Oh Blogger, how I miss thee..

So, I realized this morning that it has already been 2 weeks since my last post. I know this is way better than the running record I was creating but it seems too long. I mean to come in and write up all of these posts and it never happens. You see, I have a list of posts I want to write about but I never carve out time to come and actually do it. I don't know why. Sure, I take care of my kids and family all day long and keep house, but by no means am I so busy that I can't type up a post in 5 minutes or so. I'm trying though and I think that speaks for itself.

In the past couple of weeks not a whole lot has happened. Here are the main things:

• Parker is crawling! He turned 9 months old on the 22nd, which just seems way too early to me for him to be crawling. I know it's not, but it just feels like it. Graycen didn't start crawling until she was almost 11 months, I think. I should go back and check on that. (**Ok, I went back to check and Graycen actually started crawling 2 days before she turned 9 months. Where is my head?!**) He did it for the first time last night. I didn't catch it the first time so David grabbed the bowl of popcorn and baited him with it. I grabbed my phone and caught it on video. I will try to post it here. All day long today he kept crawling. I tell ya, give it a couple of days and he will be all over the place. He has even started with a little rug burn on his knees. Time for him to wear pants for sure - at least until he gets the hang of it.
• Parker cut another tooth. He now has 3 teeth and a 4th one is getting ready to cut. He has 2 on the bottom, 1 on the top and it's so cute!
• I am going back to school to become a medical assistant. I start on Thursday of next week and I'm stoked! Long story short is - I wanted to go to school to become a MA but realized thought about how much more money I would make as a nurse so changed my mind and was going to go to nursing school. Well, I have hit so many road blocks with trying to get into nursing school that it made me take a step back think about things. Through my thought process I realized why I was going to nursing school and decided to call about becoming a MA the next day. I called Everest Institute the next morning and said I was looking for some info. Our conversation went something like this. Rep: When are you looking to start? Me: Well, I want to start as soon as possible, but I'm interested in the evening class and I know that one is tougher to get into right away. Rep: Actually, we have one starting April 2 that has a couple of openings. I thought she was totally kidding since that is next week. I asked if there was enough time to get me in, registered and financing stuff taken care of by then. I went in on Tuesday for my entrance exam and to get going on paperwork. The finances lady I needed to see wasn't taking anymore people for the night so I had to go back yesterday to finish it up. I have orientation on Wednesday where I will get my paperwork, info, scrubs (yay!) and some books and have my first day on Thursday. My school week will be Mon-Thu from 6-10pm. The course is 10 months and I will graduate in January. I am so excited! Now if this wasn't meant to be then I don't know what is!
• Graycen is still a little miss smarty pants. She amazes us every day with her vocabulary and the things she has figured out. It's just nuts. She's growing like a weed. The girl is only two and a half and wears 4T clothes. I can't believe how big (tall) she is. She can definitely tell you what she does or doesn't want to do or eat. Sometimes we just step back and really say, "Wow."
• Ive started Weight Watchers again, too. I started up again on the 8th of this month. It always seems the first week is the adjustment week for me. So my first reall week into it again was the week of the 15th. I lost 3lbs my first week and I weigh in again on Sunday. I am excited bacause I know it's making a difference again. I can feel it in my clothes that I am losing! YAY me!!

I promise I will get better at blogging again. I really do miss it, even when it seems like a chore..

To Croc or Not to Croc?

The big debate around here lately is whether or not to buy Graycen a pair of Crocs. If we do buy a pair, it will be the Baya style. Probably in a cute pink or purple. Unsure.
I have seen them all over the place and think they are absolutely adorable on kids!! I think they may be a good investment as Graycen has wide feet and I have read these run wide and big. I like them because you don't have to worry about them getting wet and they just seem like a good sturdy shoe/sandal. I think they would be better than your regular girl sandals for outside play. (those are the sandals I just bought for Graycen so she has some) I just don't know if I can justify $27.99 (the price I have found everywhere) for a pair of sandals. Can I? Because if I do buy them, I will only buy the actual thing, not a Payless or Target knock-off of them.
If you have these for your kid(s) please chime in, I would love to hear what you have to say about them. Also, if you know of a place to get a deal, I would love to know that, too!

Yay for Tupperware!

Last week I had a Tupperware party. I have been wanting to have one for quite some time now. Since I have kid(s) around here, I figured I needed some!
I didn't invite too many people since I know there are a lot of people that wouldn't come anyways, so I pretty much only invited the people I knew would come. Makes sense, right? I had 5 guests in total. I didn't mind. They were all people I like to see and spend time with. There were also 4 kids here and 3 of them were under the age of 2. You can imagine what that looked like.
I felt like I couldn't pay attention most of the time that the Tupperware lady was here since there were so many kids and everyone wanted something at different times or there were many different noises that I had to go scope out. So, in between getting up 12 million times, I was able to see some of the really neat products Tupperware has to offer. If I could order everything I wanted, I would be spending hundreds of dollars. It's crazy! Because of all of the stuff that people ordered, I got so much in free product! I am so excited for everything! Here's what I got:

Ideal Lit'l Bowl Set

Wonderlier Bowls 5pc Set

Microwave Cereal Bowls

FridgeSmart 8pc Tower

Square and Rectangular Stuffables Set

The last two pictures are 5 different bowls that I got for discussing having a party, dating a party and holding the party.

I would say I made out like a bandit. Wouldn't you?

Well, after lots of consideration, I have made the decision to sell Tupperware myself. I'm going to be a Tupperware lady! I was thinking about the possibilities it could have if I work it to my advantage and actually pursue it. At first I am going to start out doing a couple of parties only because I have to get a feel for it and decide if I want to actually do in-home parties or not. If I like it, I will continue doing in-home parties and if not, I will just do catalog parties and such. I am pretty excited/nervous/anxious about all of this. It's a big change, but if I work it right, I can mostly be the SAHM I want to be! YAY!

So...if you need Tuppware, let me know. I'd be glad to help you out!

Delivery!

We are expecting lots of deliveries in the next couple of weeks here!! How exciting!!

On Friday Ma ordered Graycen's bed! She was so kind and offered to buy it for us. I put up a mini-fight - which I shouldn't have done because when you argue with Ma, you will lose...guaranteed! I went back and forth on the debate of twin size bed and toddler bed for quite some time. If you ask ma, she will tell you...there was LOTS of debating. In the end, I decided to go with a toddler bed. Twin beds aren't nearly as inexpensive as I would have thought. A toddler bed is lower to the floor and I wouldn't have to worry about Graycen having trouble climbing in and out. Also, if she did happen to fall, it's about a foot.. not too bad. The bed will be shipped direct from the manufacturer, so we are looking at a 2 week wait time on it. The mattress is in stock and that we should see before the bed. Yay for big girl beds!!
On Friday I also ordered a potty training book. Yes, a potty training book. Lately Graycen has been showing signs that maybe we should start the process. I am not expecting anything to happen for a while, but I think we are going to start it. She has dug in her poopy diapers quite a few times lately. When she poops she grabs the crotch of her diaper and says "poopy" she also takes her diapers off - a lot! I thought about it a little and talked to David. We decided to get the ball rolling. I really have no idea where to start, so I decided to do what I do best - look for a book about it! Since I enjoy Elizabeth Pantley so much, I decided to buy her book No-cry Potty Training Solution. Gentle Ways to Help Your Child Say Goodbye to Diapers. I was going to buy a potty chair this weekend but didn't know what to get. Why are there so many choices for a stinking potty chair??? So, I will wait until my book gets here and go from there.

Yesterday we went furniture shopping. I kind of figured we weren't going to find anything that we really liked yesterday. I was expecting a couple of shopping days to find "the set" Well, that didn't happen. We went to a couple of places and didn't see anything that was like "that's ours!" We went to Slumberland and found a nice set that we both liked. The guy asked if we were familiar with the Slumberland Clearance Outlet at all. I knew of it, David said "yes" like he knew what it was (but he really didn't) He told us they have LOTS of stock there and they also had a waaaaay better offer there for this set. We would have paid $998 for it at the Slumberland store, but at the Outlet it was $599 for the set! They had overstock of it and had a deal to steal - buy the sofa for $599, get the loveseat ($579 value) free. How could we pass it up?? We trucked on over to the Clearance Outlet, looked around and then decided to for sure go with it. We were in and out in less than 20 minutes! Our furniture is being delivered on Wednesday - I can't wait!!!!

Random thoughts for a chilly Monday

• I forgot how much I LOVE Diet Coke with Lime until a few days ago when I found a bottle at the gas station that I HAD to buy! NUMMY!
• I love real strawberry ice cream but hate the big frozen strawberry chunks.
• I really wish I didn't have to work.
• I hate that movies from our Queue don't ship over the weekend.
• I wish I had the 4th disc of The L Word so I could finally finish up season 4!
• I am so extremely tired today.
• I can't wait until Saturday. Ma is coming down to visit us. It's been too long since the last visit.
• I'm on the hunt for a good double stroller. One that I can also use with an infant carrier seat. If you have any recommendations, please share!
• Even though we have LOTS of gender neutral clothes (since we didn't know if Graycen was a boy or girl) I still have quite the urge to get a ton of boy clothes!
• Graycen and I are having a project night tomorrow! I am so excited!!!
• Parker is quite the mover. Once 10:00pm hits, he is all over the place. Especially if I've had a bowl of ice cream.
• I didn't know it was so hard to pick a bed for a toddler. Pretty much, I just need a twin size bed and some bed rails and I seem to be sooo picky! Should we just buy a metal frame? Should we get a whole bed with a headboard and footboard? Should we get just the headboard? I have no idea! Again, if you have any input, please share.

help me calm my brain! AUGH

It seems as though my brain is working - NON STOP! I cannot stand it. The past couple of nights I haven't been sleeping too well, as I just can't stop thinking. You wouldn't think this would be a bad thing, but I can't shut it off. I have so much going on right now and it's really starting to eat at me.
So, I work for my grandparents. My grandfather has been sick for a couple months now - it's nothing life threatening, but still enough to put him out of work for a while. With Grandpa being sick, they have decided to close the business and call it quits. Well, since they are closing, that puts myself, my mom and my aunt all out of work. I know it's what they need to do to help stay afloat, but it's stressful to lose a job. I have never lost a job in my life! I found out late last week that I will only be employed for another 2 weeks. Wow, 2 weeks! That's not that long. I'm not quite sure what we are going to do. Unfortunately, we cannot survive on one income. Maybe if we didn't have payments and grown-up bills, then sure. I don't start my nanny job until August. I really don't know how this will pan out, but I know everything will be fine in the long run. Hmm... it seems that is all I can think about.
On the upside, I went to dinner with my sister, Kayla, last night. We went to Ruby Tuesdays and had a nice little dinner and talk. I asked her to be Graycen's Godmother. It was a hard decision to make. I have 4 younger sisters; Molly, Kayla, Jordan and Sarah. I haven't been so lucky to know Molly for much of her life, so I asked Kayla. I have been in Kayla's life since she was born (with the exception of a couple years, but I'm not going in to that) Since I basically know Kayla and am just starting to get to know Molly (I have pretty much only been in her life for about the last year or so) I asked her. She gladly accepted.
We have our parent class for Graycen's baptism on Wednesday of next week! I am excited!!! :) I have finally made my decision on a church - St Mark's. I actually just recently found out that's the church I used to go to when I was a kid. I always went with my grandparents on my dad's side. Kind of neat that my daughter will now go there!

Perfect.....I think

I think I have found my perfect work situation. So, I have been looking into becoming a nanny for a family. Since I can only bring Graycen to work with me for still an undetermined amount of time - I figured this would be the next closest option to staying home with Graycen. About 2 weeks ago, I received an email from a woman that saw my profile on http://www.enannysource.com/. I've had my profile on there for a while and there have been some leads, but nothing too exciting. The day before she emailed me I received an email from their site asking me to log in to my account to keep it active. I contemplated - did I really want to continue or just stop? I decided to log in. It was around 8:30pm Saturday night. I got an email from Katy at 2:20am Sunday morning. She said she had read my profile and instantly felt comfortable and like she knew me. We emailed back and forth for a day or two. In emailing we found that we only lived 7 blocks from each other. We decided to meet on Tuesday. Tuesday came - we met at J&S Bean Factory - located about 4 blocks from each of us. We sat there for almost two hours - just talking! It was nice to have a grown-up conversation with someone other than my husband or relative. We got along great and clicked instantly. Graycen started to get fussy - so it was time to go. We both left feeling really good and she said "I would love for you to meet my husband and son - I'll talk to you soon" We got into our cars and left.

a little background on the family: Katy & Brett are married - they have a 3.5 year old son named Owen. They are adopting a baby girl from Columbia this summer. She will probably be about 6 months old come August. Brett is a teacher and Katy is a social worker at a school. They would need someone to care for their daughter Monday - Friday from 8am - 1pm. Owen would be brought to the bus in the morning and picked up from the bus afternoon. I would see Owen for about 1-1.5 hours/day.

Katy and I emailed back and forth -talking about what would be going on, hours - etc. She asked if I was available Saturday to come over to meet Owen & Brett (son & husband) I said sure! Saturday came and Graycie and I packed up and head over! Her son was a ball of energy! They asked me some more questions - we talked some - I asked some questions - we talked some more. Well, everything felt great and then we got to the end, the all dreaded topic - SALARY. Before I went over there I had a figure in my head. I said if they offered anything lower than that amount I was going to have to turn it down. Lo and behold - my low number was their number!! I was secretly and quietly THRILLED!! I then asked what would happen come the summer months when they both weren't working - they decided that since they wouldn't want to lose me for the next school year and didn't want to leave me unemployed - they would still pay me and I would maybe work 1 day a week. So essentially, I would be paid for the summer months and really not even have to work. They said I should go home and discuss it with David - we'd talk later. I talked to David. I think I should take the job. It is a little bit of a cut from where I am now, but there are a TON of advantages to this job: I can't bring Graycen to work with me forever at my current job - with being a nanny, I can, they don't plan on claiming it for tax purposes so I get more money, I get to spend all day with my daughter and someone else's daughter (a job I have always wanted) and I kind of get the summer off. I went back and forth for so long and the verdict is in

I HAVE TO ACCEPT!

Now comes the part of telling my Grandparents I will be leaving in August. :-( - that comes tomorrow.