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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.