It's November! and i'm already behind

I cannot believe it's November 1st. This year has flown by and soon it will be over.

I'm behind on a couple things already.. Scarlett's 9 month post and the background on my Tastefully Simple constultantship (i just made up that word, yes!) I will be writing posts on each of these things tonight hopefully.

This week has been filled with work it seems, despite Hurricane Sandy making it's way through on Monday and Tuesday and closing lots of businesses. I guess that's the beauty (and curse) of being able to access email from home. I am also working tomorrow, which is something I don't normally do, so I can try to get a handle on my to-do list, which is endless.. literally.

This weekend we don't have much going on, which will be very nice considering the week we just had and the upcoming week we're going to have. I do enjoy being busy though and it makes things exciting for Scarlett (and Alex too) I hope.

Maybe we'll get around to carving the pumpkins we bought a couple weeks ago! ha!!!

I will leave you with a couple of images of Scarlett's halloween costume from my iphone. The headband wouldn't stay on during the day but she was distracted enough by other things in the evening to keep it on for a couple pictures!!

Have a happy Thursday and look out for a couple more posts coming soon! Possibly a video of Scarlett laughing while reading, if I can figure out how to upload it!

Lately

Just a couple of notes of what we've been up to lately..

..we finished watching LOST on Netflix. Call me crazy but I actually liked the ending. Just in time for fall shows to start up soon! Yippee!

..I've been stroller striding twice a week (as long as my schedule allows) since the beginning of August and it feels good to get out there and work out. Not to mention the ladies there are super nice and I'm the kind of work out girl that needs other people around doing the same thing I am to motivate me (or pressure me) into keeping up.

..Alex and I keep meaning to start this 5k training app I have on my phone, but things keep getting in the way after work. For some reason we are just fighting the whole 'establish a routine' thing.

..Weekends have been relaxing recently and it's been lovely to say the least. As the weather cools down we have some ideas of how to enjoy the fall, such as apple picking and pumpkin patch visiting.

..Scarlett is pulling herself up on everything and perfecting her crawl. She just started letting go of things to balance for a couple seconds before sitting down, so there's that..

..We just bought a bunch of gates from Alex's coworker and now we just need to figure out how to install them. We're actually thinking of turning the 'eat in kitchen' area beside the kitchen into a little play area that Scarlett can go wild in.

..Volleyball is going to start in a couple of weeks and I'm pretty pumped to be able to play the full season this time (last year I was pregnant and played half the season). Alex is playing Tennis this year as well. He started last week and is really enjoying it so far.

..I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep track of all the baby food we have in the freezer. I currently just have a running list but I feel like there has to be a better way.

..I really want to take a trip to Ikea, but that's a dangerous venture because I really don't need anything. Plus I've been thinking about christmas far too often and have updated my Amazon Wish List and started a Gift List for Scarlett to try to put all my ideas for her in one place.

..I think Scarlett needs shoes. And some fall clothing...... uh oh!

That's probably enough. I'm sure I could go on and on and on but I won't!!

RSVPing in the 21st Century

I'm gonna flip the switch and talk about something unrelated to my baby and talk about something that really grinds my gears about this here (my) generation of peoples.

Now I've been thinking about this for a long time and it comes to a head each time there is a party to throw and invitations to send. Remember back when you were little and your mom wanted to throw you a birthday party (or for some of you, like my mom, who did this for their children) and so she bought some invitations and sent them out. She wrote RSVP on there so that she would know how many kids were coming and how much pizza to buy or how many gift baggies to make up. And the beauty of this was that people actually called to say they were or were not coming. The whole point of the RSVP! That model worked for so long, for obvious reasons.. people were more decent back then I guess.

This brings me to now. Or really, 5 years ago when people really started using Facebook to send invitations etc and the whole RSVP world collapsed in on itself (for my generation). Here's the thing about using FB to track your event.. you don't really know how often people check their facebook. It's not like a text message,which you know the person received, even if they don't have the decency to respond promptly or sometimes at all. It's not like mailing an invite because obviously they have a mailbox and they check their mail. See this is where I failed for the first time. I tried to throw my husband a surprise 25th birthday party and thought, "ok, FB is perfect for this" .. it turned out that maybe 6 people out of -i don't know- 25 actually said they were coming, some said maybe, some said no. Maybe??!! Really? Are you waiting until the day of to see what the plans are for that day before deciding to come. Maybe should be removed from that scenario. It's yes or no, plan in advance and then stick to it. I've also sent numerous actual mailed invitations only to hear nothing back and then I have to go forth and contact those people to find out if they're coming or not, when most of the time it's no, they aren't coming. They were probably scared to call (or text, again, really?) with the word no, even though it's just a word and it's necessary a lot more then people admit these days.

I try to be as honest as possible with these events on FB now since I am so utterly peeved with my own experiences. Same with mailed invitations, I try to RSVP the day I get the invitation to get it out of the way after I've checked my calendar. Call me crazy, but it's just considerate.

Just as a sidebar, I am not hating on the use of FB as a means to send an invitation. It honestly is the easiest way to get it done, track who's coming and who's not (when people are honest), give information to them that can be easily found if forgotten, etc. I'm hating on people here, okay? People in general in a digital world who can't take 5 seconds to RSVP.

Baby Praying Mantis

The other day, Alex found a Praying Mantis nest in the yard and took some pictures of the babies. He had to zoom in really close. It's crazy how small they start out!

10 Things :: Volume 4

10 :: Back to work ain't so bad. It's kind of a best of both worlds scenario. At least I get to work part time, some mom's don't have that luxury and have to leave their baby every day of the week. Pluses include- talking to other adults, having a list of things that actually gets done, doing things with two hands. Minuses include- missing everything between smiling and crying while i'm away. Thank you iPhone for providing way too many photos and videos for me to look at/watch throughout the day!

9 :: Easter is coming up so fast, it's this weekend! I'm very excited for Scarlett's first official holiday. I have her Easter outfit ready to wear and the Easter buckets filled (for all 3 of us, score!). I even hid Easter eggs around the living room for Scarlett to find (with assistance, haha!). Alex see's a new one every day and says, "there's another egg!" .. maybe he'll forget where they are come Sunday? I also kind of opened the tin of chocolate covered pretzels yesterday when I could not find a suitable snack after work. They were tempting and I have zero willpower in my new-found love for chocolate covered pretzels. Salty and sweet, mmhmm! Plus, Plus! Easter = Ham. I don't even care about the other candy, I care about the HAM!

8 :: Scarlett has really been teasing her father recently saying that she only wants mommy to hold her in the fake boob position (it's like she's nursing but there's a pacifier in her mouth). I hope this is a phase because although I don't mind holding her 24/7, I don't want to have anything Alex can't have. I'm sure there will be another phase soon enough where all she wants is her mommy. Stay in the future, phase, okay?

7 :: Let's talk about body after baby, shall we? I am 10.5 weeks post partum. I feel like I look pretty good for someone who just had a baby 10.5 weeks ago but as always, not good enough. I lost most of my pre-pregnancy jeans somehow (maybe in the heat of pregnancy I thought I would never wear them again?) so I only have one pair of jeans currently (don't worry, I don't wear jeans daily, I wear sweatpants mostly, haha!) but I also refuse to buy more jeans until I can fit into a size that is acceptable to myself. What is that size? Honestly.. 6 but that's far away so I'd even settle for 8! To make matters worse, I think I am one of those BF moms that BF does not help in the weight loss department. Maybe it takes longer than 10.5 weeks for anything crazy noticeable to happen? Maybe I should get off my butt more. So many unanswered questions that actually do have answers but somehow I continue to ignore them!

6 :: Last night, Scarlett slept 5 hours straight for her first session. This was followed by a short 3 and then a long 3.. the long 3 I am speaking of never really happens anymore. She has absolutely no schedule what so ever! Oh well! Keep us guessing, little Scarlett!

5 :: Once Upon a Time.. the tv show on ABC is awesome. It's not as awesome as Revenge (c'mon new episode, it's been long enough!) but it's still pretty good. I really love starting a new series late and then watching 15 episodes in a row. Makes me want to start series late all the time. I also really enjoy Happy Endings and the New Girl. Honestly, at first I thought the New Girl was silly but they've really amped up the character of Schmidt and he is the reason to watch if nothing else. Hilarity!

4 :: Yeah, so you see the blog header hasn't changed, huh? I have a picture in my head of what I want but it's really difficult to find the time to take the pictures and then edit them and then edit the bloggy stuff that goes with it. I will get to it, okay? But I can't promise when.

3 :: Why are shower curtains so expensive? It's a piece of fabric!!! It's nothing that special. I don't get it. I refuse to spend too much money on something so silly. I'm actually thinking of getting just a clear plastic one for our bathroom so that when I'm showering and Scarlett refuses to sleep, I can at least see her instead of constantly opening the current shower curtain and getting her all wet, whoops!

2 :: What is with this weather? Just choose to be warm outside and then stay that way. I don't like this in between thing because I'd really rather not wear a coat if it's optional. I know it's only April 3rd but we were so spoiled before and I can't go back, I just can't!

1 :: It's sad to say that I didn't win that giant Mega Millions jackpot last week. Every time I play the lotto, I spend too much time thinking about what would happen if I won. I go through the motions of how I would find out, how I would tell Alex, what we would do with the money. It's almost the same every time. It's a little sad that I waste time thinking such silly things. At the same time, it's freakin' exciting because anything can happen!

Happy Tuesday!

This used to be a link up but alas, it is not anymore so I'm linking up with nobody!

Resolutions

Just wanted to jot down a couple of resolutions I have for 2012 now that it's arrived.

I generally am not the best at keeping resolutions but that may be because of my lack for making resolutions I actually care to keep. Regardless, here goes nothin'!

1 :: Listen more, interrupt less

I don't know if anyone who speaks with me on a regular basis realizes I do this but I tend to try to finish people sentences when they pause. I annoy myself with this and I have been actively trying to listen and hear people out instead of jumping into their sentence to guess the ending.

2 :: Be a great mom

Now that i'm basically a parent (officially in a couple of weeks), I resolve to be as good of a mother as I can be. I have a really excellent role model in my own mother and I'm sure all the things I have learned from her thus far in life will influence the type of mother I will be as well.

3 :: Learn a new hobby

I'd really like to get better at sewing. In order to accomplish this, I will need to get my own sewing machine and probably take an instructional course. I tried to sew last week and it was way more difficult than I remember it being in home ec in middle school. I think it would be fun to know how to sew different things and it seems like it would be a lot easier than learning how to knit, which was something I said I wanted to do a couple months ago.

4 :: Watch less television

This should be pretty easy considering we no longer have cable/satellite. We've already cut our TV watching by 2/3rds. Netflix and Hulu are our only sources of television entertainment and I really have to be in the mood to turn something on and sit through it. I'm also assuming it will be less desirable once the wee one is here.

5 :: Eat Healthier

Throughout this pregnancy, I've kind of just let things go. Not all the time, but prior to getting pregnant I was living a pretty restricted food life. Trying to keep carbs low and only indulging every once in a while or so (from what I can remember anyway, this was a long time ago it feels like). Now that I feel like a whale (I know i'm not a whale) I have a new-found desire to eat healthier once I can get my appetite under control. Pregnancy makes me want to keep my stomach full of something, whether it's healthy or not.

6 :: Exercise

I'd like to be able to run a 5k. I had the C25K app on my phone that I was using when I found out I was pregnant. I used it for a couple more weeks and then my back started hurting and I couldn't walk anymore let alone run. I look forward to using the app though and completing it somehow. This could get complicated since I'll have a baby to look after, but Planet Fitness isn't far from my house, it's generally $10 a month and C25K only takes a half hour of your time. It's a step in the right direction.

7 :: Give more

Surprisingly enough, I can be kind of selfish. So i plan to work on that more this year and try to give. I have a feeling I'm going to be a tad selfish with my new baby at first. Hopefully Alex can bring me back down to earth before I embarrass myself!

8 :: Make more wine

Alex and I (mostly Alex) made a couple of wines in the Spring last year and though I have yet to really dig into them (for obvious reasons) I'd really like us to continue to make wine. It's so nice to have and not have to go out to the liquor store and purchase it. We'll be so well rounded, Alex brews and enjoys some nice whiskeys/scotches/bourbons/gins and we'll have homemade wine. All to drink in moderation, of course!

9 :: Stay Organized & Clean

I know things can get pretty messy when you have a baby around. Priorities of cleaning and staying organized get pushed to the far back because the baby is numero uno, as she should be. I would like us to try to stay on top of this though and hopefully it won't be too hard to maintain. My biggest issue is not putting away my clothing after I wear it. If it isn't going into the laundry, it ends up on my dresser or on the floor. I need to put it in the laundry or put it away and keep my dresser clear!

10 :: Be Happy

This is attainable because I am happy. I'm already happy. I'm about to have a baby. My husband is amazing. Our families are awesome. Our friends are the best. We're healthy. We have good jobs. We're really lucky in life and comment on it often. We're really excited for 2012, a year of many firsts!

10 Things :: Link Up :: Volume 2

I might just have to make this link up thing a regular gig. I mean, why not?

In no certain order:

1 :: An apology (to myself and anyone who reads)

I'm sorry that I have been slacking in the blogging area as of late. These past two weeks have been uber busy and I haven't had much lunch time free at work to write a post or two. I will do my best to write more. Pinky promise.

2 :: Finally, a pediatrician

We have chosen one and it feels so good to have that out of the way. Interesting tid bit though, they don't require you to have any paperwork or anything done prior to your child's birth. All I have to do is tell the hospital "Lancaster Pediatrics is my pediatrician" and they send someone over and then I'm guessing that's when you schedule the next appointment and fill out paperwork. To be honest (and we might be bad parents for this) we didn't go and meet them prior to deciding. We're pretty laid back people and we had lots of good ped doc recommendations that we figured if someone else likes them so will we. Also, we can change ped doc's if this one doesn't pan out.

3 :: Holiday Dinners // Parties

This week is filled with holiday dinners with friends and family. Boy do I love going out to eat, and well, just eating, so sharing these activities with people we love is just icing on the cake.

Monday we dined at Iron Hill with the Hix's and Herr's. We're all pregnant (or we were all pregnant until last night, one of us is no longer pregnant, congrats Matt and Britt! I know you're reading this even though you just had a baby, haha yeah right!) Anyway, dinner was filled with chit chat about pregnancy/baby stuff with a little bit of guy cabin talk splashed in. Those men are crazy. We also effectively shut down their effort to go next door for a crappy beer, only to leave us at the table with the checks. Silly husbands.

Last night, Thursday, we had the Van Wyen clan over for dinner as well as the rest of Alex's family. We cooked our free turkey that I got with my bonus points from Giant (thanks, mom! -we're on the same bonus plan so her points are my points and vice versa). It was a Shady Brook and it was already in a brine in the bag. This is the way to go, people! No work in brining what-so-ever! It might've been the juiciest turk-a-lurk we've ever had. No gravy necessary (but of course we had some). It was so nice to catch up with them, and Matt and Marci who have been in Oregon studying it up in graduate school. There were tons of laughs all around and it was a close to perfect evening!

Tonight we're heading up to the Davis' house to have dinner with them and the Snyders and see baby Addilyn! We're so excited about this. She was looking totally adorbs at my baby shower and I just want to squeeze her (gently).

Saturday we're headed to the McHenry's (now) Annual Christmas party. Sure to be a blast. I can already taste the delicious food that I will be eating there. Plus, I found the perfect swap gift that better arrive in the mail today!

4 :: Baby Shower Goods

So now that i've had the opportunity to go through the things we received at the baby shower, we have a small pile of exchangables that I have been waiting to make a trip to good ol' Target with. With the busy-ness of this week, no such luck. I'm struggling a little bit with where to put things/store things/how to organize things. This might wait until the week I have off after Christmas so that I have more time to figure it out.

5 :: Baby Shiz

I've decided that I'm going to be making my own baby sling, like this one. For more than one reason.. A. way too expensive to buy for a piece of fabric and two rings.. even on Etsy. and B. it looks convenient and I found some nice jersey stretchy fabric to use in a lovely purple color. I've also decided that I won't be purchasing one of those hooter hider things that you put around your neck when you're breastfeeding. I'm going with something more like this. I mean, it's really just a piece of fabric with a hole for your head to go through. And I couldn't pass up the flannel-ish pink hounds tooth fabric I found for it. I will post about these when they're completed.. which will have to be the week after Christmas.

6 :: Daycare

This morning actually, we had an appointment to tour a day care facility that was pretty close to our house. Now it's my hope that I can work out my schedule with my place of work so that I can move to part time for a while and maybe even work from home a bit so that we don't have to go full on full time day care. The center was nice. Honestly, a little messy and it smelled like onions and diapers. The ladies in the infant room seemed caring though so that was nice but it kind of broke my heart. Please don't judge me because I know that day care is the only option for some people and it's really one of our only options but the thought of dropping my child off to other people, that are currently strangers, for more than a 15 minute time period was just too much to handle. Therefore, when we left, I cried. Looking back on it now, we definitely need to look at some other places because I think maybe the atmosphere there (or something) was just off-putting. The people were very nice and it's also totally possible that I completely underestimated how emotional looking at day cares would make me. Oh, and i'm pregnant by the way (obv) so maybe my hormones are a little wack? There's a first time for everything, right? So the plan is to look at some other ones too and get a better idea of what we're looking for / what we're comfortable with.

7 :: Christmas

Let's get back to focusing on what's really important right now. Christmas. (i'm so funny). Anyway, I get a kick out of tracking the packages that I've ordered every morning. I'm tired of things coming from California via USPS though. Takes for-ev-er. Next week will consist of wrapping gifts and cleaning the house for visitors. Also, something exciting (for me anyway) is that I'll be eating a Christmas Ham two days in a row. Real ham, people. Not water packed ham. Real -straight from the piggy- ham. I'll probably even get to have it two different ways. This is a christmas miracle in my book. The gift of real ham, two days in a row is all I could ever ask for. I will take a picture with each ham to mark the occasion.

How sad is it that i'm really excited about ham?? wait, don't answer that because if you say it's sad, i'll just assume that you're jealous!

Oh and Christmas is only 9 days away. Did I just rock your world? Each day, I think about this and each day, my own world is rocked... hard.

8 :: Baby Update

The little darling is just living it up, breech style. Most people who know me personally know that I don't really get stressed out very much. I don't worry about things that I cannot control, it's a waste of time and energy. Having said that.. this is stressing me out! If she could just turn and stay there I wouldn't want anything else for christmas (except ham, obviously). However, I do know that if she flips/turns.. it's totally possible that she could just flip/turn back to breech at any time. I am also aware that we have tons of time (so they say). I'm only 34 weeks and 4 days. My next appointment where thye'll do the ultrasound is on the 27th. That's 12 days away. Then i'll only be 36 weeks and a day. Still another couple weeks for her to turn around and face the ideal direction. I would've been much better off assuming that the thing I was feeling was a baby booty and not her head. Why did they have to tell me?? What's the point of this paragraph? Oh yeah, to stop stressing and give a baby update! She's doing good! She moves a lot.. she does bladder dances.. she hiccups, normal baby stuff.

9 :: Breastfeeding

If you don't want to read about babies eating from boobs, skip this paragraph. I had a BF class on Tuesday evening that was super informative. How is there so much to know about breastfeeding? Luckily they gave us a booklet that had all the information discussed for when I promptly forget it. All I know is, the whole nip goes into the mouth basically, like eating a big hamburger from Red Robin that you don't think will fit into your mouth, but you make it fit. I wish I could insert the animation they showed in the class. Interesting stuff, I tell ya. This is where I'll stop talking about it.. I don't want to bore/gross anyone out. Oh wait, I probably already did.

10 :: Congrats!

I can't believe you made it the whole way to number 10! Through all of my rambling and almost zero pictures! Good for you! Also, i'll share this congrats paragraph with new baby girl, Harper Hix. I hope we get to go see her today or tomorrow. I still have a hard time believing that I'm growing a baby but this is proof that there really was a baby in there! We're so excited for Matt and Britt and just know they're going to be kick butt parents!

10 Things :: Link Up

I thought I would give this a go, mostly because I haven't posted since.. Monday (oopsie!) and lots has been going on this week that I can tell you about, mostly. I'll go in order from most exciting to probably least.

1 :: The Nursery Wall

I don't know when I got this idea (weeks ago) exactly. But I sketched it on the wall a couple of Sundays ago and this past week I got around to painting. It must've been Monday that I did the bottom half and I finished it up last night. Oh.. I didn't tell you what I'm doing (yes i did) but here are the deets which are vague so that I can surprise you all at the end with my masterpiece (bahaha). Basically, I found a wall stencil on pinterest that would go perfectly in the nursery. No i will not link to it and ruin the surprise. I decided that instead of spending $128 of money I do not have to spend on a wall stencil/decal.. I'm actually not sure which it is.. I would just do it myself with a pencil and then my own homemade stencils and of course, paint. Things are going swimmingly. The part that I finished was the tree and next up are the flowers, followed by some birds (maybe, undecided).

2 :: Nesting

So I guess I'm ready to admit that I have been nesting a little. Last week, we cleaned to our little hearts content (I still haven't posted that post.. I don't know if I will.. it just screams boring!) This week, I have been making favors for the baby shower my awesome mother is throwing me (and letting me be a part of in terms of planning and making things. I had to make things from pinterest, had to!) I will definitely show you what I did after the guests have their favors. I'm also going to be making 2 of the game prizes later today! Anyway.. back to the nesting. I baked cookies this week as well. Choc. Chip and Oatmeal Craisin. That was Wednesday night. Luckily, Alex has been making dinner lately so I don't even have to think about doing that. I just have a bunch of energy and I need to expend it. I also cannot get enough water sometimes.. soo thirsty!

3 :: Revenge

Since getting rid of DirecTV and switching to just streaming Netflix and Hulu. Our time in front of the boob tube has dramatically declined. I call this "Winning" .. and really with all the stuff I have to do, I don't have time for TV anyway! BUT.. a show called Revenge started up this year and I wanted to check it out but couldn't really fit it into my existing TV lineup (which no longer exists). But when we got Hulu, the whole season so far is on there, ready for us to watch. So we started it on Wednesday and then watched two episodes yesterday. We are hooked. I love gossip girl and everything but this is just more mature.. and twisty and unpredictable. Check it out if you haven't yet. This is an official recommendation. In Alex news, he now watches Sons of Anarchy while I go about my nesting activities. UGH i'm not going to call it nesting anymore, i'm not a bird!

4 :: Baby Shower

I probably know way more about my shower than the average guest of honor at her baby shower but I'm nosy and my mom is gracious. Regardless, I'm super pumped about it. We have already gotten a few gifts from family members who cannot attend and they've been so generous. We got the Sony Bloggie HD video camera which is so freaking awesome and a Temporal Artery Thermometer, which is basically the same that they use at doctor's offices instead of a rectal or ear thermometer. Both things are so needed and we're so thankful to have received them. I'm already preparing myself to be overwhelmed by the love we receive from the shower. Baby girl is super lucky to have friends and family like she does!

5 :: Christmas Wish List

I almost did a post on this the other day but did not have time to do it properly, so I will just tell you a little bit about my wish list and what's on it.
Hair Dryer- This is so needed. Plus I read through researching that I don't need to get a $300 one to make my hair look nice.
Cookie Sheets- I need to update mine and the ones I want are from Williams-Sonoma. Love that place.
Workout Clothes- I want some legit workout clothes. I have shorts and t-shirts but I want to get serious about it so that after this baby is born I can focus on getting my body back (in a normal amount of time) while looking super cute!
Robe- This is needed mostly for labor/delivery plus waddling around the house afterward while not wanting to actually get dressed. What could be better?
BellyBandit- Don't judge me but I'm going to be wearing this little sucker under everything I own, day and night for 6-8 weeks after baby girl is born. I will give a testimonial at the end of that time period on whether it worked or not.
Living Room Rug- We desperately need one of these. Recently we moved the coffee table back into the living room but we'll probably move it out again shortly. I want to put a rug between the couches that fits properly and is comfortable for a baby to crawl around on.
Rain Jacket- I don't have one currently, especially because my winter coat that's waterproof doesn't currently zipper because of my growing tummy. I don't want freezing rain hitting my scalp, ok?
Bracelet- It's just so cute! And i could probably make it.
As you might be able to tell, this is more of a NEED list than a wishlist. But I just don't spend as much time lately browsing the internet for things I cannot afford. I barely even look at normal people clothing (how sad!)

6 :: Maternity Pictures

I'm still working with these. I know I need to share some more, so here is one for your viewing pleasure. I will post more on here, I promise. I'll be honest too, I stole almost all of the poses that we did from pinterest. I won't apologize for free inspiration!

7 :: Tums


They're currently my BFF, need i say more??

8 :: Twitter

I'm trying to get more into twitter but I constantly forget about it. I'm also not the best at documenting daily life things with my iphone so I don't have too many pictures to include in my tweets. If you want to follow me, it's @miss_michelle6 .. I say a lot of random stuff. It is twitter though.. and the best tweets are random ones.

9 :: Farm Fresh Coop & Beef

We're currently doing the full share. It's a lot of food. I'm wondering if maybe for the next season we should do a half share and see how we do with that. Visits to the grocery store are less frequent but we really need to stock up on protein, which brings us to Beef. We are buying a quarter of a cow from Alex's old coworker and he's picking it up on Sunday. The last time we bought beef was probably 2 years ago or more and that came from the Steer that Alex's father had purchased and grazed for a year or so. Delish. This beef we're about to get should last us at least a year. It's soo nice never having to purchase beef at the grocery store. Plus it's local.

10 :: Job Stuff

I recently found out that when I take my short term disability that I won't get 100% of my pay, like I would've had I had my little girl in 2011. They're changing things for 2012 and I have no idea how much I will get. This is disappointing. I'm sure it's because the company is trying to save money and I guess technically they don't have to pay me at all but the thought that it was 100% and now it's going to be (probably) significantly less is just (again) disappointing. Not to mention, they go by what your doctor says in terms of how long you need. If the doc only says you need 6 weeks, they only pay for your short term disability for 6. I might beg my doctor to recommend 8 weeks at least. I'm also stressing a little bit about when I do come back to work and what my schedule will be like. I haven't talked about this at all on here but I want to see if I can do a temporary part time gig until I can get used to the fact that I have a baby. I am crossing my fingers that they will be flexible. From what I've seen/heard so far, they will try to be. But company's can change their mind in a jiffy and end up screwing even their loyalest employees over. I hope this isn't the case.

This is my first link up and honestly, it was fun but I'm totally lacking pictures and totally over-doing it with words. I'm such a rambler!

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend! I know I will because I'm leaving work at 2pm today, score!!

Linking up with E Tells Tales

Work in Progress

Just so no one is alarmed (like you'd actually be alarmed, ha!).. I am redesigning my blog layout. There's a lot to learn in this that I do NOT know currently. So i'll do my best to get it done quickly.

Just an FYI of sorts!