Trash to Treasure, or what I did with my stuff

In a recent post I discussed purging my t-shirts from my closet in an attempt to declutter. Well, I thought it might be nice to re-purpose that fabric.  I've also been wanting to make a wreath more suitable for our front porch than the fall wreath currently in place that I won at a ladies night for losing the most turns at Bunco. The one that hung there until late this summer when a dear friend reminded me that it was no longer fall (and hadn't been for some time) and I finally took it down, only to put it back up two months later.

After a quick google search for rag wreaths, I found this tutorial. This was one of many that popped up, but it seems straightforward enough, right?

So I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased a wire wreath (less than $2.50).

Then I came home and started on the fabric strips.  First I cut a small starting point and tried ripping the fabric. I don't suggest using that method.  T-shirt fabric does rip, but not in a very even manner.  On my second attempt, I just eyeballed the size I wanted and cut the strips. Worked much better that time. I then decided to try and be a little more efficient, and neatly folded the t-shirt in half, eyeballed and cut. Even better.

I cut from the bottom up and layed the strips aside until I had cut the t-shirt up to the sleeve. I then folded the strips, cut, folded again and cut to get the size strips I thought I would need.

I didn't use the same types of knot as the above tutorial. I folded the strip in half, threaded the open ends through the wire, pulled them through the loop made by folding, and then pulled the ends tight to make a knot around the wire.

Here I go!  Knot away.....

I finished 5/8's of the wreath on day 1.

Here is the finished project (day 2).

And here it is actually hanging up on my door.  I'll probably get a 'real' wreath holder, but part of the t-shirt hem works really well for now!

What cool wreaths do you have hanging on your door? And do you have any other ideas for me? Share!

Fresh fireplace

I decided to change things up on my fireplace for the fall.
Here's what it looked like before.....
(not that I was completely happy with the 'before' look)

And here's what it looks like now....

It's certainly not going to grace any magazine pages, but at least it's a little more seasonal!

Any ideas for me to take it up another notch?

Clutter control. AKA - I have too much stuff.

So a friend of mine posted a link on facebook to this post on being a minimalist.  It was an interesting concept and somewhat similar to the FlyLady concepts I've been working on for a while now (declutter, love what you have, get rid of what you don't use, etc) and other organization and clutter things I have posted about before.

So I was inspired. Again.

Only this time, I figured that I would start with something easy.  My something easy was t-shirts. Now let me just say that I love t-shirts. I'm a t-shirt kinda' girl. However, when my t-shirts are stacked on top of one another in as many piles as will fit on the shelf separating the two racks in my closet and I can't even reach the ones toward the back and don't even remember what they looked like, I think it's about time for a purge.

I got home from work today and decided today was the day for this oh-so-small of a step. I pulled all of the t-shirts from the shelf in my closet and placed them on my bed. Then I separated them by size (you know, for inventory sake, not because I'm a little OCD or anything). 

The result..........36 t-shirts (1 small, 20 medium, 14 large, and one random shirt with no discernible size on it). And these are my true t-shirts. Not the ones in my sleep drawer. Not the holiday ones. Not the ones actually designed for ladies that 'fit' a woman. Just regular ole' t-shirts.

Hmmmm......I think that might be overkill.

That's enough for a shirt-a-day habit for over a month. I could wear t-shirts every day for one twelfth of a year.

I work in a professional setting and can occasionally get away with wearing a t-shirt on Fridays before a game day weekend. Occasionally. If the shirt isn't faded. And you can read the writing. And of course, if it's an Aggie t-shirt. Not all of those 36 shirts met these criteria. And no, I'm not saying that I'm only keeping Aggie shirts (although considering...it would make the most sense), but it would be nice if there were opportunities to actually wear the shirts I was going to keep.

My goal was to keep only half of the t-shirts from that initial inventory. And just so you know, I set the goal before I counted and before I started going through them so that I wouldn't 'cheat' with the project.

And I started purging. The shirts I had forgotten I owned, and hence had not worn in ages were the first to go. Next were the ones with the writing and graphics that had come off in a washing machine in a time long, long ago.

When I finished, I was down to 17 t-shirts. 17. Seventeen. Which is probably still too many, but way better than it was! And you know what, my t-shirts fit very nicely on my shelf in my closet now, and don't cause the clothes hanging above them to bunch.

Baby steps.

You like me, you really like me!

Gush, gush...

In all seriousness (ok, not really - 'cause I'm not all that serious most of the time), Brandy gave me this award what seems like a few days ago (but in reality was almost 2 months ago, apparently I've been in a hole or time is really flying by more quickly than I realize) and I've been meaning to make this post as a reply (so sorry for the delay, Brandy!).

It would seem as though I need to post and follow the award rules, so.........

1.  Thank and link back to the person who gave it to you.

Thanks, Brandy! And see above, but if you're too lazy to do so, I'll link again.

2.  Share 7 things about yourself.

1. I am a transplanted Texan
2. Like Brandy, I am a Days of our Lives fan, and have been watching (off and on) since I was in the 7th grade (so count it up...that's over 20 years of watching that show - and let me just say, Bo and Hope, get back together and for Pete's sake, stay together!). I used to watch Santa Barbara and Another World before they were taken off the air (and in my spare time, I need to find and watch the finales of both of these shows, so if you're reading and you have access to either of those links, feel free to leave a comment with 'em!)
3. I am a recovering perfectionist and am trying to live with the realization that only one person every mastered perfection in this world, and I'm certainly no Jesus!
4. I am wife to one, mommy to three, friend to a few and advisor to many
5. I love my job(s) (ok, so maybe not the house cleaning or laundry part of the equation) and feel that I'm exactly where God wants me to be
6. I discovered The Office and My Name is Earl late, and adore both of those shows (yes JKW, I know you tried to tell me how funny they were years ago...I should have listened!)
7. I don't know how Gini manages to continually construct her Tuesday Ten posts, because these lists are hard!

3.  Pass the award on to 15 bloggers who you recently discovered and who you think are awesome (ok, so I'm going to cheat a little and they may not be recently discovered blogs...)

1. Beth (She's just inspiring all around...)
2. Gini (her blog cracks me up. A lot.)
3. Heather Hendrick (her posts on her family experience in Haiti make me want to take up breastfeeding consulting and be more intentional about - everything)
4. Jen (I love keeping up with my college friends, and they make having a family of 5 seem easy!)
5. Julia (makes me want to be a kinder, more gentler parent)
6. Julie (she's my awesome friend who has decided not only to come back to Texas but to the world of blogging, even if she's abandoned her blogspot page and moved to shutterfly)
7. Kendra (I love her crafty ideas and the ways her family incorporates teaching the kiddo's about the Lord in everything!)
8. Kimberly (she could have two shirts and some seeds and manage to clothe and feed an entire family - and shows you how she does it! Her mad skills amaze me.)
9. Lysa (she is simply inspring as well!)
10. Melissa (I love keeping up with my college friends and seeing how beautiful her kiddos are growing up to be!)
11. Michelle (I love catching up with my college friends and seeing other families of 5 survive is helpful to me!)
12. Misti (her blog moves, inspires, and reminds me that God has a master plan for me, his work-in-progress child)
13. Misty (I love looking at the beautiful pictures of her kiddos...even if I don't see them in person although we live blocks away from each other) :)
14. Rachel Olsen (her current piece on battling perfectionism is wonderful for a recovering perfectionist like myself)
15. Tiffany and Lindsay (they're blog makes me think of wonderfully creative things that I don't have time - or perhaps the talent - to do)

So many of these blogs inspire me to be better - a better wife, mother, decorator, Christian, person...and I appreciate the self reflection that many of these provide for me as I read through the posts.  And in case you're wondering, I didn't originally have them in alphabetical order.  I reordered them and then had to relink almost all of the links.  I said I was a recovering perfectionist, not recovered.

4.  Contact the bloggers and let them know that they have won. (Well, I did link back to their blogs, so I'm guessing they'll figure it out).

  

Q&A

Well, I was 'tagged' in Melissa's post, so I figured I would go ahead and answer the questions. I'll apologize ahead of time for my boring answers, but hey.....if you're reading this then you probably already know that I don't lead the most exciting life out there.

1.  What brand of toilet paper do you use? Whatever brand Matt buys at the store or what I have a coupon for or is the least expensive at the time!

2.  Who is the celebrity that you are most embarrassed to admit you have a crush on? Embarrassed? Me?! Hmmm...Like Melissa, I like Johnny Depp (and have since 21 Jump Street, so it's not a recent thing), Ryan Reynolds, but am not really embarrased by either of those facts.

3.  What is your all time favorite movie?  Tough one!  So I'm going to cheat...The Goonies, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (a must-see for it to feel like Christmas to me), Tombstone, You've Got Mail, 50 First Dates, insert numerous chick-flicks here...

4.  What store do you spend most of your paycheck?  Do daycares and Kids Klub count as stores? If not, probably Kroger.

5.  What is your favorite restaurant? I have many, 'cause I like food! Olive Garden (love, love, love their salad!), Cheddar's (best and cheapest dessert in TOWN! - cookie monster!!), Freeb!rds (hey, it's not too classy but I still dig it!), Mi Cocina (has recently changed their name to Polly Cocina, but that doesn't stick well in my brain)

6.  What is your most favorite thing to do in the town you live in? Go watch movies

7.  Where is the best place you have been on vacation? Skiing in Colorado

8.  What is the most distance place you have visited? Europe during the summer after my freshman year in college. Visited Italy, France, Germany, England...it was a wonderful whirlwind trip!

And now I apparently need to 'tag' 8 other people, so here goes!  (If you've already been tagged, feel free to just link to your prior list) :)

Julie George
Brandy Scott
Gini Howerton
Michelle Skow
Missy Schrib
Jennifer Harrell
Jennifer Karnes
Jennifer Westling

Feeding the baby...

Tatum's story
It should come as no shocker to anyone reading this that my kids have seen me nurse Jacey (or for Kellen, Jacey and Tatum). And they have also seen me, as Tatum so eloquently put it this morning 'pump the milk out'. So I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when I picked Tatum  up from Cubbies last night to see her with her shirt lifted up and the baby against her chest.

Her teacher, a male who is, luckily, a doctor, told me she was playing 'feed the baby'.

I had to laugh, and so I did.  Hard.

Only loud enough for him to hear me, I said, 'I would love to hear the other kids talk about that one when they get home,' then shrugged my shoulders and murmered, 'Hey, it's what she sees!'

Kellen's story
When we got out of Bible study last night and I went to pick up Jacey, the nursery workers were hard at work to pacify her. She was apparently hungry, and they had just heated up her bottle. Well, not to be wasteful ('cause hey, we are going through the Crown Bible study AND it takes effort to store up that milk), I let them go ahead and start feeding her the bottle while I went and got the other two kids. When I came back to get her, she hadn't finished her bottle, but was more content, so we packed her up and went home.

Kellen wanted to finish feeding her the bottle, so we set him in the chair and let him.

He did a GREAT job feeding her, and other than the daycare and nursery workers, he's one of 3 people to actually give her a bottle.

Jacey's 2 Month Check-up

Well, a little over two months have officially flown by since Jacey joined us.  Here are some pictures of her on the 17th. I apologize for the orange overtones in the colors, but these were taken with my phone. The 'good' (or better) ones are still on my camera.

As of yesterday morning (2 months and 4 days, or 9 weeks and 4 days- pick your own way of calculating her age), her stats were:

10 pounds, 8 ounces (50th %)

23 1/4 inches long (80th %)

Head circumference - 39 cm (55th %)

She really liked looking at herself in the mirror, and this was the best shot I could get of her tummy time and holding her head up. She holds it up MUCH better than this, my phone just doesn't take pictures that quickly, because the girl moves. A lot.

She had a great visit, got 3 shots (which neither she nor I enjoyed) and settled down pretty quickly afterwards.  Unfortunately, her method of coping with the pain and soreness of the shots was to eat, which she did every two hours until I took her to day care after lunch. And apparently she continued to be in pain and fussy...poor thing! When I picked her up after work, her coping mechanism of eating continued - she wanted to be in my arms, eating, or at least have the option to eat.

She settled down for her bath, which she seemed to thoroughly enjoy, but was immediately fussy when I took her out.  So last night was all about consoling her, which was ok with me!

Savoring the moments...

As I laid in bed yesterday morning, with Jacey nestled beside me, I started thinking about how I was doing things differently this time. My last time. I'm savoring the moments more.

The simple fact that Jacey was in bed with me was different. Her siblings didn't really do that, as I was too concerned with 1) doing things 'right' and 2) rolling over on them. I have apparently relaxed a little (don't spit your coffee out onto your keyboard or monitor on that one - I said a little).  I have learned that what's 'right' for you in parenting may be different than someone else and even different from kiddo to kiddo.  I have also learned that I can sleep perfectly still, with an infant nestled into the crook of my arm while she nurses and sleeps (and yes, both at the same time).

Savoring.

As I watched her sleep, I tried to soak in every feature of her face (which looks remarkably more and more like her brother as she's chubbing up).

I adore the peaceful look on her face while she's sleeping, like she doesn't have a care in the world (and really, why should she? Someone who loves her dearly carries her around, feeds her, burps her, changes her diaper and clothes and gives her baths.) She wants for nothing.


Savoring.

I am remembering more and more about how much I just LOVE the baby smell...baby lotion intermingled with milk, spit up and poo.  It's a wonderful combination, really, and you'll preferably get a majority of the former and less of the latter. 

Savoring.

I want to soak in every little moment and two months of them have already flown by!

The Sandlot

Last night the kids and I watched The Sandlot (Kellen's choice).  I think he's seen the move one other time, but apparently has an elephant-like memory.  He remembered what part was next, asked about this or that coming up, and pretty much had the entire storyline down pat.  Where is that elephant-like memory when I'm asking him to do something?  Because I swear, sometimes he can walk outta' the room and forget what I just told him to do. I think he takes after his daddy on that one. His daddy that was taking kids to school and almost left one of them yesterday. (But I think their daddy from the bottom of my heart for taking them to school yesterday and today!) I guess we're still getting used to the expansion around here.

But I digress.  I know the movie is set 'back in the day', but was thinking about how I (or virtually any other parent I know of) would not allow my kids to just holler through the door at me that they're going to go play and will be back later.  Those kids spent the whole summer virtually unsupervised.

I grew up in the country (pick your jaw back up, folks), 3 miles out of a town the size of a postage stamp. But back in those days (you know, when the dinosaurs still roamed), although my folks had a pretty good idea of where I was throughout the day, we had free rein of the pasture and tank in order to play.  No tellin' how much trouble we got into riding the go-cart and blowing up ant beds. (Of course, we always gave the ants a good last meal first - grasshoppers who were mysteriously missing their legs.)

Even that amount of freedom probably wouldn't fly nowadays, huh?  Ah, the good ole' days!

Who knew?

Of the five people who read this, apparently some are well-traveled. Or live in exotic places. I just discovered the 'stats' tab available in on Blogger (duh me, so perhaps I'm a little slow on the uptake over here), and in the last month I've had visitors from Malasia, Thailand and Singapore.

Who knew?

Feel free to let me know you're here and reading! Anyone should be able to post a comment...

Noctural nastiness

and no, I'm not talking about that.

As I was awake last night with my dearest 7 1/2 week old daughter, I realized how quickly I or the nether regions of my brain can turn nasty if I'm pushed.  After 4 hours of fussiness, eating, burping, spitting up, and continually replacing the paci in her mouth, (never mind that I was dealing with this while being sick) my brain went nuts. I had thoughts of taping the paci to her, but of course knew that my noctural madness was just that.

Madness.

I would never do anything to hurt her or cause her bodily harm (just in case you are actually wondering about my sanity level at this point).  And despite suggestions from Facebook friends to utilize duct tape for this particular problem, I would not actually tape the paci to my child's mouth.

A few deep breaths and several looks into her sweet little face later, my brain moved on to the mechanics of finding or developing some contraption to actually keep a paci in a child's mouth.

Anyone out there want to help me with my quest for product development?  I'm thinking this could be my million dollar idea.  Kind of like the folks who made blankets with silky tags all over them. Genius. Considering how much Kellen liked (likes) to rub on silky tags, I'm kicking myself for not thinking of that one.

A Case of the Mondays.....

And I seem to have it!

Things I've learned and/or remembered today:

• it isn't always good when your kids share with you (See earlier post for explanation)
• little girls who are quiet in their room too long are bound to get into trouble (Tatum apparently decided to express herself artistically this afternoon instead of napping...her bed, her walls (discovered at about 3PM this afternoon) and as I just found out, her brothers new build-a-bear monkey. I was sure I had crayon-proofed her room! And if you're wondering, antibacterial dishwashing soap and a damp washcloth seem to be able to get crayon out of monkeys.)
• kids (seem to) learn their lesson when they are made to clean up their own messes (hello magic eraser...Tatum made short work of her wall and bed masterpieces with your help. Thank you.)
• you can't physically force a kid to eat, and it's too stressful to try (have been learning this one for a while)
• the poop of breast fed babies is almost miraculous...it defies gravity, seeps through the thickest of diapers, and soaks anything it comes into contact with. Scientists should study its properties and I can supply them with their research data.
• Jacey seems to be settling into a poop pattern...the bomb explodes at roughly 7PM. When it does, watch out! And the washing machine had better be empty at the time to deal with the aftermath.
• Matt can take apart the fabric on the bouncy and on the swing very quickly (see the above bullet for why I found that out) Oh, and this one I learned last night.
• Kellen is a most caring big brother and will make up a song on the spot to try and soothe his screaming sister.
• Jacey screams bloody murder if, when getting her dressed, you put lotion on her body and it isn't the correct temperature and/or you don't clothe her quickly enough.
• Jacey is now starting to take the paci from the hospital as well as (the new development) nuk paci's. This is good because I have quite the stock of nuk paci's for her, as I was just so sure she would take them and them alone, just like her older siblings.
• You can truly dread something that you know is the right thing, even after going through similar scenarios twice before. (Jacey starts her day care tomorrow, so pardon me while I grab a box of tissues)
• Virtually none of the above scenarios are good when you have a migraine.
• My migraines, while nice to me during pregnancy, are now coming back to greet me. For some reason, they seem to be carrying a grudge against me....perhaps they're trying to show me how much they missed me?

But as all three kids are settling into bed shortly before 8 PM, I also realize that:

• Tatum is incredibly upset if she thinks she'll fall asleep without someone saying night-night prayers with her
• My kids still love snuggles before bedtime and still want me to tuck them into bed
• Kellen is very thoughtful about helping without being asked, and eager to help when asked

And I'll take that any day of the week.

Pictures

I realized that I am woefully behind in uploading my pictures to my Shutterfly account.  I tried to log in, only to realize that I had forgotten my password.  I tried to log into the email address to which the account was linked.  I had forgotten the password to that, too.  I reset the email password, then reset the Shutterfly password, then logged in to Shutterfly and changed my email address.  Fixed that problem!

I'm just wondering how long it will take for me to catch up with Shutterfly.  I haven't uploaded pictures to that site since ..... fall of 2008.


Yikes!

I'm starting with the most recent pictures and will work backwards.  That way, I should have the current pictures in with enough time to work on the now-expected calendars for Christmas.

My goal (and it seems to have turned into a long term one) is to get the first year photo book done for Tatum and to try and keep up-to-date with Jacey's.  Alas, I'm already 6 weeks behind on that one. (Laugh now, it's good to have goals!)

If anyone has any ideas about organizing their digital photos, please feel free to share!

Update: It's now 8:56 PM and I am on the last picture folder from 2010. Wow, just wow.  I'll get there!!

Sharing

Isn't always what it's cracked up to be.....

Tatum has so sweetly shared with me. In case you don't know why that's a bad thing, let me refresh your memory.

For those of you keeping track, this is the third, yes third, Monday that she's missed school because of this....I don't know exactly what this is, but THIS.

I do want to get back to pre-pregnancy weight, but not this way!

Organization

Ok, so I've given up (reality check - am trying to give up) my perfectionistic ways.  I do; however, still want to be organized.  I ran across the following list today while reading an organizational listserv and wow.  Just wow. [My comments are at the side]

* People spend, on average, 6 minutes looking for their keys in the morning. [If any of you know Matt, this is many times a much higher amount of time in our house hold for him.]

* Due to clutter, 25% of people with two-car garages can't park any cars in there and 32% can park only one. [Hmmmm, and Matt wonders why I throw a fit when our garage gets too messy for me to park in there.  I don't want to start a trend!]

* Women with shoe racks were seven more times likely to be on time for work than women without shoe racks. [Does shelves in the garage count as a shoe rack?]

* 80% of what we keep we never use. [Ouch!]

* We wear 20 per cent of the clothes we own, 80 per cent of the time. The rest hangs there, just in case. [Hmmm...just in case I get back to pre-pregnancy weight, perhaps?]

* 80 per cent of what we file never gets looked at again!

* Your four-drawer file cabinet, when full, holds 18,000 pages.

* Getting rid of clutter eliminates 40 per cent of housework in an average home. [Now there's an incentive to declutter!]

* Married men were four times more likely to leave their pajamas on the floor in the morning compared to single men. [*sigh*]

* 23% of adults say they pay bills late (and thus incur fees) because they lose them.

* Eighty per cent of the clutter in homes is a result of disorganization, not lack of space.

Such love...

On the way to school on Tuesday, Kellen was just looking at Jacey.  This is our conversation as he was about to get out of the car and go to school.

 

Kellen to me, "Jacey looks so cute,"

 

Me, "Yes, she really does with her pink bow."

 

Kellen, "No, not the bow. It's not her outfits. She's just cute all by herself." 

 

Blur....

Life has been quite a blur lately, with time zooming past me at warp speed. 

Tatum has been fighting something for the past week and a half.  Saturday night a two weeks ago, she had an explosion down under that I found in the middle of the night when I was checking on the kids.  She had apparently slept right through it, poor thing.  I got her and her room cleaned up, then put her back to bed.  No church for she or I that Sunday, and she continued to get sick off and on all day.  She stayed home on Monday with no incidents, then went back to school.  Fast forward to last Friday night when we went to the church to watch Hoosiers as part of their dinner and a movie family outing.  Kellen has an episode where he "peed poop" and then Tatum spit up her food.  It was a combination of lemonade and cake.  It wasn't pretty, but wasn't a 'get sick' thing.  I think she just didn't like the cake.

Anyway, Kellen was fine after that...no more episodes, but just wasn't acting quite right.  Tatum started getting sick that night and through the next day.  We couldn't get her to keep anything down, poor thing.  So another Sunday goes by where the girls and I don't go to church (we actually kept Kellen home with us as well).  Since Kellen had been symptom-free, he went to Awana's, but Tatum didn't make it to Cubbies for their first night.  A BIG thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for watching the girls last Sunday while we went to church.

So once again, Tatum stayed home with Matt on Monday, and had no incidents.  So, off to school she went on Tuesday while I went in to work with Jacey in tow.  After lunch I received a call that Tatum was running a fever and had 3 more bouts of explosions down under, so off Matt went to pick her up from school.  Maw Maw and Paw Paw came to the rescue on Wednesday to watch the girls, and although Tatum didn't have any episodes, she certainly wasn't herself....pleased with simply laying on the couch and watching TV with virtually no playing or her spunky personality.  So that earned her another day home.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts at keeping Kellen away from any germs that might get him truly sick, Wednesday night he walks into my room and informs me that he's just thrown up.  I clean him and his room up and put him back to bed.  Side note, it was of course, that precise moment when Jacey woke up and decided that she needed to be fed RIGHT THEN!  So I had to listen to her screaming (she can certainly let you know when she really wants something!) for the 30 minutes it took me to give Kellen a shower, strip and clean his bed (and drawers, and inside the drawers, and under the slats, and pretty much all of the wood on that side of the bed), throw his sheets, pillow, and the unfortunate clothes from the drawers into the washing machine and get him settled.

Ug.

So Grandma and Grandpa were planning to come over to watch the two princesses anyway, and they got the added bonus of Kellen on Thursday.  By the time I got home from work, both older kids were playing dress up and acting just fine.  No incidents, no fevers, no nothing.

I was befuddled as to how Kellen got sick when we had worked so hard to keep the two older kids separated.  The mystery was solved Thursday night when I saw Kellen brushing his teeth, then asked Tatum which toothbrush she had been using.  Unbeknown to us, she had been 'borrowing' her brothers toothbrush. 

We determined that as long as they both had good nights, that they were headed back to school on Friday. 
And back to school they both went.  Thank the Lord!!

So, you may be wondering why I was going back to work if Jacey wasn't going to day care.  Hmmmm....the answer is a long and yucky story about how we thought we had day care lined up for September 1st and then discovered at 2 PM on August 31st that in fact, we did not.  I will not go into the details of all of that, but Matt and I explored additional options and have found another day care for Jacey to attend beginning next Tuesday.  I am thanking God that He allowed us to go through that without me losing large amounts of hair or stressing out too terribly badly.

So....I've finished out my first (part-time) week back at work, both Kellen and Tatum are feeling better, and Jacey seems to have managed to escape this illness.  Today is operation disinfect house Hapes, again, in an attempt to purge all of those icky germs from the house.  Again.

In case you're wondering, the toothbrush responsible for the spreading of the sickness from Tatum to Kellen has been punished.

Cleaning Challenge

I'm on the FlyLady list, and receive daily emails for a great cleaning system for the house...one that uses baby steps and breaks large projects into 15 minute spurts; one that tries to combat perfectionism, not that I have an ongoing battle with perfectionism or anything, (drip, drip).

Anyway, I thought that while on maternity leave I would have the opportunity or take the time to actually DO the things included in these daily emails, but I seem to only manage a few days at a time each week before I stop. Apparently the routine part of this system hasn't quite stuck yet.

So today, my cleaning challenge is to see how many of the small 'projects' from the emails that I can do today.  (Nah, that doesn't fly in the face of the FlyLady baby step principle or anything)  Here is the list of things I managed to do this afternoon:

• purge underneath the kitchen sink (get rid of almost-empty cleaners that don't spray because they're so empty, etc)
• decluttered the food storage containers
• decluttered and reorganized the pantry (then moved on to the drawer in the kitchen that serves as a 'junk' drawer - it's amazing how many pairs of 3D glasses we have kept after the movies!)
• swept and mopped kitchen floor
• cleaned the ceiling vents in the bathroom
• cleaned off the left side of our desk (odd one, I know)
• cleaned bathroom door knobs
• cleaned the right side of the desk (tackle it one step at a time)
• cleaned screen on the computer monitor
• made list of items needed for bathroom (conditioner is out!) and office (printer paper, anyone? wishing I had bought some for the house when I bought for Kellen's school supplies!)
• cleaned baseboards in both bathrooms (and they still look dirty...I think it's the paint, as they are in dire need of a new coat of paint.  But this is a rent house and we aren't doing that.)
• cleaned the front of both bathroom vanities
• 5 Minute Room Rescue (folded and put away 3 loads of laundry)
• cleaned off the 'stuff' that had accumulated on the top of the dryer, then cleaned the washing machine and dryer (it's amazing how dusty they both get and how you just don't notice it!)
• cleaned the glass on the front door, mirrors in both bathrooms, and the full length mirror in the master bedroom
• cleaned out my purse
• dusted walls and ceiling in master bedroom
• cleaned fan and air conditioner vent in master bedroom
• cleaned out my car (pulled all of the kids stuff and trash out (isn't it odd how some things could fit into both categories), vacuumed, and sprayed with fabric freshener

It's an odd list, I know, but it's my attempt to do some of the things I've been meaning to do while I've been home.  Now, if I could only do the regular house keeping items on a regular basis. Oh wait, that's called a routine.

Care to share yours?

Delusions....

Well, my full-time maternity leave is rapidly coming toward an end...with a day and a half left to go.  Apparently I'm fairly delusional about things....I envisioned my maternity leave to include such things as:

• daily walks with Jacey
• small moments (maybe 15 minutes??) of laying out in the sun (yes, I am aware it's horrible for you, but it's SUCH a stress relief for me!)
• finishing all of the kids baby books
• scrapbooking and/or other crafts
• cleaning house
• reading for FUN
• blogging on a regular basis

Yeah right.

My maternity leave has actually consisted of:

• a couple of walks with Jacey until I admitted that it was too stinkin' HOT for her to be outside...at ANY time of the day
• 1 lone jog, sans any and all kids
• cleaning house (to only have it look like I did NOTHING the next day, or later on that night)
• laundry, laundry and more laundry
• changing diapers, diapers and more diapers (and we aren't even on cloth diapers yet, so this one and the last aren't related!)
• baby books gathering dust, with me desperately trying to remember when the first time it was that Jacey boggled my mind when I caught her on her back AFTER she had been put down for tummy-time (funny - those milestones were a little easier to record with #1 and #2)
• starting a book for fun, not finishing said book (speaking of...I'm not even sure where that stinkin' book is!)
• do I even need to mention my lack of updating this blog?
• nursing (Repeat, repeat, repeat - hmmm...an average of 8 times a day for 5 1/2 weeks now - yowzers!)
• burping Jacey, then cleaning up Jacey's spit-up (Repeat, repeat, repeat)
• snuggling with and kissing on my sweet Jacey princess (can't even begin to count the number of hours spent snuggling or how many times I've kissed that sweet face!)

Now, I have been brave some and have done some day trips with the kids to infuse some fun into this time.  We took a day trip to the Mayborn Children's Museum on the Baylor campus in Waco (the older two had a blast, and Jacey just slept and ate).  Last week we did a slew of activities with Maw Maw and Paw Paw, which the kids enjoyed immensely.  Monday we watched Despicable Me in 3D, then went to Incredible Pizza and watched 101 Dalmations.  Tuesday we ate a late breakfast at IHop then went to The Woodlands Children's Museum, then had frozen yogurt at TCBY's, then headed back to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's for an in-house showing of The Aristocats.  Wednesday we went to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and closed the place down, and stopped at Chili's on the way back home for dinner.  That particular excursion was fun, but I think we might wait a few years before doing that one again.  There was stuff for Kellen to do, but not as many interactive things as either Matt or I thought there would be.  Poor Tatum, she was pretty much told all day long that she was just "too little" to do virtually any of the activities.  Thursday was a more laid-back day, with backyard pool fun on the deck, and then we headed back to College Station.  On Friday, I took Tatum to school and Kellen, Jacey and I hung out, getting things ready for back-to-school.  We ventured out to Wal-Mart for a tax-free shopping outing so get a few t-shirts for Kellen and lots of diapers for Jacey (I haven't gotten any cloth diapers for her just yet and am thinking about waiting until she can fit into the ones we already had for Tatum).

So as you can see, I wasn't a complete home body.  My mom thinks I'm crazy for all of the outings we have done.  I can't say I disagree with her totally.  There's a fine line between brave and stupid, and I might have crossed over that line a little with all of the outings, but I wanted the kids to have fun as their summer was winding to a close.

Perhaps my Supermom complex is starting to show through...you know, the one where you think you can do so much more than you actually can - at least more than you can do and maintain some semblance of sanity.  'Cause I apparently suffer from that syndrome every now and again....

Time Warp

So I have entered into a time warp...one where over 3 weeks have gone by since Jacey graced us with her presence, one where Tatum has moved into the 'big girl' classroom this week, and one where Kellen will start the 2nd grade in less than 2 weeks.

I feel like singing the Time Warp song from the Rocky Horror Picture Show...'Let's do the time warp again...'

I'm going to turn around and the girls will be teenagers. Oh my.

So...let's get everyone (or the five people who read this blog) updated on the variety of things that have taken place since I updated the blog last....

Jacey's arrival
I was slated to arrive at the hospital at 10 PM, and Matt and I went to the hospital, got settled in, and when I was checked, I was 30% effaced and about 1 cm dilated.  And apparently I had/have a posterior cervix, which was making it difficult to check me. (Fun for me!)

Here's the delivery time line...

• 11:40 PM, Cytotel medicine (to get my body ready for labor. Once administered, they ordered me to stay in bed for 2 hours - no problem!  I actually got to sleep a little!)
• 2:15 - 3:30 AM, Up and walking the halls (I was a sweet laboring woman and let Matt sleep for the first 45 minutes of my walking, then decided that I wanted someone to enjoy my misery with me share the experience with me)
• 3:40 AM (Saturday), 1 cm dilated (Way to go, body) and 50% effaced (Woo hoo)
• 3:45 - 5:40 AM, Napped!!
• 5:40 AM, Another dose of cytotel (The meds could only be given 6 hours apart, so this was the earliest they could give me the 2nd dose.  We had HOPED that my body would have progressed a little and that they would be able to start the pitocin at this point.  Unfortunately, I guess my body and Jacey had other ideas! I was still at 1 cm)
• 7:10 AM, Dose of staydol (Apparently, the cytotel was getting things going, and the nurses continued to ask if I wanted any meds.  I was determined to make it through this birth WITHOUT an epidural, and decided to get some staydol just to take the 'edge' off of the contractions)
• 8:45 AM, 1-2 cm, Doctor broke my water and indicated he needed about 15 minutes lead time to get back up to the hospital for the delivery.
• 9:45 AM, 3 cm, Pitocin started, another dose of staydol
• 10:42 AM, 4 cm
• 10:50 AM, Another dose of staydol
• 11:25ish AM, Dr arrived, 9 cm, and another contraction later I was begging to push.  Once everyone had taken their places, I pushed for about 5 minutes and......
• 11:34 AM, Jacey born!

The grandparents and the kids came in to see me at about 10:30 AM or so...the kids wanted to see us and present Jacey with her gifts, so they came in to check on me and then everyone went and waited for Jacey. As you can see from the picture below, Tatum was a little bit concerned, and I'm not sure that seeing me made much of a difference.

Apparently I am a power pusher.  With every birth I've gone through, I've busted the blood vessels in my eyes and on my face.  This one was no different....blood vessels busted in my eyes, all over my face and neck, and I even made my own nose bleed during the pushing as well.  I guess that's why Matt said she shot out like a rocket?

And, like her brother, she had the cord wrapped around her neck. Twice. But I apparently also had excess cord, so it wasn't wrapped tightly, which was probably why we didn't see it on the ultrasound.  Either that or she managed to wrap it during delivery.

7 lb, 2 oz
19 1/2 inches long
11:34 AM
July 17
Jacey Victoria Hapes

Our bookend baby!

The kids came in shortly later to meet their sister.  They loved her immediately, of course!

And here is one of the first pictures of newly expanded family!

I stayed in the hospital through Monday, and left shortly after lunch on Monday.  Kellen's birthday was on Tuesday, and his birthday party was the following weekend.

Kellen's birthday
We decided to have the birthday party at GattiTown, and as we have learned, not many of Kellen's school friends could make it (darn summer birthdays!).  However, he had some church and family friends in attendance, and he had a GREAT time!

He is obviously in to super heroes....Spiderman cake (thank you, Heather!) and plenty of Spiderman, Iron Man, and other comic heroes for gifts.

Jacey's first bath
Jacey is speedier than the other two, and her cord fell off at the 10 day mark.  Lucky for me, grandma was still here and was able to keep her bath-streak going.  She's given each of my kiddos their first FULL bath after the cords have fallen off.  She happens to LOVE giving babies baths and I do not.  Really.  I know that seems to be something lots of parents look forward to, but I don't like it.  The babies are too little, squirmy, and slick.  I feel like they're going to pop right out of my hands and arms when I'm giving them baths when they're teeny tiny.  I know, I know...I'm a wierdo!

Anyway, once we got the water temperature correct, Jacey LOVED her bath!  In her pink tub, nonetheless...

Although her face may not show it, she really DID like her bath!  According to her Paw Paw, she's a serious girl.  In actuality, she doesn't like bright lights and I miss her happy faces because of my flash!  She ADORES getting her head played with...hair washed, head rubbed and/or stroked (which both of the kids do quite often), and hair brushed.  Loves it!

Tatum's crazy hair/hat day
Tatum's school has been trying to have a 'fun' event at least once a week during the summer.  Last week it was crazy hair or hat day.  In Tatum's case, she picked out a hat (which had a matching purse to go along with it) and I did her hair in low pig-tails.  I figured when she finally got tired of the hat and pulled it off we would accomplish the crazy hair bit as well.

Kinda' like a two for one deal!

Isn't she just stinkin' adorable???


Kellen's Music Camp Performance
Last week Kellen was at music camp, marking the second year in a row that he's participated in this camp in Conroe.  He did a wonderful job during the performance, singing and doing the movements, etc.  He's such a ham!

It was themed - GPS (God's Plan for Salvation)...such a great show!!

And of course, one of his biggest fans was his sister Tatum!

Jacey behaved quite well, despite my concern...I was convinced I wasn't going to get a chance to watch anything, and she pretty much slept her way through the performance.  Yay!