Busy busy-ness

So, it's been a bit crazy here. There are plenty of things that I'd like to blog about, but my computer time has been really limited. This is the first time I've even had the computer on today (odd for me), and I'll be headed to bed soon. I have hardly taken time to read blogs at all this week. I know it will settle down again. This time of year is always crazy.

We leave for our vacation on Saturday morning. We will have Internet access while we're in the cabin in Tennessee, but I don't know how much I'll use it. I plan to relax in the hot tub a lot, enjoy my family, read lots of books and magazines, shop, eat, snack, and sit in the jacuzzi tub. Does that sound like a good vacation? Sounds like heaven to me. I know we'll have lots of things to do and I'll try to be around to tell you all about it. If not then, at least when I get back.

In the meantime, is anyone interested in guest-posting here? Maybe a way to get something off your chest that you can't at your own blog? A chance to meet new readers? A fun time? Need a change of scenery? If you'd be interested, please e-mail me. We'll work out details. I'm open to ideas (and I can give you a fun topic if you'd like). I'm thinking it would be fun to post someone other posts here while I'm on vacation. I'll be around to post them, but I may not be able to blog myself. So, if you'd like to take a pit stop here, let me know.

Where I rate

When it comes to grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other loved ones, I don't rate very well with my son. I learned that the hard way. Zachariah spent Thursday through Monday with family. We joined him there on Saturday. He seemed happy to see us at first, but then he wanted help from anyone but Matt and I. Well...then....I guess I'll just let other people help for now.

Today I knew would be tough. I knew we'd have to go through "Grandma detox". But honestly, he was too exhausted to care. He fell asleep in the car on the way home. This hasn't happened in ages. He just doesn't sleep in the car anymore. But he asked for a blanket to cover up, then he wanted his little lovie-blankie and pacifier too. He slept most of the way home and then wanted to go straight to bed. I had to talk him into putting pajamas on first.

This morning he slept in. He was happy to see me. He was happy to see his toys. He was OK with getting back to our routine and rules. I think he just needed some calm and schedule to behave like his normal self.

I missed my son for the 2 days we were apart. But I did get a lot done in preparation for our vacation. I couldn't believe how grown up Zachariah looked after being away from him. He was saying and doing new things. It just isn't possible. It just proves to me how quickly he is growing up.

Our weekend was fun. And Matt and I did make it to see "Prince Caspian" on Friday. I'll have to write up a little post about that soon. And I got my hair cut....like many inches off. I started a post about that, but I haven't taken any photos of myself yet. So, more from me to come.

Peace AND Quiet

It is quiet in my house tonight (except for the TV I have blaring). Matt is out on business tonight and Zachariah is staying with my parents for a few days. My mom has been itching to have him stay over again sometime. She had this idea to come get him on a Thursday afternoon (she only works until noon on Thursdays) and keep him until Saturday some weekend when we were planning on coming there on Saturday anyway. Well, it happened to work out this weekend. We've been planning on it for weeks now.

When my mom first brought this up I was tempted, really tempted, to say no. This is the longest that I've ever been away for Zachariah. He's never stayed more than one night away from me. I was really debating how I could keep him here and NOT let me parents keep him for that long. On one hand I knew it would be nice to have some time without him to myself, but I didn't want to leave him. What made me decide to go ahead with it was thinking about our upcoming vacation. This would give me a perfect opportunity to start preparing for our trip.

I am planning, organizing, shopping, and beginning to pack. I have been making a list of things we will need for our travels. I have started buying a few things to take along. I have not sorted through my summer clothes (I'm not really wearing them yet, because it hasn't been consistently warm here). But I am making some progress.

I have time to think about making lists. I have time to shop for some items we'll need. I have time to organize and sort some things. Unfortunately it's only a day that I have alone. And unfortunately I have so many things that I'd like to cram into that little amount of time.

I'd also like to have time to relax and enjoy this time to myself. I have been sitting and reading blogs and watching TV all evening. That's been nice. I think I'd like to soak my feet and have some good munchies that I don't have to make or share for ANYONE else.

Fun, fun

Today I am taking lunch from Fazoli's into the center where I tutor. I usually only go in for a few hours in he afternoon, so this will be fun to get together with everyone in a more relaxed time. It is a pretty easy going work environment, but it's fun just to eat and laugh with my friends there once in a while. Matt won lunch for 8 people by putting his business card into the fishbowl last time we ate there. He won the same thing less than a year ago and shared it with his office. So this time he decided to let me treat my coworkers. We only have about 7 people that work in my program regularly. It will be perfect. I go at 12:30 today to pick up pasta, salad, breadsticks, and drinks for 8. For FREE! Can't beat that. And last night I made a cheesecake to take in too. It's a cookie cheesecake (Oreos baked in it). I should go take pictures now to share with you later.

Yesterday Matt won tickets to see "Prince Caspian" from a radio station. I've had the movie release date marked on my calendar since before Christmas. I am so excited about this new movie. And I reread the entire Chronicles of Narnia book series in preparation for the new movie coming out. Then he won tickets, so now we can watch it for FREE. Matt rocks at winning things! We will be able to go out on Friday night (without a child) to see the movie. YEAH!

And Matt is signed up for another contest with the same radio station. They are giving away a BBQ grill, a side of beef, and an above ground pool. He signed up because he wants the side of beef. Ha. They were only going to qualify so many people who signed up, then they must be present at the time of the drawing to win. Well, less than 100 people qualified and he is one of them. AND he will already be at the Battle of the Businesses for his job, which is where they are drawing the winner. I think he has decent odds. What would we do with a pool? Yikes. Anyway....I'm just worried about his luck.

Babies, babies, everywhere

I'm been stalking Devan for a while now waiting anxiously for any baby news. There were rumors that she'd had her little bundle, but now we have proof and pictures. And Cade Alexander is an adorable baby boy, welcome! Congrats Devan! I can't wait to hear more about him.

And last Thursday Jana went to the hospital and delivered another beautiful baby boy. There is a post up on her site from her husband and a link with some photos. I can't wait to hear more about her new little one. Evan James is beautiful. Welcome little guy! And congrats, Jana. I'll be waiting to hear and see more from you too.

This is the 3rd baby for each of these lovely women. I can't tell you how happy I am for them. And I can't wait to have more babies of my own to snuggle and hold. But for now I will be happy to hear more about these two new precious little boys. Congrats girls!

I guess "complainy" isn't a real word

I composed a blog post yesterday, but I just deleted it. It was whiny and complainy and stressy and all apologetic. Bleck. After looking back at it today, I realized that's just not me. (Well, it is, but usually one for short amounts of time and very rarely.) Anyway, today was a better day, and I just wanted to let you all know I'm good and still around. I am reading and catching up with blogs slowly. I'm also trying to comment on some.

Here is a clip from that bad blog post about Mother's Day:
I had a nice Mother's Day. Matt brought me breakfast in bed. He also got Zachariah up, fed him, and got him ready for church. Then we went to church. Afterwards they took me out for dinner. I took a nap in the afternoon, unfortunately that was cut short because Zachariah woke up. Matt fell asleep too, but he didn't hear Zachariah get up. Matt ended up sleeping for at least 2 more hours before I got him up. He did feel really bad that I didn't get much of a nap on Mother's Day. (I'm still using that, though.) Then we went to small group as always in the evening. My present is to pick out some flowers at a later date. We looked at some on Saturday, but I know I can't plant right away so I will wait a bit longer. And there is a hanging basket stand that I want to get too.

So that's that. Nothing too exciting happened. Really there has been nothing too exciting happening here at all lately. We just have a lot of things coming up. I've been planning for our weekend away for Memorial Day. Then after that we'll be heading out for vacation. So we're slowly getting things planned and ready for that.

I have been working on some more projects in the house too. Progress makes me feel better. I'm at a bit of a stand still for our extra bedroom. I got the new (to us) bed set up and some blankets on it. I still need to get a set of sheets, but I don't have any for that size. I think I'll wait and look for some at the outlet malls in Tennessee. I've rearranged that room a little. I moved a bookshelf out and like where it ended up (in my dining room). There is another bookshelf that I've been sorting through, but we have so many things that I'm not sure what to do with. Throw away? Keep? Store? Is it worth storing? Will we really use it again someday? When was the last time we used it? Those sort of things. Mostly there are lots of books, magazines, college binders full of papers, etc. But anyway, short of that the room is coming along nicely. We plan to down-size the desk in there, since we don't use our desktop computer too often anyway. Matt actually mentioned getting a small desk (at some point-- not soon) to put in a corner in the living room, and just getting the computer completely out of that room. Then it really would just be a bedroom. I never thought that day would come. He has always LOVED that office. In fact he used to say we could never use it for anything but that. I told him when we have more kids we might need it for a bedroom, but I thought we'd have to bunk them before he gave up his office. Now he's excited about making it a spare room. Change of heart. But why? I don't know.

This post has been pretty random already, so can I just say...How can it already be the middle of May? HOW? This does not seem possible. Summer is almost here (with warmer weather than this I hope).

Zachariah has been really cute and funny lately. I have a great story to share about Mr. Smartiepants from last weekend. I'd also like to get some videos of him to post. I'll have to try that soon. I think you'd enjoy it. He's a character. So more to come later.

Some of this...

1. We kicked off our garage sale today. Our small group is hosting it. They are helping raise money for Matt's mission's trip. The garage sale idea came up last fall when Matt had no money raised. By this time (before the garage sale) Matt has more than enough money raised. So we'll be able to do something extra for the Koutiala hospital with it.

We started getting things ready for the sale Thursday night. Matt went to help. I helped set things up and watch the sale for a while this morning. We decided Matt would go to help again tomorrow. We feel like one of us should be there, but keeping Zachariah there all day would not be good. And with gas prices up, we definitely don't need to drive two cars all the way to the location that's a 30 minute drive from our house. But it's going well, and I'm excited about that.

2. We were so busy today. I had to wake Zachariah up early this morning (which I rarely do) and he was not happy with me. He was awake right away, but he cried for a while when I told him we weren't going to church. (He figured that must be where we were going since I woke him up. That's about the only time I wake him up.)

3. Every time I log into my Google Reader, I feel overwhelmed. More often that not these past few days, I just close it right away. Sorry, I'm not trying to neglect your blogs. I think I just need to focus on other things. But I'm saving them, and I'll eventually catch up on reading and commenting on my friends' blogs.

4. We just bought a new(ish) full-sized bed. Our intention is to make room in our office (which is the 3rd bedroom) for the bed. Then it can act as a guest room. I've always thought we would use this as another bedroom someday (especially after I converted Zachariah's room to a nursery), so I'm happy Matt agreed. Plus now it means I get to go shop for new bedding (we don't already have full-sized bedding). Fun! Plus it will be fun to reorganize a room.

5. My sisters both came over this afternoon, and we had a great time. Then my parents came in the evening. What a fun day. Busy and tiring, but very fun. I have photos (only of the sisters being here) to share later.

6. Have a nice weekend. Are you doing anything fun?

Crazy Days

Why does it seem like life will slow down after Christmas? I always feel like we don't have many plans, not many commitments after the holidays. So then we should have our weekends to relax and not feel like we always have things to do. Well, there are always things to do and events that come up. Before you know it January slips into February which slips into March into April and here it is May! Where has this year gone? It's almost 1/2 way over and it seems like it has just begun.

Two months ago when I was looking at my May calendar, I thought it would be great because there isn't much planned. (I thought the same thing thinking about April in February.) And now that we're here, suddenly my May calendar seems full of activity (thankfully not too much yet). Days that have meetings, get together, or other events take up space. Our vacation is looming ahead at the end of the month too. I haven't even begun to think about planning for that (packing clothes, food, etc.).

I don't know about you, but when the craziness with my schedule starts like this, I get a little crazy. I get overwhelmed with all the things that must be done and planned for in the midst of my already semi-full daily schedule. Then I don't see how I'll get it all done.

Right now we have a few things going on here and there (for instance, the garage sale our small group is hosting this weekend- set up on Thursday, sale on Friday & Saturday), and I want to make sure that I stay ahead of the game. My goals have been to get and keep things organized in this house. Spring cleaning? Sort of, but does it count when it's practically summer? I am trying to prioritize and take care of the things that matter most first.

Then there is this matter of vacation. We have the cabin booked, we have the truck ready (complete with a new cap, so we have plenty of room to take things along), and Matt is taking care of the hotel arrangements for our trip down and back. I need to make sure that everyone has enough summer clothes to last a week (or at least part of the week, since we're planning to shop for some summer clothes while we're there), think about meals, get some snacks & drinks purchased before we go. As far as that stuff goes, I've done nothing about it yet. It doesn't look like this week/weekend will be a good time to start either.

But I am, however, thinking about my own self getting ready for vacation. We would like to do some hiking while we're there (which we've always loved doing together), and I realize that I am terribly out of shape. I was working out regularly for a while in January/February until I injured my back again. I was starting to feel stronger and had lots more energy and stamina when I was working out. Well, my back has rested enough and it feeling better now. But I know I have to take it easy in order to not hurt it again. This week, though, I decided that I must work out if I plan to go hiking at all. It will still be tough for me, but I don't want to miss out just because I can't get off my butt and work harder. Matt has been working out EVERY morning for the last THREE weeks at the YMCA. He has done a lot of cardio, and I'm sure I'll notice that he has no problems hiking. So, I've gotten off my butt, and I'm off to the races. This week I have committed to working out for at least 30 minutes each day. I have stuck to that. I am starting out with some walking on my Gazelle and a few strengthening moves. I am also following my back exercise program that my chiropractor gets after me constantly about not doing. It's no wonder my back slips out so easy, I am doing nothing to strengthen it. No more of that now! I am working, and I plan to keep this up until vacation. I hope to even work up to more things if my back is feeling up to it. And I'd like to get our weight system in the garage ready to use. I would like to work on my arm and leg strength too. I'll be ready to hike those mountains.

So, next I will start on preparing for vacation. But one (or two or three) step at a time. First I want to get my house completely in order and continue exercising. I still have a few more weeks for the other preparations, and I think it will go more smoothly once I feel like things are good around here.

Still here

I'm still around. I didn't mean to disappear for 3 days after I finished 2 months of NaBloPo month. But it did feel good not to use the computer as much for a while. I will say that April's NaBloPo was one of my favorites. It was fun and I think it caused me to be a touch more creative with my posts.

Some of my favorite posts in April were: about my relationship with Matt (before we were married); telling about my college life/non-life; memories and things from my youth; updating things I've left hanging on my blog (I'm thinking of doing this more often); Top 20/Bottom 10 (fun! I just wrote down things that came to mind. Nice for a random post); about my religion/church; and my memories (showing you some old photos of me - maybe I'll have some more in the future). I see that most of my favorites were suggestions that came from you, my readers. You guys rock!

Today my mom, sister (Rachel), and my grandmother came over. My mom had called Thursday morning and asked about coming. She was meeting my dad for lunch after church (before he left on business) then coming here. She told me she would check with Rachel and see if she'd like to come too. I thought it was a fun idea. Then the church service ran over. After that we had to load/unload some garage sale things for our upcoming small group garage sale (raising money for Matt's trip). By the time we were done with that I was concerned that they might be here before I got home. I called my mom and found out that they were still on the way...and she had grandma with her.

I love my grandma dearly, but.... When we got home I told Matt I tidied up the house, but I didn't clean it to "Grandma standards". You see, my grandmother doesn't have a filter between her brain and her mouth. I will admit that she's gotten better over the past few years since my grandfather has been gone, but still. This is the woman who once told me that my dog was "a cute kind of ugly" and she was "trying to ignore the mess" after she followed me into our messy office. So, I was afraid that my little bit of tidying might not be enough. After I fed Zachariah I quickly ran around the house and dusted, put away dishes, scrubbed anything I saw (minus walls & floors). Luckily I live with a cute, energetic toddler, and that's the main reason my family comes over to visit, and nothing was said about the house (which by the time they got here was looking pretty good).