Sunday, May 31, 2009

Office/Craft Room Re-do

So I took a little blogging hiatus after my two week stint of blogging daily. It has been nice, but I am exciting to be posting again.

Old Living Room

Now an office/craft space...the doors were eventually painted.

The new space as I moved all of the clutter into it with no organizational system.


A few weeks ago I posted about my office/craft space and the lack of closed storage. Well yesterday and today I re-organized, re-arranged and basically revamped my office. Check out the before and after photos below. My office used to be our old living room. We never used it and it was fairly inexpensive to convert the space to something else by adding a wall and French Doors.

The view from entering the space



Well this week my hubby picked me up this table off of Craigslist originally from Pier 1. It is an actual craft table. I love that it is pretty much counter height and that I can use it solely for scrapbooking and cardmaking. Now I won’t have to clear off my desk and move the keyboard to the side. I have plenty of space right there. My kids love that it has two stools, perfect for them to sit at and color if mommy is on the computer.

My New Craft Table



So after getting the fabulous craft table I had a dilemma of how to organize the room. I need as much storage as I can get. I used to have a sofa in here, but it was pretty cramped with the addition of the new table. I decided to take the sofa out and re-arrange the space with the bookcases all together on one wall, the desk moved to the right a little bit and the craft table against the window so I can look out as I scrap. It was difficult to figure out a layout that worked. Originally, I thought I wanted the craft table in the center. While that would be nice, it just wouldn’t work in the space that I have with the other furniture that I need. Unfortunately, I also decided to store my sewing stuff in a closet in another room. I really just don’t have the space for it.

The revamped bookcases with no closed storage, but boxes make it look neater, more orderly.

It feels fabulous to be organized (as I am pregnant and very much nesting). My amazing hubby insisted that we go to Target yesterday and get some much needed closed storage for the bookcases. I didn’t really want to spend any more money than what we had spent on the craft table. Well he wouldn’t take no for an answer and insisted that I get some storage and do it right. This is the outcome. As you can see, there is a big difference from the before and after. I already had a few storage components, but nothing that was unified and not enough. Now I won’t have any excuses to be unorganized. Fortunately, Target had the brown containers on clearance, along with some of the blue cubes. They matched what I already had perfectly. I just love it when that happens.

Room view from the corner


Overall, I am thrilled with the space and I can’t wait to have some time to scrapbook and make some cards in it. It has been a while in the making and I am so thankful to my wonderful husband for making it happen. Now it is onto creating some unique artwork and a ribbon board for my revamped space. This along with a bazillion other projects I have on my plate before this third baby arrives. 

Jen D.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Apple Cheeks Diaper Starter Kit Give Away



Apple Cheeks diaper is giving one lucky reader of Your Mama Reviews a starter set of their diapers. Now I have not tried these myself, but they look like a wonderful pocket diaper with an insert that can be used inside the pocket or just laid in the diaper as a prefold would. I would love to try these, but if I don't win it would be nice for someone that reads my blog to win. Enjoy!

Diaper Stash for Baby Number 3

Well as most of you know we are expecting our third. She is due this summer. I am nesting and trying to prepare for her arrival, but with two toddlers it is not easy. So far this is the cloth diaper stash for her as an infant. I intend to use gdiapers (with disposable inserts) or disposables for the first few weeks due to the messy tar-like bowel movements that infants have and then I will start in with cloth. I am excited and nervous to cloth diaper an infant. I have only cloth diapered toddlers and I still feel like a beginner at that. Newborns and infants are a little different to diaper so I am not sure if I have all that I need yet, but I hoping by the time she arrives we will be set.
Here is the breakdown of what we have so far
The Stack
10 infant prefolds (I will probably use these with the g diaper pants as inserts)
10 infant Chinese Prefolds (inserts for g diapers)
8 homemade inserts for gdiapers



In the basket (from left to right)
11 gdiaper covers (most are cream or orange, but there is also 1 red, 1 pink striped and 1 brown)
6 Fuzibunz pocket diapers size small in pink, lavender and white (a good friend gave us these to use since her daughter is done with that size)
2 Sassy pants pocket diapers in small/medium (brand new)
2 Swaddlebees size small stuffable pocket diapers
1 fitted newborn diaper
11 Sassy Pants all in one diapers (these are mostly boyish in color since I bought them from a mom on Craigslist that had a boy)

As you can see we are off to a good start, but with changing a newborn about a dozen times a day I am not sure if this is going to do it. I am hoping to be able to get some more diapers in the next several weeks so we can really be prepared. I have some one size diapers for the other kids that I can always throw into the little girls pile if need be. We will see.

I hope you are enjoying the sunshine and the extra long weekend. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Jen D.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Sunshine and Retail Therapy


Well I had intended to type this out early, but the night got away from me.

Today was actually a semi-good day. I am still not feeling great about being pregnant another ten weeks and life sure is not where I want it to be, but things went a little better today. It is amazing what some sunshine and a little retail therapy can do for your mood. We spend the better part of the day outside. The family went to a nearby outdoor mall and walked around. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air and son. I also got a late incredibly indulgent, Mother’s Day present. I have not bought anything for myself like that outside of the iphone (which I saved money from both Christmas and my birthday for, plus waited for four months to get) for more than a year. I am still feeling a little guilty for it, since I know with a third baby on the way things are going to be tight for a while, but at the same time it is not something that will go to waist or that I won’t use. I probably just didn’t need to indulge in such an extravagant one. Since my hubby was with me and said to do it…I threw caution to the wind and gave into the impulse.

I have wanted a new Coach bag for quite some time. I find that when I do make quality purchases on something like a purse, I end up getting a lot more use and value out of it. The Coach that I purchased four years ago as a graduation from my master’s program for myself I still use. In fact I am having it sent back to the company to fix some of the stitching on it. It is a great purse and I am sure I will go back to it at some point. I know it was not necessary, but at the same time it is something I will get a lot of use out of and probably have for quite some time. Plus, this one is a quite a bit larger than my old one. I have been saying for a few years now that I need a large purse now that I have kids. Now it still is no huge purse where I can fit everything in it and the kitchen sink, but it is a nice medium size, instead of what I had before which was on the smaller size.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I am delighted that I finished two weeks of daily posts on the blog. I will continue to try to post frequently, but may not quite daily. Happy Weekend!
Jen D.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Organization: Craft Room

So today’s post is on organization. I consider myself somewhere in the middle. In my brain I am very organized and I rehearse all of these different scenarios. I type lists, keep records, but when it comes down to it I am not as organized as I want to be or my brain thinks I should be.

For example, I really struggle in my office with organization. I have a lot of craft stuff for scrapbooking, cardmaking and some sewing stuff. The problem is I have no closed storage and I have no place to really spread out to make scrapbook pages, cards or a craft project. I love to look at how others have organized their spaces, but when it comes down to it I don’t have the extra resources to devote to new closed organization or a lot of new furniture. In a perfect would I would have built ins in my office and plenty of work space within those built ins. There would be closed storage and a little open storage. Everything would have a place. Obviously, it is not a perfect world.

My hubby was planning on getting me some sort of second desk so I could have a computer workspace and a place for my crafts. I would love this and be very grateful for it. It would solve one of my big problems with organizing my office; however, I still have the issue of no closed storage. The funny thing is I struggle with this in my work space at school as well. I have no closed storage there either and my closet of a classroom is not much bigger than my office at home. I affectionately refer to it as a trailer. I don’t mean to be condescending to anyone, but it really is not fit for a classroom of any kind. Ideally, I am hoping to be placed in a regular classroom next year, but with how things work out for me I am not too hopeful.

Being that I struggle with the same problem of lack of closed storage at both work and home I have been brainstorming ideas for how to solve the problem without spending a lot if any money. This is not easy, but I was thinking of making a curtain and hanging it with a tension rod over on the top of the shelf so that you couldn’t see what actually being stored in the shelf. This would be fairly in expensive because tension rods are only a few dollars and have fabric that I can use. I actually already have the curtains for my office and they match perfectly. Another thing I could use is some decorative tacks that I already own to hang the curtain. The negatives to this idea are: I would have to hold it up and would not be able to pull it back when looking for something the shelves. My other thought the curtain may make it look even messier than it does without the curtain because it will look like I am hiding something, which hey I am.

Has anyone had this problem before and if you have, did you find a solution? I am open to suggestions. Once I figure it out I will post pictures. The first picture below is of my open storage office, when I first moved into it. Notice how clean it isn't even organized then. The other photos are of rooms that I like. I wish I could give credit to these websites for their photos, but I have saved them in my inspiration room file and I don’t know where I got them. There are a lot of others that I just love, but they were saved on my other computer and I didn't have the energy to hunt of them. Maybe I will post those inspiration pics tomorrow. I apologize to anyone whose photo I am using. I am not trying to steal the credit for your creativity.



Enjoy your weekend.
Jen D.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Another Cloth Diaper Post

I ordered some brand new diapers from the Swaddlebees outlet store yesterday. I am so excited. These are sized diapers, but the cool thing is they are stuffable AIO’s. I purchased a few off of Craigslist on Monday and then I found some seconds on sale at the Swaddlebees outlet store for a great price so I purchased those. It is amazing how excited a person can get about diapers. I never thought that I would get so much joy out of cloth diapering and out of trying different ones, but I do.


Lately, I have been drooling over these beauties. The first few pictures are from this etsy site. Now I don’t usually like fitted diapers, but I have heard some good things from other cd’ers about fitted diapers. I have not had a lot of luck with them so far because my kids seem to be heavy wetters. I am still interested in trying these though. The second group of photos is called Little Fancy Pants. I really want to order some of these for this baby girl I am carrying. I just love the floral prints. They remind of good mama’s, but they seem to be a little cheaper than the beloved Good Mama’s. I have yet to try a Good Mama diaper. I want to, but I just can’t bring myself to pay that much for one diaper. This is especially the case since cloth diapering is supposed to be saving me money and it will, but not until I stop buying new fluff when I find it at a great deal. I have been very frugal about it so far, but since I am also trying to get some sort of stash for this new little baby together it is probably not saving much if any money yet.


With that said, cloth diapering sure is saving me a lot a trash. I only use disposables at night on my kids when I work and then at the sitters house. So I am maybe tossing between two and four diapers a day three days a week and the other days I am cloth diapering so I don’t have any garbage from those. It is fabulous. My husband has even commented about the smell of our laundry room being less stinky now that I am cloth diapering. I do wash the cloth diapers every other day so they really don’t have much time to get too stinky. It is funny how I don’t putting and folding our other laundry, but I have no problems folding and putting away the cloth diapers. 

Do you cloth diaper and want to share your experiences? Please post a comment. I love to read about how others CD and their experiences.

Jen D.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Borrowed Book on Parenting



As you can see from my posts lately, I am losing the battle of the wills with my three year old, especially when it comes to potty training. Well today at work a colleague of mine recommended this book (Your Three-Year-Old: Friend or Enemy by Louise Bates Ames, PhD and Frances L. Ilg, MD) to me and actually let me borrow her copy. It is not a new book and was originally published back in the seventies, but I read a few reviews from today’s parents that say it is worth the read. So I am going to start reading it tonight. I have always subscribed to the Love and Logic approach, with natural consequences, etc. However, that is not really working for me with my spirited daughter, especially in the area of potty training. I am looking for some real solutions, strategies, whatever I can that I can try to help me parent and not lose my mind. I apologize for the short post. I am just exhausted. A certain person has been keeping me up with snoring. I get up to go use the bathroom several times a night, but then I can’t seem to fall back asleep because of the snoring. Ugh, the joys of being pregnant.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Doctor's Appointment

I am thinking I will post two posts tomorrow to make up for this not so great post that I am posting now. I am trying to get a post done everyday, but it is not easy.

I had my doctor's appointment today. Things seem to be going well with the little girl inside me. She is measuring perfect and I got my glucose test back and it was negative. I am however slightly anemic, but I would rather be a little low on iron than be diabetic. I am so glad that I don't have to go through the ordeal of having the three hour test. Unfortunately, being anemic means I will need to start taking an iron supplement (hence the picture of pills). Not fun, but better than a special diet for GD. On a not so great note, the new practice that my doctor is with will not even give me the option of a VBAC. To add insult to injury they won't even consider scheduling my mandated c-section anytime before 39 weeks without an amnio and I have no input into the date. My doctor just submits a request to scheduling and that is it no input from either of us. This is a real bummer since I have the same due date with this new little baby that I had with little a. Plus I was really hoping to have her birthday be at least a week earlier than his. Now it looks like unless she decides she will be born on a different day that I may even end up going the full 40 weeks. I think I may resort to inducing my own labor if that is to happen. I am so done with being pregnant now as it is. I can't even wrap my mind around having to go full term. Ugh! I just keep saying this too shall pass, but now it will be a little longer than I had hoped it would be. I have never been accused of being lucky and I definitely know why. Plus with little a I spent the majority of my summer just waiting for him to arrive. I was really hoping to not repeat that this summer. Plus being pregnant in the summer is miserable (plus I am already a terrible pregnant), especially without AC. There is nothing I can do at this point. I am learning that I have very little control over anything in this life. Well hopefully your Tuesday was not as disappointing as mine.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Hodge Podge Post

Well today was a much better day than either this Saturday or Sunday. I can’t believe I am posting this, but I seem to be transparent on this blog and so why start being something different now.


I pretty much lost it on Saturday. Big A went poop in her pants again and I just couldn’t deal. I felt the world closing in on me. I had a huge breakdown. Obviously, if I am okay blogging about it now I survived and I am okay. The picture is of me crying in my car, parked in my garage. I was going to go somewhere, but I couldn’t think of anywhere to go and I knew that in my emotional state I shouldn’t be driving, so I just stayed in my car. I called my mom and cried for a while on her shoulder. I got some potty training advice from her and then both my aunt and uncle. I wish that I could say that helped, but it didn’t. I was pretty shook up. The poopy pants incident was just the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. I have been feeling pretty horrible lately. As I have mentioned before pregnancy just doesn’t agree with me. Well in the car I tried to pull it together so I could go upstairs and face the rest of the night and my so called life. I had posted on Facebook that “I wished there was a place where you could exchange lives.” This was before I got in my car. In the car I was trying to delete that status from my phone, but was unable to. I am still learning how to use my phone. Anyways, playing with my phone was a good distraction and I took this self-portrait in the mirror of my car with the phone. I am a mess. You can see my make up is all smeared and I have black circles around my eyes. I prayed, listened to some praise and worship music and tried to pull myself together. I am hoping that I will feel better about my life and myself one day soon, but until then I guess I will just have to fake it until I make it.

Sunday was just like any other day around our home. I cooked, cleaned, took care of the kids, went to church. You never would have known it was Mother’s Day if you were just peaking in the window. I was bummed about it at first, but I am sure there are a lot of us out there that had similar experiences. I love my kids and I am glad to be their mom, even if it is a very disrespected, never ending, all consuming job. My poor hubby was having a bad day with his own stuff so he was unable to physically do anything to help out. I am starting to accept that life is just hard sometimes.


So today was a much better day. I don’t teach on Mondays so I took Big A and little a to a coffee shop with a friend and her kids. It is a coffee shop that has play area with a paid babysitter that watches your kids. It was my first time going there. It was a lot of fun and my friend and I got to chat and hang out. My kids didn’t stay in the area the whole time, but it was fine. Big A didn’t have any potty accidents so we went to a fancy grocery store afterward our play date and she got to push a cart all of her own. She was so happy. It was very cute. She did pretty well on peeing in the toilet today, but those BM’s are something else. I pray that she just gets it soon.

Before meeting my friend I went and met a lady selling some diapers on Craigslist. I ended up getting some new fluff for the little girl due this summer. I am so excited about these. They are stuffable AIO diapers made by Blueberry and Swaddlebees. I have two Blueberry diapers that I just love already and Blueberry/Swaddlebees is the same company. I can’t wait to try them out. A few of them should fit Big A right now so I might try them on her stuffed for overnight on Thursday. I am washing diapers now. I won’t cloth diaper again this week until Thursday night. I don’t tend use them when I am working. It is just too much for me. I am looking forward to the summer when I can cloth diaper almost a hundred percent. Adding great diapers to my stash always makes me smile and getting a good deal on them is even better.

Well I am doing pretty good on my postings. Now I just have to plan for the rest of the week when I am busy working. Tomorrow, I have a doctor’s appointment and get to see how the little mover and shaker inside me is doing. I will try to post an update either tomorrow or on Wednesday. Have a great week.

Jen D.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day!


I hope all of you moms out there are having a fabulous Mother’s Day. I am not really in the mood to celebrate motherhood right now. I guess I don't really feel very good at the whole mommy thing right now. I think the potty training thing is just getting to me. I sure have failed as a mom in that area. There are tons of other things I fail at as a mom as well. As you can see the hormones are out of control these days. Yes, I can blame it all the hormones…they have to be good for something, right? Happy Mother’s Day everyone! Do something special for yourself!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Gdiaper Cloth Inserts




I started using Gdiapers about six months ago with my 14 month old. I don’t use them all the time, especially since now that I cloth diaper, but I really do like the flexibility of them. First things first, the Gdiaper little g pant is just too cute for words. They come in a variety of colors and the medium size fits from about 15 pounds to 28 pounds. We got some good use out of our mediums and for my son he is now into the larger size. The disposable inserts that you can buy for them are great and I love the convenience for traveling, etc. I prefer to use the little g pant with cloth inserts though. I made about ten inserts for little a about five months ago using fabrics that I already had lying around and then some microfiber towels that I purchased from the automotive section at Target. They have worked out quite well for us. I use them in a rotation with the little g pants and my slow growing cloth diaper stash.

Well this morning I decided to make some small inserts to go in the little g pants I purchased for our little girl to be born this summer. I pretty much followed the same process that I did for making the large size cloth inserts, but just cut these smaller. I think they will work great. I used two microfiber kitchen towels for the small inserts and two receiving blankets that were used and given to me by a friend of a friend. I am so excited about how they turned out. I hope they will work well for the little girl. I figured out that each insert costs somewhere around 30 cents. I love how cloth diapering not only saves the environment, but also my checking account. These are extra green since I recycled the receiving blankets. This makes me happy.

Over the past few months I have been building up a stash of diapers for her. I have 11 little g diaper pants, 10 Sassy Pants AIO diapers (I bought used on CL), 2 brand new Sassy Pants pocket diapers, 8 infant prefolds (I will probably just use these as inserts in pocket diapers or something…prefolds are not my thing usually) and 7 Fuzzi Buns that my friend used and gave to me for this baby. I don’t think that will be enough considering how frequently a little one goes, but I am well on my way.

If you have cloth diapered an infant please share your wisdom with me. I am still very new to cloth diapering and would love any advice from a veteran. Please share your experiences, stories or advice in the comments section, especially on diapering an infant or newborn. My cloth diapering experience started just a few months ago when my son was about 16 months old, so I have no idea how it will be with this new little girl.

Friday, May 8, 2009

MOPS Carnival and Painted Belly...



This morning was our second to last MOPS meeting for the year. The year has flown by so fast. I am thankful to have found MOPS. It has been wonderful to be a part such a great team this year that works so hard to put MOPS on for the local moms. We had a carnival for our second to last meeting. It was fabulous. We had games, prizes, carnival food, face painting, group photo session, and a picture frame craft. We also had a few group games to start out. It was a blast if I do say so myself. We had a great turn out and I think all the ladies really enjoyed themselves. I am excited to continue to be on the steering team next year.

So while everyone was cleaning up (usually I help as well) the face painting gal was kind enough to stay and paint a design on my HUGE belly (see the design above). This is something totally out of character for me have done. I mean I am very modest and usually don’t just show my belly to anyone, anywhere. There is another gal there who is a totally cute pregnant gal, unlike me and hers looked so cute so I thought I would give it a try. I guess I am glad I did because I would never know unless I tried. After this experience, I have decided that nothing really makes me cute when I am pregnant. I am just huge (and still have a few months left) and not cute and that is just how pregnancy is for me. I am learning to accept it. I mean this is my third pregnancy in less than four years. I have had a lot of practice with it and should just know by now that I am not cute and have not felt good about me since I got pregnant the first time. I am hoping one day I will feel better about myself and that I will feel more like me eventually. I am still working out (not that you could tell) and I try to eat relatively healthy. I don’t use being pregnant as an excuse to eat more, but it doesn’t seem to matter, I am still huge. Oh well!

I remember when I was first pregnant with Big A. I had all of these grand plans of how great pregnancy would be and that I would just stay the same, but add a belly. Boy was I wrong. Pregnancy and I just don’t mix. I gained weight everywhere with my first and then I got pregnant seven months later with my second and couldn’t seem to lose the weight from the first before getting pregnant. I gained less with my second and I have gained less with my third (I haven't gained anything in two months, but I am still gigantic. No, I am not a cute, glowing pregnant lady, more like a huge, unattractive, blob. I have lost hope now that I will ever be the same again. Oh well, such is life. I was definitely not blessed with good genetics that is for sure. I often wonder how and why God made me this way. One day maybe I will feel better, but for now I am just pregnant and positively miserable. The good news is the pregnancy will come and go and out of the whole ordeal I get a baby to love and raise for the next however many years. The good and bad news is I will never be me again now that I have had children. I am still trying to wrap my mind around that one. Some days are okay and I can accept that. There are other days where I just want to run back in time and be me again.

An update on the potty training journey…Big A didn’t have any accidents at MOPS, but she did have two accidents within an hour of each other at a MOPS lunch that we had after tear down and clean up. I was bummed that I had to leave, but I didn’t have any clothes for her and I told her if she had another accident we would be going home. She started to throw a fit, but ended up making it out of there without kicking and screaming. I don’t know what I am going to do with that girl. I am thinking of having the two older neighbor girls make fun of her for wetting her pants. Is that just mean of me or what? It sure doesn’t matter when I tell her that “Babies pee and poop in their pants. Big girls pee and poop in the toilet.” She doesn’t seem to care about anything. Nothing motivates her, but the little girl at the babysitters. What am I going to do?

Well I hope everyone enjoys a great weekend. I am still going to try to keep positing once a day for the next eight days. 

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Cloth Diapering: The first of many posts...

I almost forgot to post something today. Here is my post for today. Give me a break, it was written pretty late at night so hopefully it is coherent enough to read. :)

Cloth diapering is something that has become somewhat of an obsession/addiction with me. I know that sounds completely insane, but just wait. If you try it and really give it a chance you might just get hooked like me.

Here are two common questions that I get when people find out that I cloth diaper.

Do you wash your own diapers and isn’t it horrible if you do?
I do wash my own diapers, every other day. I actually do not mind washing the diapers. The process is very easy. I simply dump the bag of diapers into the washing machine, turning the wet bag inside out as I put them in. I toss the wet bag in and wash. Since I have a front loading machine, which is great for the environment and energy bill, but not so good for washing cloth diapers, I am still working out a good washing procedure that works for me. It really is easy and for some reason I don’t mind it. I actually get a lot of satisfaction from cloth diapering and even the stuffing the pockets, the folding and putting away.

What about the poop?
I must admit that I am not a dunker. I cheat. I use liners that are biodegrable, flushable and for the most part contain the poop. I have had a few leaks here and there off the liner, not out of the diaper, but those are rare. I actually have more trouble with my three year old in cloth training pants pooping and having to clean those up. The liners really make cloth diapering simple and less messy.

This post is just the first post of many on cloth diapering. I have learned a lot about it in the past six months. Although, I have only been cloth diapering for four months (and not on the days that I work) it took me about two months to research, purchase and get ready to start (I was also in my first trimester of pregnancy for part of that and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to handle washing the diapers then). Well I hope this post peek’s your interest in cloth diapering, but in all honesty I am not writing it to convert anyone. I just want to share my experience, document it, enjoy it and well like I said in the beginning I am addicted.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Mother's Day Give Away at Kelly's Closet



Kelly's Closet is hosting a fabulous and I mean fabulous give away in honor of Mother's day on their blog The Cloth Diaper Whisperer. Please go check it out. It is amazing what they are giving away. What a great package for some lucky cloth diapering mom out there. Wowsers! Are you feeling lucky? Go enter to win. If you don't need the cloth diapers I am sure you could find someone who would just love and adore you for giving them to her (including me). :)

Happy Birthday Honey!


This post is in honor of my husband. I may not always say it with words (especially lately), but I love you so much honey. You are a good dad, a good husband and a good man. I hope you have a fabulous birthday.

We are planning to celebrate with a dinner out with the kids and then a homemade cake. Since I am writing this post in advance I am hoping to make him a fabulous homemade cake that he will love, but we will see if my intention ends up coming to fruition. I have a lot of plans these days and sometimes they happen and sometimes I am just too tired, pregnant or exhausted to make a dent in them. I hope for my honey I will come through.

Mr. D already got his birthday present a little early. Check out this post if you are wondering what he got for his birthday. 

Jen D.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Diaper Cake Baby Shower Gift





Diaper Cake….
Here are some pictures of the diaper cake that I made for my co-worker. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend her shower and my husband forgot to take it into her on Thursday (the shower date) and then on Friday as well. Oh well! I hope to get it to her this week. We will see. I think she might already be on leave. This is her first baby and they know they are having a little girl. I thought it would be fun to make her a diaper cake.

This is the fourth diaper cake that I have made. I wish I took pictures of it before I put in the bag. They are so much fun to make and even more fun to give. I hope that she likes it. I am sure that there will be more babies for me to make diaper cakes for shortly. I will try to do a diaper cake tutorial next time that I make one. That way you can see how it is done. It is very easy and such a fabulous gift for any mom to be.

In this diaper cake there are approximately 75 size 1 diapers, a receiving blanket, a teething toy, a bib, 2 baby bottles (BPA free), a girlie onsie, and one pair of newborn pajamas.

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful day!

Jen D.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Weekend accomplishments or lack there of…sorry for the long post

I am in my twenty eighth week of pregnancy (my third) and starting to get a little antsy that things are not getting done. I have a HUGE to do list (not to mention belly right now) and I don’t seem to be able to cross much of anything off the list lately. I already feel so far behind and I know that I need to get a lot accomplished before she arrives because after that, things will be even more chaotic then they are now.

Weekend Snapshot
- Went to see Marc Morris Dance Company in Seattle with a good friend. It was a lot of fun. My MIL gave us the tickets since she couldn’t use them. We splurged and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory after the show. I normally do not eat after 7, but the hubby didn’t get home from an appointment until a little after 6 and with the drive into the city we had to wait until after the show to have dinner. The cheesecake was well worth the wait. We split the oh so yummy Tuxedo Cheesecake. It is one of their best I must say and even worth the bazillion calories that I am sure it is. We split it so that is half the calories right? It was a good night. Made me think, why I don’t go into the city more often. This was a special treat and I never would have gone had the tickets not been given to me. Boy do I miss going to plays, the ballet, cultural events.
- Saturday: Worked out, went to Costco, dropped stuff at Goodwill, came home put the kids to bed, hubby napped, I cleaned and then napped for a little while, cleaned some more, cooked dinner, washed diapers, cleaned a little more and went to bed early. As you can see not very productive.
- Sunday: Went to church (this is a real victory in itself, because it is hard to get the whole family out of the house, on time and for some reason we tend to have someone sick every other week and so we miss every other week,) cleaned out the diaper bag, sanitized the diaper bags (Big A peed her pants at church and then pooped in the fresh pair of training pants once we got home…dare I say more), made lunch, cleaned a little, blogged a bit, cleaned out the freezer, did four loads of laundry, put away clean diapers and kids laundry, cooked dinner with whatever I could find in the house, made a weekly meal plan, played on the computer, (now you have to remember that while I was cleaning, my hubby was napping yet again,) made dinner, cleaned up some of the kitchen (but not all…just too tired), tried to go to sleep early because exhausted (not so successful because hubby was watching TV and I struggled to try to get to sleep with the TV on). Yet, another not so successful day or fun day. Did I mention I took care of a 21 month old and 3 year old all, changed all of the diapers and all of the training pants? I guess that would help if I mentioned that.

Today I am trying to be more productive. I have accomplished quite a lot already, but it is not easy with two kids. It is nap time as I type this post out. I am going to try to clean and organize something while the kids sleep. We will see if that happens. Part of me just wants to lay down for a nap too.

So if you are reading this and have tips for staying on top of the housework please let me know. I would love some easy ways to stay on top of things. I am trying to balance way too much right now any help is greatly appreciated.

Jen D.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

My challenge and A Sweet Little Splurge...

So in an effort to try to post more frequently and try to post a little more positive posts than I have been posting I am challenging myself to blog everyday for a 2 weeks. I was going to make it a month, but I am not sure I can do that or a week and that seemed too short so I am going to try for 14 days starting yesterday. Now some of these posts will be pre-written today and tomorrow since I am working and will not have the time to write them Tuesday through Thursday, but others will be written that day and posted.

This would count as my second post.
So those of you who know me personally and are friend of mine on FB know that I bought myself a little present on Thursday. I had been saving my Christmas money and Birthday money for this little thing. I had to wait until our phones were up for renewal with our current contract. They would not let us upgrade any sooner than Thursday, but I am oh so glad that I did. Now I realize that the new version might be out as early as June, but I am still thrilled to have an iphone. I tried in December to get one and due to that silly contract was unable to. I am still on a huge learning curve of figuring out all the bells and whistles, but I am sure once I sit down and have time to play with it I will be up to snuff in no time.

Now for those of you who know me, you know this was a huge splurge for me. I am frugal minded. I try to re-use, reduce and recycle (when possible); after all I have switched to cloth diapering. I am very excited about this little splurge though. I think it is amazing how far technology has come in such a short time. I am old enough to remember getting my first cell phone in college or shortly there after. It was nothing like this new phone. AMAZING! In order to pay for the increase in our bill each month the hubby has agreed to forego cable television. We will be canceling as soon as our current overpaid balance runs out. This will help cover the costs, but it won’t completely cover it, especially since we will be getting some sort of DVD membership to either Netflix or Blockbuster or somewhere with no late fees. It will help though. Plus, I am not much of a TV watcher these days. For one I don’t make the time and number two being pregnant I have little interest for some reason. I am sure that will change once the baby is born, but I would so much rather read a good book or catch up on blogs than watch TV. Now there are shows that I enjoy, but not a lot as of late.



So here is my new toy. I think I am going to have this entry serve as not only a blog post, but I will scrap book it as well. I like getting two things done at once. Oh, I forgot to mention that my hubby got one as well. His birthday is Wednesday, so how could I say no. He has used his a lot more than I have used mine thus far. Unfortunately, he chooses to play with it anytime he is not doing something else...which these days seems to be a lot.

Happy Day!
Jen D.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Feeling Done...


Image taken from the http://greenbabyguide.com/

Do you ever that feeling that you have just had enough? That feeling that you need to be done. I am having that feeling and have been for at least a few weeks. I think I am just in a funk right now during this last trimester. It happened when I was pregnant with little a as well. We will see how long it lasts. So here is my done list.

I am done with…
+ Being pregnant, although this time around I was done before I even found out I was pregnant.
+ potty training since I have been attempting it for almost a year with a few months off here and there.
+ With disappointment
+ With this body of mine
+ With this crazy, chaotic life
+ With not sleeping
+ With trying so hard
+ With my hubby’s health problems
+ With the never ending house cleaning that gets done and then is messed up with in minutes
+ With laundry that is also never ending
+ With pets
+ With just about all of the you know what of this life

The thing is I am not done, not really. I still have to figure a way to be pregnant for at least eleven more weeks, officially ten days longer than that, but I am so hopeful for an early (but not too early c-section.)

At this point in time it is not looking good for the potty training to be over any time soon and since I am the parent that does most of the potty training I think I still have a ways to go. Plus, that is just with Big A, there is still little a to train after that and then this new baby girl a few years later. I think potty training is going to be part of my life a lot longer than it is welcome.

Disappointment is just part of life. You would think I would be used to it by now.

This body has failed me so much in recent years. Unfortunately, it is the only one I have, it is not a great one at that, and statistically it will probably last me at least forty more years. I just wish it worked how it was supposed to. I am ENORMOUS and I still have 12 weeks or so to go. I am swollen even though I workout and drink a lot of water. I can’t blame it all on this pregnancy. I haven’t exactly been happy with my body ever, but especially since my first pregnancy. It failed me in nursing (at least only nursing…I had to supplement) and then it failed me with losing this baby weight. This is probably the thing that I am the most done with, well at least tied with being pregnant and potty training.

Adding a third child to this family is not going to make life any easier, simpler or less chaotic. Somehow, I need to find a way to embrace some of the craziness.

Not sleeping is probably also here to stay since I will have a newborn and my track record for having great sleepers is really poor. My kids usually don’t sleep through the night until well nine and six months. A friend of mine is blessed with easy children. Her children are fabulous sleepers starting right off the bat. She just had her third and she is already sleeping through the night. She sleeps for about seven hours, takes a bottle and then sleeps for another four to six hours. Wow!

Trying so hard is one thing on the list that could probably go. Although, it is a personality trait that has been with me since I can remember. Now please don’t confuse trying so hard with things turning out well. I might try hard at things, but I often am not so successful.

The hubby has back problems. He has had two semi-successful back surgeries, but has still been in chronic pain now for 18 months. This is a really hard thing for anyone to watch their spouse go through, but for someone with two young kids and a third one on the way it is a depressing, devastating reality that life for her is only going to get harder and there is not much she can do about it. My hubby is a good father, but he is limited in what he can do with the pain. It is a financial strain, an emotional strain and a physical strain on us and our marriage. Oh I so wish I was done.

I am so done with our pets. I am trying not to post negative things about them, but our cat Jordan has to be the worst in this area. We tried to give her away to a good home, but she wore out her welcome there with in a week. I don’t know what to do. She is a beautiful cat and sure costs us a lot of money, but she has a sensitive digestive track, is picky about how clean her litter box is and sheds like crazy. I don’t have the time or energy to deal with her or any of the pets right now. It seems like all of the pets and our children are extremely high maintenance.

I wish I was just done with all of you know what to this life, but I am not. I can’t say that I would miss any of it. I am so ready to say goodbye to it and welcome happiness, but there is no end in site. I am also wise enough to know that there will always be stuff going on in my life that is unpleasant. I just have to find a way to suck it up and deal.

Maybe once the sun returns I won’t feel so down. We will see. I guess I better stop blogging and go do some laundry that is piling up or clean some of my house or attend to my kids, wait they are in bed. Oh what a wonderful way to spend a Saturday night. II don’t mean to sound ungrateful for the blessings that I do have in my life. I am just in a funk today. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.