is there a different word than random?

Feels like Halloween out today, blustery, dark, and cool. Bring on the pumpkins!!

we're doing 1-year pictures for monster on Saturday. gah! 1 year?!? How the heck did that happen? 

I like nursing/maternity tank tops – because they are long :)

Must keep singles in my drawer at work because I always want a treat and rarely do I have the cash to get one (which is probably best for my waistline and pocketbook). 

I love to read. Books let me escape to a different reality for awhile and it makes me happy. Husband has video games, I have books. 

Pumpkin spice is the flavor of this fall. I didn't really like it in the past but give me a dark chocolate pumpkin mocha from Caribou any day this year!! :) Totally amazing, especially when made by a certain lady who works there. You'd think they would all taste the same, but no, hers are definitely better. Oh, and I discovered pumpkin spice bagels yesterday.  wonderful. wonderful. 

blogging break, etc

I unintentionally took a break from blogging last week. I didn't have anything to post about and I was lazy. :)

I still don't have anything to say today but need to get my presence back on the interwebs, yes? LOL.

Working a long week this week and then going to the Twins game on Sunday. Hope the weather is nice. The monster will stay with her grandparents on Saturday night. A nice little break for all of us.

We went to check out the apple place around our house. Not too exciting. I didn't have high hopes so I wasn't disappointed. We took home some really good cider, gone in a day, and an awesome caramel apple pecan pie, also gone in a day. Whoops. Monster slept the entire time we were there, so that's good. She needed the nap.

We had an impromptu date night on Friday. that was fun. Had dinner and rented a movie. Man, we're old. I had thoughts of going downtown for a few drinks and then thought about how much it would hurt the next day when monster was being all monstery... yeah. Needless to say, drinking did not happen much. I had a peach margarita with dinner. Very exciting.

Monster was sick/is sick with a cold and teething at the same time. Poor kid can't breathe. Feel bad for her.

Random Facts about Me!

The other day, 20minutemom had 20 facts about her on her blog. I decided to take her idea and do it for myself. However, I did not do 20 facts, I did 6.

1. I'm a natural blonde (I always spell blonde with an 'e') but I've always wanted dark hair, like Lauren Graham.

2. I am the youngest of 4 kids, 3 boys and me. They are all older. Man was I spoiled. :) not by stuff or how i acted but how i didn't have to do chores and my brothers were not allowed to lay a hand on me, therefore I never got in physical fights. still haven't.

3. I lived in Tucson, Arizona for 5 months. We moved there in May and moved away the end of September. By the way, the hottest summer on record at the time! Every one said we would have loved the winter weather...

4. I have 2 cats, Sebastian (Sebass) and Winnie the cat.

5. I went to 4 different colleges and it took me 6 years and 1 quarter to get 2 different degrees. I have a Bachelor of Arts and an Associate of Science. Thinking about going to get my Masters in a couple years.

6. I do my hair in the morning and it always ends up in a pony tail by lunch time. Speaking of that, I need a hair cut.

Californication

Have you seen this show?

We recently got Showtime and although I had heard of the show, I didn't know anything about it. No, I take that back, I knew David Duchovny was the star. Other than that, crickets. One day my husband started to watch it on demand and I had no interest. He later showed me a part he thought was pretty funny and I thought it was raunchy. He kept watching and since I wasn't doing anything else, so did I. It wasn't a show that I would choose to watch but since it was on, I'd watch it. Then, I got hooked. The season 5 finale left with an outrageous cliffhanger and I seriously can't wait to see what happens next!

Anyway, back to the point... we found a really good deal a couple of weeks ago at Target for season 1, on sale for $14.99. Let me just say, this show is ridiculous. Parts of it are funny. Much of it is disgusting. But, I keep coming back for more. We ordered seasons 2 and 3 from Amazon and are working our way through them. It's like crack. Only healthier??

Part porno, lots of naked people, and some heartwarming relationships. Go figure. I need to order the next season, though I'm sure we'll finish this one before getting the next. Boo. It totally doesn't hurt that he's hot either... :)

ps happy birthday to my daddy.

Blog co-dependent

I am absolutely addicted to my Google reader. My blog list must have at least 50 blogs on it. I check it about once an hour, sometimes more. I get very sad when there are no new entries on my list, especially when my favorite blogs don't update every day. I hope no one feels that way about my blog (you know my one regular reader, love you Lizzie) because I just don't have enough to post daily. I wish i did but I totally don't have the time either...

I'm off to spend the day with my family :-) and maybe a little fro-yo too.

Here are a few of my favorite blogs, click over and check them out.

A Healthy Slice of Life

Duchess of Fork

Young House Love

20 Minute Mom

A Turtle's Life for Me

I Heart Organizing

Navigating the Mothership

It's All Happening

Musings of a Half Wit


Happy Friday!

Quick takes Friday

** I saw this on a blog this morning and just had to add mine... what a follower am i! Let me also say that I have not even read further on this conversion blog so I don't know what it's all about yet but I do like making it feel like home's blog. **

1. I have had vacation brain for 3 weeks now, 1 week before leaving, 1 week on, and 1 week since returning from vacation. Does not make for productive work day (hence the blog post). Also does not mix well with mandatory overtime.

2. It's Memorial Day weekend... ever notice how it rains/is gloomy this weekend or unbearably hot? However, I do remember one year when it SNOWED on Memorial Day... I think 1992. My mom has pictures.

3. I found a new, totally awesome recipe for chocolate chip cheesecake cupcakes. I CANNOT wait to make them. I hope they live up to my (unrealistic) expectations for "healthy" treats.

4. I broke my reading glasses a couple of weeks ago and have since been squinting at my computer screen at work. Must remember to get some new ones this weekend!! Dollar Tree here I come.

5. This week was Medical Transcription Week, so take a second to thank/think of the person you'll never meet who ensures your medical record is up-to-date, complete, and correct, just in case you would ever need it to be. 

6. I joined Instagram yesterday. I'm interested to see what this will entail since I'm not the biggest fan of social medias like Facebook and Twitter.

7. We set up the monster's IFSP this week. She has a delay in her development and hopefully this will help her to advance. But, that's a whole other blog post.

Happy Friday. Happy weekend! :)

Anywhere a cat can go...

Since getting our cat, Sebastian (or Sebass for short), in January 2010; we have found him in some pretty interesting places...

This one is just too cute :)

In the crockpot

In the cereal cupboard

 In the beer case

In the stack of moving boxes

 On top of stack of moving boxes

inbetween the banister posts (left)
 In a box (below)

In the bathtub

 Sleeping on the chair

Amidst all the tools (above)
 In the flooring box (left)

 Random on the table in the kitchen (above)

(right) Sitting on package for my BiL

 In the basinet before monster was born.

What wierd places have you found your furry friends?

Bathroom organizing and making boxes

While the little monster was napping, I decided to organize my bathroom drawers, at least the ones that I use the most. The husband's side will just have to wait for another day. and yes, that really is her... she's tiny.
Here is what I started with...a disorganized jumble of stuff. (and some dirty laundry but pretend you didn't see that :) )



Don't you just love my bathroom counter top? Beautiful granite :) I'm going to work on the cabinet part this summer so it matches the standard. I painted that shortly after we moved in and it didn't hold up too well... but that's another story so back to today's organizational efforts.

I took a look through my recycling to figure out if I had any old boxes that would work and I also found 3 little trays at the Target dollar spot.. gotta love it. I found a couple of things I thought would work with some modification. A granola bar box and a Ziploc baggie box.


Here's what I did. I cut the back of the granola box and reinforced the sides with packing tape to make a shallow square box. I cut down the Ziploc box and used painters tape to close up the holes and reinforced with the remaining cardboard from the granola box, ending up with a total of 3 boxes, 2 rectangular and 1 square. Perfect. Some day I may even cover them with wrapping paper to make them pretty but for now i figure they'll work just fine.



I completely emptied out the drawers and divided into 4 groups; jewelry, hair stuff, makeup, and other. Why those 4 categories you ask? Well, that is what I knew I had mostly in the drawers. After going through the other pile and getting rid of some empties, moving some things that didn't belong, and paring down the contents I tackled my travel bags. I am a sucker for a cute travel bag. I have tons of them. However, I don't need them all and I certainly don't use them all.


I ended up keeping 4 from my stash, a red one that I bought when I lived in England, a green one that has all my makeup in it from Clinique, a pink one from Clinique, and a black and white pattern one that is large enough to carry as it's own bag.

I divided the contents of the drawers so they were easily accessible. Top drawer now holds the q-tips, my little perfume and lotion, face creams, and necklaces. That ring box back there is the one that my engagement ring came in. I keep it for sentiment and if I ever take off my ring I have somewhere to put it.


The second drawer is mostly hair stuff; brushes and combs, headbands, hair ties, sprays, gels, mousses. The other things are earrings/bracelets, makeup remover, a mirror compact, and some fake eyelashes (I think from Halloween).



The third drawer holds the bigger stuff; the hairdryer, curling iron, travel bags, makeup bag, and rice sock (used as a heating pad when I was preggers, worked well!).


And there you go, 3 beautifully organized drawers for my bathroom.

Sorry for the pictures, I'm still new to this whole blog thing/capturing my life on film/iPhone.

Linking up to:

monday morning brain dump

Well I finally did it. Took a big step toward one of my 2012 challenges and one of my 30b430 goals. I joined Weight Watchers on Saturday. I had done Weight Watchers once before and it worked really well but then I got pregnant, let myself go, and gained back every one of the pounds I had worked so hard to lose. I'll admit, I haven't really, really tried to lose the weight again, just kind of thought about it but now, I am determined to do it! And since I'm paying for it, I will be more likely to actually do it because I am more accountable. Plus going to the meetings really helps me.

Is it too much to ask that when you see a mother carrying a baby in a car seat carrier, a purse, and trying to balance a pizza box and her keys to open the damn door for her? What happened to Minnesota nice??

I hate daylight savings time. Saving? saving's? I don't know. Any way. Losing an hour totally sucks. Especially come Monday morning. This morning was rough getting up but at least monster was still sleeping because she thought it was only 5 a.m. instead of 6. yay for small victories. But, putting her to bed was not so good last night because she doesn't sleep well unless it is really dark and now that it is light at bedtime it's harder to get her to go down right away. We have "room darkening" blinds but they don't seem to be that dark. I'm on the lookout for curtains now. And, hopefully it will help with naps too. :) Happy spring though. :) 60 degrees yesterday and sunny. very nice.

Have been getting ready for baptism this upcoming weekend. I know most kids are done with this before they are a couple of months old but with the holidays and such, we didn't do it until now. Plus, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to go to all the trouble for it anyway. But, now that we are it seems like a good idea. I like the idea of being a member of a church and the tradition of going to mass on Sundays, but I just have problems with the execution of it. I haven't yet gotten the motivation to actually attend a service but maybe I will.

brain dump

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my worst days... totally sucks. I can't get out of bed and I seem to be rushing and running late the whole day. Need to do something about this, but what?

Is it weird to want to be friends with your doctor? I love my doctor! she is SO cute. She's just around my age and having her first baby in March. She is so sweet and easy to talk to and I just want to hang out with her not in the clinic. On the other hand, it might be weird that she's had her hands in places that friends should not have hands...

Most houses have coat closets by the front door, if they have them at all. I don't understand that. I think there should be a coat closet by the back door/garage door because that is the one that people use most frequently. In my house, we don't even have closets on the first floor and it is not fun. We always seem to have a mess of coats and shoes and hats/mittens/scarves. I tried to contain it by putting up coat hooks but then it just looks like a hung up mess. I'm trying to find an armoire/wardrobe that I can put by the front door (because there is no room by the back door or i would put it there) to hide my coats. I would also like it to have shelves and a drawer to contain hats/mittens/scarves/purses and diaper bag. I don't think its too much to ask, must keep looking. But, I still need to figure out the shoe situation and the back door situation. At the back door there is basically no entry area. there are the stairs to the basement directly ahead and stairs up to the kitchen to the side. I would try to put hooks in the stairway for coats, etc put where to put the shoes? If you saw it, you'd understand. Maybe I'll take a picture and update this post...