I have always been one that hates to clean. That’s probably why my house piles up quickly. I am lazy about putting things away, just like the rest of us in this house, so it has always been a daily battle to keep on top of everything. I guess we are pack-rats, although not in the sense where our house is filled with junk, just that we have kept hold of a lot of different things from our past that we just don’t need anymore. So by purging all that stuff and bringing in fresh, “new” items (most all have come from the Goodwill store), I feel like our revamped house brings a new start; one that I desperately need. Once I started to clean, I began to feel empowered. Like all this mess and clutter that had controlled me for so long, was no longer out of my reach. I had the ability in my hands to master getting things neat. And I knew I was doing it for Mr. Buddy, so I kept pushing on. Now I feel a sense of relief, a huge weight off my shoulder. It literally has allowed me to open other doors and put this behind me, so I can move forward on to the things I have really been wanting to do lately. Sewing!! Painting!! Reading!!

 I cannot lie, as I cleaned my way through the house, I had a vision. I new what needed to be bought to make the room complete. (And shopping is always a motivator :) In my walk in closet, I found empty space and lots of it. I envisioned a sewing desk there and two days later, as I stumbled into a different Goodwill store, the desk found me! So with lots of fabric I have from here and there, I have started making curtains. Recycling old into new. It feels good to make your house your own. And that’s what I have been doing for the whole family. The boys rooms got rearranged and my bedroom feels like it has never been this comfy ever. We still have good ‘Ol Molly (aka, the dog) who is a Golden Retriever. She is not allowed upstairs and we keep her shaved, so I am hoping Mr. Buddy clears up and we don’t need to rehome our pup too. Only time will tell for sure.

 Sunshine is here and I am excited to move outside and begin the planting and yard prettying And I will be back to work more, which is great for me and the whole family!!

Pictures of the Upstairs (Scroll mouse of each picture for a description):

I pledge allegiance…

Cereal with a tablespoon.

Gotta go potty!!

Applesauce!

Kisses for Mommy!

Mr. Buddy’s corner of Mommy’s room

Don’t forget to take pictures of me!

Coloring

Saying goodbye to Daisy

Sleepy dude

Closeup!

TV time

Oh silly boys!

Playroom

My new haircut! (which I chopped all by myself!)

Tonka man

I just got spit up on!

Mr. Toddler

In the wagon

Hauling that thing up the hill!

Dusty

Smiley boy

Slidin’!

Weee!

“I am a boy”

The playground in our neighborhood

Swinging with Daddy

Bright eyes

Oh what a cutie!

I did it!!

Look at my hat

Working on my quilt.

Today we got out of the house as a family because I have been itching and scratching to get to another thrift store that is right up the street. There are many thrift stores in my town, which is a lovely thing. We haul the kids out (it was a beautiful day) and hubs starts in on how, “there are no carts, I know there are no carts” and I’m like “Are you kidding me, there are carts.” “Where?!? I don’t see them.” As we enter the store there is the most giant blue cart I have ever seen that makes a toddler look tiny in the top and a car-seat fit comfortably in the back plus all the goodies I picked out (I need this blue cart everywhere I go!) I’m like, “Seeee, there are carts!! Don’t doubt me, I KNOW thrift stores!” I’ve grown up with a granny who loved going. Anyway, I go in on my own little mission, to find the most important things in the place, they pop out at me, and I walk fast and he gets in his grumpy shopping mood where he investigates every purchase and frowns at me cause I am spending money. I’m spending $2 and $.50 and $1 for heaven’s sake. I stumble across the VHS tapes and my mom recently gave Mr. Toddler a T.V with a VCR attached. I put this in his room because we hardly get to play up there and he only gets to use it for his special movies. So it has been my mission to find all the Disney classics on VHS. I guess maybe it’s a throwback thing, it reminds me of my childhood and I want him to experience it too. Hubby doesn’t seem to understand my insight at this point. Why we wouldn’t just get them all in DVDs because VHS tapes are old and bad quality and silly. So I start in on the grandiose explanations and reasonings and he agrees, and we move on. Toys. I let Cade out of the car to run around and started my search. Granted, this can be a bit overwhelming and the messy looking part of thrift stores (uh, among others) but I see beyond all that and start finding the coolest things. I found a small little fire-station that Cade can put his cars through and all kinds of dress up hats. Also a couple cute things Mr. Buddy was interested in. I start shoving them in my cart. Hubby’s looking at me like I’m crazy. I’m trying to explain to him that Easter is right around the corner and this stuff is cheap and cool!!!!! Why buy it new when you can recycle? Finally I just stop what I am doing to converse about his little mini attitude.

Hubs- These things just seem unnecessary to me, I mean why bring more junk into the house?

Me-It’s not junk, these are treasures and important things for our house. I’m going to be getting rid of a lot of stuff so I can refill it with beautiful things.

H- This is stuff my grandma used to own. Why would we want stuff like that in the house?

M- For that exact reason, it’s awesome!!

Ok- so I am obviously not going to convince him that the store is really NOT full of junk and just stop asking him if he likes the things I pick out. I realized he doesn’t have my vision. That’s okay though, I ended up spending $21 on 2 bag full of things. I am done with Easter, I felt good about finding unique things, well loved and cared for with their own stories.

Later when we were in the car, I asked why he hated being in there so much. He admitted that I did find some cool things like the hats for Mr. Toddler and a neat coffee mug but his reasoning came down to this.

Dude, it smelled like poop in there. And  a great grandma’s house… Why would you want to shop at a place that smells like poop and mothballs?

Men just don’t get the vision. I had to laugh at that one. I was so busy finding fun things, I didn’t smell poop. Are you kidding me?

 :)

OOO ooo. I have been searching for a quilt to bring home and love forever. I haven’t been able to find ANYTHING in my price range and then it sparked me… www.etsy.com!!! For those of you who don’t know about this website and have a love for handmade treasures, check it out right now!!

2. I had a dream last night that my hubby was going to propose to another girl, and he showed me the ring. We were like Polygamists or something.  (Ever seen the show Big Love, it’s great!) I also frequently have dreams of catching him kiss his ex-girlfriend or other girls. When I told him about it the other day he smiled at me and said I was a super jealous person. hmmm.

3. I am desperate for my 2 year old to learn how to clean up after he plays with his toys. He will have every single toy out and about and within an hour the house will be completely destroyed.

4. My favorite movie of all time is Westside Story. It’s so romantic!

5. My favorite number is 5 (I had to put this one 5th).

6. My hubby’s favorite number is 14. And our oldest was born on December 14th. He thought that was all because of him, of course.

7. I am currently in the process of starting a local mom’s club with my sister-in-law. It’s called the Mama Tree and I am really excited about it!

8. I think my hubby snuck off to play some fighting game on the computer. He does this a lot at night when it’s near bed time and the baby gets fussy. How convenient!

9. I would move to California in one sec if the opportunity presented itself. Either there or Spain!

10. I love every single one of my neighbor’s backyards way more than my own.

11. Someday I want to have a completely “green” home!

12. I am not scared of getting blood taken but terrified of getting shots.

13. I have been contemplating having tubal ligation as permanent birth control. That is until I read details about how the procedure is performed! I’m going to make my husband do that whole snip snip thing soon.

14. Mr. Toddler is the best at whipping up some yummy play food for dinner. If only he was old enough to cook for real!

15. Since we have all been sick, the TV has stayed on for days it seems. I got so sick of cartoons today, I turned off all TVs and feel like the world is at peace again. Mr. Toddler is actually playing with his toys and reading books instead of watching that darn TV!

16. Today I took the kids to the library and it was my first trip out of the house in a looonnng time.  We read lots of books, played with puzzles and I got a bunch of new cookbooks to try. Vegetarian and vegan ones too!

17.  Speaking of vegetarianism…I have wanted to go vegetarian for a really long time now but haven’t because the hubs says he refuses to go without meat. Now everytime I cook dinner lately, I always always overcook whatever meat I am trying to prepare. I think that is a definite sign. I can’t wait for summer and farmer’s markets!!!

18. My internal clock is telling me it’s nap time. I love to sleep. And my insomnia has gotten better the last few nights because I found an awesome remedy.

 Until next time, hope you enjoyed some randomness

Since Saturday I have been plagued with what I am now pretty sure is the flu. And of course, I never get the dang flu-shot because I never get the flu. Never say never. Hubby and I both agreed we’ll be getting ours right along with the boys next year for sure!! Hubs was home Friday-Tuesday just as sick, although he was about one day ahead of me. Today he went back to work, feeling about 75%. I am still at about 25% full operating speed right now. I’m hoping by tomorrow I will start feeling like myself again. The kids have been sick too, but it’s funny with little ones, they can have fevers, coughs and head colds and still want to run and play and coo like it’s nothing. I wish I had that ambition Nevertheless, today the boys slept in until about 11am (wow!!) and I made a bunch of food and snacks and tea and we camped out in mama’s big bed watching Oswald and Sesame Street until nap time. Then when hubby got home, he took the kids downstairs and I slept until 7:00 pm!! I was so exhausted, more than anything, from not sleeping the last few nights. I tried to take some Nyquil last night because I’ve heard how good it is for knocking you out cold, but stupid me, I cannot take things like that because my body adversly reacts to cold medicines and sleeping pills. After I drank the recommended dose (yuck!!) I started to feel really sleepy and went to lay down. I was exhausted and lay in bed for hours, eyes closed praying for sleep to come. No such luck. My brain would not shut down and I started feeling really anxious from the effects of the Nyquil. Needless to say, I finally fell asleep at around 4 this morning. Boo for insomnia!

 Thankfully the babes are in bed early tonight (they need their rest too, the poor little fellas) and I’m going to take a nice hot bath and go back to sleep. I hope I can relax tonight and drift off into dreamland peacefully for once this week!!!

I have officially learned to make the best out of not so great situations ;). This weekend hubby and I were babe-free and decided to go out and celebrate old school style (aka, go to the bars and do some drinking). Instead of worrying about going to a fancy restaurant for a valentine’s dinner, we dined at one of my favorite pubs and ate bar food. I drank a couple draft beers and then we moved on to our hold stomping grounds, the bar we met at and spent many a night drinking at. It was completely dead at 7:00 pm when we got there, but hubs and I had fun playing darts and air hockey until I started feeling reallllly dizzy. We both were battling head colds which got the best of me after a not so healthy meal and drinks and more activity than I have managed in awhile. The rest of the plans flew out the window as I begged my hubby to take me home to bed. On the ride home (3o minutes approximately) I had to keep my head in between my knees or else I was going to throw up or pass out. I felt utterly miserable and I knew my babe did too because he was sneezing, eyes watering, nose dripping and we both wanted nothing more than to get home to our cave. Needless to say I was sound asleep by 10pm and spent all of today feeling pretty crappy. Now it’s way way past my bed time and I still feel horrible. I can’t sleep because I am all stuffed up and the cold has moved into my chest. I also am having periods of dizziness and nausea to top it all off. I KNOW I need to be sleeping right now because I’m pretty sure hubby is going back to work tomorrow (in spite of this horrible cold he has) and I am going to be on my own with the little guys.

Even though my Valentine’s day turned out a little sickly (haha) I was happy to be with my husband. After almost 6 years together, it feels nice to cuddle up on the couch with tea and tissues and be sickfaces together. It’s not true love without spending an anniversary/valentines day spreading some sick germ cuddles and kisses!!