A productive Saturday?? (and some Easter pics)

Though it is only 11 am, I haven't gotten anything done today.  But, I fully plan on getting a lot done still! 

As mentioned in my post yesterday, I have a long to do list and I am going to get to work on it soon!  I feel pretty energetic today which is half the battle so I will get going soon.  Cleaning and organizing are the main things I want to do.  Though cleaning is an ongoing thing (especially with a 2 year old), the organizing stuff stays organized after you do it so that stuff can be checked off the list when I am done.

Here are some pictures from our Easter last weekend where we had a bunch of Todd's side of the family over.  It was a great day and a great weekend!



Xander at the table while we colored eggs.

Watching us color the eggs.

Pretty eggs!

Holding the pretty eggs!

After he got his Easter basket, bringing it downstairs to dig in!

So happy!

Pulling stuff out of his basket.

He found his chocolate bunny!

Pulling out his new crayons.

Picture with Grandma and Grandpa.

Family picture.

Eating his Easter candy in his booster chair sitting on the floor.

Checking under the hood while Olivia looks on.

Starting the Easter egg hunt.

Ari helping him get an egg high up.

On a mission to find more eggs!

The whole gang during the egg hunt.

'Look at what I got mom!'

Everybody digging into the candy.

Wagon ride with cousins pulling Olivia and Xander around!

Some more egg coloring with daddy.

A better picture with Grandma and Grandpa.

Another family picture.

Riding in the truck bed with Olivia.

Some cousin lovin!  So cute!

Beautiful purple tulips for Easter!

Friday is nearly over....

And I literally don't think I have ever been more relieved!

Sucky day at work thanks to a not so nice person, splitting headache most of the day and just being tired overall.

I think this weekend will be a good one.

For some reason, I am highly motivated to get a lot done as I made this awesome to do/to buy list and have already crossed several things off and am hoping to cross most of it off this weekend!

I can't wait for free time and me time and it will all start in about an hour.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!  :)

It's official....

-I will be running the 5k with my work people in June.  Even if I have to walk part of it.  I will finish.

-I will lose 25 pounds in the next 6 months.

-I am giving myself more time to decide if I want another child.

-I will not battle with my weight the rest of my life.  I will get healthy and stay healthy and not yo-yo.

-I will commit to serious frugality and do away with wasteful spending from now on.

Sounds like new years resolutions a bit, huh?  Well, it's not meant to.  I just decided I have had enough of certain things (mostly being overweight and unhealthy).

That's it.  I have decided on those things and I am sticking to it.

The first step for at least one of them is......

I joined My Fitness Pal today.  Time to get serious!

Easter Weekend

I have lots to do to get the house ready for company tomorrow but I am really excited!

We are going to dye eggs today with Xander and get some decorations out.  It should be fun!

I will take lots of pictures and probably post them tomorrow night or Monday.

Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend!

Why is being an adult so difficult?

I know that is a silly, rhetorical question, but it just sucks to be an adult sometimes.

Making tough choices is part of being an adult but it sure sucks at times.  Sometimes I wish someone would make decisions for me and that I wouldn't have to deal with any problems or issues ever.  Sometimes I want to hide under a rock and hope it all goes away (although saying this makes it sound like I have all sorts of problems, but I really don't and am pretty blessed.  I am more referring to the once in a while a bigger issue comes along).  I know this is unrealistic and not very mature of me to feel this way.

I have told people in the past that I feel like I will be 21 forever (and there even happens to be a store named 'forever 21' - isn't that cute?).  I don't feel like that in respect to feeling young like I want to party all the time and not have a job or responsibilities, but more like I feel that way as far as every part of being an adult is new to me and it always will be.  I have been an adult for a while now and I got married when I was about 22.  But the fact that I get to (or have to) decide what to do with my life and where to go and what to buy is hard for me.  I still struggle with it.  Heck, I may struggle with it my whole life!  I told this lady I work with that it is weird that I get to decide on most things in my life.  I don't know if I had an issue with this growing up where I always wanted to be in control and wasn't.  I don't know.  It's almost like too much freedom is bad for me and too many choices paralyze me!  Sounds weird I know.

A couple of recent things that have come up that make me feel this way.....

-School.  I can't decide if I want to go back to school or not.  I want a degree but this is a tough time in my life to try to do it with a small child and the possibility of having another one in the next few years.  Also, someone recently said to me 'you make as much money or more than a lot of people with degrees, so why bother?'  I agree with this to a point but I feel like if I am going to go much farther in life and my career that I will need a degree at some point.  Plus I am 28.  That gives me enough time to get a degree and still have plenty of time to work my way up in my career and potentially be able to make a lot more if I do get a degree.  My fear is that if I wait too much longer to start, a lot of my years of having high earning potential will be behind me.  I just don't know.  Add into this that I would have at least half of my school paid for by tuition reimbursement from my company if I stay.  That is hard to pass up with how pricey school is these days!

-Dog.  I don't want to go into it too much, but we were bad people recently and got rid of our dog.  It was to a private party - a lady and her boyfriend.  I got an email from her today saying she now can't keep the dog.  Are you freaking kidding me?  What am I supposed to do now?  I don't want the dog back and I don't know what to tell her.  I kinda want to say 'that's your problem now and not mine' but I would like to think of something nicer and better to say, but I don't know what it would be.  I don't want to take the dog back and try to find another family for her.  Too hard on us and her I think.  I feel like the new owner should do what she wants and not tell me about it.  It's too hard to deal with.  I don't want to take the dog back only to give it up again.  We never should have had dogs in the first place.  We don't have enough time or energy to devote to a dog. 

-Money.  We have recently made some good strides in our finances and I am feeling pretty good about things.  Problem is, I don't feel great.  All I want is to feel great and have no payments to anyone outside of utilities, our mortgage and maybe a car loan.  I just struggle with making everyday choices that support our overall goal of being secure.  I know we are still young and a lot of young couples are trying to find their footing financially, but I need security and I want it now!  Ok, not really, but I would like it to be about 2-3 years from now because if things go as planned, we will be feeling awesome financially!  Tough choices with money suck.  I wish I didn't have to make decisions or do certain things.  I wish this would all be done for me or that we had a ton of extra money or whatever.  It is what it is for now and all we can do is keep making good decisions going forward to get to where we want to be.

Anyway, that is all I have.  I will get over it eventually but for now I am just stressed about life.

Is it Monday again??

How is it that is always seems to be Monday?  Every week go faster than the last and every weekend goes EVEN faster!   Argh!  I need like a week or two vacation or something.  My life seems to be passing me by with no warning that it is going to be going faster and faster.

I love the weekend, but what working person doesn't?  I started thinking maybe I need to go back to school and become a teacher.  It's one of the only jobs I know of that you get the summer off and a few other extended vacations.  I would LOVE to have summers off, especially as my kid gets older and is in school and then has summers off also.  It may not be an ideal job, but man, 2 1/2 months off every year and you still get paid?  That would rock!

Anyway, I am trying to decide what to do this evening as my in-laws are coming on Wednesday night to visit for several days.  I don't know if I should shop tonight or clean or what.  We did a decent amount of cleaning this weekend so we are somewhat caught up but I would like to do a lot more tonight and tomorrow night.  We are going to have 14 people at our house on Sunday for Easter dinner so hopefully I can get the house in top shape by then!

I also did some baking yesterday!  I made banana bread and coconut cookies for the first time ever and they both turned out really good.  I also made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and they are yummy too!  I like to bake but I just don't take the time all that often to do it.  Plus, I don't need a ton of cookies and other stuff sitting around the house for me to eat!

Anyway, at least this is a short week for me.  I have a half day Wednesday and am going to a Colorado Rockies game that day with work people - paid for by work!  Yay!  Then I am off Friday as well, though I might switch it to Thursday, I am not sure.  Anyway, hopefully it is a good week!

It's FRIDAY!!!!

I'm so excited!  I love the weekends now more than ever since things here in Denver are a little different than they were back home. 

My commute is over an hour each way now, so I look forward to the weekend so I don't have to spend so much time on the train or in the car, but mostly because I can sleep in and spend a lot more time with my son.

Sleeping in on weekends is the best and I don't have to wake my kiddo up either.  He can sleep in as late as he wants without us having to wake him up to take him to daycare.

Also, this weekend I am going to a baby shower for my cousin.  I haven't seen my cousins or my Aunt a lot recently but it's been years since I last saw my two cousins and I am excited to see them!

I always wake up on Friday with a little more spring in my step, even if I am exhausted from the week because my brain knows it is the last day before the weekend!

Yay for weekends!  Now if only they would last a lot longer.

Yummy?

So I took the plunge and bought some tea and some vanilla almond milk to try out and make my own chai tea latte or maybe an iced chai tea.  Anyway, these are the two things I bought.


Stash Black Chai Tea

 Almond Breeze Vanilla Almond Milk

Hopefully it will be as good as I am hoping and cheaper than buying Starbucks!  I will let you know how it goes!

Chai Tea Obsession

So my newest thing is chai tea, and if it's from Starbucks, then all the better.

I decided I am going to try to make some at home to try and save money so we will see how that goes.  I have looked up recipes online and a lot of people say to use vanilla soy or almond milk with the tea to give it the perfect sweetness.

I think I am going to go ahead and order some and try it out instead of my $4 a day habit at the coffee shop.  We will see how it tastes!

Can I never go back to work?

This weekend is going way too fast and I don't want to go back to work tomorrow.  I never want to go back to work.  I mean I admit, I think most people wouldn't work if they didn't have to, but I always wanted to be a stay at home mom and though I was for 10 months, I want to do it again.  I hate working.  I don't really hate my job but I just hate getting up early every day and going to work and being away from my kid so much.  It sucks.

I wish I would win the lottery or come into some money or something so I never have to work again.  Not going to happen but I can dream right?  I am just tired.  I am sure most people feel that way though.

Post by room - Living Room

I decided to do a series of posts by room in our house since we moved in just over a month ago.  I am going to add pictures of each room to show what we have done and talk about what we still need to do to the room. 

The first room is our living room!  This is probably the most fun room in the house for me because literally almost everything in this room is new.  We had to to buy the couch, love seat, area rug, coffee table, end tables, lamps and are still planning on buying pictures for the wall and possibly a small table/decorative shelf for the empty wall.  Oh, and curtains.

We aren't sure what to do with pictures yet.  We are looking around but I don't want to pick one out fast just to have the room complete and then not like it, so I would rather take a little more time and have the room unfinished for a little while.

In our old house, we also had a living room and family room but we never had either set up just how I would have liked and the living room was never very formal.  I am so excited about this room because it is so pretty and clean.  We will leave it as a more formal room that we don't use a lot so it stays nice.  We have our tv down in the family room so that is where we hang out most of the time plus Xander's toys are all down there too.

Here are the few pictures of it that I took:

(Notice the little boy in some of these).  :)

Sorry about the red rug over to the side.  We are trying to find a new entry rug to match.

Since the tables had no storage, I went and got baskets to put under the coffee table and end tables.

The only thing left is one other lamp, some wall art and curtains.  I am already surprised we have this much done with the living room.  I feel like we will have it completely done within a month or two.

I love this room and can't wait until it is completely done!  I've never had a room this pretty!

Photo Hunt

I haven't done one of these in ages and the last few I signed up for I never finished.  Gosh darnit, I am going to do this!

Wish me luck!