Out With The Old ...

Last weekend my mom brought over her sewing machine for me to borrow. Along with the sewing machine, she also brought over several boxes of ... stuff. Two boxes were filled with half-finished sewing projects; one box was hers and one box was mine. The other three boxes? Old college textbooks and notebooks/3-ring binders which I immediately knew would end up either 1) going to Goodwill (after spending an indeterminate amount of time in my basement) or 2) being recycled. During the week, I surprised myself by finding the motivation to actually go through these boxes. I think my motivator was the fact that they were sitting on my dining room table, which I needed the following day in order to have a place to feed four boys under five. So while Zach colored at one end of the table, I purged papers at the other end.

Going through my old binders and papers was a pretty mundane task, as whatever reason I once had for holding on to all the stuff has escaped me now, but it felt a little bittersweet once I got about halfway through. I mean, certainly I was happy to get rid of two boxes of crap instead of stashing it somewhere and worrying about the possibilities of ending up on Hoarders. But at the same time, I felt a little sad as I went through it ... most of the stuff was from when I'd planned being a science major and eventually ending up at pharmacy school ... notes and labs from calculus, physics, biology, etc classes. Even from my loved/hated organic chemistry class (and upon looking back through my tests and labs from that class, I still maintain that his grading had absolutely no rhyme or reason to it!). I got to thinking about how my life and who I was as a person was SO different then, and really it wasn't all that long ago. If I'd kept my life going in that direction, I'd now be done or nearly done with my doctorate in pharmacology, making much more money than I do now! Albeit with much larger student loans to repay ... Yet, here I sit in my living room with my not husband of nearly 5 years sitting less than ten feet from me playing on his laptop, listening to our almost three year old son snoring away on the couch and feeling my soon to be born baby kicking at my ribs. How in the world did I get from there to here? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. My life isn't perfect, but I love my family and the home we've made. I'm proud of how far we've come despite being broke :) It just seems like all my dreams and goals changed overnight and sometimes I have a hard time remembering why. (And then I remember: it was the daunting idea of another 6 years of school and $100k in student loans that did it!)

But without all that change, I wouldn't have my not husband, our kids, our house ... So, out to the recycling bin goes two boxes full of the old me. Here's to my new(er) goals: An eventual master's in healthcare management and a job to go along with it. Raising two loving little boys to the best of my ability. But first, finally finishing the boys' rooms!

Unexpected Surprises

I don't know if I should admit this or not, but in my never ending quest to find a replacement for my favorite magazine that is no longer in print (Jane) I have picked up just about every "girly" magazine out there. And for the most part, I feel like they are all the same ... I don't know how people can be subscribers to any one of them for a long period of time: they all seem to print the same articles month after month with minor changes here and there. But that's not the point of this post :) One of the magazines I occasionally pick up (and can tolerate much more than Cosmo!) is Allure. Definitely not a replacement for Jane, but more tolerable than others.

Last summer I discovered that Allure does a daily giveaway. I don't pay close enough attention to know if they do this every month or just some months, but I've seen it most times I've visited their website (which I'm more likely to do than actually pay money for a magazine). Most of the giveaways entail being one of the first 50 people to enter at noon EST on any given day ... the kicker is they don't ever tell you if you won. You just have to wait and see. How do I know this? Sometime around June of last year, I managed to be at the right place at the right time and entered one of the giveaways right at noon (well, 11am where I live). I was pleasantly surprised about two months later when UPS came and left this on my doorstep. $23 shampoo for free? I'll take that! Even better that it happens to be for my hair type.

So today, a day that consisted of wiping my son's constantly runny nose, trying to clean up my house, and going through a bunch of old papers (more about that tomorrow) I heard Zach and Boy#4 crying "Truck! Truck!" Now they'd been yelling that most of the morning, pronouncing it more like the F word, but since they were looking out the front window I figured I'd better turn off the vacuum and have a look too. Lo and behold, there is the UPS man walking up my driveway. I have to admit, my first thought was not a pleasant one. I was definitely thinking that Jerome had forgotten to cancel his coffee of the month club or whatever it is and UPS was coming to bring us more. (My disclaimer: I thought we still had a cupboard full of coffee. I was corrected tonight when I recanted this story to Jerome that all we have is 2 really old packs of decaf and about a quarter pound of regular coffee.) Needless to say, I was a little irritated when I opened the door to get the package. My spirits quickly turned around when I saw that instead of a good size box addressed to Jerome, what was actually delivered was a small, lumpy envelope addressed to me. When I saw the return address, I immediately knew what it was.

In December I was perusing Allure's website one day when I saw something that I thought I'd like (but would never pay for) in their daily giveaway. Since they weren't giving that particular item away for a few more days, it somehow popped into my head that the thing to would be to set a reminder alarm on my cell phone. Moment. of. genius. The item that I received today: a fairly new product by Elizabeth Grant called The Socializer. It consists of two pen-style products, one for daytime and another for night, that are supposed to help you cover up and get rid of under-eye circles and puffiness. TOTALLY what I need, especially when I'm pregnant since I tend to look like I haven't slept in a week ... which differs slightly from when I'm not pregnant and look like I haven't slept in 3 days. I can't wait to try this product out. Especially since it is rumored to be one of Blake Lively's favorites.

I have a feeling that I will be making it a point to check Allure's website more often from now on :) Also, if anyone has a good magazine recommendation, I would love to hear it! I'm open to just about any type of magazine, though I will admit that I'm starting to have the same feelings towards Woman's Day/Family Circle/Good Housekeeping that I do regarding Cosmo/Glamour/Allure/Lucky.

The Boys' Rooms

I made this a page on here too, but once I start posting pictures I'm going to be removing a lot of my writing (everything but the to do lists). I think it's partly because I'm just wordy and partly because of the layout I chose, but I feel like all my posts are a bit on the "novel" side of things in terms of length. Not quite what I'm going for. Here ya go:

OK, I've officially fallen off my rocker. I've actually wondered if I am perhaps going through a manic episode and need to go get myself evaluated somewhere. (Yes, that was a joke!) Since we're pretty much broke, at least when it comes to extraneous money for fun things like bedrooms, I decided I'd save money and do a lot of the work myself. A LOT of the work. Here are my to-do lists for the boys' rooms:

Zach's Room:

• Paint 3 walls green


• Paint car/truck mural on 4th wall


• Paint some sort of decoration on the solid, non-mural wall (I'm thinking words of some sort? Stop? Beep Beep? Dunno yet.)


• Sew curtains for windows


• Fabric paint some sort of design on curtains

Baby's Room:

• Find fabric I 1) like and 2) can afford


• Sew the following:
  - Curtains
  - Bed Skirt
  - Bumper


• Paint room or touch up existing paint (wholly depends on fabric choice


• Paint accents on wall above crib

Sounds easy, right? Right ... but the first step before any sewing can be done would be remember how to thread the damn sewing machine. And no, that one wasn't a joke :) Zach's room gets first priority, then I will move on to the baby's room. Once I get that done, I have a list of other things I'd like to sew, but they're definitely bottom of the totem pole things. (New sling, new boppy cover, pillow for rocking chair in baby's room, and a car seat tent) Now ... any bets on how old the baby will be when I actually get all this stuff finished? I'll give you all a hint and say that I have definitely inherited my mom's ability to finish projects. The quilt she started for my brother when he was about 2 years old was finished in the weeks before he left for college ...

Zach's Room

To get ready for the new little guy that will be joining us in May we're planning on moving Zach's bedroom across the hall into what had been being used as a playroom. I have big goals for this room. Well, not as big as the goals I have for the baby's room, but we'll come back to that a different day. Zach's current bedroom isn't anything special - blue walls because we had a lot left over from painting our bedroom. Mattress on the floor with a sports-themed comforter, because I found it on clearance over the summer at Target and it beat what he had been using - my old red and blue comforter from my college dorm room. No curtains, no personality, just boring. So for his new room I decided I wanted to paint a mural with cars and trucks. Initially I'd planned on just painting grass, the sky, and a road and using those removable wall stickers for the vehicles, but ultimately I just couldn't find anything that I liked. I think I'm too picky. But hey, I figured, how hard can it be to paint a couple trucks ...

Apparently I'm not going to know for quite some time. Tomorrow marks the day that I was hoping to have the mural done, and how far am I actually? The non-mural walls are almost done, just need a bit of touching up. The grass needs at least one more coat of trim around the bottom and another coat with the paint roller. And the sky? Well, that's not even started yet. Turns out I hated the blue I bought and wanted to get something different. However, since my colorblind brother told me the same thing about the blue that I'd been thinking myself (that it looks rather purple), I felt a little better about my decision! I've been telling myself since Thursday night that I was going to go work on the room after Zach was in bed - I couldn't do it before then because Jerome has been working or at school every night until at least Zach's bedtime. And yet, I have made no progress since Tuesday, when I ran out of green paint and decided I didn't like the blue. Turns out my motivation is slim to none after 8:30pm. But because my goal of having Zach moved into the room by the end of January is quickly approaching, and the only thing that really needs to be done for him to move in there is the painting, I'm now going to do the insane and start painting at 10:30pm. Thankfully, Jerome has agreed to let me sleep in tomorrow, which is a good thing, because I promised Zach that he would take him to go buy donuts for breakfast ...

But the point of this post: I'm going to be making a page for the boys' rooms so you all can keep track of my crazy to-do list and the progress of the boys' rooms with me. (Yes, there will be pictures too.) Except I'm not doing it right now because I really need to go paint.

Adventures In Potty Training

"Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable."   ~Plato

Today was a long day. Zach has been in underwear (when he's awake) for the most part for close to two weeks. He's doing ... ok. A few accidents here and there, but for the most part we've made him go potty nearly every hour, on the hour. Lately when I've tried to get him to go that often, he's refused. So instead of turning it into a fight, I've decided to wait until he agrees because who really needs to pee every hour? He's been doing pretty well with that; he doesn't tell us when he needs to go potty but if he needs to go when we ask then he'll go willingly. This morning I was a pretty happy camper because, after declining to go potty twice, he announced that he needed to go and ran to the bathroom. YAY! First time he's ever told me without being asked first. He wanted to go by himself which he can manage pretty well, so I let him. I heard him slide the stepstool over to the toilet ... and then I heard a lot of crying. I guess he just couldn't get his pants off in time, resulting in him peeing his pants while standing on the stepstool directly in front of the toilet. No big deal. Took a quick bath and life was good. Until it happened again.

After the second peeing-his-jeans incident, I just didn't get him dressed from the waist down thinking maybe that would help him, as it seemed to be a timing issue. Then, as I was getting lunch on the table, he again stated that he had to go potty. He was in our entryway about 3 feet from the bathroom, so I told him "ok, go potty" figuring that he would walk into the bathroom and use the toilet. Hahaha. Immediately after told him to go potty, he peed all over my entryway. Thank God he missed every shoe but one Croc, which was easily washed. I'm getting a little frustrated now, but try not to get upset. Have Zach finish going on the potty. Clean him up for the third time today. Clean up the floor for the third time today. Take off the pair of socks I was wearing, since I'd accidentally stepped in fresh pee. Time for lunch!

After lunch while I was cleaning up Boy#4 who had made a GIANT mess of his chili mac, I sent Zach into the bathroom and told him "Go in the bathroom and go potty before nap please." Maybe I should have learned my lesson from that last incident before lunch, but I thought I was being specific enough. I hear peeing. And then I hear "I pooping, Mommy!" That last line always makes me run to make sure that he's actually sitting on the potty as opposed to standing in front of it (yea, he likes to pee standing up ...). What I find: a large puddle of pee on the floor in front of the sink, which Zach then walked through to the toilet (about a foot away from the puddle) so that he could sit down and poop. At this point, I was just pissed. I could not find any legitimate reason for his peeing on the floor, especially when he obviously knows better than to poop on the floor. So I did what I have always tried so hard not to do when it comes to potty training: I scolded. Right after I praised him for pooping on the potty. And I made sure to let him know that I was NOT happy (which I felt really bad about a little bit later!). So ... clean up Zach again, lay a towel over the mess, get the two boys into diapers (or a fresh diaper in Boy#4's case), and down for their naps. And then I mop the floor for the fourth time today while I try to hold back tears of frustration.

Fortunately for me, Zach likes long naps. And Boy#4 napped well today too, which means I got to sit and recharge for quite a while after cleaning my floor again. Definitely improved my mood! During this time it hit me: Cheerios! We gave it a shot after naptime. Zach found it hilarious and asked to pee in the potty three times in the first twenty minutes after I let him try that cool "game". He also asked me if I wanted to pee on Cheerios too :) It seemed to work - there were no more accidents the rest of the day! And by the end of the night he told me that he didn't want Cheerios and just peed in the potty. We'll see what tomorrow brings; I may break out the Cheerios first thing in the morning just to gently reiterate to Zach that he needs to pee IN the potty. (I will also note that Zach did GREAT at pooping on the potty today, which he did three times on his own. VERY happy about that!)

But in getting to the point of my long story, I wanted to share some things that I realized I was thankful for today. I spent some time while the boys were napping trying to put myself back into a positive frame of mind. Not my usual process, but since I'm not able to have a drink for another 4 months I figured it was worth a shot ;) Here it goes:

I am thankful that the four puddles of pee I had to clean up this morning were all on my hard floors and not on my carpet.
I am thankful that none of the messes I had to clean up involved poop on my floor (or anywhere else).
I am thankful for Lysol wipes and Swiffer Wet.
I am thankful for Cheerios ... and for whoever decided that they would make a fun thing for boys to aim at.
I am thankful for Applebee's Carside-To-Go. No way did I have the energy to cook dinner after a morning like that!

Mom of Boys

I was never a big girly-girl. In middle and high school I always preferred a few extra minutes of sleep over making sure my hair and make-up looked perfect. Not trying to say I was a tomboy; that couldn't be further from the truth! I chose dance classes over anything that involved a ball or a stick. I still liked to shop and wear make-up and daydream about boys. But I was never one who primped in the bathroom between classes or cared if my hair was in a ponytail instead of perfectly blow-dried and curled. Despite that, I still had the dream that most girls have: That one day I would have a daughter of my own. A little girl to dress in pink and purple, do her hair pigtails - or better yet, "sticky buns" - and most of all ... watch perform in dance recitals, complete with the adorably poofy cupcake dresses, as my mom used to refer to them.

Fast forward to 5 years after high school: I find out that my boyfriend and I are having a baby boy. No disappointment from me; I knew Jerome would be thrilled to have a little boy to play sports and video games with. After all, he did already have a daughter. So I had a lot of fun dressing my new little man in blue and sports and truck/plane/tractor outfits. One of my favorites was a onesie with a digger on it that read "I Dig Grandpa." I figured that "my turn" would be next time. I could have my little girl and our family would be complete. Not that that would happen anytime too soon; life was crazy enough already and we were busy soaking up our little guy, Zach.

Fast forward 2.5 more years: We're now living in a house that we own. I'm done with college and staying at home with Zach, earning some money by watching my two nephews and another little boy during the week - yep, 4 boys under 5 on some days! And what happens? We discover that we are pregnant yet again. Ironically it was unplanned but the baby was due right around the time I previously said I'd want to plan it for - shortly after Zach turns 3. As we approach the "big day" - the 20 week ultrasound - I have no clue, no feelings, as to whether this kiddo is a girl or boy. Of course, seeing as how my life is already FILLED with boys I'm secretly hoping for my girl. OK, or maybe not so secretly. The big day comes and there is no denying baby's gender: it is a very proud little boy :)

And thus begins my life as a mom of boys. Good-bye cupcake dresses and sticky buns; hello dirt and trucks and "guys" times two!