will one day update her xanga blog...

:)

I just had to write that "facebook style"----that's the only site I've been doing anything on lately, and I'm "in the grooooooove"..... 

Every day I think "Today will be the day!  I will write SOMETHING on xanga today!" 

But it never happens.

But ONE DAY it will!  :)

I will have pictures to post soonish, but I'm actually hoping to get a photograph site/blog up, so those will be more over there whenever that happens.  Poor xanga is being left in the past... :(  Makes me sad, really!

I will comfort myself with a chocolate no-bake and bed. :)

And this....



TOTALLY adorable baby holiday dress from Old Navy that they are already sold out of in my town.  BOOOOOOOOOO.   I wanted one in my size too.  :)

Goodnight!



 

SO for the next twenty (??) minutes or so I should have some free, quiet time, and I am just itching to get things out and on "paper"! (haha--does real paper exist anymore?  Sometimes I wonder...  Oh wait--is that what those "bills" are printed on??)  I am soooo ready to be an organized SuperMom that I can almost FEEL it.  The problem is, as it has always been, that I always have much higher goals than I actually accomplish.  Topics of the moment:  "Couponing" (?? I think that's the *technical* term ), Lunch menus, Highlights, Sleep. 

So.  Intro to coupons.  My husband, as a lot of you know, has been working a crazy and INSANE schedule for a few years now.  He's a seminary student and also works 40+ hours.  Well....  DID.  His schedule used to be classes in the morning (not a solid schedule, but usually 2-4 classes/meetings in one morning) and then work from 2-11p with an hour for dinner.  A year or so ago he also started taking on a lot of overtime, meaning every other week he was "on duty" 24 hrs. a day and not able to be more than five minutes away from campus in case of emergencies during "off hours."  That meant tons of overtime pay, which sortofalmostbutnotreally balanced out the lack of a life.   SOO with this semester about to start up again, I was TOTALLY not looking forward to him getting back on this schedule, because (not to whine but hey it's a fact!) I HATE long evenings at home by myself, and I was worried with the new baby and everything that I would start getting back into whatever funk I had when Zachary was born.   Anyway, the other day Victor came home and said that he was informed out of the blue that his schedule has been changed and he's no longer on the night shift!  He is now working days (7:30-4:15) with no evenings, no weekends, no overtime!  My first reaction was YES!!!  :)  Of course!  Then we both realized that no overtime means a HUGE income cut, coming right after a low summer with him being off work for his summer classes, and that coming right after I quit working...  Also--working the 7:30-4:15 shift is great, but he still has to fit classes in there, since that's sort of why he's here.  His being a seminary student is also how we're able to live in seminary housing on campus, which the college makes *extremely* affordable for the students.  So.  Reality has set in.  :)  I think we're both out of the first "uh-oh what are we going to do" stage and back into LOVING the new schedule, but I do have to accept that my entire spending philosophy has got to change radically.  Thus, I am embarking into this crazy and foreign world that so many of my friends RAVE about...  "couponing."  This is not your simple "clip a coupon and buy the item saving $.35" sort of thing, my friends. :)  It seems like you basically shop at stores that offer "rewards" for shopping there--two examples of which are Walgreens and CVS.  Of course you also shop at grocery stores, just not usually WalMart, which is where I have previously done most of my grocery shopping.  The object is to combine coupons, store sales, store "rewards," and strategic transaction splitting to get the most for your money...  In other words, to spend very little and get a whole lot.  I will admit it seems like a whole lot of work to me, but I'm going to check out the links I've been sent and see if I can make sense of it.  I'm willing to give it a try anyway!  I'm clearly going to have to do SOMETHING to get our monthly grocery/toiletry budget down!  Everything is getting so expensive anyway!  CRAZINESS!! :)

Topic #2.  Lunch Menus.  Have any of you who stay home ever used a lunch menu?  I'm a big "dinner menu" kind of person--you know, plan dinners for the week, then make your shopping list off your menu...  Even so I've always bought random odd items for the pantry b/c when you stay home, you have to eat lunch here too!  However--it seems like lots of the odd and ends I buy for "just in case" end up taking up space in the pantry and never getting used.  I've just never considered actually planning a lunch menu--until today in my thinking room (known to most people as the shower ).  I'd LOVE to hear thoughts from anyone and everyone about a lunch menu including if you've tried it, what you thought of the idea, what sorts of meals you planned, etc.  The other reason I'm considering this is that I feel like lunch has become a last-minute sort of "throw something on a plate and shove it in my face" sort of meal for me as well as the kids, and I'd rather get back to healthier meals.  PB&J is okay every once in a while, but something tells me it's not the best staple lunch item. :)  I'm not necessarily talking about having a veggie salad every day for lunch, but I want a little balance.  Feedback is requested!!!

Moving on.  Highlights.  Talking about my hair here.  I have gotten more gray in the past few months than I knew was possible for a 27 year old to have.  Seriously.  (I'm not talking about finding a few gray strands...  It's like.... taking over my temple areas.  So---limited budget or not, some things are just not acceptable.  Definitely going to start keeping up with highlights to camouflage my lovely grays, but I want them to be *extremely* natural, nothing obvious or too radically different from my natural hair color (the brownish-blondish one!)  I just want to look like a normal youngish mother of three, not a tired graying sleep deprived aging ummmm (running out of words here) PERSON!  Even though I may be that second person, I'd like to camouflage it at least a little!! :)  Anyway, as soon as I have saved up for that project, I will be posting pictures once I have time to actually shower and do my hair and take a decent picture and then get it actually on the computer and THEN uploaded to this site!  Yeah.  Could be a while. 

Sleep!  Oh yeah, that's not really a topic, just something that's always on my mind. :)  Hoping Madi follows in the steps of big brother Zachary in the area of sleeping all night.  Eight weeks is only a little over two weeks away, and I'm fading fast.  Come on girl!  You can do it!

Writing time is now officially over.   I have a baby to feed and typing is just too time-consuming with one finger.  I wish you all the best....  I know some of you are going to parties this weekend and I'm TERRIBLY jealous, seeing as how those parties were always THE BEST.  Hope you enjoy!!!  And Happy Retirement to you again, Mrs. B!!!  If you're not going to a party--why not, I ask you?!  Haha!  OK maybe like me you live the quiet home life...  It's not such a bad thing.  Hope everyone is able to relax and enjoy the weekend.  Later Gators!!!!! 

(NO, I'm not a Gators fan...)

Have to say it's a toss-up if I should go claim the couch or take a few minutes to write--but I know there are some people who have been very patiently waiting for an update, so I'll complete my xanga duties. :)  Life is slowly settling down to a new normal (?) around our house, I think.  We are VERY happy to have our newest member, Madelyn Kate, joining us in our family life.  She is a little sweetie, a good baby, very happy to be snuggled and to check out her loving big brothers.  Much to our delight, she looks like she's going to be our little hispanic child; Victor will finally have someone who actually looks like him!  We hope!  :)  I'll post a few pictures here that are already on my facebook page, since I know some who read this blog don't have fb. 

For all the aunts and grandmas and just plain curious of you out there , the details:

Madi was due July 9; I didn't want to be induced, and my doctor (whom I LOVE--just want to clarify that b/c I know I did my fair share of complaining about the doctor I had when pregnant with Zachary) agreed that it wouldn't be a good idea i my case, so we were waiting until the last minute to do any "artificial" birth attempts.  Haha!  That sounds funny.  I made it up, by the way; I've never heard a doctor say anything about "artificial birth."  Nobody get offended.  We finally decided to schedule a c-section for July 21, since it looked like she was just too comfortable to be born on her own.  Friday (the 17th) I had a non-stress test at the office, and they thought her heart rate was a bit sluggish, so they sent me in to the hospital for a more in-depth monitoring, which showed everything to be fine.  Saturday (the 18th) after I woke up from a nap, my entire abdomen was hard as a rock, like a contraction that wouldn't go away.  This was something they had mentioned to me that should be a concern, so I went back to the hospital VERY worried that something was wrong.  Apparently the concern with in that case would be that the placenta was separating from the uterine wall, but monitoring showed no problems with the baby's heart rate or oxygen levels in my blood, and I wasn't bleeding and had no pain, so I again went home!  I was getting to know the nursing staff pretty well though! :)  Sunday--nothing...  I went to bed Sunday night after saying "I give up--I'm just ready for this baby to be born by ANY means--don't care how!"  Of course around 5:00 Monday morning my water broke and I immediately started having contractions (different from last time--although my water broke first with Zachary too, I didn't start having contractions for at least an hour or more.)  I told Victor to get up and HURRY b/c I didn't think this was going to take long.  We got into the LDR room around 6:00a, and I was already about 5cm; next time they checked I was at 8cm.  Victor asked a lady who came in (turns out she was the nurse) if she was going to administer my epidural.  She said no, and she didn't think there would be time for one anyway.  I said, "There NEEDS to be time."  I was a little panicky at the thought of no epidural; I'm no martyr!  Everything was going REALLY fast, I was in a good amount of pain, having strong and fast contractions, and I just wanted to wail thinking about no pain meds.  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to see everyone kick it into high gear.  I guess when I said that they decided I meant it, b/c next thing I knew the anesthesiologist was there scrubbing my back.  Happy me!!  :)  (Well--in between contractions I was happy.  Poor Victor's shirt was getting a workout.  I refrained from squeezing any of his actual body parts--didn't want to leave marks...)  Got my epidural, rested a little bit, (like maybe half an hour) and the nurse came in and told me I could start pushing if I wanted, but the doctor wasn't there yet.  I decided to let nature keep working on her own for a few min. b/c I seriously felt like the baby was coming out and I didn't need to help her along at all...  WEIRDEST feeling ever.  Not exactly PAIN, but strangely unbearable. ??!  ANYWAY to wrap it up, Dr. Tucker arrived, I pushed through 3 or 4 contractions, and there was a wet and slimy baby on my chest wriggling around and wailing at me--sooooooooo beautiful!!  Madelyn was born at 10:22a, just over 5 hrs. after I went into labor, perfectly healthy and lovely, 9 lbs. 8 oz. of Mexican beauty! :)  She has her daddy's dark hair and eyes (we think---still not 100% sure they'll stay dark, but it's looking good!), nice round arms and legs :), looooong fingers and feet, and a skillful poochie lip.  It's been different from the boys already for me--harder to hear her cry, harder to not want to hold her every second of the day (although with her "healthy" size, my back is already protesting.)