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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Happy Birthday to Me!

Birthdays kinda put me in a funk. I don't hate getting older or anything, but for some reason I always feel a little bleh on mine.

Today definitely had a rough start. I got approximately three hours of sleep the night before (courtesy of some brutal molars that Landon's working on), so I was basically a zombie.

But things got better.

The kiddos went to Mother's Day Out. I always miss them while they're there, but I don't think I would've been a very good parent today, haha!

I went to my chiropractor. A little nap under heat therapy plus a good adjustment did wonders for my physical and emotional state.

I worked at church for an hour and a half.

My awesome sister took me to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings (gosh, I'd missed that place!) and gave me the world's best blanket that I've been wanting since I was introduced to this brand at our family Christmas at my aunt's lake house.


I picked up my precious babies and headed to my parents' so they could play while I ran to pick up some fabric.

Matt met me at the house before we picked up the kidlets to go eat at Olive Garden for dinner. Normally I choose Tex-Mex by default since it's my very, very favorite (Chuy's and Fuzzy's, anyone?), but thanks to this weird pregnancy thing, I feel very apathetic toward Mexican food. So Olive Garden it was! Peach tea and chicken alfredo pizza made a very good birthday present if I do say so myself. The kids were surprisingly well-behaved, especially considering they hadn't napped all day, and it was fun to close out the day as a family. Plus we had a coupon, so win.



Then we came home to a delicious cake made by my very handsome and awesome husband. Caramel coconut pecan cake was a perfect way to round out my day of horrible eating. It also rounded out my midsection. At least I can blame the baby.





I just really have the best friends and family. I had texts and Facebook birthday wishes all day long, in addition to some amazing gifts from Nick and Brittany (a gorgeous basket filled with amazing cookies and goodies), Matt (a cool necklace that he knew I'd love), and Allison (the aforementioned blanket; y'all, I'm serious), generous monetary gifts from my parents and in-laws, and surprise gift cards from fun friends.

Thanks to everyone who made it special!

So here's to my last year in my twenties! It's been a great decade, so I'm ready to close it out with yet another fantastic year.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Much Better Week

This week has been substantially better than the last one. (Speaking of which, apparently misery loves company because I got a TON of hits on my crappy week post, go figure!)

Matt fixed the washing machine, and the dryer is still trucking along. We're still keeping our eyes out for a used set that's in good condition, but at least we can have clean clothes for now.

Our car window was fixed quickly and much cheaper than the original quote.

We found a decently priced refurbished laptop that's comparable to my stolen one, so we'll be using some birthday money and tax refund to pay for it, but yay for a new computer that's on its way. (p.s. Thanks to my super sister for letting me borrow her old one in the meantime.)

Yep, we got a (pretty hefty) tax refund this year. I can already hear my dad reminding me that a refund only means that we gave the government an interest-free loan last year, but when the you-know-what hits the fan all at the same time, I'm thankful that we're getting money back in our pockets instead of having to write another check. So there.

Thanks to my new BFF (aka my chiropractor), I'm feeling good enough to get back to my sewing machine, which means my Etsy business is picking up steam again. (I even hit 100 sales last week!!)

This is my current favorite burp cloth set.

The weather for most of the week was gorgeous, which merited a trip to the park and lots of play time in our back yard. I love Texas (for now). And I apologize to my northern friends if the pictures of sun and short sleeves make you jealous.



Avery and Landon played together really well this week (although it's impossible to get a picture of both of them these days).


I got to have an early birthday celebration with my whole family on Friday night, complete with tamales (I blame the pregnancy cravings) and the best strawberry cake on the planet. I didn't even know I liked strawberry cake until I tasted this stuff.

(Why yes, I did jack a picture from Facebook because I couldn't get it to save correctly on an unfamiliar computer. Tech fail.)

Some of our favorite friends, the Fuchs, came over for dinner last night. The kids ran themselves ragged, laughing and chasing and playing forever. And there was ice cream involved. Avery could hardly keep her eyes open during her bedtime story.


Can one start a New Years resolution in February? Because I definitely need to take more pictures this year. And while I'm making resolutions, I should probably add "use fewer parentheses" and "blog more than once a week" to the list.

Baby steps. I really like parentheses.

Friday, January 18, 2013

It's a Funny Story, Really

Except that it's not funny at all.

Things were finally starting to look up this week. And I guess now they're still looking up but only because I've hit the bottom of the abyss and there's nowhere else to look.

Is that too dramatic? Fine.

We'll start with the good. I decided that I'm not going to be miserable for the next 6-7 months like I was with my first two pregnancies, so I made an appointment with a chiropractor who was highly recommended and specializes in pregnancy and children. She is my new best friend and I'm not even kidding. After just the first visit yesterday I already feel like a human being again. I wasn't even in pain, but I just constantly felt bleh and wanted to avoid problems before they started. I still feel amazing today, so I am sold. And if you're looking for a chiropractor in the area, I'm more than happy to share. :)

With my newfound ability to actually function, I was ready to conquer the day. Starting with the ridiculous amount of laundry that has accumulated while I've been glued to the couch the last month.

Only our washing machine stopped draining water last night and our dryer smells like it's about to burn up any second.

Mommy!

I loaded up 5 huge hampers of clothes (I told you the accumulation was ridiculous) and headed to my parents' house to start the laundry before our lunch date with friends at Chick-fil-a. I figured it would work perfectly to bring the kiddos back to their house for naps while I did laundry and caught up on stuff on my laptop. And that idea was perfect. In theory.

I just didn't plan on thieves* smashing the minivan window and jacking my laptop (that apparently wasn't hidden as well as I thought) while we enjoyed our chicken nuggets and waffle fries.

*I have a lot of words that I would rather use to describe these inconsiderate monsters, but I'm choosing to show great restraint.
Do you like how they also dented up the door frame? Because smashing the window just wasn't destructive enough.

Nothing like repairing a car door/window, buying a washer and dryer, paying outlandish doctor fees, and replacing a computer all at the same time.

Did I mention that none of my computer files were backed up?

Here's your lesson for today, kids: Hide your stuff and back up your hard drives.

I could really use a margarita.  Oh, wait.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Homemade Powdered Laundry Detergent

Hey guys! I'm guest posting today over at Forward Home Security.

I shared one of my favorite Pinterest finds, homemade laundry detergent! If you've been toying with the idea of saving some money on laundry, check out today's post or see my original posting from last year. We're still using the same recipe and loving it!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Unglued

I've gotten into a non-reading funk lately. Every time I get in bed, I grab my phone and play stupid games and check Facebook for the millionth time that day. It's annoying. And yes, I realize I have control over what I do at the end of the day, but it was like I just couldn't snap out of it.

So last night I put my phone up before I got in bed, and I started reading a book that's been sitting neglected and unopened on my nightstand for a good two months now.


I'm not too embarrassed to admit that I come unglued at least once a week. I let things build up and build up and then all hell breaks loose.

Maybe I should be too embarrassed to admit that.

Too late now.

I'd read some rave reviews from multiple bloggers I follow, so I picked up a copy of Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions. I don't have anything substantial to say about the book so far because I'm only one chapter in, but I'm excited to make some imperfect progress to stopping the emotional explosions.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Perot Museum AND the Zoo

We are in full fledged survival mode over here!

Matt started back to work this week (those two week Christmas vacations are such a tease!), and since the musical is in two weeks he has rehearsal every day until 6:30. My food aversions begin promptly at 4 pm, so cooking dinner isn't really an option. I bought more convenience food at Costco this week than I have in the last six months. Desperate times...

Annnnd Landon has stopped sleeping through the night. Yay for ridiculously slow-growing molars! So last night when he woke up screaming (again), he woke Avery up, too (again). Except last night she complained that her pajamas were too hot, so as I was helping her change into some cooler ones, I realized that the heat was coming from her skin. The poor girl had 102+ fever.

So we missed MOPS today and watched PBS all morning in our pajamas. Landon didn't understand why Avery wouldn't play, so he spent the morning trying to jump on her and get her off the couch. No rest for the weary. We ended up making a Sonic run for lunch, which worked on three levels: 1) we got out of the house for an hour, 2) the caffeine got rid of my headache, and 3) both kids crashed on the way home, making nap time a breeze. Points for me.

Speaking of points, the actual point of this post is that we had a fun family Saturday, during which we spent the morning at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science AND the Dallas Zoo.

Yes, we are crazy. And we may have eaten McDonald's for breakfast and lunch because we are awful awesome parents.

The downtown playground is so cool!






Avery was talking to Juan. It was a very important conversation, as you can clearly see.



Hip hop dancing!



Avery insisted that she be our tour guide: "Mommy, STOP. I will tell you where the giraffes are."





Also, our Christmas lights are still up. Not on, but up. That's kind of embarrassing. But when you're just trying to survive, saving face is not a priority. Bring on the rest of this week!!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy Anniversary and New Year to Us!

We headed home from Baytown on Saturday morning, stopping by our friends Adam and Melissa's house on the way out. It FINALLY worked out for us to see them during one of our trips, and it's looking promising that they'll be up our way this spring, so yay!


Avery was obsessed with Edie's "casp" and talked about it the whole way home. She thought it was pretty cool. I hope she doesn't get any ideas!

We got home in time to unload our bags, grab a few party essentials at the grocery store (since we hadn't been in two weeks!), and eat dinner at Chipotle (hey, our pantry was bare and the food in the fridge was beyond questionable).

We celebrated our anniversary on Sunday by leading worship at church, hosting a meeting for an (awesome) upcoming event, and sending the kids to my parents' so we could hit the town! I use that phrase loosely, but we had a really good time.

Matt talked me into booking a hotel for the evening, and I'm so glad we did. It meant I didn't have the option to do laundry or dishes or pay bills or anything. We got to spend actual quality time together. My multitasking often gets in the way of that.

We stayed at the NYLO South Side, which is totally cool and contemporary and not at all us, but we loved it. Also, the perk to having a December 30 anniversary is that hotels are seriously cheap the day before NYE! Something to consider if you're planning a wedding, haha!


After we checked in, we headed to Studio Movie Grill to finally see Les Miserables! It completely met up to all the hype. I've seen the show on stage four times (it was the first Broadway tour I ever saw!), but there were so many parts to the story that made more sense on the big screen. I loved it. Although I could've done without hearing Russell Crowe sing. I mean really, they couldn't have found a better Javert? I don't believe it.


We were gonna go visit some friends whose baby is in the hospital after the movie, but visiting hours were over already, boo. So we drove all over town and finally found a Starbucks that was still open. The barista turned out to be a girl I worked with at Old Navy in 2001. We couldn't figure out why the other looked so familiar and finally put the pieces together. I can't believe 2001 was twelve years ago. I'm officially old, but that's beside the point.

So Monday morning we grabbed Chick-fil-a for breakfast (raise your hand if you're surprised!!) and braved the gloomy day to go to the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science. Matt's brother and sister-in-law bought us a family membership for Christmas, so we were really excited to check it out! I was glad we reserved tickets in advance because the museum was sold out for the entire day. We ended up only staying for about an hour and a half because it was SO crowded, but it was really cool and we'll definitely be back! The kids will freak out over the children's museum area, so we might actually take them this week while Matt's still on vacation.


Our annual roomie's New Year's Eve plans got cancelled because Ricky was sick (and Tiff and Ross couldn't come up anyway this year), so we were completely bummed.  But we stayed home, had a picnic dinner in the living room, put the kids to bed around 9:00, drank hot chocolate, ate jalapeno popper dip, hung out with my brother (who was working and stopped by) and parents (who were lured by the promise of hot chocolate), fell asleep watching Footloose, and woke up at midnight to the sound of a war zone in our neighborhood because people thought it would be super fun to explode a zillion fireworks within city limits. I told you I'm officially old. And a party pooper.







Then today we celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family at my aunt's lake house in Azle. It was super low key and fun. Minus the fact that most of the cousins bailed. At least the cool ones were there. :)

Both kids fell asleep on the car ride home, Matt went riding with my brother tonight, and I thought I was going to go on a Netflix binge with sole control of the remote, but I blogged instead. And now I'm so tired I'll probably go to bed. Lame.

And where are the undecorating fairies when you need them? My Christmas stuff is still up and doesn't go away when I say "poof." I'm gonna keep working on that.

Also, I feel like I should only cook vegetables for the next month to make up for the horrendous eating habits we've picked up these past two weeks. Yikes!

Tomorrow I must hit the sewing machine again and catch up on new orders. Yay for orders, but that means my vacation is officially over.

Happy 2013! No official resolutions for this girl!