My noticeable lack of blogging over the last week isn’t just because of my being extremely busy getting ready for the Feast…I also got approved as a freelance writer for Demand Studios!

I’m very excited…my mom has been working for them for over 6 months and really enjoys it. I’m happy that it’s flexible…I can take on as much or as little work as I have time for on any given day. Some people even make a full-time job out of it (sure beats putting together life insurance quotes for a living!! LOL), but I know that won’t be possible for me right now, since I take care of the kids all day. But someday it might be! Right now, I’ll be happy if I can spend 4-5 hours a day at it (2 hours during naptime and 2-3 after the kids go to bed).

The downside of this is that my blogging time will be cut down quite a bit. I’m not quite sure yet how all of this is going to work, but I know that I do NOT want to give up blogging completely, because I really love it. I’m just going to wait until after the Feast to see how all this is going to go.

Anyway, I’m heading to bed now. The Day of Atonement really takes it out of me!! I am so wiped and I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow!

Posted: September 28th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 2

I can’t believe we’re only 3 days away from leaving for the Feast!! We’re so excited…and busy (which explains my sudden lack of blog posts)!

Tomorrow we have to make a trip to the library and return all the books and movies we have out and I’m going to pick up a book for me to read at the Feast (if I have time!). Our library is going to start charging late fees starting October 1, so I have to make sure everything is returned so we don’t come home to fines!

We’re also going to do laundry and start packing the majority of our stuff tomorrow. I already have a lot of clothes set aside to pack, but I want to actually get them into the suitcases. And I have to be sure to remember lots of blankets for the kids, since it will be pretty cold there (heated mattress pads don’t sound like such a bad idea now)!! Hopefully while we’re doing all the packing, I’ll remember everything I need to buy because we’re doing our final shopping trip on Wednesday!

Posted: September 28th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1

We’re up to our eyeballs in Feast preparations right now! It’s fun because we’re so excited, but it’s a little bit overwhelming, too. Especially for me, since I’m packer-in-chief and I’m always worried that I’m forgetting something.

But I just found a great website to help with packing! It’s called the Universal Packing List. You enter how many days you’ll be gone, the maximum and minimum temperatures, where you’ll be staying (in a hotel, with family, etc.), how many kids you have and what kind of activities you’ll be doing. Then it creates a packing list for you with everything you’ll need from clothes to medications (like alli, if you take it) to food! It even includes a to-do list of things to do before your trip!

I’m really looking forward to trying this out for our trip. I think it will keep me from being so overwhelmed and feeling like I’m always forgetting something.

Posted: September 24th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
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Our living room is almost done!! Today Chad finished painting all the baseboards and we painted the fireplace mantle together. The only things left to paint are the crown moldings (which we anticipate will be a huge pain in the butt) and the window frames (which we can’t do until we get our new windows in a few weeks).

For the most part, we’ve been pretty neat painters, too. I remember when I painted the bathroom in our first house, the floor looked like it needed acne treatment…for all its turquoise spots!! But we’ve done really well this time around. Just a couple of drips that we were able to get cleaned up right away. I guess I didn’t inherit my mom’s messy-painting-genes after all!! LOL

Don’t worry…there will be more pictures after the room is completely done (which will probably be after we get home from Colorado). I couldn’t resist giving everyone a sneak peek the other night, though!

Posted: September 20th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
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All we have left to do is paint the trim (it’s going to be a light beige color)! Oh, and sweep…how on earth does the floor get so messy in just one day???

Posted: September 18th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 2

With the changing season comes a great excuse to shop for new clothes for the kids. I enjoy buying cute clothes for them, but it’s insane how quickly they outgrow them! That’s why I always make sure I have coupons before I shop. I’ve saved so much money on the kids clothes by watching for stores to have sales and then combining that with a coupon.

Especially with shoes! My kids usually go through at least 2 sizes per seasons…with play shoes and casual shoes and church shoes…that’s a lot of shoes! It’s a good thing I can usually find good Payless Shoes coupons! I love Payless, so the great coupons and sales are an added bonus!

Posted: September 18th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1

I think fall may finally be here! Which is very exciting to me because fall is my favorite season. I love the fall decorations (including candle sconces), I love making pies and apple crisps and soup, I love the Fall Holy Days, I love the fall scents for candles and wax tarts, and I LOVE the cooler temperatures!! It’s still getting a little warm here during mid-day, but the mornings and evenings are absolutely beautiful. I would be perfectly content to have this weather 10 months of the year and then have winter for 2 months. I’m not a warm-weather kind of person at all! LOL

Posted: September 17th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1

Have any of you been keeping an eye on all the great sales lately? Shopping sales is one of the best ways to save money on non-grocery items that there are rarely coupons for. Right now, there’s tons of clearance sales on things that are going out of season, like patio chairs and swimming pools. But there are also some awesome sales on in-season kids’ clothes at places like Gymboree and Old Navy (40% off lots of baby clothes up to 5T)! I’m trying to finish up the kids’ fall/winter wardrobes before we leave for Colorado next month, so these sales are coming just at the perfect time!

For help in keeping on top of great money-saving sales, you can visit my other blog, Screaming Pennies.

Posted: September 15th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
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Chad already bought me an early Feast gift a week or so ago!!

About a year ago, my mouse started acting up on me. It would randomly double click on things I didn’t want it to double click on and it was a major pain. It would delete emails I hadn’t read yet, uncheck boxes I was trying to check, etc. Finally I got fed up with it and asked Chad to pick out a new mouse for me, since he knows more about them than I do. I know about as much about computer stuff as I do about picking a Tacoma car accident lawyer.

He picked out a nice Logitech wireless mouse and a wireless keyboard to go with it!! I’m so excited to have some new nicer computer stuff…especially with all the time I spend at the computer every night!! I love it and the kids are thrilled to have my old one to have at their desk!

Posted: September 15th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

Last weekend, we finally decided to start painting our living room! When we first moved into this house, Chad wanted to leave all the walls white and just add color with decorations. And then all of a sudden he changed his mind and decided he wanted to paint the entire room! I’d been thinking about just doing an accent wall, but I was game for anything that would add a little more character to the room. I think he’s wanting to do it to raise the value of our house a bit since we’re in the middle of refinancing…and painting is an inexpensive way to do that…you can paint an entire room for less money than you’d spend on low cost health insurance!

We picked out a medium greyish-blue and a lighter greyish-blue for the walls and a beige for the trim and fireplace mantel. On our two long walls, we planned to paint them the darker blue and sponge the light blue over it. On the shorter walls, we decided to do the opposite (light blue with dark sponging).

I was a little afraid that it would be a dramatic difference and thought we should just do the light on dark as an accent wall and do the other walls dark on light. But we have 3 walls done so far and it really isn’t a huge difference. You can definitely tell if you’re studying it, but someone who just glanced at it might not even notice. So I’m totally OK with doing the final wall the way we’d planned.

And yes, there will be pictures coming as soon as we get done with the final wall. Chad wants to be done by this weekend, so pictures will be up after that. Speaking of pictures, I’ll be posting a link to a new photobucket with the kids’ pictures soon…I can’t believe I already filled one up in about 9 months!

Posted: September 15th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1