Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Would You Rather?

Would you rather sleep 10 hours at night, but have to wake up every 90 minutes for 15 minutes, or would you rather sleep 6 hours straight every night?

I would choose the 6 hours straight.  I'll even take 4 hours straight.  Unfortunately, my experience is a mixture of the two: 6 hours, but waking up every 90 minutes.

Let's face it.  I'm in a really bad mood.  I've been up for almost 3 hours already and it's only 7:30.

I know you probably think I'm irresponsible going to sleep so late.  My baby goes to bed at 7:20 and my big kid goes to bed at 8.  That means I should get plenty of sleep right?  I usually like to stay up and wait for my husband to get home which is not a problem because I usually have to clean anyway.  Then I cook him dinner, and go to bed which usually ends up being 10.  Before I wake up at 5 to get ready and spend a few minutes with my husband, I have already been up 5 or 6 times.  I'm tired of it and just tired in general.

I keep putting off sleep training Jocelyn because she's so tiny and I always think she's starving in the middle of the night.  Now that she eats more than my 2-year-old in solids, I'm ready for her to cry it out.  Just 3 more weeks.  The next few weeks will be really busy and hard for John with finals, so I've decided to wait to let her cry it out until after his finals.  Instead I'm complaining about how grumpy I am.

Might as well complain more right?

I know later I am going to debate deleting this post because I'm being so negative, but right now I'm so tired I don't care.

Yesterday I made chicken cacciatore (bloody chicken) for dinner with polenta.   It usually turns out really delish, but this time around, it was pretty gross.  I ate a little, but then started snacking on junk food.  It's so devastating, but rare when I cook a disgusting meal.  Now I feel as junky as the food I ate.

I even wanted to take my girls out for a walk this morning, but grumpy people don't exercise.

Point of this story, I'm tired.  Haven't slept all night since before I was pregnant with Jocelyn.  If I'm in a bad mood, I want other people to know about it.  How self centered right?

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Wait, Am I An Alien?

Sometimes I realize that the bubble that I've been living in is a lot thicker than I ever thought.  It's less of a soapy bubble and more like a steel, sound-proof, at-the-bottom-of-the-ocean bubble.  I never really realized that I was so different from "the world".  Living in Idaho didn't really help me realize how different I am, but a little bit of Texas, youtube surfing, and a book I've been reading about pressures of adolescent girls opened my eyes to what people really deal with.

I really enjoy my life and the way that I grew up.  I never felt like I was a loser at school or was even pressured into things that I didn't want to do.  I was never even offered to do things that I knew were wrong, so I thought people never really did them.  Let me explain by starting with high school:

I am reading a book called Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.  This book was written almost 20 years ago (1994), so when I saw when it was published, I thought it wouldn't even apply to now or even when I was in high school.  The book addresses a lot of different pressures that girls go through: depression, weight, sex, drugs, violence.  The book is written by a psychologist who is writing different examples of girls that she has had in therapy.  Generally, I was shocked with how many girls are introduced to sex and drugs at such a young age and how many actually participate in that kind of behavior.  I'm sure now kids are introduced to it younger and younger.  

(eye break)

When I was in high school, I was never offered alcohol or drugs.  Is it because every weekend I hung out with the same kids that had high standards like I did?  Yeah, I bet.  I was lucky enough to have a group of great people to hang around, but naive little me thought that everyone had nice friends that had wholesome fun and I thought only the really popular people who had parents with loads of alcohol at their house drank.  In fact, I didn't even know what alcohol smelled like until I was (ironically) a missionary.  That's when I learned that I really like the smell of alcohol and I would definitely, no doubt in my mind be an alcoholic if my parents didn't teach me that I should never drink alcohol.  And I'm not saying that jokingly.  When I smell it, my body actually craves it.  Even more than chocolate.  Never tasted it, NEVER will, but definitely need to stay away from it.

So big bubble right?  Here's the kicker: more than 10 kids from my high school drank alcohol underage.  I know.  I was as surprised as I'm sure you are now when I realized the statistics.

Okay, so drugs, alcohol, sex , whatever.  I thought they never existed, but they really do.  You get the point.

Next:  Okay, don't judge me.  So everyone knows I like watching Ellen youtube clips.  If you don't know, now you do.  So she always has this lady on her show named Bethenny Frankel, who I realized as her own show.  I thought that maybe I would watch a few clips (but I don't really recommend).  Learned some interesting things:

The first clip I watched was some women's panel.  They showed a clip of a guy who rode his bike everywhere and used coupons and looked for deals when eating out.  Bethenny asked her lady panel if they would ever date a guy who didn't have a car, but instead rode his bike around everywhere and used coupons to eat out.  All of the said NO!  They were shocked that anyone would ever date a carless, coupon-eating man.  They claim that a woman needs to be treated like she's a princess and that a man needs to invest in a relationship if he wants it to last.

I couldn't help but giggle because my husband rides his bike everywhere and we always looks for good deals when going out to eat.  When we were dating, (and when I was quite thinner) we would just get one meal at a restaurant and share it and usually still had leftovers.  I know that's a little odd, but we didn't waste money on uneaten food.  I still feel like John treats me like a princess and invests in our relationship in other ways like paying cash for my wedding ring and saving for retirement and our girls' college education rather than going into debt for a piece of jewelry and spending money on expensive meals now and living of social security in the future.  And that's just the money side of the way he cares.  Does that means he doesn't love me the way that frivolously spending men love their special lady?  According to them yes.

Wait, hold on.  If you did not pay cash for your ring, I'm not dissing you yo.  That's just an example of my husband frugality and wanting to be responsible with his current financial situation.  I know that a really expensive ring is important to some people which is totally fine because it lasts forever and is symbolic, but I don't understand not using a coupon for a meal because it's not "investing in a relationship".

My thoughts are everywhere and I wouldn't blame you if you stopped reading now.

My point is, that what I thought was normal really isn't.  Did you know that a lot of people live together before they get married?  Like, almost everyone does.  People spend money that they don't have?  I knew people drank, but I didn't know a ton of people go to bars and they even drink on weekdays?  Some people sleep with someone without even knowing their name?  See, I had heard all of this before, but I never realized how common it is.

I just couldn't imagine growing up in a different world than the one that I grew up in.  I don't consider myself sheltered because I define a sheltered person as someone who has never been exposed to things that could help them live up to their highest potential.  I don't think there is anything wrong with not knowing about what really goes on around me.  Just because I haven't viewed porn or sipped a little wine doesn't categorize me as sheltered. I try not to judge people.  I don't think that these actions make these people bad people.  I really want everyone to see what truly being happy is.

Believe it or not, I had tons of fun as a single person.  Yes, I did enjoy a good Care-EEE-oh-key without being drunk and I enjoyed going on dates without getting frisky.  Now as a married person with a family, I enjoy every moment with my kids.  I still go out on date with my husband and have some "me" time, but kids are not a burden and don't block me from doing what I want to do.  Of course everything is a little harder with kids.  But would I trade my kids for tons of money, traveling the world, and have that smoking hot body that I use to have?  No way!  If I had to choose between being dirt poor, never traveling, sleeping at 8 every night, and having my children or being totally rich with a double-income family, travel the world, go out to fancy dinners every night, and still fit into a size-tiny dress, I would no doubt be the dirt poor lady with kids.  It devastates me to know that some couples who are totally capable of having children would pass up such a unique and purely joyful opportunity.

You probably know what I should do now.  Share a little gospel!  Because, let's face it, I'm who I am because of it.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

My To-Do, To-Don'ts

Earlier this year I made a To-do list for the year.  I'm still working on it, but I'm a little devastated that I didn't do a few of them because it all has to do with things that I wanted to do in Idaho before I left.  I don't want to mention again how busy I was (even though I just did), but I didn't do these out of laziness, I didn't do them because I simply I too much to do in too little time.

So here are the things that I didn't do.  But just to make things even, I want to replace them with things to do in Texas so I still fell like I'm accomplishing a lot.

6.  Yellowstone: We have gone to Yellowstone 4 or 5 times since we've been married (3 years and counting), so it's not like I've never been there.  I am a little bummed out that Jocelyn still hasn't gone.  But the next time our renters move out, then I'll take the kids up to Idaho and take them, along with cleaning and updating our house.

7.  Tetons:  As much as I love the Tetons (because we've been there equal amount of time) I think I'm okay not going because my little dinky car from high school has trouble going up the huge mountain to the other side of the Tetons.  That's also on the list to visit when we go back up to Idaho someday.

9.  Craters of the Moon star gazing:  I guess there are stars everywhere so I don't need to worry about that right?  I'm justifying for not going.

11.  Watch sunrise on top of Cress Creek with the entire family:  Again, the sun is everywhere.  John and I wake up every morning before the sun is up anyway.  I'll just look out my window and replace it with something else.

16.  Hit my weight loss goal by December:  This will probably sound completely ridiculous to you and sound like I'm justifying my need to test every flavor of Blue Bell Ice cream, but I'm not paying attention to the goal anymore because I've always had problems producing enough milk for my little baby and the only way for me to make enough is by eating a lot.  However, even though I eat more than normal humans should, I still make sure those are healthy calories and Blue Bell ice cream.  But when I stop breastfeeding, I'm ready to starve again.

Oh.  And I don't exercise, but that's for another blog.

18.  Palisades 19. Harriman State Park:  I've just never been so that's why I wanted to go, but I've never heard anything amazing about these places, so maybe I'm not missing out too much.

So that's 7 things on my list that I can no longer do.  I am trying to research more about this area so I can replace these adventures with something else.  So far I have the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory.  Does anyone else have any ideas?

I'm already working on my list for next year!  Some things will stay the same like date night and trying to introduce someone to the gospel.  Since I started my list and read other people that have lists, one thing that I notice is that a lot of people think that to-do lists are really ambitious and neat, but they would never do it for fear of not doing everything on the list.  I think that's why, for so long, I never did a list like that.  But see, I didn't do 7 things on my list.  I tried to, but couldn't, but that didn't stop me from starting 2014's list!

It all started when I was a missionary and my first companion said, that our goal was to get a new investigator every day and invite them to be baptized.  Yeah right.  Right?  Wrong.  I never went a day as a missionary without getting a new investigator.  I don't think that would have happened if my first companion and I didn't set that goal.

Even though reading 50 books in a year with two kids seems a little unrealistic, I'm positive that if I didn't set that goal, I would not read 50 books or even read that many at all.  In all honesty, I'm way behind on that one.  I only have 21 under my belt, but that's still more than nothing!

I encourage everyone to make a list of things that are hard to do that you wouldn't normally do, or make a list of things you have never done!  One thing that will be on my list every year will be to introduce someone to the gospel.  If I could do it every day as a missionary, surely once a year is reasonable now.  It's pretty hard for me considering I only make friends at church, but it can be done.

I'm excited for my end-of-the-year update with everything that I was able to do.  Hopefully you are too, but if you're not, that's okay.  I'm sure this is way more interesting to me that it is to you.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

My Poor Life

Hilarious story, or at least I think it's pretty hilarious:  John was in his Economics class and they were talking about something that I didn't understand when John's teachers said, "John, how much would you pay for a shirt?" He said, "12 dollars", thinking that that was totally reasonable especially considering that the shirt he was wearing cost 4 bucks.  Well, everyone in the class laughed.  I thought that was reasonable with my thrifty shopping.  The teacher asked 2 other people who said $30 and another said $50.  I can't even fathom spending 50 bucks on a shirt.  Maybe $30 if it was diamond studded.

Don't get me wrong.  We haven't always been like this.  Well, yes we have.  I feel like I've always been fiscally responsible (fiscally boring as my sister says).  Before we had kids, we could afford things like flying, flying other people, buying useless breast milk pumps, going out to dinner often, road trips, mini road trips, and other things.  Keep in mind, all responsibly.  Now with my $250 income (from our rental) I can afford rental repairs.

Wow.  This sounds awful.  I don't want you to feel sorry for me.  I'm actually really happy to be at this point in my life and I'm excited for things to happen in the future!

So, how am I going to live?  Easy.  Loans.

And (keep your fingers crossed) food stamps.

Is this too much information?

Probably.

Do you even care?

Probably not.

Or maybe you do if you want to feel rich.

Anyway, point is, I want to share with you reasons why I am not afraid to take food stamps and I think that other people should too in the same situation that I am in.  I actually asked a new friend of mine about government assistance and she said that she feels that people need to take responsibility for themselves instead of getting money from a government with no money.  She makes a good point.  I think there are a lot of reasons not to take assistance, but here are my reasons why I am.

1.  I feel like food stamps are like a loan from the government with a 99% continuous compounding interest.  Government assistant programs are for people like my family (or at least I think it is).  When John's done with grad school, a bunch of his paycheck will go to taxes, far more than we will receive in stamps.  They're investing in us.

2.  I always thought people should be really ashamed to be on food stamps.  But then I met a lot of really great people who just struggled financially and needed this aid for a short period of time.  I thought everyone on food stamps were lazy slobs who had no plans ever to get a job or shower.  I was very judgmental until I met real people who didn't fit my stereotype.  Normal people do it too!

3.  I need to feed my family.

That's actually all. I feel like they are good reasons and I don't think anyone should be ashamed.  It takes courage to apply, but it's there for a reason.  Oh by the way, I'm not on food stamps yet.  I'm still waiting for my interview because apparently the process takes 2 months.  Love government agencies, but I can't complain, or at least shouldn't complain if I qualify.


Sunday, August 4, 2013

I Should Be a Professional Organizer

I can probably organized your house in 20 baskets or less.  That is, unless you're a hoarder.

For any of you who grew up with me, went to college with me, or even know me now, you probably know that I'm a pretty big slob.  You know what?  I'm okay with that.  You know why?  Because even if everything is a mess, and everything is everywhere, I still know where everything is.  I think I get that from my mom.  She always know where everything is even if she hasn't seen it in 3 years and it's buried in a box in the attic.  For example, when we were unpacking, John asked me where the scissors were and I told him it was under two other boxes, in a different room, and even in a box that shouldn't have scissors in the first place.  See.  I don't need to be organized.

However, I didn't know where our tools were.

But there is just one thing that I didn't like about being so unorganized.  I LOOK like a slob.  I don't care if I am one, but I want to appear as though I am neat and clean and actually care about what people think of me when they come to my house.  Plus my husband is SUPER clean and organized so the least I could do was start organizing my house.

My mother-in-law really should be a professional organizer. In fact, the first 3 times that we moved, she was always there to help me organized all of our stuff.  I didn't have her this time, but I think I did a pretty darn good job at organizing everything.  My trashy apartment actually looks like a nice little home.

The absolute hardest part about organizing everything is keeping it organized.  It has taken me a lot of discipline and several years of practice and I still need to practice more, but my house is still pretty organized.  Plus with my two kids, it can be pretty tough.  I do sweep up cheerios of my floor 5 times/day, but for the most part, it isn't that bad.

Okay, time to stop rambling and time to show some pictures.

This is the linen's closet, but I put my food storage in there instead because I have other ways to store my towels.  Plus, all that cereal, oatmeal, and Chewy Bars that you can't see were all under 60 bucks total.  I'm pretty good with looking for deals and couponing.

Keep in mind that we did go down from a 4 bed, 2 bath house to a 2 bed, 1 bath apartment.  This is our storage closet.  My motto is "Organize Up".  My sister got sick of me saying it when I reorganized her house, but my house looks so much nicer with the floor clear and everything up high.  We added a hook strip to the right side and put a bathroom organizer on the right. 

I don't really do much drawer organizing, but I do with my kitchen stuff.  My nephew Bryce organized this drawer for me!  I'm glad he wants to follow in his favorite Aunt's footsteps and do major organizing. 

Again, this is with my organize up idea.  Also, another thing that I never do is just put something on the shelf unless it's big.  EVERYTHING has a basket. All the baskets that I have I got from the dollar store because they surprisingly have really nice baskets.  However I have noticed that the bigger Dollar Tree stores have a bigger selection of  baskets.  If it fits in a basket, put it in and put it up high.  Then I use shoe organizers for all our shoes and I actually hang our towels in the girl's room in the closet because they have the biggest closet in the house.

See.  NOTHING on the floor.

You can call me a little obsessive about floor space.  I even have our huge old school TV (the ones that aren't paper thin) in our front closet so that it doesn't take up room in our living room.  We only watch TV for Disney Princesses, so it is nice to have it hidden away.

Surprisingly I actually enjoy it.  I helped my sister organize her house and her son loves to help me organize!  I don't want to bore you with too many pictures of my house, but I like the way it looks.  My sister's house looks unrealistic for her lifestyle, but I'm sure she loves it.  So if anyone is too lazy or just doesn't know how to organize his or her house, give me a call, bake me some bread (or buy me my new favorite Blue Bell ice cream), and I'll organize your entire house.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Stop Playing on the Escalator!

I live in Texas now, but I will never call myself a Texan.  I love the place, but I hate bugs, never plan on buying cowboy boots, and I can even begin to try to fake the accents everyone has around here.  If I had a dollar for every time I heard the word "ya'll", I would already have my house paid off.  I guess that doesn't say much since my house is cheaper than most expensive cars.

My husband started his MBA orientation this week.  He has to dress "business casual" most of the days and for a Mormon guy with only white shirts, he can't wear that every day!  I decided to take my girls to the mall and do some shirt shopping.

I was in Macy's and Olivia was getting pretty tired and started to whine a little bit, but I found the shirt that I wanted to get John and proceeded to the check out.  I bought the shirt and headed to the escalator because Olivia loves stairs, but even more, she loves moving stairs.  We get to the escalator and we both stepped on the same step at the same time.  I was even holding Olivia's hand, but she got scared at the last minute, let go and I started going down without my little girl!  With Jocelyn in my front carrier, my baby bag strapped over my shoulder, and open stroller and Macy's bag in one hand, I raced up the 5 or 6 steps I was already down like a mad woman!  My stroller kept bumping on the side and considering how out of shape I am, it wasn't very graceful and took me longer than most multi-tasking moms.  When I got to the top, a very irritated, possibly angry worker came up to me and raising her voice said, "Ma'm.  You need to stop playing around!  You have to take the elevator!"  Really?  Did she think I was playing around?

I wasn't angry or anything.  I just politely asked where the elevator was.  I thought it was pretty hilarious at the time that she could get so mad at me for trying to get my scared kid.  My sister said it's probably because I look like a teen mom, so she thought I really was playing around.  And for those of you who haven't seen me in a while, I don't look like a teen mom.  I've aged 30 years in the last decade.

That's my story #1.

Here's #2.  It's more of an advice story than an interesting one.

I live in a really ghetto apartment, but I expected that with my extremely cheap rent.  We have some nice guys that live below us that just live a different lifestyle than we do.  They're single and they smoke pot, a lot.  No big deal.  They're pretty mellow.  I can live with it.

My kids go to bed at 8PM and Jocelyn wakes up at 6:30, and Olivia wakes up a little before 8.  A few days ago, Olivia woke up around 8:30 and was running around the apartment which is pretty run down, so I know that my downstairs neighbors can hear the walking, but I didn't think that it would be that big a deal in what I thought was the late morning.  Around 9:15, one of them comes up and asks if Olivia will stop running around because he works late (gets off at 11) and he needed to sleep.  Totally understandable right?  I kept Olivia quite, but I let her resume to her usual 2-year-old behavior around 11.

The next day, they were playing loud music, I mean LOUD music from 6-10 PM.  It didn't keep my kids awake.  It was annoying, but at least my kids slept through it.  When Jocelyn woke up at 12:30, I heard one arguing with a woman.  At 4:30, I could still hear them awake!  When John left the house at 6, they were still awake.  I know they're single and everything, but they can't expect me to keep my kids quite all morning and early afternoon.  If they think that's what I'm going to have to do, then they have to stay quite from 5 at night during our family activities through their bedtime.

I'm pretty sure we are matched up with the worst possible neighbors for our family.  I know that they are just single dude that stay up late and I totally understand that.  I don't want them to be burdened with the annoying family that lives upstairs.  Tell me what I should do?  Right now, I'll just suck it up until I move next December.  And after 11 AM hits, I'm not keeping my kids quite.  That's good right?

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Retail Banking and a Blessing

John always tells me stories about angry customers.  Let's face it; John doesn't like his job.  It was fun for a little while, but he gets sick of people yelling at him for things that can't be controlled.  I think it's horrible and hilarious that people get an overdraft fee, yell at John with every swear word imaginable and threaten to close their account because "John has treated them so horribly".  The fact is they spend money they didn't have.

So I don't get it.  Why do people get mad at the worker when it's not the worker's fault and it's out of their control?  It's pretty obnoxious.

Now here's there really good story:

Our house is up for rent.  On Monday at 3:30 we had a family that wanted to look at the house.  Whenever someone comes to look at the house, we are not allowed to be here.  Supposedly homeowners "scare potential renters".  I had to take my daughter to the doctor, so I was going to be out anyway.  At around 3:45, I came home and I saw the Property Manager and  the potential renters driving away.  I circled around the block and went home.  When I came home, the lock was broken.  It took me a few minutes to open the door.

No big deal right?  Locks break occasionally.  It just happened to be when someone else was in my home.  For some reason, I didn't worry about it.

On Tuesday I went to WalMart to get a new lock.  Olivia fell asleep in the car, so I put her to bed right when we got home.  Less than an hour after I got home, four teenage boys came out of a black car and walked up to my house.  Three of them when right to my backyard and one went to my front door.  I could see them through my front window.  I could hear the one boy at my door fiddling with my lock box.  I calmly opened my window and said, "hey can I help you?"

Keep in mind, I was still pretty calm.

The boys were pretty startled.  The boy at my door had the code to my lock box and had my house key in his hand!  He said he thought he could just go in because the house was for rent.  I told them if they wanted to tour the house, they had to call property management.  Well, there was NO WAY four 17-18-year-old boys could have the credit score to rent out our house, so I knew they either wanted a party house or they wanted to steal stuff.  Right when they started leaving, I called a friend to come over and she and her husband came within 2 minutes.  I called John and he came home from work too.  I was pretty shaken.

The blessing part is, if the lock didn't break on Monday, the kids would have been in my house and who knows what could have happened.

I called my property manager and changed my locks.

The next day I went into my property manager, they apologized profusely, and I gave them my new keys.  I asked the guy there what the lock combo was on my lock box and he just rattled it off like he had them all memorized.  I thought that was okay because I know the office all knew about what happened at my house.  Maybe that's why he knew the combo without looking it up.

So what did I do?  My friend and I went to another house that night with a lock box and tried the code.

It was the same.  ALL the houses have the same code.  AND they give it code out to anyone who wants to see any of their houses!  If you want a vacant party house, let me know.  I'll give you a list of empty houses and a code.

Is this post long enough?  Well, let's make it a little longer.

The more and more I thought about it, the angrier I was that they let ANYONE walk into my house as long as nobody lives in it.  On Wednesday, I packed up both the kids and went to property management.

Okay, going back to John's work.  I could have easily gone in and yelled at him and threatened to take my business elsewhere.  In fact, I did say I would but nicer:

I walked in, and told Jared (my property manager) that I like this property management place, but there is just one thing that I can't get over: they let anyone in my house unaccompanied.  He interrupted me to apologize again and told me that he called all his potential renters and asked if anyone sent teenagers to my house.  He said all of them said they did not send anyone to my house.  I'm not sure how true that is.  I'm just not sure how that conversation went: "Hey someone punks tried to break into a lady's house.  You send them?"  Well, I asked a bunch of clarification questions and it came down to this: I said, on Tuesday, I lost all my trust in your procedure to rent out my house.  I never want anyone unaccompanied in my house .  I never want a lock box on my house.  I just feel like I can't trust this company anymore.  Unless you can do something to build up my trust in you again, I will need to switch property management companies.  I just don't feel comfortable for my family's safety while I'm here and I don't want my property trashed when I leave.

He said that in the 700 properties that they have, that never has any one been trashed.  However he promised me that he will hide the lock box on my property and write in my file that no on is allowed in my house unless accompanied by a property manager.

I told him that that was very comforting, but the day that a lock box is put on my front door will be the day that I find a new property manager.

He was fine with that.

I felt like I handled the situation well despite the fact that I was actually in danger because of their poor procedure.  But unlike people at the bank, I never yelled and I asked for clarification.  Because yelling at a worker does nothing.

That's my long story.  Doubt anyone made it through the entire thing, but now I can just print this off and put it in my journal.  Wonderful.

Point is: never yell at a worker when the thing that you are angry about is not their fault and sometimes a broken lock can actually be a blessing.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Pinterest, You've Changed Me

First of all, Shout out to Jewel (wow, I called you by your first name) for reading my blog.  Hers is pretty hilarious!  This is one of my favorite blog entries that she has written and it's not because I'm completely self-centered and it's about me.  Unfortunately the story is not exaggerated at all.  But you seriously need to take time to read that story if it's the last thing you do today.

My friend Kate signed me up for pinterest years ago, but I never signed back in and never used it.  I recently started using it because I was copying and pasting all the websites and ideas that I liked on a word document that I never saved anywhere else.  After going through several laptops, I lost all the stuff I wanted.  Now, I'm pretty sure pinterest is one of the greatest internet things ever.

I'm a changed person.

Here's some background about me:

1.  I'm not a hoarder, but I have hoarder tendencies.  My husband is what I call and anti-hoarder.  If he doesn't plan on using something within the week, he'll throw it away.  We actually make a great team.  If he hadn't married me, he would only own 2 shirts and a pair of shorts.  If I hadn't married him, I would still have my size tiny jeans that I will never fit into again.

2.  I had some old mission pictures that were doubles that I already had in my mission album and digitally and backed up on a bunch of electronic stuff.  Point is, I have them and won't lose them unless the internet ceases to exist and California falls into the ocean.

3.  I have 21 days to pack up the house, do the last finishing touches, and clean it.  Oh, and I have 2 children and a husband that already has a ton of homework before school even starts.

So what do I do?  I can't throw away my mission pictures because I'm a boarder-line hoarder.  Then again, I do already have several copies of each pictures.  And I look nasty in most of them.

I cut them up!  Into fourths.

Then on the back of each strip I wrote down a task that I need to do before I leave.

I've been doing the whole "to-do" list thing, but frankly, it's so long it's really overwhelming.  So here's my jar:

Would I have done this before I discovered pinterest?  No.  

Here was my first task:

Yep.  Vinegar my shower heads.  Done and the strip is now in the trash.  Boo ya!

I have to admit, I think some things on pinterest are a little over the top, but I do think it's a great way to organize all the things that I want to do.  Addicting?  Can be.  But I feel like I am so much more productive because I have all the ideas organized that I can just look up quickly for Olivia and Jocelyn to do.  We keep our schedule pretty well and they are mostly happier little girls.

And I want to follow you on pinterest if you are on there.  But I still don't know how to find people, so tell Kate (my bff: "it's a tier"-name that quote) and she'll add you for me.



Saturday, June 15, 2013

Pet Peeves: Just Keep it to Yourself

I feel like I've been a really boring person lately.  I've been so busy that I don't read anymore, sleep, blog, exercise (which is the worst), or even cook.  We were going to leave for California yesterday, but decided to change our plans because we have so much work that we have to do before we move.  I never thought that making a long distance move and getting a house ready to rent would take up so much of my time, but it does.

I have nothing really to write about.  Nothing has been bothering me; nobody has stolen my identity; I just don't have anything to complain about it.  Isn't that what I usually do on this blog?

I'm happy all the time, even though I'm pretty tired.  I'm neglecting a lot of people, but not because I want to.

Then I started thinking really hard.  I still do have a lot of thing that really annoy me, but I just don't think about them anymore.  It happens and I don't give it a second thought.  But here is a pet peeve of mine:

Did you know that people with no children give the BEST parenting advice?  NOT!  It doesn't happen very often but it does happen.  I have been told everything from when I should put my kids to bed, when I should potty train them, how they should act in public, what my kids should eat, how much they need to drink, I should hold them less.  STOP.  That also includes old people that had kids but no longer do.  Most of the time I just wonder if they even remember what it is like to have children.  Let me clarify this mostly has to do with strangers and even friends, not so much family members because they know my children better.  Oh!  Also when I just state a fact like "Olivia doesn't like to take naps anymore" and then people start giving me advice about how to put her down for naps or what I should do, or lecture me on how important sleep is for small children.  I get it.  I didn't want your advice.  I just said something that I wish I never said so I wouldn't waste an hour listening to unwanted advice.

That's about it with the pet peeves thing.  I also hate it when people are shocked or even angry that something happened that are out of my control.  I don't want to give specific examples, but for example someone telling me not to get sick when obviously it's not something that I tried to do and could avoid, like smoking.

On a more positive note, I am moving to another state.  I don't feel like I'm moving quite yet.  We did put our house up for rent and, I'm not going to lie, the property management guy quoted us way more than we thought we could get for renting out our house.  I don't think we'll get that price, but I hope someone falls for the trap.  Oh no, I hope whoever reads this blog doesn't find out that they can rent our house out for less and doesn't take the higher bid, but I doubt my sister, the Thiots or Keltzie Smith will ever want to move to Idaho Falls.  Yep, you guys are the only 3 that read this blog, unless you've stopped...

I have been getting pretty boring.

Just to ramble on a little more, I have recently discovered pinterest.  After years of Kate Goodman wanting me to join, I finally did.  Pinterest is just a good way to collect and organize things that I want to do.  It's not as addicting as I thought it would be, then again, when I get started, I just want to surf the internet for neat ideas.

Okay.  I think I'm done.  What's happening to me.  I feel like I use to write about almost interesting things.  I know I never did, but at least my sister thought I was funny.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Gossip, Gossip, and Bitterness

I actually have no idea what I want to say, but I just have the urge to write a post about a little story about my husband at work.

Let's just hope this is short.

John rides his bike to work everyday and wears a helmet, so when he rides up to work, he puts his helmet on the back counter and does his nerdy banking stuff.  He has done this for well over a year.  The other day, a coworker said, "John, if would be nice if you could find a place to hang up your helmet".  John said, "yeah, that would be nice", thinking that it really would be nice, but there really wasn't any other place to put it.  Over the next few days he noticed that someone kept putting it on the floor.  Then finally John asked another coworker why his helmet kept being placed on the floor.  She said that there were complaints about his helmet being on the counter and she also added that he had been asked several times by the assistant manager to put the helmet somewhere else.Well, that's not exactly how it went down.  He was told once, and it wasn't even direct, it seemed as more of a suggestion.

The point of this story is wouldn't it have been easier the first time that it grosses someone out to say "yo Johnny, put your helmet somewhere else, it's gross on the counter"?  Did they think that John would have been offended or had his feelings hurt if someone said it directly?  The sad thing about this story is that I'm almost positive all of his coworkers were complaining about it for months before anyone told John.  That's just a lot of bitterness building up before the breaking point.

That story sounds pretty lame.  Hopefully you can read it with my intonation so it doesn't sounds so bland.

What's the point of talking behind someone's back about something that bugs you?  If it is something that can easily be fixed with a suggestion, why do people wait so long to say something about it?  Doesn't that just build up anger?

Oh, and please people, just be direct.  My sister reminds me constantly that I'm fat instead of saying, "have you ever thought about eating more veggies?  How is that Zumba going?"  No.  From those phrases I don't understand that I'm fat.  Just tell me.  Get it?  First of all, I know it and if there is something that might hurt my feelings in the beginning, that's okay.  I'll get over it within the hour.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Loving the "To Do" list

FYI:  I just bought tickets to see The Piano Guys in Rexburg!  I love them and I'm glad they decided to come before we moved.

Do you want to be updated on my "To Do" list for this year?  Here, let me first show you how organized I am:

This is my Daily planner/life list binder.  As you might be able to tell, Olivia took a yellow highlighter to it.  I have it separated into several sections:

1.  My daily planner (so I can remember to buy my piano guys tickets)
2.  2013 "To Do" list
3.  My Life List "To Do"
4.  My Life List "To Go": separated into Foreign, National Parks, States, and Temples.
5.  My Life List "To Read"
6.  Extra Paper

This all seems pretty normal to me, but now that I type it all out, it sounds pretty nerdy.

Here are a few things that I've already done on my 2013 "To Do" list:

1.  Make a craft.  Done!

2.  Read 50 books:  I'm a little behind.  I'm only on #15 and I haven't read a book in 3 weeks.  I'll finish probably 2 this week.

4.  Go to the Zoo:  When I wrote this, I wanted it to be the Idaho Falls Zoo, but w went to the Sacramento instead.  That works.

5. California Road Trip:  Done

12.  Make a quilt:  On my life list, I want to make a quilt sewing everything by hand and since my sewing machine is not working, I thought that my first one (without my mom's help) would be perfect.  Now, the quilt is not perfect.  There is no measuring out or straight lines, just sewing a bunch of old shirts together then making it into a quilt.  I even sewed Olivia's old bootie to a corner that looks really messed up.

17.  Buy and wear a pair of non-maternity jeans:  Now, I wrote jeans, but by jeans I really meant any pair or something that goes on my lower half that isn't a shirt.  So I bought capris.  You can see them in most pictures of me since I hate wearing pants.  I figured I won't buy any jeans since I'm moving to Texas.

23.  Run in Teton Dam 5k:  Signed up!  Doing it whether I want to or not.

26.  Fairy Tale Town in California:  Done!

28:  Index 1000 English names:  I'm pretty sure I completed this a day after I blogged about it the first time.

30. Do a mormon.org profile:  I actually completed it, but I want to edit it through the year.

That's it!  There are a handful of others that are almost done and most of the "to go" things are planned.  I'm not sure if we will have enough weekends to go where we want to go before we move, but we'll try or find something similar in Texas.

I'm excited to finish it!  You should make a list too and blog about it!  That way, if I'm too lazy to do anything on my list, I can gain inspiration from yours.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Is it Really THAT Big of a Deal?

We didn't get a Christmas Tree, I went to bed before midnight on New Year Eve, nothing special for Valentines Day, Olivia's birthday was a small family party and no gifts from her parents, don't even remember St Patricks Day, Easter? I made a cake, but no family egg hunt or baskets of candy, and today is John's birthday: no presents no cake.

So I don't make a big deal out of holidays and birthdays.  You can call me a party pooper if you want to, but there's a reason why I don't do that much crazy and wild celebrating.

As many of you know, John is getting ready to go to grad school this fall.  That's 16 months of no income from him, but at best limited income from me.  We're saving money.  Wild celebrations cost a lot of money or at least will if you just think that the money that we spend now is the money that we will need to borrow with student loans and pay a bunch of interest on later.  Yes, that 10 dollar box of Valentines day chocolate will end up costing 80 bucks in a few years because of student loans.  (That's an exaggeration, but you see my point.)  And those little things add up.

But that's not everything.  I just don't see the point of making a big deal out of everything.  I know kids will love it, but growing up, my parents never did anything crazy for each holiday like doing a holiday craft and buy new outfits for everyone or a leprechaun scavenger hunt, but we did do things.  We always had a small family party for birthdays and Christmas trees and celebrations, but we never reserved a party hall for a 1-year-old's birthday party.  I never felt deprived. Plus Christmas and Easter were about Christ's birth and resurrection, not about Santa and the Easter Bunny.

For Olivia's birthday we had cake and I bought her some shoes for her gift mostly because she needed new shoes.  I asked that nobody buy her toys because she already had plenty.  Of course grandparents bought plenty of clothes, bed sheets, and even a book, but I'm glad that they didn't buy Olivia and toys.  Some people would say, and have said that I am depriving my child of her childhood, but really now, do you really think I am?  Doubt it.  Is she going to look back in 3 years on her 5th birthday and tell me, "you know mom, my childhood has been awful so far because you only bought me shoes for my 2nd birthday"?  Doubt it.

I guess what I'm saying is just leave me alone.  So we don't buy physical gifts to celebrate holidays.  It's okay if you buy  your 6-month-old a Valentines Day party basket.  I think it's a little ridiculous, but if you think that's what will make your baby happy, go ahead and do it.  I prefer to take my family on spontaneous trips to California, or go to the zoo, hit up Yellowstone, play in the park all day, find small unknown nature trails, bake cookies, do laundry, read a book together, sing silly songs, snuggle to Dumbo.  See I do stuff too.

So before you ask me what I got for John's birthday, just forget it.  I didn't buy him any gifts, I'm not making a cake (it's not  a part of our healthy lifestyle to have an Easter cake then 2 cakes this week for our birthdays), but I guess I could put candles in his salmon tonight.

I don't mean for all this to sounds negative.  I sound angry, but I'm not.  I just do things a little differently.  Big deal.  However, I do love myself some Thanksgiving.  It might come as a surprise that I love to cook since everything I make is usually burnt or has no flavor, but I love cooking for Thanksgiving.  Now, that holiday I will go all out for.  Well, no decorations, but certainly a bomb diggity menu.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

I'm A Slob, Yet So Terrified

I have a problem and I'm willing to admit it.  I actually think a lot of people know about it, at least people that I grew up with or roommates in college, but maybe not everyone I know.  I am a slob.  Well, that one everyone who has ever stepped into my house know that one, no surprise there.  But I am majorly terrified of germs.  I've decided to blog about it because I can never say it in person and I really hope I don't offend anyone who has ever done any of the things that I am about to say.  It's not you, it's me, but at the time, it's you.

I think everyone knows that I am a germaphobe.  I'm not sure to the extent of how bad it is.  Here are some examples:

1.  I wash my hands a ton.  After each step when I am cooking, I wash my hands.  If I touch someone, I can't touch anything else until I wash my hands.  In fact, my hands are so dry that there is a visible line on my wrist where I stop scrubbing my hands.  My mother-in-law even said it looks like I am always wearing pink gloves because my hands are just raw.

2.  In college, I had 3 anxiety attacks within a week of each other.  I was doing the dishes, but I just pictures the germs on the plates spreading around my kitchen.  Luckily I talked to my psychologist brother who gave me a few tips and breathing exercises to help me get over it.  I told the doctors that I saw that I must have been stressed from school which must have triggered it.  It was really germs.

3.  I hate public restrooms and I hate public people using my private restroom.  There is a reason why I have an upstairs bathroom and a downstairs bathroom.  Down is for guests, up is for me.  The other day, I have a good friend come over, but the downstairs bathroom was out of TP (I don't go in it very often), so she went upstairs.  I had to wait 5 hours until Olivia went to sleep so that my toilet could be bleached before I could go to the bathroom.

4.  At church, I am the assistant Achievement Days leader which just means that a bunch of 8-11-year-old girls come to my house and do an activity.  Yesterday they came over to do pedicures.  They soaked their feet then exfoliated and painted their nails.  Several of the girls asked if I would paint their toenails, but I just said "No, I'm not good at that".  What I really should have said was, "no because I don't want your toe fungus germs to crawl up my arms, don't want to have to bleach my hands, and even worse, don't want to breath in dead skin cells."  Even worse, their foot-soaked-water-bucket water was poured down my kitchen sink even though there were a few dishes in there.  (I baked several cakes and watched 5 children all day yesterday).  Then I couldn't use the kitchen at all until I bleached my sink.

Those are just a few examples.  Embarrassing, yeah, probably.  But, I guess this is my way to say don't use my bathroom please.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Facebook for Everyone!

It kinda bugs me when people refuse to "give into peer pressure" and get a facebook page.  It has only been very recently that I just wished everyone I knew had a facebook page because it's actually can be more helpful than harmful.  Yeah, it can get addicting sometime.  I went through times like that.  I think I blogged about this before.  I'm having flashbacks, but here are some recent examples about how great facebook is.

1.  I love to google stuff.  Googling a question that I have then finding an answer makes me feel smart, but it also takes a lot of time because I have to read the same thing on 4 or 5 different websites before I believe that it's true.  You know how much time that takes!  Too long when ya got 2 kids under 2.  When Jocelyn was first born, she was colicky.  Posted it on facebook asking for advice, went to bed, then I woke up in the morning and had a billion different answers.  It was pretty awesome.

2.  Our pipes froze when the temps dropped in the middle of the night to the negative teens.  Did I know what to do?  No.  Posted it on facebook and within 30 minutes, 4 people from my ward called to see if they could help, and my home teacher was already over fixing the problem!  First of all, I have a great ward, and second, I was able to shower and brush my teeth by noon!  Thanks facebook.

3.  Someone in my ward just adopted a baby, but it was totally a surprise.   She doesn't have any kids so she didn't have any kids stuff and I think by the time she found out that she was getting and actually having the baby didn't give her time to go out and buy stuff.  Someone made a group on facebook to get this lady baby stuff and she got the baby shower stuff she needed without the baby shower.  Just a few years ago, that would have taken many phone calls and obviously too much work and human to human communication for it to be successful.

I'm not one that posts a bunch of stuff unless I need to.  But I do like to find out who is having children or getting married without actually talking to them.  I wish we could utilize it a little better.  For example, if my ward could have a facebook group, we could have all the activities posted and links to the lessons at church on Sunday.  See.  It's pretty awesome.  Yeah, I agree that it pushes some people into reclusive activity, but you gotta get bored of facebook stalking people sometime.  Right?

Monday, March 4, 2013

To Do

I have a life list.  It's my bucket list, but I don't like the phrase "bucket list" so I call it a life list.  I think it's pretty obvious that it's just a list of things that I want to do before I die.  I actually have a "to do" list and a "to go" list.  I have to admit, I have some pretty awesome things that I want to do on there and I'm going to do all of them.  Some are a little iffy like going to the moon that greatly depend on me being oober rich, but we'll see.

So I've always had this life list, but I actually just realized something today.  I wasn't actually really pursuing the things on my list.  They were just a list of things.  Then today when I was casually cruising on facebook, I noticed my friend Michelle started a new blog called 30 before 30: 30 things she wants to do before she turns 30.  Then I realized something.  I need a goal when I do all the things that I want to do.

Today I was inspired to start my "to do" list for the year.  They aren't goals because I think of goals as ways to improve and not necessarily things that I know that I can easily achieve.  All the things on my list I know I can do.  My goal is to just do them all.

The list isn't done yet, but here's what I have so far.  And it's a little long, but I want to hear what you think about them.  It's both my to do and to go list.

1.  Make a crafty thing that I can display in the house that I didn't make at a Relief Society meeting.
2.  Read 50 books.
3.  Finish my inandaroundrexburg.blogspot.com blog with all the things that we've done since living here.
4.  Go to the zoo.
5.  Do a California Road Trip
6.  Yellowstone
7.  Tetons
8.  Craters of the Moon
9.  Craters of the Moon star gazing
10.  Family campout
11. Watch sunrise on top of Cress Creek with the entire family
12.  Make a quilt
13.  Go on an overnight trip with John (thanks Amanda.  You're watching me kids)
14.  100% visiting teaching March-December
15.  Update a blog once a week (I have 4.  It should be pretty easy)
16.  Hit weight loss goal by December
17.  Buy and wear a pair of non-maternity jeans (this might be the hardest on the list for me)
18.  Palisades
19.  Harriman State Park
20.  One family/person taught in our home by the missionaries
21.  One date per month
22.  Temple every month while in Idaho
23.  Run 5k Teton Dam
24.  Study every Sunday School lesson
25.  Study every Relief Society lesson
26.  Go to Fairy Tale Town in CA
27.  Take 10 family names to the temple
28.  Index 1000 English names
29.  Index 1000 Italian names
30.  Start a profile on mormon.org

That's my list so far.  I need to start planning now when I am going to accomplish everything.  I am very confident that I can get everything done and I'm glad I set a plan for when I want to do everything.  I'm sure once we move to Texas, I am going to add a lot of other "to go" things to the list.  Tell me what you think.  Should I add anything?  Too much?  Jealous?

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

"I don't drink my calories Dad!"

Whoever can name that quote gets a prize.

A lot of my friends, actually only 3 that I can think of right now, were very overweight, but now they're super skinny and could be Target models.  Every time I see a picture or talk to them, I just want to say, "you should have blogged your experience so I could learn from it."  I don't know why I think that.  Maybe because I love reading blogs of people I know and I'm trying to convince people to start one, or I need motivation in my own weight loss.  Beats me.  But just because I think they should blog about it, maybe I should blog about my weight loss journey.

I'm overweight.  No way I could lie about that one.  Now, if I threw a number out there, you may not think that sounds heavy, but for my body type, it is.  I have a small frame.  I mean, dude, I'm Asian.  You don't see many big boned Asians out there.  However, they do exist.

I was actually thinking the other day that I am over 30 pounds heavier than when I got home from my mission.  Granted, I was 94 pounds when I came home and that was kinda grossly skinny.  Dude.  I said I wouldn't throw numbers out, but I did. But you know what, it was necessary.  I'm not exactly a whale now, and I don't want to get down in the double digits, but this muffin top has got to go.

I know what you're asking yourself.  How is Melinda going to accomplish her goal?  Today wasn't a very good start.  I've been really sick so I ate an entire bag of discounted V-day Hershey kisses.  That was acceptable and I don't regret it, but I am getting back to my eating right.

If you want to follow what I eat, you can go on myfitnesspal and add me as a friend and watch me count my calories.  That actually worked really well for me last year before I got pregnant with Jocelyn.  So back on it I go.  Exercise is a little harder this time around than I thought.  Last year, I would just take Olivia out in the jogging stroller and run around the river and go to Zumba on Monday and Thursdays.  Now it's a little harder with ice everywhere and no double jogging stroller.

You know what, I'm getting bored.

Who cares about how I'm going to do it.  Just bug me and check in on my weight loss.  Nah.  Who even cares about the weight that I lose.  Just constantly ask me if I still have my muffin top.  Also, if you're worried that I'm only concerned about that, it's not true.  I also want to tone up my bingo wings, not stretch my glasses out so much, and make sure that my wedding ring doesn't have skin hugging it from both sides.

All in all, I'll slowly update you on my progress.  Maybe I should put a picture up, but with out a smart device, that's just too much work.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

A Birth Story: Jocelyn

Who doesn't like a good birth story every once and a while?  This is a good one.

Okay, it's not that good.  It's really short actually.

Jocelyn's due date was January 4th.  I was really late with Olivia so I was really excited to have a baby born in January, and still have my Chinese Dragon  baby.  I did not want to have a baby in December.  For some reason, when I was pregnant, I thought that all December babies were ugly and neglected.  I'm not sure why I thought that.  I blame the hormones.

On Christmas Eve, I knew the baby was going to come in December.  I could just feel it.  I thought she was going to just fall out any time.  I did not want a Christmas baby.  I thought to myself, if she can at least stay in there until after Christmas, I'll be okay.

The day after Christmas, I went to the doctor for my usual stress test and ultrasound.  I first went to do my ultrasound and they told me the same thing that they've been telling me every week for 2 months: you have a really tiny baby.  I knew that.  Next I went to take my non-stress test.  FYI: a baby's heart rate should be under 160 beats per minute.  During this NST, the baby's heart rate was between 180 and 210.  I was pretty sure by then that I was going to go to the hospital, but I was still in denial because I didn't want a December baby!

After 20 minutes, the nurse came in and said I needed to do another ultrasound to check the baby's breathing.  That was fun.  I just sat there and watched the baby breath.  Then I was walked down to my doctor who stopped me in the hall and said, "I think we are going to take the baby early".  My doctor knew about my December baby fear because he usually made fun of me for crazy pregnant lady thoughts.  When he said that, I asked, "by early do you mean January 1st early?"  He said, "I mean like today early".  I was a little devastated, but a tiny bit excited at the same time.

Early that day, I talked to my sister and she told me to pack bags for the hospital.  I knew that I should, but for some reason, I thought that if I didn't pack my bags, that meant that the baby wouldn't come.  Well, FYI, babies in the womb don't know if you packed bags for not.

The doc told me to go home, get what I needed and meet him in the hospital in an hour.  Olivia was already at my visiting teacher's house.  I called John, he came home from work, and we grabbed a few things, dropped them off at my VT's house for Olivia, then went to the hospital.

I was already dilated for a 4 when I got to the hospital.  I asked if I could have an epidural.  The doc said he wanted me to feel some contractions first, but the nurse didn't know that when I first got there,  she said sure and got me my epidural.

An hour into my epidural, I started feeling some contractions, but they weren't horrible.  They checked my epidural, and it wasn't put in correctly.  The medicine wasn't going into my back, so they took it out and re-did it.

Around 9 the doctor came in and said everything looked good.  He had already seen 29 patients that day and preformed 3 surgeries.  He said he was going to go home and take a quick nap then come back around 11 or 12 to break my water.

He didn't come back until 3.  It was a long wait for me.  He said he didn't go home to sleep, he just worked on paper work the whole time.  I was thinking, great, now I have a super tired doc that is about to deliver my baby.  He broke my water when I was dilated to a 6, then 10 minutes later, I knew I was ready to push.  At 3:20 the nurses came in to switch shifts.  I told them I felt like pooping and they checked me and said, "wow!  You're ready".  They ran and got the doc, finished preparing the room, then I started pushing at 3:28.  The nurse said that she was going to count to 10, then I should take a breath, then push for another 10.  She counted to 10, I took a breath, then pushed again.  She counted to 3 then I heard the doctor and two of the nurses yell, "STOP!"  They did a few things, then two more pushes and she was out!  Jocelyn was born at 3:30 AM after 2 minutes of pushing.  That was way better than the 3 hours of pushing I had to do for Olivia.

Best labor ever.  Pushed for 2 minutes, never felt a contraction, and the best part about it: the next day, I felt completely better!  I felt like I could run a marathon!  Best recovery ever!

Jocelyn is a wonderful little baby and Olivia loves her!

Ready for my mystery hospital disease?  I always manage to get some kind of infection from the hospital not matter how much I wash or wear shoes in the shower.  After I gave birth to Olivia I got a MRSA infection and after Jocelyn, I got hand, foot, mouth disease.  A few days after I got out of the hospital, my feet hurt so badly, I couldn't walk for almost a week.  Luckily my mother-in-law was here to do everything I couldn't.

Gross.  I hate infections.

But I love my little girls!