We have two working cars, which get us from point A to point B, even though one steals the rest of our money and one is not very reliable! In the end, even though we could find a ton of stuff to complain about and have plenty of “woe is me” moments, we are truly blessed and have far more to be grateful for.I was up bright and early and in the kitchen to make the Thanksgiving pies (apple and pumpkin, yum!) and some cinnamon rolls. Once she woke up, Christian took Amelia over to his parent’s house so we could focus on cleaning up the house and getting everything done. Olivia woke up just in time to enjoy some cinnamon rolls and watch the parade with me! She wasn’t TOO into it this year, but it caught her attention here and there. We started getting some of the prep work done (chopping, peeling, cutting, etc.) and finally were able to shower and get ready for company. My mom came over around 12:30 to hang out and help us, and his parents came over around 1:30. Christian and his dad had to brave the FREEZING cold and wind while they deep-fried the turkey (this was the coldest Thanksgiving since 1985!). My mom, my mother in law and I rotated between preparing, cooking and watching the girls. I finally got Amelia down for her nap, and she slept long enough for us to finish cooking and eat! After dinner, we all cleaned up and were exhausted and way too full…we were like zombies glued to the couches! My mom headed out, followed by his parents shortly after. We were able to just relax and spend a little time together before it was time for bed. Amelia did NOT want to do down for me tonight, which never happens. And, I had to get ready for black “Friday” shopping, so Christian took over and got her down.Shortly after 9:00 our friends Nate and Gini came over. Nate and Christian hung out watching some TV and catching up while Gini and I braved the Toys R Us crowd. Now, I knew it was going to be a madhouse, but OMG I never imagined what we were in for! We pulled off the highway and could see the line wrapped around the shopping complex. It was CRAZY. We considered throwing in the towel, but decided to just go for it. We stood in line outside (in the freezing cold) for about 30 minutes. Once in the store, it was pure chaos. Lines ever where, people everywhere, madness! We split up…she found the tea trolley and got in line, I found the Mickey Train and met up with her. The thing we really wanted, a Graco doll nursery set, was nowhere to be found, and I was very sad. We ended up in line to pay for over an hour! I could not believe it. As soon as we got to the front of the line, I spotted the nursery set up by the door and one of the employees grabbed one for us. I wanted to pass out I was so excited! We finally checked out, made the long, cold trek back to the car, got home, and were exhausted! I got home just in time for Amelia to wake up hungry, Nate and Gini headed home and we all passed out. It was a looooong day! And, with Amelia’s current sleeping habits, I think it’s going to be a looooong day tomorrow too!Here are some of our pics from today. Of course Olivia is on a new kick of refusing to cooperate for pictures, so I couldn’t get a good one of the girls together. Boo!
Today was the start of my long weekend! Christian’s mom had to work today, so I got to spend the day home with my ladies. And boy did we have a good day! Everybody was happy and content. NO crying, no crabbiness, it was wonderful! Christian had to start early, and work late, because of the long weekend, so he picked up some dinner on his way home from work and we all just hung out.We got all of the Thanksgiving food shopping done on Sunday & Monday, so we are set there. We decided to be lazy this year since it’s just my mom and his parents coming over for dinner, so we didn’t worry about cleaning up the house like we usually do…just did some light dusting and picking up. I did scrub down the kitchen, but was able to do that during the day. So, we had the whole evening to just hang out and relax together. And, we’ll be off to bed early because tomorrow will be an early and long day…baking, cooking, cleaning up, shopping...I’m tired just thinking about it!I can officially announce that Amelia is a roller! YAY. She’s been working so hard on it for so long…she would get on her side and just get stuck there, turning in circles and scooting all over. But, she has now gone belly to back to belly to back a few times, and thinks it’s just hilarious! I took some pics of her tonight showing off her new trick!
I walked out of the marble nuthouse and let out the biggest sigh of relief today...for, today, was my Friday! And it was a wonderful feeling! 5 glorious (but busy) days off are ahead of me. I cannot wait for Thanksgiving, spending some quality time with Christian and the girls and all of the fun in store for us this weekend!Today was a very busy day at work. Trying to tie up some loose ends before the very long weekend and of course, the typical “weekend” chatting with everybody! After work we all just met up at home and took it easy most of the night. We had Amelia on the floor for some “floor time”, Olivia decided to join her, along with Minnie and Mickey, of course! It was quite the party!
Well, today was another pretty low key day for us. My work is pretty dead, so today and tomorrow will basically be catch up days, which is nice. Christian’s work is busy as usual gearing up for the Holiday. After work I picked the girls up and headed home while Christian stopped into Sam’s Club and Target to get the last of our Thanksgiving dinner ingredients. We all met up at home and we able to have a pretty peaceful night there. We hung out, ate some dinner, played for a while and then it was off to bed for the girls. Christian and I did our usual evening chores and called it a night pretty early as well. Yup, today was a pretty boring day, just the way we like it!
I decided to step out from behind the camera today, and totally spaced at finding a good throwback photo to post today, so I’ll have to come back and do that!
Today was a good ending to a good weekend. Amelia had me up from about 5-7AM, but then she and I cuddled up in bed and slept together until around 10:00! It was great, we needed to catch up on some sleep! And, her sleeping until 5AM was gift enough to begin with! Christian and Olivia hung out together while we slept, I’m sure Olivia loved her alone time!
We quickly ate some breakfast once we were all awake, and I double checked our Thanksgiving Day shopping list, then, we were out the door, heading to the grocery store. It’s truly amazing just how much stuff you need to make one meal! Christian’s parents are buying the turkey for us, so that’s one thing we didn’t have to worry about. Our menu last year was perfect as can be, so we are just making the exact same stuff…which means I had most of the seasonings that we needed. That helped. There were a couple of things Cub didn’t have…Christian will be off running errands tomorrow to find those things. But, for the most part, we’re all set! The best news is that we actually made it through a shopping trip, as a family of four, with no breakdowns! I had the cart for food, and Christian pushed the girls around in another cart…they had carts with little cars in the front so Olivia was able to “drive” that, while the car seat was in the basket. It worked out well, maybe we will be able to go out in public again finally (maybe….).After shopping, the girls ate their lunch and took their naps, while we watched the most disgusting display of football I’ve ever seen in my life. The Vikings lost to the Packers…well, they might as well have just forfeited really…31-3! How is that even possible?!? Man, this year is beyond crappy. Definitely time for some changes in the Vikings world…After the game, Christian did a little cleaning up in the garage, we made some dinner and hung out for a while. His dad was having some more car troubles, so he went over with Olivia to help work on that. It worked out well because Amelia was having a really hard time sleeping and eating today…just too distracted. So the quiet for a couple of hours did her some good. Now, it’s on to my two day work well…how will I ever make it?!? :)
Olivia is suddenly obsessed with Spongebob. I actually HATE Spongebob…the show is gross and has no educational value to it whatsoever. Unfortunately, she watches is A LOT over at my in-laws during the day, and has fallen in love with him, so there isn’t much we can do about it. She spotted Spongebob in line at the grocery store, so we gave in. She was very proud of him and carried him around the rest of the night…
