We are home from Memphis! We had a really nice trip and it was fun to get away for a few days.

The kids were absolutely wild, though. It was like a vicious cycle….they were too wild for me to take out of the hotel by myself in a strange city, but keeping them cooped up in the hotel made them even wilder. At least there was plenty of space for them to run around in the hotel. It’s not like they had to stay in the room the entire time.

We left Saturday morning (it ended Friday night) and we decided to eat at Lambert’s outside of Springfield on our way home. Lambert’s is a famous restaurant where all their meals are all-you-can-eat, plus they THROW rolls to you and come around to your table with pass-arounds (fried okra, black eyed peas, macaroni with tomatoes). The whole place is decorated with a southern theme (including equestrian apparel) and it has a very family-friendly atmosphere. Chad and I had both been there before, but the kids never have so it was fun to see their reactions. We had to wait 90 minutes to get in, but it was worth it. Ava kept holding her hands up for them to throw rolls to her and they ended up on the floor every time. Luckily, she was OK with me catching a few for her.

I didn’t get any work done on my couponing presentation while we were gone, but I had enough time on Sunday to get an outline done. I gave the presentation for my MOMS Club today and it went really well! Everyone seemed interested and they had a lot of questions.

Posted: June 28th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 2

Do you want an example to show you just how distracted I’ve been with getting ready for this trip? Other than the mountains of posts, all focusing on travel?

I’m doing a couponing and money-saving presentation for MOMS Club the Monday after we get back from the trip….and I’ve done very little to prepare! Eek! I did research other people’s outlines for teaching couponing workshops, which will really help me to format mine. But my guess is that I’ll be spending a few hours using the “Do not disturb” door hangers at the hotel so I can focus on getting ready!

Posted: June 21st, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

We are two days away from the Aire-Master conference in Memphis and, as usual, I am frazzled. No matter how early I start preparing, no matter how many lists I make, no matter how much I streamline things, I always seem to get frazzled at some point before we leave. In fact, I’m even getting a little stressed about our trip to Florida for the Feast in September….we haven’t started making plans and looking at Orlando vacation packages and it’s bugging me a little bit. LOL

Anyway, here is my to-do list for before we leave Wednesday morning. More for my benefit than yours, but when my to-do list is out there for everyone to see, it motivates me to get moving!

These things are in no particular order. I’m just typing them as I think of them.

Pay bills
Get an oil change
Go to the Dollar Store for travel distractions for the kids
Use free rental code for the Redbox (today only)
Fill up the car with gas
Wash, dry and fold laundry
Finish packing the kids’ clothes and pajamas
Pack my clothes
Wash diapers (Tuesday night)
Pack toiletries – can’t finish this until tomorrow morning right before we leave
Pack kids’ entertainment bags
Pack diaper bag
Pack cloth diapers and laundry supplies
Write paychecks
Bank and post office
Send fax to Walmart
Order CJ’s BUTTer (Tuesday)
Finish blogging assignments
Clean out refrigerator, toss whatever will be bad when we get home
Pack kids’ swimming gear
Pack naptime bag
Finish packing misc stuff in the suitcase
Return redbox movie
Print map to hotel

Yikes.

I’ll be crossing them off as I get them done.

Posted: June 21st, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

I’ve never taken the LSAT before, but it would make sense to me that you would need even more quality preparation for that than you would for the SAT or ACT. I’ve taken the ACT and I know I spent many, many hours with an ACT prep book, which paid off in the end. For the LSAT, there are lsat prep courses online! It can all be done over the computer at your convenience and includes prep tests, live class time, live office time with your teachers, and more. If you’re planning on taking the LSAT, don’t settle for studying with a book….get a quality prep course!

Posted: June 14th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

On Monday, Chad converted Kelvin’s crib into a toddler bed. I wasn’t really ready to learn more about having two kids that were able to get out of bed on their own, but he had been trying to climb out, so it was definitely time. The first time he saw his bed after it had been converted, he said, “Broken! Fix it!” He got used to it pretty quickly though. Nap time has been really hard….he’s been spending the entire time playing which keeps Ava from sleeping (even though they’re in separate rooms), but he’s been doing pretty good at night.

Tonight, I heard him fussing a little bit but I was in the middle of something and he stopped fussing after about 15 seconds so I didn’t go in his room. A little while later, I went to check on him and found him sleeping in his rocking chair instead of his bed! LOL Chad snapped this picture and he didn’t even wake up when the camera flashed. He slept there for about another 30 minutes and then he woke up and we put him back in his bed.

Posted: June 9th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 2

I know Chad and I have been talking a lot about the playroom that he built for the kids, so some of you are probably curious to see how it looks.

It started out as a completely unfinished porch. It was super-dirty all the time because we get so much dust blowing in. Since we barely ever used it because of the dust, we decided to finish it off and use it as a playroom!

It took just a little over a month from start to finish, including about a week for our trip where we barely worked on it at all. Plus, Chad did the majority of the work….I helped a few times with handing him screws, holding drywall and painting, but he did most of it. So I’d say he got it done really fast, considering all that! He did put a lot of hours into it though….he usually came home from work, ate dinner and then spent the evening working out there. Didn’t leave much time for researching best acne treatments or anything, but I know he enjoys projects like this.

I took the final pictures yesterday, but we did make one change after I took those pictures. I bought another shelf and put it right next to the shelves shown in the pictures. To fit it in, I had to move the dollhouse over a little, but other than that everything is the same.

I also need to get a few pictures of the ceiling. It’s bright yellow with turquoise-colored stars (the same color as the walls) all over it. I really like it and I’m not sure how I managed to not get pictures of it yet. LOL

Posted: June 4th, 2010 under Chad's Posts, Random Thoughts.
Comments: 2

We’re home and we’re exhausted!

We left Friday afternoon and didn’t reach Chad’s parents house until 3 in the morning. Luckily, we got the kids to go back to sleep until 8:30…and then I kept them away from Chad until about 11 so he could sleep in since he’d driven the entire way up.

Later on Saturday, we got to go up and see Sabrina’s baby in the NICU. He’s so tiny and cute!! We got to touch the back of his head, but I can’t wait until we go up next time so we can actually hold him (they say he’ll be home by the 4th of July and we’ll be going up again at the end of July).

That night, we helped Chad’s mom get ready for Sabrina’s baby shower and went to bed late again.

On Sunday morning, we went to visit Jeb and Laurie and see the sheep get sheared. I got pictures and videos, but am way too lazy to go get my camera and upload them right now. Then the guys watched the kids while we finished getting ready for the baby shower.

The shower went really well. A lot of people came and Matt and Sabrina got nearly all of the stuff they needed for the baby.

Sunday night, Chad and his brother went to Iron Man 2 while I packed up the car and then we went down to my grandparents’ house so that we could be there all morning on Monday to get ready for my mom’s baby shower.

Her shower went really well, too. Since she already has babies, she didn’t really need any big stuff, but she got a lot of adorable baby girl clothes, diapers, wipes, cloth diapers from us, and some other stuff. The entire shower, Ava kept loudly announcing that she wanted “white cake”. I guess we know why she was there! All the food at both showers was really good…..I’d better not go near the scales anytime soon or I might be in for a rude surprise!

We got to spend Tuesday morning with my grandparents, too. The kids played in the sandbox some more, which they loved (I’m going to have to get them one this week). Then we had lunch and left to go see my parents and siblings in Brodhead. We had to leave before 5, though, because we needed to drive home that night.

The drive home was an absolute nightmare. It was pouring rain (and hailing at some points) for about 4 hours. I probably would have been OK if it hadn’t been dark, but as it was I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. My shoulders are very sore this morning from being tensed up for so long.

But we made it home safely at about 2:15 am. The kids went back to sleep in their own beds and slept in until about 8, which was much-needed….even though Kelvin woke up 3 times in those 6 hours. I’m not sure why, because he slept through the night every night we were in WI. I was hoping he’d continue that here, but no such luck. Oh well, you take what you can get!

Today will be spent doing lots of laundry and unpacking. I did cloth-diaper while we were there, which was a huge success, but of course it means I’m doing diaper laundry today too (which I don’t really mind). I’ll be posting about that experience at Motherhood Moments later today.

Posted: June 2nd, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 3