A mom, a dad, and three cute kids.
Monthly Archives: March 2009

Frugal/Fashion Friday Followup

by nathan

I know it’s Sunday, but since I missed getting this post in on Friday, I’ll just pretend that I’m not two days late.

I love a good deal and I’ve been working on my scrapbooks lately so good deals related to that make me very happy. Here are a few sites where you can get some great deals:
CropChocolate: This is a site that just started a week ago. I call it my very own “woot” because it works much like the woot site. They sell one item a day until it’s sold out. An item I bought the other day had free shipping. I don’t know if it’s like that with everything, but it might be. The prices are ridiculously low.
Michaels and Joanns- If you sign up for their mailing lists, you get the weekly advertisement emailed to you as well as weekly coupons. I think Joanns offers a 40% off coupon every single week. I just recently signed up for Michaels. At sign up I received a 40% off coupon and I received a 50% off coupon this week. Some of the big ticket items are excluded, but you should still be able to get some good deals. This week, Joanns is selling the Bigkick Die-cut machine for 50% off. Maybe for Mother’s Day. . . I need to think about whether I would get my money’s worth out of it. It’s very tempting. Of course, none of these things are good deals if you are buying things you don’t need or have money for anyway. Just a little disclaimer!

Now, on to Fashion. Have you been waiting with bated breath for the follow-up to last week’s post on jeans? Well, wait no longer! Here it is! Yes, the word “tertiarily” is used in that post!


99 Days to go!

by nathan

My countdown says I have 99 days to go. That’s so crazy! It’s strange to have to be prepared for 99 days, but to also have to be prepared to be out of commission in 7 weeks= 49 days. That would put me at about the time I went on bedrest last time. That doesn’t sound like very much time to get everything ready.

My glucose tolerance test is next week at my regular OB visit. I have a bad feeling that I’m going to fail that test. I’m been feeling sick after having sugary things. I really don’t want to have to do a 3-hour test at the clinic. I had some stomach pain yesterday that sent me to bed for a while. Thankfully, the pain stopped. I hope this next appointment is uneventful. I’m feeling tired again. I hope we can all get good naps today.


Photos and Scrapbooking

by nathan
I ordered some photos last week. It’s nice to actually have some to put into albums. It had been awhile. The order was pretty big. It inspired me to work on our family album. I decided to do something really simple with this current album. This last summer I bought an album at Target that I could use just to slide the pictures into. I know that albums like this aren’t really new, but I am excited to use it in a way that it a little more creative and meaningful than just dumping the pictures in the slots. I finished a couple of layouts. Here’s what I accomplished last week.

All I used for these pages: photo album, paper trimmer, photo edge rounder, decorative paper and stickers (cut to 4×6) and adhesive.

As you can see, I didn’t have to really think about where I was going to put all the fancy things. I cut some paper down to fot the 4×6 slots. I used one of them for journaling and one for a sticker. Easy!

Since I’m planning to get together with some friends to do some scrapbooking on the 21st, I also planned out 4 pages of the album that I’m working on for Ethan. My goal is to have his up to date by his birthday next month. That album is the more traditional scrapbooking that I do. I picked the papers that I’m using, cropped some of the photos already and wrote out little maps of where I want the photos, stickers, page titles and journaling to be placed. All the things I need for those 4 pages are ready.

When my huge photo order arrived, I went through and sorted all the photos based on the albums where they will end up. Right now I have three different albums: Ethan, Audrey and Family. I’m been sorting them into a triage album where I can see what photos I have for different events. It seems to work better for me than photo storage boxes (although, I have those too).
Last, but not least, some photos from around our house:


Fashion Friday

by nathan

It’s Fashion Friday. Last Friday was “Frugal Friday”, but I’ve switched back to fashion for this week.

Melanie at Big Mama does a “Fashion Friday” post every week. She’s the genious behind the scarf video I posted a while ago. I was looking at some of the links from her site today and I came across this one. I just spent the last several minutes learning how to avoid having “mom jeans” and “long butt”. I feel more educated now and so will you if you read the post. By the way, there are pictures! I need this knowledge for my post-partum shopping this summer.

Happy Friday to you all!


The post you’ve all been waiting for

by nathan
A day in our life:
Ethan and Audrey are watching Playhouse Disney while having breakfast.
A shot of the dishes I’ve started working on during breakfast.
Hugs for Daddy from Audrey.


An “extra” hug from Ethan on the stairs.


Waving goodbye from the window as Daddy heads off to work.
I check on Audrey and find that she was coloring on the window.


Ethan is finishing watching his last morning show.

I’m still working on the dishes. Making progress!
Audrey wears hat #1 of the day.

I take a break and have my breakfast at the computer.

Starting on the laundry

Audrey models hat # 2 of the day while I fold laundry.

Ethan is now a superhero.
Dishes are done!
Time for heading to our friend’s house for some playtime. I didn’t bring the camera to document that part of our day.

Back home and it’s time for lunch. After lunch Audrey goes down for a nap and Ethan rests on the couch downstairs.


I’m getting caught up on my Bible reading.

I organize my drawers so I can actually open and close them.


Folding and putting away the last load of laundry.

Audrey wakes from her nap.
We bundle up and head out to meet Daddy at work. I think Audrey is wearing a sock on her hand.

Picnic with Daddy for supper before we head to church for AWANA. Unfortunately, Ethan had a horrible meltdown at church before AWANA started so Daddy took the kids home and stopped taking pictures for the day.


I Will Rise

by nathan

Nathan’s boss, Mike, sent an email last night to say that his father had passed away. I asked Nathan recently when I would stop crying everytime someone lost a parent or loved one. It’s one of the things about grief that has taken me most by surprise.

I’ve been listening to this song a lot lately. I love the words.


Housekeeping Checklist

by nathan

I found this yesterday and I’m planning to use it this week. I thought I would share the link in case anyone is interested. Here’s an excerpt from the site:

Based on my book To Love, Honor
and Vacuum
, here are household organization charts you can download for FREE
that will help organize your life, organize your kids, and make sure you put
first things first!

From the information in chapters 4 & 6 in
To Love, Honor and Vacuum, where I talk about Balancing Tipped Scales and The
Family That Cleans Together, I how to decide who should do what chore, how to
assign the frequency of the chores, how to make sure you pay attention to the
other important things in life, and how to make sure you relax! Most of these
charts are found in the book, but I’ve thrown in some extras to help you,
too!


24 weeks

by nathan

Fridays are my day where I switch to the next week for this pregnancy. So, I was 24 weeks on Friday. That puts me at 24 weeks, 2 days today. A few people at church told me they couldn’t believe I only had 3 months left. It went so fast for them! That makes me chuckle. Pregnancy seems to fly by when you aren’t the one experiencing it. Someone else told me that they heard I was expecting and that they couldn’t even tell. That was very sweet, but as my husband pointed out today, my belly may have actually made it to the point where it sticks out farther than my chest. That’s quite a milestone for me (I think I’ll just leave that comment without further elaboration). Oh, and I was wearing non-maternity clothes today that were a bit more form fitting. Anyone who didn’t know I was pregnant was probably thinking I needed to start a new diet ASAP.

I think I’m the worst advertisement for pregnancy. I enjoy the first two weeks. After that I’m sick, feeling fat, hating how I look, I’m uncomfortable and then I’ve had to deal with bedrest. For those of you who have never had a baby, I’m not normal. You will probably love your pregnancy and have no trouble other than finding jeans that don’t sag everytime you move. And you’ll probably not gain any weight except for right in your belly and you’ll actually miss being pregnant after having your baby.

Audrey and Ethan are regularly kissing my tummy. Audrey asked the baby to come out yesterday. We’re to the point where it’s very easy for Nathan to feel the baby move and I’ve actually started to see my belly move a little in response to the baby’s movements. He is the most active of my babies. He’s a nightowl. I haven’t stepped on the scale for a few days and we need a new battery, but I’m pretty sure I’m up about 10 pounds from my starting weight.

Lastly, we’re pretty sure we’ve decided on a name. It starts with a vowel. That’s all you’re getting from me though!


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