Carpet Cleaner

Filed Under Allergies, Asthma, Home Sweet Home, This Rocks | 2 Comments

Oh I am sooo excited. We finally got a deep cleaner for our carpet! I really wish we had hardwood floors, but since we are hoping to move in the next few years we don’t want to pay to get the entire house refloored. And since we have a two year old (and a messy husband) at our house, the carpet is NOT spotless. Jonathon and Bailey also have seasonal allergies and she has asthma, so we thought it would help to clean the carpets for that too. So the steam/deep/high power cleaner was on our list for a while and we finally got one.

It takes a while to use (I would say about 45 minutes to do a room, by the time you vacuum, then put water in this and change out the water/add solution probably two or three times per room). Jonathon does it all though so I don’t even really know how to work it- and I don’t want to learn! HOWEVER. Our carpet is now almost completely spot free and looks like a whole different floor than it did a week ago. I can’t say enough about what a great job this machine did- and now for what it would cost to get the carpet cleaned one time, we can do it whenever we want! We bought it at Kohl’s and had a 30% off coupon, in addition to the sale price, so I would look there if you are considering buying one of these.

Now our next project is to finish making the storage room a little nicer. Jonathon has converted part of it into an office space since our fourth bedroom is now MY office/Avon area. We are working on cleaning some outdoor rugs that we have and putting them down in there to keep it a little warmer for him. Someday we will have a house with more space!

NICU Day Six- Going Home!

Filed Under Big Sister, Breastfeeding, Firsts, Home Sweet Home, NICU, Newborn- Taylor, Siblings, Two and a half years old | 2 Comments

On Tuesday morning, I knew that Taylor wouldn’t be going home. I left Jonathon at home with Bailey and went up to the hospital by myself to be there to feed him. After his first feeding, guess what his nurse came over and told me? His bilirubin levels had dropped to 12-point-something overnight and he would be going home! What? She said he needed to continue phototherapy the rest of the day and then he could leave, and be monitored by his own pediatrician for the next two weeks.

I called Jonathon and told him I was coming home to get him. We had my dad come over and watch Bailey, and we went by Target and went to get lunch. When we got back up to the hospital, we changed him into some snuggly fleece NEWBORN size jammies. Which were clearly about eight sizes too big.

I love this picture with me holding him!

And one with Daddy-

I love the “drunk on milk” baby pictures. And this baby sure does like to eat!

We kept telling him that the carseat was a good thing- that it was time to go home. He wasn’t easily convinced.

One last family picture in the NICU. It was bittersweet leaving, honestly. It was the only home my baby had known. The place where I spent hours and held him and watched him get better. And cried thousands of tears. The nurses were so loving, the other moms were so supportive. I can’t quite explain but it was strange to leave.

We were welcome home by one very excited big sister, though!

Here she is holding Taylor for the first time. With help.

Baby Boy’s Room

Filed Under Clothes, Home Sweet Home, Nursery, Second Pregnancy | 2 Comments

Decided it was high time to share some pictures of the baby’s room. It is almost all ready. Well, he could move in now and be fine… but I want to get another toy bin (for his books) and some letters to spell his name on his wall, and maybe a picture frame or something.

The view coming straight in the door… no I have no idea why there is an exercise ball in his room. It’s not there anymore. I want a picture or something for this wall though.

The crib side of the room. This wall is adjacent to Bailey’s room. His name will be above his bed once I remember to buy some letters and some paint for them. Might be doing that tomorrow since Jonathon’s off work. The baskets and stuff have been moved from under his bed, the boppy has been unpacked and covered with a new “boy” pattern cover…

And I just love this puppy bedding.

My mom warned me that I might want to cover the lower part of this wall hanging (or comforter, whatever) with plastic to protect it from pee in the beginning… His diapers and cream and everything are all ready to go. There are wipes in the warmer (okay not wipes, we had to use soft “cloth-like” paper towels in the beginning with Bailey because of her sensitive skin, even the sensitive wipes made her bleed so we are just doing the same for Baby Boy). Just need to add water and turn it on when he comes home!

And the beginning of his clothing stash. It took me a while but I have finally gotten into shopping for him. In fact I feel like I might need to go up to the mall later today and look at the President’s Day sale stuff at Gymboree. Uh oh.

Bailey and her friend Claire

Filed Under Friends, Home Sweet Home, Playdates, Two and a half years old | 1 Comment

Lately Bailey has really enjoyed playdates with her friend Claire. I think because Claire is getting old enough to start interacting with her and she sees her as more of a kid or friend now instead of “Baby Claire.” And of course Jonathon and I always enjoy getting to spend time with Claire’s parents, Sarah and Ryan!

Just wanted to share a few pictures I took last week when they came over. You know it’s a good friend when your kid can wear her jammies for a playdate…

The only thing that bugs me about having playdates here is our furniture. We ended up getting more of a modern furniture style and so the coffee tables and end tables had sharp metal/glass corners. They are all packed away downstairs and so there’s nowhere to set a drink etc in our living room now. But someday our kids will be grown and we will have real furniture and I will probably wish for the days when we had little kids…

Accomplishments

Filed Under Being a Mom, Home Sweet Home, Into Everything, Twenty-two Months | 7 Comments

I feel like I have gotten a lot done so far today. Isn’t it funny how once you are staying at home with your kid(s) the definition of “a lot” totally changes?

Today I:

-Washed the cloth diapers, dried the inserts and prefolds, hung the covers to dry
-Started a second load of laundry
-Put almost a full basket of laundry away (Bailey helped me- she tried to put every item in her pajama drawer but it was so sweet that she wanted to help. She finally at least learned where to put socks. I should probably have her help more often. She loved it so much!)
-Put about 10 eBay packages out for the mail… only about 100 to go I think!
-Cleaned the kitchen, mostly
-Unloaded the dishwasher
-Took the trash and recycle down to the garage, where I found that my husband STILL has not brought our trashcan in from last Friday. Now that’s classy.
-Made plans for Thursday with my friend Casey and her daughter Addison

And more importantly, I:

-Kissed Bailey’s soft, puffy, wonderful cheeks at least 25 times
-Held her on my lap to read stories
-Taught her how to put her socks in the sock drawer and how to put dirty clothes in the basket- and had fun doing it!
-Ate Alpha-Bits cereal while sitting on the kitchen floor with Bailey and feeding each other the letters
-Changed three diapers
-Attempted to make a healthy lunch for my daughter (at least she ate the yogurt and banana)
-Got lots of hugs without even asking for them
-Danced to the intro on a new Dora video, several times

Some people think that once you “give up your career” and stay home, you become “just a mom.” I have had feelings from time to time, like all I have is my daughter and my life revolves around her. At times, that has made me feel inadequate or like I am not doing enough. But looking back at my day of accomplishments, I realize again that there is nothing I would rather be doing. There is nothing more important than taking care of my daughter, raising her myself, being with her to give her all those hugs and build her self-confidence, and enjoy the little things with her.

Adding to my non-resolutions

Filed Under Avon, Home Sweet Home | Leave a Comment

-I would also like to update a few more things in our house before we have another baby. I would love, love, love to get a new faucet for the kitchen sink. I would also love to replace the light fixtures in the master bathroom. They are kind of outdated. And I want to get the kitchen window replaced. That’s the one we skipped when we did the other windows and now I always keep those blinds closed. So I am going to try and put aside money for a few house things this spring.

-I went to a really inspiration Avon leadership meeting last night. I am working on building my business and recruiting people to sell Avon. I have a pretty good team so far. If you are interested in earning some extra money, let me know! It only costs $10 to start and there are no minimum order sizes or inventory required. Really.

To Do List for this fall

Filed Under Home Sweet Home | 3 Comments

- NEW CARPET (Yeah, I know we got the carpet cleaned. The pee smell came back. Long story short, we got a refund for the pet cleaning thing and we are just going to suck it up and get new carpet. I swear I will quit talking about the carpet soon. We are waiting for our tax return. You know, the rest of it.)

- Possibly get a new couch for downstairs, but depending on finances this might get pushed back to spring

- Get some patio furniture covers. We are so ghetto looking. We don’t want the cushions to get moldy so we just keep them in the garage. Then we can’t sit on the chairs when we go outside, unless we go get the cushions. It annoys me a lot.

- Clean out all the weeds growing in the landscaping where we used to have bushes. It’s along the east side of our house. The bushes got too big and the previous owners planted them too close to the house. So we got them all taken out but now there is an empty nasty area there with lots of weeds. I think we are going to plant pampas grass there.

- Hang more pictures up in our bedroom

Little Bits From Today

Filed Under Church, Clothes, Home Sweet Home, Sixteen Months | 7 Comments

This morning we got up and went to the Tuesday morning childcare program at my church. My grandma and I had a class, and Bailey went to the nursery. The kids in the nursery were all different ages (just for today) but it never seems to phase Bailey. I watched her as an older kid tried to take her book, and she pushed her away and said, “No no no!” I’m glad she sticks up for herself. Also, she doesn’t cry when I drop her off, at least 90% of the time. I think it’s because she has always gone to the nursery or some type of morning childcare at least once a week. Also, we leave her with my mom and a few other people from time to time.

I thought she looked so grown up this morning so I took a few pictures of her before we left. I can’t believe my big girl will be in the Toddlers class this fall!

And finally, she cooperates!

Tonight after Jonathan got home from work, he was working on fixing some of our outdoor lighting and I was working on dinner. Don’t worry, it was just spaghetti and garlic bread. You should know by now that I don’t do anything too complicated. Anyway, I had the oven mitt out to get the bread, and Bailey found it and ran off with it. I just managed to find the camera and get a quick picture before she lost interest.

Then later this evening, I was working on cleaning my office. The endless project that never gets all the way finished. Although, someday it will, and I will show pictures! Bailey was wandering in and out while I was cleaning, and she found a Sigma Kappa hat from when I was in college. She had fun modeling it and ended up wearing it for quite a while. She announced “hat” and pointed to it every time she saw one of us. Just in case we weren’t sure.

My Busy Day

Filed Under Doctor Stuff, Fifteen Months, Home Sweet Home, Movies, Toys | 3 Comments

Today was a busy day for me. The morning started off by Bailey climbing out of her highchair. Then the carpet guy came to reclean our downstairs carpet. You know, the cat pee carpet? Well apparently the pet odor treatment didn’t work because after a few days the smell was back. (And to think Jonathon wanted to spend money on stuff like cat trees and condos for this stupid cat). The guy who they sent out today did injections into the carpet padding and onto the floorboard. We are hoping this works. If not we get refunded and have to buy new carpet. A friend of mine mentioned today, she thought we had already gotten new carpet. Well that was abandoned last minute due to money being needed for other things. So cross your fingers that this carpet cleaning works!

Then my Avon order came and I couldn’t sort it downstairs because of the carpet cleaning, so I completely trashed my office trying to find room to do stuff… but at least I can deliver things tomorrow and get some money!! Bailey did a great job playing by herself in the living room and watching her Elmo video.

Tonight I had to go get my eyes examined at my old eye doctor. Apparently the crazy woman I saw last time at the cheapie place was right, and I really do have an astigmatism. So my contacts are now like $65 a box. I am just waiting to go back for my “recheck” of my new contacts and then once they give me the prescription I will go get it filled online.

After that I ran a few errands- stopped by the grocery store and stopped by Best Buy to get a new Elmo dvd for Muffie. She is absolutely in love with “Mo” right now. Then we had a late dinner and let Bailey go outside and play in her new Cozy Coupe for a little bit. She can get in and out on her own and then picks up her feet so you can push her around. I’ll have to get some pictures of her in there!

Our Hot Tub

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Our hot tub has basically been one issue after another. We really enjoyed it in the beginning. Then I got pregnant, and we didn’t use it. Then, we had Bailey and we didn’t use it for a while. This spring, we tried to clean it out and fill it, and there was a dead mouse in it. Yuck. So Jonathon got that all cleaned out and then found a part that needed to be replaced. Went to fill it again, and there was another dead mouse. SO the conclusion is, we definitely need a new hot tub cover.

We have been kind of wanting a new cover for a while since ours is torn up looking. Our excuse was always that “at least it was functional.” Now it’s not even that. Not only does it not work, but it is ugly. So we are officially shopping for hot tub covers. We have been to a few pool places and it looks like we will end up spending between about $300-$600 on a new cover. Which stinks, since it’s not like something we are really excited about.

However, I did find one cool thing while doing some online shopping. This company makes these cool pictures that basically fit into your cover. Then when you flip the cover up, you can have an instant “background” that makes it look like you are on the beach, or in the tropics, or wherever you would rather be, other than your backyard in Missouri! The website also says that the water reflects onto the scenes and makes them appear to come to life- like with waterfalls, ocean, etc. Once we finally get a new cover, I would be interested in getting one of these to put on the flip side.

It seems like we always have a million home repair/improvement projects, though. We just got the carpet taken care of (finally) and now once we get a few extra cents we can move on to the next thing.

Clean Carpet

Filed Under Home Sweet Home | 3 Comments

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Here is my Tuesday Toot. I can’t really take ALL the credit for this, but I scheduled our carpet cleaning and got the carpets cleaned today. Including the oh-so-nasty downstairs carpet. We had it deep cleaned and pet odor treated and sanitized, which killed 99.9% of the germs and bacteria. NOW I feel like Bailey can play on that floor. So we are going to turn that room into a play area for her. We are going to get a big fun rug for the middle of the floor and bring her big toys down there. The ones that are cluttering up our living room and leaving not much room for anything else. Jonathon said he would set up a laptop for me down there. And there is a recliner and a tv. So this should be a very good thing.

I have been saying I wanted that carpet clean for three years now. Seriously. Then we were going to replace it. Then we didn’t have the extra money… really we still don’t… That’s why it’s such a big deal to me.

(If you are local and you want the name of the company, contact me. They have a special, 5 rooms and a hall for $40. What ran the price up was all the extras we had done to the downstairs.)

House for Sale

Filed Under Future, Home Sweet Home, Money, My Childhood | Leave a Comment

Not ours! My childhood best friend’s old house is now for sale. The one we grew up playing in all the time. So many memories there… This is the house where we went “tanning” on the roof. We played Nintendo for hours until we beat Zelda, sitting on her brother’s top bunk and looking down at the tv. We got locked outside and climbed in through the kitchen window more than once. We jumped off the deck onto the trampoline. It was just the house where we always hung out. She hasn’t lived there since 8th grade when they moved about a half hour away, but when we went to stop by a friend’s house last week we drove past and I saw that it was for sale. I looked at the listing and it looks amazing. And, get this- it’s a SIX BEDROOM house. How cool would that be. We could sell our house now and pretty much trade even, price-wise. It also has all new cabinets, countertops, hardwood, etc. Living room, family room, eat in kitchen, formal dining room, finished lower level with rec room and big storage room…

If I thought we could sell right now we seriously might be interested. I would just be afraid our house wouldn’t sell. We started looking at online mortgage stuff and it looks like we could get even a lower interest rate than what we have now. (Just under 6%). Gah, I know it’s not realistic but it’s fun to dream. I should be content with this house for now. Why is it that we are always wanting the next, bigger, better thing?

There goes our stimulus check

Filed Under Complaining, Home Sweet Home, Money | 5 Comments

Want to hear something that sucks? We have termites. Not actually in our house but in wood right near the foundation, in a big colony under the driveway, and in the mulch in our flower beds. So… time for termite treatment at the low low cost of only $1000 This area (midwest) is apparently pretty bad for termites, and we live in a wooded area with lots of big old trees. The Terminix guy we had out said that was good and bad- there were lots of trees so the termites didn’t have to resort to ONLY eating houses, but also that there tend to be more termites. So. We are going to get a treatment done that lasts 12 years. They come back and check every year and as long as you pay for that visit every year, their service is guaranteed and also you are not financially responsible for any damage to your house. I talked to my dad later and he said we should check with Semo, who they use at their house. It’s a smaller company but a lot cheaper and they offer the same warranty. Terminix wanted $250 a year to keep up the warranty and Semo only charges $60 a year! Big difference. Not that you care about all this but it was just annoying to deal with.

And the other thing our check is getting spent on? A new part for our air conditioner. We were lucky and Jonathon found a guy to do it after work at his cost plus just a flat $75 for labor. Jonathon always finds nice people who want to help him. He’s just a likeable guy Seriously though this is still going to run almost $500. So now you can see that we have no stimulus check left once we’ve paid for these two things. That sucks. There goes my dreams of shopping, vacationing, pedicures, The Melting Pot…

Home Improvements

Filed Under Home Sweet Home | 3 Comments

I have been inspired by Nicole at Here’s the Diehl to start showing pictures of our home improvement projects- or our “wish we could afford this right now” things. Since we bought this house in 2005, we put in all new windows on the main level, replaced one of our bathroom vanities, got new white faux wood blinds, repainted almost everything, changed some hardware… there are still a few light fixtures and fans and stuff that I want to change. Also I have been thinking about redoing our hallway bathroom vanity/countertop. It’s still that shell style and kind of a cream color, but it fits with the way the bathroom is decorated. What do you think? Here is how it looks now. I am trying to decide whether it’s worth spending the money on.

Oh and I forgot to mention that we will definitely be replacing the faucet, I know it’s old looking. But here is the rest of the bathroom. And we are NOT spending the time or money to replace the stupid gold shower doors. Someday we might pull the glass doors out and just put a curtain up to cover it. The walls are more of a sage green and match the rest of the decor. For some reason they have a more blue tint to them in these pictures.