Random thoughts at 2 am

So my daughter (who will remain nameless - though I only have 1, so you should know of whom I speak) does not like to let her mother get sleep. I have made her skip naps, I have allowed her to take long naps, I have tried to let her just deal with being placed in her crib when she's tired, I have tried keeping her on a routine (Ie - Eat, Activity, Sleep), etc. So far? Nothing has worked very well. She does now get tired around midnight, instead of 3 am, so that is a great change. However, due to circumstances beyond my control (ie-Jack) I cannot do work during the day unless they both take naps at the same time. Meaning? I still go to bed at 3 am, but instead of a baby causing the issues it is because I cannot keep up with my workload otherwise. And because Elena is teething (or is out to get me) she wakes up as soon as I climb in to bed, and its another hour and a half struggle to get her to go to bed.

The conclusion? I feel like staying in my PJs all day, I have dish rags from three weeks ago still hanging out on my sink turning gross colors, and I am both emotionally and physically drained. The good news? I now have help with writing the blog articles (Thanks to an amazing sister and mom) so hopefully once Elena starts sleeping better, these sleepless nights and going to bed at 4:30 in the morning should all be a bad nightmare.

Tonight I felt like a little kid. I hid under a blanket while she got side-tracked with James and I slid off our bed, crawled to the door, and snuck out. What mom does that? It was midnight and all she wanted to do was crawl around the bed and I knew James wasn't getting any sleep, so I went back in and got her and she fell asleep pretty quickly in my arms. I put her in her crib and have spent the past few hours playing catch up with my blog articles for TK Online Solutions.

Now, before I traipse off to bed, I have some things that have been on my mind the past few days. I tried to lay down in bed but they were still on my mind - so I am going to quickly blog them to wind down. With out further ado, and in no particular order, here are some of my random thoughts.

-I have shaved my legs successfully for 67 consecutive days as part of my goals for this year. I don't know if I will make it to day 68, since I would much rather sleep than shave my legs since I never got around to taking a shower today. Ugh.

-Why is it when you take the time to put on make up, cute outfits, and actually style your hair that your husband seems to be completely oblivious? And yet, when you haven't showered, you aren't wearing makeup, and you feel slightly embarrassed for going out in public in the mess of an outfit you threw together he cannot seem to stop telling you how amazingly beautiful you are. I do not get it. I would think it would be the other way around. This happens to me on a consistent basis. Does this ever happen to anyone else?

- I am getting a little obsessed with my vacation planning. It usually stops being so exciting when I stop to realize that I will have to get in a car with Elena again...

- I wonder if James would let me get my bangs cut, even though I made him swear last year to never let me get them again. I really, really hated them - so I don't know why I constantly keep going back to wanting them.

- I miss my old roommates, but some days I miss my old FHE brothers more. Is that weird? While I understand why we are no longer as tight as we once were, that does not mean I don't miss them.

- I think Mr. Darcy from the newer version of Pride and Prejudice fits the role much better than Collin Firth in the BBC series. I love Matthew Macfayden's portrayal. Seriously. He still pulls off the pompousness that Elizabeth is seeing, but he also shows his true character at the same time so those of us who know how Mr. Darcy actually is can see another explanation to his behaviors.

-Speaking of Jane Austen men, I really like Captain Wentworth in the Masterpiece version of Persuasion. Amazing. And Mr. Knightley in the new Emma? So cute. I am so glad that James got me that version of Emma for Valentines day. It always seems like the actresses they choose to represent the heroines have some form of quirk that bothers me (bulging eyes when they talk, overbites that are enormous, etc) but they have done an excellent job picking the men of Austen, I think.

Ok I think this shall be enough thoughts for one night. Elena just woke up. I guess no shaving of the legs tonight. Maybe next year. :)

The Man Your Man - Old Spice

My sister Wendy shared this with me. We both thought it was pretty funny. Random, strange - but had us laughing. :)



I love their tag line: We're not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.

New Moon Synopsis

I liked it! :) Good movie. MUCH better than the first. Though Jasper still... super gross acting. Who picked that guy? Ha.

Better acting, better directing, better effects, better makeup - all in all a good, entertaining movie.

Rosalie actually looked pretty. Carlisle looked normal.

You get the picture. If you were hesitant to watch it because the first movie was gosh-awful, you don't have to be quite as turned off. It follows the book pretty well, so if you liked the book - you'll like the movie.

What did you guys think of the movie?

Fun Menu Ideas

I love sharing fun sites of friends. My old visiting teacher, Lydia, has a cute cooking blog. It is called Put a Lyd on It. (Get it - lydia/lyd on it?).

Why I love her site:

When I'm in a funk and I don't know what to cook, I normally go through her site and look through her opinions on the recipes she's done. I like that sometimes she tries things and says she'd do something different. I also love that when she gives the directions to recipes she adds the differences she did, or substitutes, or things like that. I am not a good cook, so I like to know these little short cuts. Anything that can make life easier is wonderful. Plus, she answers your questions when you leave comments.

If you're looking for another fun cooking inspirational site, check her's out. :)

Trying to Minimize the Chaos in My Life

I feel like I haven't had a clean home since I got pregnant with Layna. I have a very hard time keeping on top of dishes, Lokela's clutter, the normal chores (bathroom, laundry, vacuuming, sweeping, etc) and cooking - as well as keeping up with the challenge of having 2 kiddos that are constantly demanding my attention and I want to give it to them. When I was pregnant I felt it was an achievement just to get up with Lokela and take care of him. Most of our chores were put on hold, and Jim took up a lot of the responsibilities for cooking and dishes and things. Then I had Layna girl and although I do get more things done now, she takes up a lot of my attention and I feel lucky if I'm able to do one chore (instead of the many that have been piling up forever). In recent memory there has only been one time where all the rooms were clean, the dishes and counters were spotless, and the floors were vacuumed and swept all at the same time, since I was preggers. And the only reason that happened was because my brother Al came over to watch the kids and all I did was clean, clean, clean. Sadly, it went back to being a mess by the next week and I was once again over my head.

I recently started a job as a freelance blog and website content writer. I'm very grateful for the job (Jim was out of a job for 3 months so we didn't have any income for a while) but it also has made the whole housekeeping aspect of life get even worse, if that were possible.

-Sigh-

Soooo, even though I do have some things that are out of my reach as of yet, such as a full 8 hours of sleep because my daughter is stubbornly refusing to let me put her in her bassinet at night, I find myself very anxious to have a clean home.

I found a few cleaning/decluttering sources online. I'm still not 100% sure which one I am going to go with. But I'm looking into them both, to be sure.

The first cleaning website I thought of was Flylady.com. She helps give assignments and do baby steps to help you learn to de-clutter your home and slowly come to a place where you no longer will have to be embarrassed every time you hear a knock on your door and know someone is going to peak inside your home.

The very first assignment with flylady is to have a clean, shining sink every night before you go to bed. Even if you have dishes you take them out, put them on the counter, and clean, clean, clean that sink until it shines. That way you have a sense of accomplishment and that is done. There are other assignments once you get past this, but that's the first one I am on so I don't know what the others are.

The other cleaning one was more of a spring cleaning one that I also thought looked good. Its on simplemom.net. She has an e-book about cleaning, and on her website she has a 10 day guide on how to get your home clean and organized. On day 1 you are supposed to do a clean sweep of your home, just picking up trash and putting things in a get-rid-of box if you don't think you need it anymore. By starting with the small stuff it makes it easier to finish the job, and by cleaning off the surfaces it is easier to keep up with the rest of the basic housework for the next 2 weeks and see where you need to clean.

I, of course, already had plans to pick up and put away laundry thats been laying around forEVER so I didn't do either of these assignments yet. I'm thinking the simplemom idea seems a little less time consuming, but who knows - the fly lady may win out.

Another idea by Sister-In-Law Jes mentioned to me was to try and have a chore a day. So Monday clean and vacuum the hall and living room. Tuesday clean the kids rooms. Weds. do laundry. Etc. That doesn't sound like too bad an idea either.

I'll let you know once I decide. The challenge with the spring cleaning is to do before and after pictures of the areas you clean to see how much you accomplish with the few hours of cleaning. That may be fun to see the HUGE differences, huh? I think if I do the spring cleaning I'll do a quick picture of whether or not the entire home STAYED clean in all the areas by the end of the challenge, haha. We'll see. :)

Project: I Can Survive

So my girl Emily has started up this super cute blog called Project: I Can Survive. She shares a lot of cute ideas and crafty things she has done. I love seeing friend's talents. I am totally blown away by the cute things she comes up with.

For example, she took this rocker...

And turned it into this! SOO adorable. Love it.

I also love all her cute diaper wipe/diaper cases she's done. Seriously. Do they come any cuter? I have seen tutorials online and have failed at every attempt (plus I don't know where to find cute fabric anyways... drag). I've seen them on sale online too, but I really can't justify spending $15 on a diaper case when I can just deal with having the normal one for free. She said she only spent $3 on it. So if you've got skillz that would be nice, right? :) I bet those would be really fun for baby showers, etc.

So check out Emily's new blog. Seriously. She has a lot of cute things on there. :)

Re-Reading Twilight

So I have been a cynic when it comes to the vampire Twilight novels written by Stephenie Meyer. I remembered reading them and continuing to read them at a steady pace, but being somewhat annoyed by them and then by the last book just wishing it would all end.

Many of you remember that I actually did like the 4th book quite a lot -well, the 2nd half of the 4th book. So I left the series happy and content, though I did find it kind of weird with whom ends up with whom and that kind of thing.

Anyways, no book is perfect. My sisters Mary and Jeanette recently read the books for the first time. Mary finished them all and has told me she hates them and won't read them again. Jeanette loves them and is on New Moon. So I thought, why not? I'll re-read them too. I recently saw a new trailer for the 2nd movie of the Twilight saga, and I really didn't remember too much about it.

So, I read Twilight last week. My conclusion? It was still an easy read and I finished it within a few days, even with children around to occupy my day. But I still think I don't like how unhealthy Bella and Edwards relationship is. I of course don't like Romeo and Juliet for the same reason. Don't get me wrong - I know there are times when you are swept off your feet in love, but it just kind of creeps me out that before they were even dating or even friends (were they ever friends?) he was sneaking into her room to watch her sleep. And she totally thinks its okay.

Can anyone say CREEPY?

Anyways, I'll get off my soap box. :) I actually find myself enjoying the books more the 2nd time around, and the movie has since stopped annoying me too. It actually wears you down after like the 5th time watching it - kind of like Napolean Dynamite and Nacho Libre. James actually got it for me as a joke, so we pop it in every few months when we want a cheesy movie to entertain us.

I'm currently reading New Moon. James always said he liked Twilight, but New Moon was when he thought it got boring and he decided he'd rather just listen to it on tape and get it over with, then read it. But I always liked New Moon. I think it was because Edward was out of the picture for most of the novel, and Bella some-what got her head on straight with a healthy (somewhat, right?) friendship with her werewolf pal Jake. And while none of the characters were really perfect and have weaknesses that will make you dislike them (Edward being a jerk to Bella, Bella being a jerk and using her 'school' friends, Jacob being a jerk to Alice and the rest of the vampires) and they do get a tad annoying at times, through and through it's an easy enjoyable read that has interesting characters and a fun plot line.

Would I say it has the best quality for writing? No. But I decided this time not to let it bother me and its made the experience much more enjoyable.

So I am jumping back on the Twilight band wagon. (Was I ever on it?)

I don't remember what I said today to James today, but it had something to do with Twilight, and James told me "You are never to make comparisons to the twilight universe with me again." Sooo, I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy myself quite a bit by hyping it all up a bit. Especially since I still have 2 more books to go. :)

I'm sure I will have things to add about things I find out about New Moon here soon. Such as pictures of the characters or what not. I'm not sure how nerdy I will be. Check back and see I guess.