New Years Resolutions

I rarely do this, but 2012 will be yet another year of lots of change. I'd like to set some goals out there and see if I'm able to accomplish any of them, if only part-time.

* Keep the house cleaner. I made a daily list at the old house that I was able to keep up with, so I just need to do that for the new one. I know I can do this if I put my mind to it. I just need to retrain the husband on a few things. He does real good when ya pester him for a few days. :p
* Create a menu that I can rotate, including a grocery list. While I buy little that is processed, we still seem to waste a lot of raw food since none of us eat that much. Time to chop the recipes in half!
* Sell, sell, sell! Get rid of anything and everything we don't want, need or use. I can't wait for the next garage sale!
* Exercise regularly. I need to start walking daily. The weather hasn't been horrible lately and there's no reason I can't plop Kaylee in the stroller and go. Shopping this past Monday actually helped my legs feel better, so I know if I just power through the pain for a few minutes, I'll feel better in the end. Once the baby is here, I need to continue on my journey of finding free or super cheap classes to attend. I have a free yoga and zumba class. I'd love to join 24 Hour Fitness again, especially since they are right down the street, but $60 a month?!? Good grief... And I want to join Weight Watchers since a few friends seem to do well on that program. My goal weight is still 120. And this pregnancy has pushed me to my highest weight ever, so I'm seriously scared I'll never see that number again. Hopefully, giving birth, breastfeeding and walking will help me get a jump start on that, but I seriously doubt I'll lose 50 pounds in a week. :)~
* Scrapbook at least once a week. Brian is building me an awesome scrapbook area. And I'm so far behind on Kaylee's book. Now I have the new baby to scrap for! Yikes. I need quite a few power scrap days to catch up. But, if I can make it a routine to take an hour for myself to organize or put a page together, then I know I can catch up.
* Start a home business with homemade crafts. I have lots of ideas, but I need to get my plan together, build a site, build an inventory and get going. It's obvious that I can't concentrate on coding for clients right now, so I need to do something else to bring in money. And if that means my "day off" is spent making things to sell, so be it. I've always been a crafty person, so I'm not afraid of the actual work. I'm more afraid of making the investment and not being able to sell anything. However.... there are a lot of gift shops in town and lots of farmers markets and festivals. So, I just need to get to it.
* And finally (for now), ignore any man who gives me breastfeeding advice and feed this baby the best way I know how for a year. I made it 6 months with Kaylee FT and 2 months PT. Formula is just really expensive and I don't want to pay for it again. Plus, that stuff stinks! Ick...

Kaylee's second Christmas

Welp, this is it! The last Christmas Kaylee will have as an only child. Next year, she'll have her 9 month old baby sibling crawling around getting into trouble with her. I have to admit, I'm slightly scared.

This Christmas was a bit different from the previous years. I played a much bigger role in getting things ready at my grandmother's house. How she does that every year by herself is beyond me. I know she had my grandfather to help, but it was still a lot of work! He wanted to be involved, which made me a bit nervous. I was terrified his shirt was going to catch fire on the burner. But, all was well. The rest of the weekend was pretty routine. We opened presents at Meme's, then at Dad's, then the following day we went to Grandma & Papa's and finally Mimi's out in Rockdale.

I was still limping around from my fall, which made me sad since I didn't think I'd be able to go shopping Monday. Not sure I would have made it out super early regardless though because about 5pm Christmas Day, Kaylee showed signs of a cold. She didn't sleep that night and woke up super nasty. I did manage to make it out around 9am. Brian stay home with Miss Snotty. He said he was starting to feel bad as well. Great. 2 out of 3 people in the house have colds, there's no way I was going to escape it if I tried. Sure enough, Tuesday is when my cold hit. I also had to take Kaylee into the doctor for her first real sick visit. And the diagnosis - first ear infection. WOOT. 10 days of antibiotics. This week has pretty much sucked. We're all on the upswing though. Tomorrow is Brian's birthday, so I'm hoping I'm well enough to make it out to the ranch to hang out with friends.

Most of her gifts seem to be taller than her!

Why right the toy when you can ride the box??

See? Riding the box is fun! Who cares what's inside?

Our gift to Kaylee was actually free. A friend of a friend gave away a kitchen and a huge box of accessories. We had been looking for a kitchen for her, but they were so expensive! Even on sale, we wouldn't have been able to get it. The wild thing is she seemed to know exactly what to do with it... I present "Kaylee making Creme de aire"

When we say "Day After Christmas Shopping" we mean, we're stockin' up on 50% off ziplocks and paper towels for the year!

O M G

I think I just made myself freak out a little bit. I've been occasionally watching this "Days of Pregnancy" site to make sure I don't forget how far along I am. I just looked and it said I'm 95 days away from term. NINETY-FIVE DAYS. THREE MONTHS and change. O M G. Where the heck did the time go?!? I'm nowhere near ready for this mentally. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm scared out of my mind what's going to happen when this new little person gets here. How will I juggle everything? I have a hard time juggling Kaylee and the house as-is. Sigh. Let the panic ensue....

Perfect until....

Today was a near perfect day. I got to go to a free yoga class where I met a new friend. The new friend is actually a mutual friend of someone I know in DC. WEIRD, but cool. Then we had 2 birthday parties and some shopping to do. But in the middle of all that, I had to make my pregnancy real. I had to fall. This was actually a much worse fall than I ever had with Kaylee. With Kaylee, I tripped over air and pulled some ligaments that made it nearly impossible to walk. This time however, I fell down 3 steps in our garage. I managed to mess my ankle up nicely and hyper-extended my knee. I have a lovely limp now. WOOT! I hope this injury heals, unlike the ligaments, which I'm actually having a few issues with again. Fun times...

But, I'm able to concentrate on my new obsession - office storage. Brian is offering to build out the nook in our office for my scrapbooking stuff. I could not be more excited! It should hold everything, plus my printer. This means I'll have a ton of room to scrapbook AND it'll all be easy to find. Now lets see if it gets built.... :)~ He has help at work now, so I think it's actually possible. I couldn't be more excited!

Poor fella...

Me: I feel gigantic today!
Brian: I promise you, you are not noticably bigger than you were yesterday. /thinks for a second. Wait. I guess that really didn't help.

Ahhhh, I can feel the love.... :)~

How to make some quick cash (and then almost immediately spend it)

First, get married.
Second, get divorced.
Third, hold on to old wedding ring (and a few other misc gold pieces) for over a decade because you have no idea what else to do with it.
Forth, get sucked into the "cash for gold" commercials and go check out reviews on Google.
Fifth, go to best reviewed place "just to see what they might give me...."
Sixth, walk out with several hundred more than I was thinking..... Holy cow, did that just happen?!?

Next.... put stuff on Craigslist that people might buy. Include your Christmas tree, which is already up and decorated - that's ok, you just bought another one for next year that is pre-lit and bigger. Sell stuff and profit.

How to spend the quick cash

First, wait til the day after Christmas sales.
Second, climb into the car with your professional shopper of a MIL.
Third, score all sorts of things, including ziplocks, foil, misc table stuff and Christmas decor at a fraction of the cost.

Oh.. and if you are feeling really responsible - put some towards paying down debt.

Time

Where did it go?!?!

Kaylee would reply "There it is!" but she'd be wrong... it's just gone. Christmas is NEXT WEEKEND. And I haven't wrapped anything.

The next week and a half will be a bit crazy... I have a few zumba classes lined up, a yoga class, two birthday parties, wedding invitations to print, plus going over to help my grandmother with my grandfather as much as possible. Then there's Christmas at my inlaw's, at my grandmother's and my dad's. I also have a ton of things to Craigslist, but it might be too late since a lot of it is Christmas stuff (sigh)... PLUS, we have to finish organizing the garage because we have a friend who needs to store his vehicle while he's over in Hawaii (sorry, but this has got to be one of the best places to be stationed!!).  Thankfully, the garage isn't too bad.

Throw in a toddler who learned how to scream and run away as a reply to any question or command, so I have a permanent headache. 

My new challenge...

Free exercise.

Ok, so we all know we can absolutely exercise for free in the comfort of our homes. The problem is, for me anyway, is finding motivation. I have a few free weights. I have an exercise ball. I even have Zumba on DVD. Lets not forget the obvious things like walking or running around the neighborhood. Do I use/do any of these things? No...

I have found that I do just fine if I have a class. If I know I need to be somewhere, I'll be there. But classes are expensive. Even if they aren't, the cost adds up quickly. I was lucky enough to be offered a free Zumba class. I fully intend on going to every session I can. I just have to make sure the husband doesn't have plans so he can stay home with the kiddo. And I recently joined Bump Club and Beyond for free yoga (every now and then... it doesn't appear to be a regular class). The cool thing about BCB is they do post natal as well. And, if I understood their policy well enough, you can bring the kids.

With the weather becoming colder than I care for, it's important I find classes inside. The whole "walking Town Lake" thing does not appeal to me but a few times a year when the weather is perfect. So, off I go... to scrounge the interwebs for free classes. I have something on Tuesdays/Thursdays. I might have something on Monday nights as well, but I am trying to find things during the day that may have daycare. Otherwise, I'll be tying Brian to the house quite a bit. Then again..... :p I've gained 28lbs since I became pregnant and am only 25 weeks along. I have to maintain my weight for the safety of the baby and myself, so I'm sure I can convince him if needed.

Now if I could only stop eating everything in sight....

Aggies are funny fans...

Now, I have to be careful how I word this because most of my inlaws are Aggies. And believe it or not, I actually really like my inlaws. So, I'll base my experiences with Aggies in general as pre-2008. They are ruthless fans. They can be mean, but for the most part we have shared a great rivalry for decades. Unfortunately, that rivalry is over. I'm very upset about this. It was always a fun game to watch, especially since it was typically on Thanksgiving - it became a family affair. Sometimes I would get worked up over it -- like when they took not one, but two cheap shots at McCoy a few years ago which caused him to need surgery. But for the most part, it's just a game my friends and I could pick on each other about.

Now that the game will no longer be played, some of the Aggies have gotten their panties in a wad. I will admit I have not been happy with the Horn's Football program as of late. I believe the Longhorn Network is nothing but a money grab. I won't be subscribing. I think Mack is an awesome coach, but he should have stepped down after the championship. And while this has nothing to do with the program itself, I don't think those refs should have been on the field if they favored a particular team.

But even though I'm not happy with the program, doesn't mean I don't still bleed orange. So, I'd like to remind the Aggies that while the last game did have biased refs on the field, there was no way that game was going to make up for the 72 losses you had before then.

Just in case you were wondering, 73 is a bigger number than 36 (the number of times the Aggies have beat the Longhorns). We've dominated ya'll the entire rivalry, so don't start pouting now because ya'll lost that last game. Even if ya'll had won, UT would still have bragging rights.

Hook'em Baby! :)~