FMM-Organization

Amber is hosting Friend Making Monday over at her blog so after you are done here you can go on over and check out what everyone else has to say today. If you are coming from Amber's, welcome and come back again!

1. Do you cook every night?

I cook every week night. We eat out on Fri and Sat nights and then I make a big dinner on Sunday.....like homemade bread and everything kind of dinner.

2. What kind of laundry detergent do you use & why?

I use Purex Free and Clear (or something like that.....M and I are allergic to alot of soaps)

3. Do you do laundry every day or loads at a time?

I have actually been very bad at laundry lately. I only do it 2 times a week. Once during the week, if needed and then again on Sunday. Can you tell we don't do much on Sundays? lol

4. How often do you eat out per week?

see #1

5. Where do you usually eat out?

We like variety......Mexican, Thai, pizza, steak, seafood, local little places

6. What is your favorite retail store?

I am a Tarjay girl. I love Kohl's too!

7. What's your favorite thing to drink?

Mt Dew

8. Do you take vitamins? What kind?

I do take a multi vitamin for women. Its supposed to promote fertility.....I read about it on a message board so it has to be true, right?

9. What percentage of the household chores to you do?

55% (gotta get that extra in there! lol)

10. Do your children do chores? {Or will they, did they, etc}

Yes....she is to keep her room clean, put away her clean clothes, fold towels and put soda in the fridge

11. Do you go to church?

No

12. Do you have a housework schedule?

I don't now but I have in the past. I come up with brilliant ideas but just don't follow through for very long. I may start this again.

13. Do you keep a working budget?

I wouldn't say we have a budget but I do track our spending (excel geek here) and if we spend more than I think we should we will talk about it and try better the next month.

14. What do you do at night as a family?

We always eat together, at the table, no TV or any distractions. This is a biggie for me. Sometimes we watch movies or TV or go for walks through the neighborhood or to the store..

15. How do you prepare yourself for a new week?

Sunday is my prep day....if you hadn't already caught on to that. We rarely make plans for Sundays. I clean, get things organized for school and work, make sure all the clothes are clean, update my calendar and we talk about what the week ahead will be like for us as far as plans.

16. What do your mornings look like?

I wake up at 5:30am (or supposed to) and The Husband is usually almost ready to leave. He is so good about getting right out of bed. M's alarm goes off at 5:50 and we leave the house at 6:20. Drop her at before care and head to work by 7am. The bus picks her up at daycare at 7:30am.

17. What time do you get up in the mornings?

is this a trick question to see if I change the time from #16? Ok so its closer to 6:45 when I get out of bed.

18. What time do you go to bed at night?

we try to be in bed by 10pm

19. How do you manage all of the paperwork that floods into your household?

I hate piles so I deal with everything right when it comes in. Mail gets sorted.....bills go in their place until its time for me to pay them (all at once). This year I started a school binder that keeps all of the important papers in it. I mainly did this so that I didn't dig through everything to see what time school really started.....I had to do this last year when I took M to school one day. Bookbag and workbag are right by the back door......these are prepared the night before.

(We wont mention my to be filed pile that's on my bookshelf. Its in our room so noone sees it.....that makes it ok)

20. How do you keep your household organized? {calendars, charts, etc}

I have a calendar that I keep in my 'notebook' and then we have a calendar on the fridge too. These 2 are updated with everything we have going on.....from dentist appts to cheerleading practice to parties etc. Anything that we schedule goes on here. This way if The Husband is on the phone with someone and needs to know if we are free Oct 10 he can check the calendar. (this happened last night)

The Notebook that I talked of is my baby. Everything and Anything goes in there and I usually take it everywhere with me. If I think of a blog post I will write it down so that when I have time I can type it up. If I hear of a book or movie I want to read/see I write it down. You get the picture. I cant remember anything so this is like my little helper. My handy dandy notebook.

I won! I won!!

I won a giveaway on Tanielle's blog. I was very excited to receive my package because it was a surprise giveaway......I had no idea what I was getting.

This is what I got in the mail:

and here is some of the goodies:

there is tissue paper, tape, gift bags, boxes, wrapping paper, red ribbon, white ribbon, Christmas cards, red pens (funny because I always use red pens to do my cards), an ADORABLE J-O-Y craft, Christmas card holders and also a little Santa sign....so cute!

(these are super cute.....I couldn't get a great shot)

(love this.....its probably my favorite)

Thank you Tanielle.....I truly do LOVE my stuff!!

Writer's Workshop- First day of school

Since Miss M started school this week I thought I would list the 5 best things about the first day of school…….this is one of MamaKat’s prompts for the week.

1. The anticipation of starting a new school year, with a new teacher and class.
2. Seeing all of your friends that you haven’t seen since school let out in June.
3. Wearing new clothes. This was a major plus for M. We bought her school stuff but she wasn’t allowed to use/wear anything until school started. She was so proud to wear her skull vest on the first day of school……she said it was the best shirt she’s ever had. Even though I’m not big on it I love that she loves it so much! (alot of love huh?)
4. The non-stop chatter. Oh my goodness this child talked and talked and talked about everything and anything that happened at school. I am so excited that she still wants to tell me everything. She likes to think she’s grown up now but things like this make me realize she’s still my baby girl.
5. For me, the first day of school means that my baby is getting 1 yr older. I don’t know if this really falls under a ‘best’ because it is bittersweet. I love watching her grow and advance but I also miss the days of her fitting on my chest while sleeping. She has grown into such a gorgeous young girl……inside and out.

Soda makes you fat

at least this holds true for me.

I have kept my same exercise routine with a little mixing here and there and nothing happened. The weight would not come off. I cut back on this food and that food. Nothing. Finally I decided to cut back on my Mt Dew. I drink 2 per day and that's it.....honestly I don't think that's alot. I guess to my body it is because once I cut back I lost weight week after week.

Every other day I only have 1 Mt Dew. I just cant deprive myself (yet) and get rid of it totally. I did try diet Mt Dew but couldn't get past the first drink. The Husband had to finish it for me. (he will eat or drink anything) I am only losing around 1lb per week but still I was so shocked that I was finally continuously losing.

We wont talk about me being sick all last week and then getting ready for school to start this week.....that has delayed the exercise a bit.

So ladies, soda may be the key for you too! (I'm a slow learner)

This is a part of Amber's EM:ME. If you haven't already go over and link up to see what everyone else is talking about this week.

Twas the night before school

In the morning I will have an official 3rd grader. THIRD GRADE. That's like almost middle school. She will be on the top level of the school, moving closer out the door. She's starting to like boys and some of her friends are wearing bra's. My baby loves music and can wiggle her little hips quite well. She loves to listen to Taylor Swift and sing as loud as she can. She starts cheerleading next week and is soooo excited to do it.

My baby. sigh.

She is so grown in many ways but still my baby too.

We talk about anything and everything. I love that she talks to me and I always encourage it. I hate that she is away from me for so many hours a day so I like to get all the gossip when I finally see her.

Tonight we prepared all of her stuff for the 1st day of school so it will be ready in the morning. Book bag is ready, shoes by the door, clothes picked out and hairstyle has been thought of.

Oh wait, she said, she remembered that we always read Twas the night before Kindergarten every year on the night before school starts. Every year I change the grade to the grade she will be entering on the next day. It really touched my heart that she remembered this and its such a fond memory of hers. In the book the parents cry but the kids don't. She said but mom you never do that......oh sweet child, I have every year and I'm sure I will tomorrow too. I just hide it well. (I didn't tell her this....I told her I was proud of her and knew what a big girl she was and that she would be fine)

3rd grade is so old.

For real?

I got this text yesterday from an old high school friend and it makes me giggle.

Side by side or miles apart a friend like you stays in my heart :)
Send to 10 friends including me or lose someone big tonight!

Isn't that sweet? Hmm lets think about this for a minute......

Soooo if I DON'T send this to 10 people someone will die or leave my life? Tonight?
*remember lose someone big tonight*
This text (or email....you know you get those too) is that powerful? Holy cow!!

So do you forward these because you are afraid, superstitious, think they are cute or do you just ignore?
I'm an ignorer.

It's that time....

back to school time, that is.

Miss M has started the moaning and groaning about how school is boring. She will be entering the 3rd grade in just a few short days. Well once we went on a four hour long shopping spree where everything was all about her.......her attitude changed. She isn't allowed to use or wear any of her new things until she starts school. Now she cant wait. lol

I was a little shocked at her taste this year. She will be 8 yrs old in the next few weeks. That may seem young but really in this day and time that is like being 12. She is turning into such a little teen. Long gone are the days of princess stuff and I accept that. You can only take so much princess stuff! She was still a girlie girl though and I commented the other day how 1/2 of her shirts were pink. She would never wear black, ever. That is until this school year apparently.......

Let's take a visual tour of our shopping spree:

First was this skirt along with a pink shirt that has little rhinestones in the shape of a flower (I think its a flower) on it. (cant find a pic online of the shirt) The outfit is cute together!

OK so not too bad.

This next one was a shocker to me but she loved it so I obliged. The skull eyes has hearts and stars and she loves the scarf.

Lets move on to some shoes, shall we. These are called Twinkle Toes because they have rhinestones on the toe area. Apparently they are all the rage. I had never heard of them. Are you noticing a trend yet?

Lastly lets enter the name brand part of shopping. She has thrown around the words Aeropostale and Hollister in the past few weeks. I guess she got that from the older girls at daycare.

Hmm Aero wont let me copy their pics or upload from the web to blogger.

A green shirt:

http://www.aeropostale.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2875681

and this is what she chose as her bookbag. She saw someone else have one last year and wanted this type. I made her look in all the other stores and Aero was our last stop.......she still liked this one. This isn't her exact bag.....I don't see it on the website. Hers is white and has a very light blue flower on it.

http://www.aeropostale.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3703681

I picked myself up an Aero shirt too. They were on sale and super soft. She also got some pants and corduroys at Old Navy and other things but they arent anything out of the ordinary. So now you know what my 'baby girl' will be sporting for the 3rd grade!

The condensed version-part 2

continuation of updates........

I met up with an old friend (we reconnected on FB) and spent the day at the park chatting while our kids played. That was really nice!

The Husband and I had an alone weekend. No kids......zero!! It was very nice. We didn't do a whole lot but that was the point. We helped a friend move. We don't get to hang out with this group of friends much so it was nice to spend the morning catching up with them. We came home, took a nap, and got ready to go out. We followed the "do things we haven't done before-Summer O'Fun " and went to a restaurant we have never been to but have heard lots about it. It was a bit pricey but now we can say that we have been there. (it wasn't anything special, don't you hate that!?!) Then we went to rent a movie. Going in I said that we would get something we both liked.......we walked out with Bride Wars. lol There just wasn't anything good there.

Ohhhhhh I got complimented majorly by the clerk at the video store. Either that or she hit on me. Not sure.
Here's the recap.......
Clerk: whats your birth date?
Me: gives it to her
Clerk: No way, are you serious? You cant be that old.
Me: uh yep, sure am. (she was like 18)
Clerk: well you are doing something right because you look great
Me: thanks! (starting to get a little embarrassed)
Clerk: *turning to other clerk* do you believe she is that old? *she looks at me again* its no wonder he doesn't let you out alone *turns to The Husband

*she continues talking and everything is becoming a blur at this point. I remember her saying something about me looking good and somebody may want to 'break a piece off of that' or something. I'm assuming she meant I was a sex object? lol

So that bring us to last weekend. (I feel like Ive missed alot of stuff but I cant remember anything, ugh)
Last Friday I took the day off and so did my mom. She picked up my niece and we took the girls to Luray Caverns. It was so much fun!! I highly suggest it to anyone who has something similar nearby. I hadn't been since I was a kid so I didn't remember it at all. They give you headphones and a little screen thingy to wear on your neck. It is a self guided tour, when you reach a sign you punch in the number from the sign and it tells you about that area. Miss M got a little bored towards the end but my 6 yr old niece LOVED it. She loved punching in her own numbers and loved learning all about the formations. They have an adult tour and kids tour, you punch in which tour you want. The kids tour described everything in a Indiana Jones kinda voice. So fun!We left there, had lunch and then headed to the pool. It was too cold for me to get in so my mom and I just laid out and talked while watching the girls. There were a few boys there that M goes to school with. All I have to say is I may need to medicate myself soon. 8yr old boys should not look at my baby, tell her to watch them and try to impress her by going off the high dive. (yes, I know I am being ridiculous!!)My mom went home after the pool and my niece spent the night with us. She always asks but we are busy doing this or that so it never works out. This time I made sure to make time!! The Husband picked up his girls for the weekend so we had 4 giggling girls running around. They had a sleepover on the floor and thought they were the coolest. The next day we headed to my mom's (hour away) and spent the day swimming in her pool. Again too cold for me to swim but I did get in the water for a minute. Later in the evening we went to a Festival where the girls did pony rides and had yummy ice cream. Fun was had by all but you could tell they were exhausted. Me too! We took my niece back to my brother and spent a little time with him before heading home. I think we ALL went to bed at 9pm.

Moral of the story: I can't tell a SHORT story and should blog more often so that you aren't falling asleep at my 100 page posts.

The condensed version-Part 1

Is anyone still out there?
I feel like I havent posted anything exciting in a long time. I am going to do that all in one post. I always mean to update but I never actually get around to it. Last week I think I realized why I have been so slack on my blog lately. I talk to some of you off of blog land so you already hear enough of my life. lol I talk to Mel all day long, almost everyday and I chat with Staci on Facebook and email plus I keep up with a few others on facebook through status updates. Hmmm this is telling me that Facebook is the problem!! It replaced my blogging time......

Summer O' Fun has definetly been fun, yet exhausting. I think I will stick with the beach next year. We have done cool things every weekend which has left little time for normal things....you know like cleaning and organizing. Sooooo as you may have noticed I havent kept you updated lately.

In the past few weeks we have:
Tried out our new tent. (Note to self: camping stuff goes on sale because we paid more than that for it) It is so spacious! We camped in our backyard since it was our first time. This was kinda spur of the moment....more like umm honey the summer is almost over so we need to do this. After dinner we went outside and did our fire, roasted marshmallows, the kids ran around catching lightening bugs, and we just sat and relaxed around the fire. Honestly this was my favorite part. Just being outside with no distractions! I dont know about you but its so easily for me to get distracted or not make the time to do the relaxing stuff, so this was nice. We will be doing alot more fires! Back to the tent, The Husband and I slept on an air mattress and each of the 3 girls had sleeping bags. The clever Mel told me to get some glow sticks so we had them for the girls to play with and then at bedtime we hung them from the ceiling to have some light inside the tent. The girls slept all night long. I was honestly amazed. The Husband and I? Not so much! We dont live on a real busy road but some fast and the furious car decided to go past our house at 3:30am with their loud mufflers (or whatever it is) and that woke us up. Plus it was freezing. I was going to go in to get the keys and found out The Husband didnt lock the door. Uh, *I* am not going in there after the house has been unlocked for hours. So I stayed outside alone while he went in to get me some pants and a hoodie. We had a nice time and will do it again before the summer is over.

(this is starting to not be condensed so I will continue tomorrow)

Totally boring job post

I have to get this out and get over it so feel free to skip this.....

We know I am a govt contractor. The rule is there always has to be govt personnel here for the staff to be able to be in the building. Makes sense but it doesn't always work out. There are 3 govt employees, me and another woman and then 40 other contractors. Me and the other woman are considered more govt since we do the admin stuff for the govt.

OK so, 2 weeks ago all 3 govt employees were off. Someone in DC was trying to get a hold of a govt employee and got no answer so she took it one step further....I wont bore you with the details but there was trouble. So the boss here (not our real boss, she is our govt boss) told us that the next time this happens that we need to call her at home at 9am and she will come in.

Oh surprise it happened again last Friday....as a side note everytone always gets sick on Friday. shocker. The boss left me a message last friday at 5:30am that she had a migraine but to call her if skanky coworker didnt come in because the 3rd employee had the day off. 9am comes and I call her house phone, noone answers. The other woman has her cell # so she calls that and it rings in her office. Nice. So I try to call her house phone again. I leave a message this time. I told her that noone was here, it was after 9am, a contract supervisor was looking for a govt employee and someones computer had crashed so I wasnt sure what to do about it.

Never heard a effin word back. All day.

The boss comes in this morning and asks if skanky girl came in Friday. I said no and read her off the list of things that went wrong on Friday. She said she didnt get my message until 12:30. Oooook and you didnt even call then? I was a bit flustered but held my cool. A little while later she comes over and says if that happens again we need to keep calling her until we get ahold of her. ARE YOU EFFIN KIDDING ME? *I* am at my job, doing your work because your staff doesnt ever work and you want me to be your alarm clock. I was FUR-I-OUS. I said ok but couldnt hold my tongue anymore. I said you know its really tough because about 5 people came through here saying how we shouldnt be working because there is no govt employees here blah blah and we have to listen to this BUT we are the ones who wont have a job in 24 more days. Not happy. I am pretty sure my voice cracked and you could tell I was shaking inside. I dont do confrontation but I couldnt take it anymore. It was like I was getting reprimanded because I came to work. Oh....she said I cant help if my staff is sick at the same time and walked away.

Well you know what, dear boss.....You suck as a boss and thats probably why I am losing my job. Its quite apparent to everyone else that this place is not run correctly. I cant wait for 24 more days. I hope you know that this place will definetly fall apart then, if it can get worse. Good luck with that. My days cant go quick enough.