week of arrivals

I ordered quite a bit on Monday and I wasn't expecting all of it to come this week. Flip covers, my monthly Melaleuca order...it's just been an exciting week!

I've been slowly switching over to Melaleuca over the past few months and I honestly haven't found a single product I don't LOVE.

Things I love about the products:
GREEN!!! all-natural products. I can clean my house with my 10 mo old right beside me.
CHEAP - not kidding. Take the cleaning stuff for example: it's concentrated because they assume you have water, so you don't pay for water. I spend about 50% of what I used to spend on vitamins/cleaners/bath&body.
They work. REALLY well.
You're not buying anything new. You're just shopping at a different (better and less expensive) store. I don't buy anything I would be buying anyway (e.g. dish soap, body wash, laundry detergent).

Things I love about the company:
I do NOT sell products. I just tell people how awesome Melaleuca is.
100% money-back guarantee (not that I would send stuff back)
Customer service is fantastic.
They are over 25 years old.

I had my mom try one of their lotions to help with her psoriasis, and she loved it. Now the hard part begins. I'm not that much of a social person. I wanted to start representing Melaleuca because I really like the products. I am in no way, shape, or form, a salesperson, so I'm very glad that there is no product to sell.

The main problem with getting things going with Melaleuca is I'm not really one of those people who just talks about stuff. I don't talk much about my parenting style, my view on politics, what cleaners I use and love... *sigh* I think I need to break out of my shell. I mean really, how bad is it to talk about things you really like that are environmentally safe? Most moms would love to clean their kitchen and not get nauseated because of bleach products.

I'm more of a seed planter.
"Oh wow, your kitchen looks amazing!"
"Thanks, I use all natural products."
"Isn't that expensive?"
"Not at all."
**6 mos later**
"Hey you said what you use isn't expensive...what kind of stuff do you use?"

It takes a long time for things to grow.
But I'm surprisingly patient with things like that. :)

Flip covers...

...came in the mail yesterday!! With a free 4.0 to boot!

They are all washed and ready to go! I loooooove my bumGenius 4.0 pockets, but I was really anxious to try a hybrid diaper. I like how the inserts fit in the covers (I guess I'm a bad stuffer...I tend to get bunches in my pockets), and Bug doesn't seem to know the difference.

My plan is to use the Flips during the day and the 4.0s for naps and night time (I can double stuff and it won't shift).

Exciting!

In other news, my little brother flew in from Nashville this morning to celebrate my hubby graduating and my birthday (both on saturday). It should be a blast, most of my family is coming, hubby's family is more spread out.

Bug really likes her uncle and kept smiling at him during lunch. She is such a ham sometimes. I can't believe she is 10.5 months old. It's just crazy.

More to come as I spend some time with the Flips. :)

concerted effort

Quite a few changes to be made. I think the reason I have done so poorly at blogging is because I have tried too hard to try and categorize my blog (i.e. "Well, I think I'll only talk about *this* type stuff"). This has OBVIOUSLY been wildly successful for me.

After much reevaluation, I think I will continue to blog...whatever I feel like. (I know this seems simple, but I blame baby-brain.)

I have taken on many new projects since I've started staying at home. I left my job in May, and needing some things to occupy Bug's nap times. I love baking, and I had tried making bread a couple of times, so I thought it would be fun to take that up. I have mastered (to my family's taste) sandwich bread, both white and wheat, pizza crusts, pitas, and my granny's hot water rolls. I'm excited about trying new breads.

My mom gave me her sewing machine. Not much interesting is happening there...I still sew about as well as I did 10 years ago. (Read: I straight seam.)

Bug is growing up soooo quickly. I am so impressed at her skills. She is just a blast to be around.

I mean seriously, is she not the cutest thing?

I'm so ready for her Flip covers to get here tomorrow!!! Don't get me wrong, I LOOOOVE BG4.0, but I'm anxious to try Flip.

I starting working for this company called Melaleuca. I work from home which is the absolute best part about the job.

I think that's about it for changes.

fell off the bandwagon

Well that didn't work out too well. In the midst of having a baby, I forgot I had a blog. Don't know what happened to my priorities. ;)

Update:
I had a baby. She's precious. 4 months old today.

 3 days old. Diva from the start.

 1 month old. Such a happy baby.

 2 months old. Rocking the bow.

 3 months old. Moving to our new home.

 4 months old...or pretty close. Hanging with daddy.


She is such an angel, and we are having a blast.
We moved into a new apartment. We needed more space, and the management at our old complex turned for the worst.

We are soon to start rice cereal with Bug. I'm very excited.

And in even more exciting news...I'm leaving behind my teaching career at the end of this school year. If I ever go back to teaching in public education, it will be in higher education. My 3 years of tutoring high school, and 4 years of teaching jr high have been eye opening and enjoyable, but I have been called to stay home, and I am ready to embrace the calling. :)

If we ever needed the Lord before...

...we sure do need him now. (I love Take 6)

32 days of 100+ heat in North Texas. Oh. My. Word. This is getting ridiculous.

Doctor appointment and sonogram today. The little squirt is 4.6 lbs, and I'm measuring at 33 weeks. I've even finally gained some weight! I'm a pound away from my pre-pregnancy weight. I certainly don't want to jinx anything, but I haven't had morning sickness the past 3 days!

My mom went with us to this appointment to see the sonogram. Baby girl is getting so big. We got to see her face really well this time. Her feet were nice and jammed up near my ribs as usual.

In other less-exciting news, I go back to work in 9 days. I'm looking forward to the routine and seeing work friends, but not looking forward to the hectic start of the year. I'm very ready to go set up my classroom for the year. That is probably the most stressful time for me.

We went to Milano this past weekend to visit my grandparents. We went to the jamboree on Saturday night and played at church on Sunday. It was so nice to see my grandparents, aunts and cousins. Granny went nuts with shopping for baby girl, so she now has many more outfits.

Backtrack: Before we left for Milano on Saturday, Crystal threw a shower for baby girl. It was so cute. Good group of our friends, and such enjoyable conversation. I'll post pictures when I load them from my camera.


Thankfully, I think that's about it in the way of updates. The wiggle worm and I are going to Lowes in a bit to find window film to try and cool off the living room from the daily sun beatings.

roll with the changes

I cleaned out some old posts so now it looks like I never update. Although this is close to the truth, I decided I wanted to repurpose the blog. Sticking with the family info. Speaking of family: our little one is due in late September. We found out in January, and the journey began.

Pregnancy is not at all what I expected, though I'm still not really sure what exactly I was expecting. I'm apparently one of the gloriously blessed women who experiences morning sickness for all 9 months! I won't complain though, because I have NO leg cramps, headaches, back aches, swelling, numbness, skin problems or anything else typically associated with pregnancy.

We found out in May that our little bundle is going to be a girl. We decided to be surprised with the rest of the family. So we had the doc write down the gender, and we took it to our favorite bakery and they colored a precious cake. We gathered as much of our family as possible and cut the cake! (Thanks to the cousins for capturing a video for us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AVxxvx-S10)

Summer is going well. I've been nesting quite a bit now that I have time. The nursery basics are almost ready to go. We still don't have a name for baby girl, but I'm sure we'll come up with something. :)

Right now I'm just enjoying the last few weeks of freedom before school starts again! Hopefully I'll be a little more diligent with the updates and pictures.

carve the turkey, turn the ball game on

...make Bloody Marys 'cause WE ALL WANT ONE!

Well the holidays have come to an end. What better time to post about them?

This year was filled with many new and exciting times for the hubbs and me. Multiple Christmases with the different families (my parents, his parents, my grandparents). Decor was certainly not of utmost importance. Our tree never had any ornaments on it, but that was because the cat kept trying to eat the tree and I didn't want to know how many ornaments he would try to eat.
Stockings went up without a hitch, though we have no fireplace, so we hung them from the furdown above our bar.

I also hung the traditional Christmas balls, which meant singing the traditional Christmas balls song while on the ladder. "Christmas balls, Christmas balls, I've got great big Christmas balls. String em up like Santa Claus, I've got Christmas balls." My dad is so proud, I'm sure.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. Mom, Dad, bro, aunts, uncles, and cousins from my mom's side were all there as well. Went to the Zodiac Cafe at Neiman Marcus (which we've done every year since before I was born). Delicious lemon mousse. Later that evening my immediate family, and the Cobbs family (mom's sister) went Christmas caroling at an assisted living place near my grandparents' house. It was quite enjoyable since we are all musicians, and we had all 4 vocal parts represented.
Christmas day started at our apartment. Then we went to lunch at Hubby's parents house. His brother showed off his amazing talent with his new etch-a-sketch.

I would like to take the time to point out that in this picture my mother-in-law looks like Darth Vadar. (She's the one on the floor in front of the sofa.)

Then off to my grandparents for the 28734 hour present opening extravaganza! This sounds like a blast, but the sarcasm font has yet to be invented. After 4 hours of opening presents, and a few drinks, we went back to his parents' house to play games for the evening.

All in all, I would say the day was a success. I didn't eat or drink myself into oblivion which is a feat in itself.


Hallelujah, everybody say "cheese", Merry Christmas from the family!

The Bandwagon

With the departure of Xanga, I had set aside my writing, and probably with good reason. But with a recent resurgence in my desire to write, I figured why not jump on the blog bandwagon? I make no promises whether this will be up-to-date, up-to-standard, or up-to-no-good, but since I am slowly leaning away from Facebook, I may as well digitally document my life in a new way.

Posts are certain to include: rantings, ravings, friends, family, and pictures. Also certain to include: grammatical glitches, major misspellings, fabulous French, and alliteration (apparently). Enjoy!