Why I Have No Fashion-Sense

I have never really liked shopping. I don't mind wandering around and looking at things, actually I love that. Aaron and I have spent tons of time window shopping. I just hate shopping for real. There are several factors in this. I don't like the way I look in most things. I actually have pretty good body image, but I am realistic enough to know that I am overweight. I plan on working on that, but pregnancy is not really the time to start a weight loss program! I do need to get out and exercise more, though! If the weather would just get and stay warm enough to take my kids out for walks it would be helpful!

I think more than weight is the money factor. Clothes are SO expensive! I hate to spend that kind of money on clothes when I'd rather get something fun. All three of my SILs think that clothes are fun, but I think they are just something to wear. Yes, I want to dress nicer and look better, but at the same time, I'd rather buy a game, movie or yarn! I just can't bring myself to buy clothes very often.

When this comes to shoes it is more a matter of fitting. I have REALLY wide feet. I do fine with tennis shoes, because I can wear men's shoes, but when I need a shoe that is actually designed for a woman, it is a nightmare! I just don't fit in them. Most women's' shoes are medium width. I can't even always fit into wide width. Once, we stopped at just about every shoe outlet between Utah and San Diego and I found ONE pair of shoes!! It's just insane. I think this is a huge part of why I hate to wear shoes. I'd rather just go barefoot or with Crocs than anything else!

For Sale

Well, we are officially selling our townhouse! It has been an exhausting couple of days! I hope I can get the rest I need today to catch up. I really like having a clean house, though! I'm going to have to get in better habits, so I can enjoy it more often!

I don't like how sterile everything looks. I like it to be a little "lived in", just not as much as we have been used to. I think maintenance will be easier than getting it to this point. If I just do the things that need to be done everyday, then, when we get a call for someone to view it, I mostly just need to grab the stuff that we need, but don't want to be distracting.

I'm hoping to get the kids in on the deal of keeping the house clean as well.

Speaking of housework, Aaron found this article, yesterday. It's about how many hours of house work a husband adds versus how a wife affects her husband's load! I thought it was kind of funny, in that depressing kind of way!

The Real Deal

We were going to put our house up for sale on the 1st, but a piano, a job interview and snow got in the way! So, now we are going for the 8th.

Aaron got the job!! He will be teaching AP European history and world history at one of the high schools in the same school district he works in now. He is really excited. I think it will be fun for him!

The piano is now out of the way of storing our stuff! We were given a old piano that had to be dismantled to get it out of the house. Aaron was going to try to put it back together, then decided it wasn't worth it and started taking it further apart. Long story, short, we got some movers to take it away rather than spending more money on something that wasn't guaranteed to work.

The snow is gone! (Hopefully for good, for the spring!)

So, we are already working on getting all of our "extra" stuff out that we can live without. We really want to sell so that we can start actually looking to buy. A few of the homes that I really liked are already off the market! I have decided not to look anymore, until we could actually make an offer. I have tried not to get attached, but apparently I'm not so good at that!

Picture Time=Run Away Time!

Lately, when I get out the camera, Belle thinks it is time to run away and laugh. She goes back and forth from the front door...


...to the kitchen sink and back.


If we are outside, she'll stand on our "picture rock" or run and play.


We have a lot of pictures while the kids stand on that rock.


I'll miss it, when we move.

Presenting the Baby Bump!

I figured that since I actually look pregnant, I should share some baby bump pictures with you. Here is one of my view of the bump!


And here's one from the side. I look so tired in this picture! I had a long day and did way too much. I feel good about what I got done, but my bones don't! I think today will be a lazy day, or as my DH put it a "relaxing day". I didn't sleep well because I was achy and didn't want to go downstairs for pain reliever. Okay, enough whining!


These were taken at 24 weeks, 4 days!

Waiting

We had to postpone the sale for about a week. Our agent wants us to have the place as ready as we can as soon as we put it on the market. That way people can start looking that day!

Several things came up that forced us to wait a little. It's good, though. It will make a huge difference in how ready we are and how stressed we get about it!

Wish Me Luck

We signed all the paperwork to put our townhouse on the market on Monday!! We are really excited and stressed, already! There is a lot to do to get it ready to show to people, so I hope we can do it!

I hope you all do well, I don't think I'll be around the blogosphere, much this weekend!

Were They on to Something on "Back to the Future"?

I found this article about using rotten food and other table scraps as bio fuel. I thought it was really interesting.

It made me think of the scene on Back to the Future where Doc Brown dumps trash into his car as fuel. Back then, we thought it was just ridiculous, but now??

I'm not so sure!

I hope that more funding can be put into researching this type of thing. There are so many reasons we need to loosen our reliance on oil. This is a big reason that I hope a democrat makes it into office. The republicans tend to think the environment is just going to take care of itself. Or that we should keep doing things the way we are and in the future, technology will catch up! I couldn't believe it when I read that sentiment!


(The other day, we were talking about oil and politics and Belle said:

Excuse me! What oil mean?

Then I tried to explain oil and gasoline in a way a two year old would understand. It was really cute!)

House Hunting

We started looking at houses! We aren't ready to buy, since we need to sell our place, first, but we wanted to start to see what available.

There are some really cute houses that we could afford, so we are excited and we want to sell as soon as we can!

So, we get to the first house and Belle went up the stairs while we looked downstairs. We didn't think much of it until we went to see the upstairs, too. We couldn't find her. It wasn't a huge upstairs, either. We looked in closets and behind doors. Then we realized she was behind a closed door...a LOCKED, closed door. Since she is two and a half, we couldn't get her to unlock the door.

They had an outside door knob, so there weren't any screws to get it off. We called the selling agent and she called the seller. The seller had never had the key, so they couldn't help us. Our agent and Aaron were able to bust into the room without much damage at all. There were tons of coats of paint, and that is what got chipped off.

Belle wasn't too traumatised, but she was a little scared!

So, the rest of the hunting was fun &/or enlightening. There were several that were in really bad shape, but then after those we saw several that we'd love!

Pre-Approval

We didn't think we'd be able to get a house, now, but we found out yesterday that we are pre-approved for a loan, so we can now work on looking for a new home. There are several in our price range that we are interested in. We get to look at some tomorrow!

Yay!!

Adventures in Pottytraining

Last night, Belle decided she wanted to use the toilet. She sat there for a very short time (without making a deposit) and didn't want to put a diaper on. She wanted to wear pretty panties. I put some on her with the promise that she wouldn't wet or soil them. She was very excited! But she didn't want to go to the toilet when she needed to go...

She stayed dry for maybe an hour and then wet on the floor. (Thank goodness she happened to be standing in the kitchen!) She was pretty disturbed, and wanted to put more underwear on. She also wants princess panties. I told her we'd buy them for her when she can go pee in the toilet.

I don't think she's quite ready, but I think pretty panties will do the trick when she is!

Any advice?

Frilly or Tomboyish?

When we found out that Belle was a girl, Aaron started to be worried that she'd be frilly and useless. (There are some relatives on his side of the family that were treated like the "pretty one" and weren't really good at much of anything. He also works with someone with a similar problem. ) He wants a daughter who is capable and able to do all the things she wants to do. So, he was worried about her wearing frilly clothes. I eventually convinced him that clothes wouldn't make her useless, especially since we weren't going to dress her in things that were difficult to move in.

I am not a frilly person. I haven't worn makeup since we got married and I rarely even wear jewelry beyond my wedding ring. I don't wear a lot of skirts or dresses. Frankly fashion is beyond me! I don't even do my hair beyond brushing it! So, I don't think she'll have a frilly example to follow.

Well, apparently, she didn't need one. I don't know where she gets it from, but for the past week Belle will wear nothing but skirts and dresses! She wants everything to be pretty. It is so cute!

We aren't really worried, though. Luke is her idol, so she follows him around and plays his rough games. She loves swords, guns, wrestling and several other active games. She loves to learn and loves to help with everything. She wants to know how to use her dad's tools, and she is always trying to be big.

I think she'll be plenty useful in her life!

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary. It has been a great ride! We have been through so much together that we look back and wonder how we survived. I think the only reason neither of us are staring and twitching in a corner somewhere is that we have each other.

If you want to know the whole story of how I met my hubby (online) then go read at this post! I'm just too lazy to write it again! That's the same reason why I didn't scan any wedding pictures to make this post so cute!

We have a fun date planned and a free babysitter coming over (thanks Grandma!) so it should be fun!

Deadline

What seemed like a long way away has become two weeks away.

We have been planning for a long time to put our house up for sale at the first part of April. It is now the middle of March and I am not much closer to the goal of being ready for that than I was when the decision was made several months ago. There is so much to do!

THE LIST:

1. Rent a storage unit to store the large clutter and boxes.
2. Acquire boxes before the university lets out and everyone else in town decides to move, too.
3. Pack boxes for eventual move.
4. Decide what needs to go and what we have to have to live here while we try to sell.
5. Find a new place to live. (That has a whole other list to go with it: can and should we buy, now...renting...dealing with a dog and possible renting...where?....)
6. Purge and remove as much clutter as possible.
7. Try to remain sane while doing this while pregnant and dealing with a household.

I'm sure there is much more to do, but as you can see from my disorganized list, my brain is rather cluttered at the moment with it all!

Lotsa Links for the Party

I thought I'd share some of the sites that I really like about crochet and horticulture!

But first, some food!!

Stuffed Shells! (sorry for the lack of pictures)

15 oz tub ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 tsp oregano
½ tsp salt
2 TB margarine, softened
1/4 cup Parmesan
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 lg clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 pkg jumbo shells
Spaghetti sauce

Boil pasta shells, following package directions. Rinse well. Combine all remaining ingredients minus sauce. Spoon mixture into shells. Place in a sprayed 11 X 17 baking dish. Spoon sauce onto shells. Bake at 350 covered for 15 minutes and uncovered for 10 minutes. Serve. (Variation: use filling for ravioli or manicotti.)

Inner Child Crochet--Great tutorials and patterns (some are even free!)
Crochet Guild of America
Crochet Pattern Central--A huge directory of crochet patterns from all over the web.
What Not to Crochet--Hilarious site full of things that should never have been on a hook!

I started going through my list of links on my other blog and I realized that there were too many and that they are so varied, that I'd let you go see for yourselves! Here is a link to my links!

Blogging

I was going to have wonderful posts each day of this party, but so far I am having trouble just keeping up with all of the wonderful blogs out there!

My laptop hates me (again!) and has only let me be online intermittently. It makes it really hard to get around to all of your great blog parties. Since it's the weekend and my hubby is home, I'm trying to catch up a little bit.

I am adding way too many new blogs to my feed reader, and I hope you are, too!!

Keep coming back, I promise more interesting stuff than this!

Ultimate Blog Party!!!

I am really excited for this party! Last year, I had a blast and I met so many new people! It was a lot of fun! I just hope I can keep up and not neglect my family too much.

About me: I love to read, crochet and play with my kids. I have two kids "Luke" is 5 1/2 and "Belle" is 2 1/2. I'm also pregnant with another girl. She should make her debut sometime in late July. I love blogging and meeting new people this way. I have two other blogs: Daisy Chains Crochet (where I post pictures of my projects so that I don't fill this blog with them) & Turn Your Thumb Green (where I blog about horticulture). I have a bachelor's degree in horticulture, so if you ever have a question about plants I should be able to answer it, even if I have to look it up!

I thought I'd share a yummy treat with all of you. If you are on a diet, look away NOW!

Cookies and Cream Fudge

16 oz white chocolate chips or block chocolate cut into pieces
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
20-25 Oreo cookies--smashed
2 TB margarine

Melt chocolate and margarine. Add milk. When thoroughly blended, mix in cookies. Pour into greased or lined 8X8 pan. Let cool in fridge for 2 hours. Cut into squares and serve!


So, look at other posts for more fun party stuff...More recipes, too!!

I can't wait to meet you!

Now to finally add the prizes I'd like to win if I get my name drawn!

---A baby Sling from Sarah at Sassy Frazz!

---50 Nights of Family Fun from Essential Family Living!

---$20 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com From The Organized Knitting Club!

If These are already taken I'd love: 58, 27, 37, 76, 26, 99, 60, 62, 85, 141, 52, 97, 117, or 145!

I'd enjoy a lot of things. There are so many great prizes to check out!

I have 2 kids 2 & 5 and a girl on the way, so kids, maternity or baby would be great, too! I also love to read and crochet. Whatever. I'd be happy just winning!

Thanks!!

Digital Pictures

(This is a pic taken last summer at a really neat playground. It was taken on a tire swing.)

I finally did something with my digital pictures! No, I didn't actually scrapbook them. (I'm not into that...shocking, I know!) I didn't even print them. I uploaded almost every digital picture we have to Kodak.

For so long, I've just had them on the computer. I kept worrying that they'd get erased sometime. Both of our computers have been threatening to self-destruct, lately. Aaron had to clear the hard drive on the PC, this week. Our laptop will need it soon, too!

Then, my MIL gave me a 4 GB jump drive for Christmas. I could fit everything there and organize them. Now, I just need to make some CDs so that they are backed up in more than one place.

Now for the Herculean task of labelling each of them!

New Template

I switched my template again! Kimberly sent me the code! Go check out what she is doing!

Now, I just have to get everything just right.

Baby Daisy Hat

Here's a daisy hat for my baby. I took Krochet Krystal's pattern and after I got a complete circle, I turned it into a hat. I wanted it to be newborn size but I think it will get more use next summer.

Sorry for the not-so-great pictures. I don't have a proper model. The color is truer in the top-view.