Giveaways and Menu Plans!

Ok, first of all I won a giveaway! Not Quite June Cleaver hosted a giveaway of the book The Creative Family.
It just came in the mail today, and I'm so excited to read it! It was written by Amanda Blake of Soule Mama. Look at Not Quite June Cleaver for beautiful photography, wonderful recipes, and fun stories (I'm working on a little thank you gift for Susan).


I'm an Organizing Junkie always hosts Menu Plan Monday. In the past I've been pretty good at menu planning for my week, and it really helps with the budget and meal ideas! In the last couple of weeks I have fallen out of the habit. Recently I've been thinking that I should participate in Menu Plan Monday just to get me back in the swing of things. I popped over there today and guess what? She is hosting a giveaway to the participants! All you have to do is participate in MPM and you'll be entered! What encouragement is that! I just refreshed and there are 298 participants! I'd better hurry, but you have until noon on Tuesday (if I read the rules correctly).

Ohh! I'm lucky number 300! :) (300 is lucky, right?)

Monday: Pasta w/Chicken and veggies
Tuesday: Leftover Ribs (from the weekend)
Wednesday: Grilled Fish w/ grilled squash (grill chicken for tomorrow)
Thursday: Grilled Chicken Salad
Friday: Make Your Own Pizza (we like to make our own pizza dough too)
Weekend: Out of Town

Also, I need to remember to eat my fruit this week! Last week we didn't quite get through all of what we have and I HATE having fruit and veggies go bad on me!

New Things

Many new things here. On Friday Miles and I went up to the rec center to sign him up for mommy & me swim classes. I went up there about 20 min until a morning fitness class that they offer. We got signed up and I went to participate in the fitness class. They offer child care for participants for $1 so I took advantage of that. About 5 min into the warmup all I could hear was Miles crying. I also noticed another girl in the class was looking toward the window as much as I did. I went out into the hall to get him from the lady watching him. We stood out in the hallway and participated as best as I could. After a little longer they had a mini break so that people could get weights and mats. I spoke with the instructor and asked if I could keep Miles in the back of the room. She was so kind. She said that she basically raised her children in the rec center. She also said that they have often had more kids in class then they do now, but it was no problem. I kept him in the back and he did ok with it. After class we went out to the "spray ground" to play. A "spray ground" is like a combo of a play ground and a sprinkler system. Miles loved it!

This weekend was pretty standard (as in way too many people over for way too long). Maybe we'll have a weekend off soon.

Today we went back to the fitness class. This time it was held in a gym at the rec center (last time it was in a class because the gym was reserved). Miles did very well this time. He tried to climb a folded up ladder that was in there. I placed a fitness mat over it and that took care of that. Tomorrow is his first swim class. It is half an hour each morning Tuesday through Friday for two weeks.

Anyway, I have a lot of cleaning to do to get the house back together from the weekend. I've already swept and mopped the kitchen and dining room twice. I have to finish unloading the dishwasher, load the dishes from making banana bread (yummmm). Pick up the den, and sweep and mop the den and game room.

Lots to do! Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to let you know how the swim classes went. Oh yeah, mom said that she thinks she will be able to come to class on Friday to take pics of Miles!

Wearing the boy out!

For the purpose of wearing the boy out there has been lots of this...

(Playing in the sink) and ...

(piano lessons?) and...

(playground play) and...

(Playing with Nana and Grandpas new puppy).

Tomorrow we are going up to Nana's school to play for a bit. Then we will go with her to drop his aunt off at work and run a few errands before nap time.

On Friday I hope to go to a new woek out class I found with almost free childcare and a toddler pool after.

So much to do!

There is so much that I want to do, but I'm desperately wanting to take it a bit easy this week. Miles has basically given up napping *shudders* and I want to try to reverse that too.

We have been non-stop entertaining since Thursday. Seriously, People will come over, visit, and leave in just enough time for me to pick up and get ready for more people! It has been like this for a couple of weekends too. Phew! It's enough to make a girl a bit tired! At least Miles slept in this morning. Jared wants to do nothing next weekend, but it is a weekend that my parents drive the two hours south to visit my two remaining grandparents. We haven't been in a while and I kinda want to go too.


The good news is that because we have had so much company the house is relatively clean.

I think Monday morning will be devoted to trying to completely exhaust Miles to the point that he crashes hard for his afternoon nap.

I have piles and piles of laundry.

I want to clean out the pantry. When we moved in I had it organized well. Each shelf was designated for different uses (baking things on one shelf, large appliances on another). It no longer looks that way.

Along the same lines as the pantry, I'd like to reorganize the kitchen cabinets. Reorganize might be too strong of a word. They are basically organized, but need to be cleaned up a bit. I probably should put fresh shelf paper in etc.

Last week I cleaned the blinds in two of the three front rooms. I need to clean the blinds in the other front room and the bedrooms.

The baseboards need to be scrubbed in the front room. The bedrooms don't have baseboards...we installed wood flooring in them recently and that is the last step.

Something is due to the library on Tuesday and I have two books on hold there too. Story time for preschoolers is Tuesday morning too, so we'll probably go then.

I bought the materials for a new way to organize my earrings. I think I'll put that together tonight.

I want to get the photo software installed on the laptop so that my posts will be a bit less boring!

It's July alread!

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've updated my blog. They have been a busy two months. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say that Miles got sick, the cat got sick, the cat had surgery, the in-laws had to put their dog down (very sad), they got a new dog, I got a job, I started working, I got a new laptop (yay me!), and we have had people over ALL THE TIME!

So, I got a new laptop (as I just said). I'm so excited. I've never had a laptop before. Jared has had one for work for years and had owned one or two before that. He's always been generous about letting me use them all I want even to the point of not taking his to work when he didn't need it after I started staying home with Miles. I have a really nice Mac Book Pro. Jared keeps hinting around that he likes mine better than his. In all fairness, his is one that work provided, it is at the end of it's hardware life cycle, and has been nothing but trouble. Hopefully he will like the new one he gets in a couple of months. If not we may end up getting another Mac Book after that at some point.

A big part of the reason for getting an apple laptop is because of photo storage and use. We got our first Mac (a desktop) about the time we got our first nice camera. The photo software available is amazing. Anyway, I'll be putting our photo storage/light processing software on my laptop so it'll be easy to post pictures. Both here and on our website. I have updated our photo website more often than the blog but not much.

I also said that I got a job. I'm pretty excited about that one. Before we moved to San Francisco I worked for a CPA. He had several small companies that had hired him to do their books. I would go in to several of them, do A/P, A/R, payroll, and run reports. He would go in once a month or so and discuss long term planning, reaching goals, taxes etc with the owners. I was very much on my own and my own time manager. I loved it! This was after several years at another small company with a horrible boss. It was so nice to have that flexibility. Sadly I didn't get to work for him for long. We had talked about me going to work for him, then it became a possibility that we would move to California. I let him know that I'd love to work for him but didn't want his clients to have to get used to me then switch within six or so months to someone else. He agreed and I stayed at the company with the terrible boss. After a couple of months it became apparent that Jared didn't get the job he was looking for in CA. I called up the CPA and let him know. He was excited and hired me right away. After a few months something else came up with Jared's work and he had a different interview in California. We let the CPA know as soon as possible that we would be moving. I was sad because that was the best job I'd ever had, he was disappointed because I was stable and reliable. He understood the reasons for our move. Also, we told him that we had every intention of moving back after a year or so in California. We have always wanted to start a family of our own, and we knew we would want to be near our family to do that. I stayed in touch with the CPA while we were gone and about 4 months before we moved back he called asking when we were coming back! I had let him know once that I could do some work for him but that I wanted to only do things from the house. He said that he had some stuff that I could help him out with but that he'd have to think about how it would work. He is very busy and a little absentminded. After a few weeks I called him back. He knew that I had been taking classes in CA toward an accounting degree. I told him that I was ready to do something from the house, either work for him or continue with school. The classes run about three months and I have to sign up a month in advance, so if he had anything he needed help with I'd have to know 4-5 months ahead of time. This was just the motivation he needed, because he asked me to meet him in his office the following Monday! I'm excited to be working a bit again and have something flexible and on my terms. At some point I could see going out to some customer sites, but for now I'm happy!

Wow, this is long winded, boring, and there are no pictures. Sorry! I'll have to get that software loaded and make future posts better and more frequent!

It's Saturday morning, Miles is taking his morning nap, Jared if off for the day, I have been up since before 5, and I have gotten NOTHING done. Jared left at 6, and I have been spending my time trying to stay awake and keep my groggy eyes on Miles. Blah. I have been waiting and waiting for today to come. Jared participated in a three gun competition about twice a year. This year he has been obsessing over it. I think it is because when we were in San Francisco it was hard for him to get out and pratice. Also this year he invited a friend, his father, his brother, and my father. He was trying to get in pratice for himself, and make sure they were able to pratice too. He has said that when this is over, he is taking a bit of a break though. I can't wait. I have to come up with something to do to get out of the house and have Jared watch Miles. It is his turn now.

Last Sunday we went to look at boats and tried out dad's new boat. Because Jared's birthday is this Tuesday and he has the competition this weekend, he took off last Wednesday through this Tuesday. On Wednesday we got out and got a boat. The weather was less than ideal but we decided to get out and try out the new boat anyway. Lets just say that trip was short, possibly less than well advised, but fun. Thursday Jared and his dad went out to pratice for the competition this weekend. When he got back my parents called and asked if we wanted to take the boats out. Out we went, and we had fun. We were only out for a while but we got a bit of a late start for Miles.

When we bought the boat the store only had one of the paddles that we wanted. So, on Friday we finally found another and went out to get one. Of course after we had the other paddle we had to get out and try it again! It was much better having two paddles in the tandem (duh!). We went about 2.5 miles this time and really enjoyed it. Miles hangs out in the back cockpit with Jared. He really enjoys watching the ducks and dipping his hand in the water.

Tomorrow is mother's day and my father-in-law's birthday. Two days later it is Jared's birthday. Every year we do a family get together. This year we are having it here (I should be cleaning now). After we will all head over to the lake that is about 4 miles south of our place and take both of my parents boats as well as ours and have a little lake day. I think it'll be fun.

Sorry there are no pictures of the boat or Miles in the boat. We have been doing pretty wuick trips so far. Hopefully I will have some good ones after the weekend!

Hope you have a good one!

Tackle it Tuesday

Just a quick post to let you know that I'm going to participate in Tackle it Tuesday today!

I have several projects that I have been putting off, but no longer!
That is all I can tell you for now because I'm off to organize the laundry room. Pictures to follow. I also plan to tackle the laundry, wrap two presents, and mail a package to my sister. Hope you get a lot accomplished today!