Wow!

So, it's been almost a month. I can only say Wow!  Holiday prep, sickness, work and everyday life got the best of me this month. I have to say that this year was a doozy and I'm glad there's only one more holiday left and then it's back to the regularly scheduled program. I'm looking forward to starting the new year. Fortunately, I'm only working today and tomorrow and then it's off until the new year! Our NYE plans are pretty low key. We generally let Goose stay up until midnight (if he can make it that long) and we have a nice, home-cooked dinner with sparkling grape juice. Business as usual but with a little sparkle thrown in. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Living Proof - Full

I wanted to try Living Proof - Full after I saw the Jennifer Aniston infomercial talking about a newly discovered technology for thinning hair. I've always had fine hair but over the past few years I've noticed more hair in the shower drain and I can see more of my scalp where my hairline meets my forehead. This thinning hair thing is a source of great annoyance. I've been on the look out for products that help make my hair look thicker. I know there is nothing that can actually make my hair thicker than it is. I know whatever the product does, it's not actually permanently altering my hair.  I get it.  With that being said and reading a plethora of reviews before I bought it, I went ahead and bough the travel size to try out.  The majority of people that tried the product liked.  There were a few negative comments but after reading what they had to say I wanted to try it anyway.  The negative comments seemed more in line with someone that wanted to wave a magic wand over their head and magically transform their hair into Brooke Shields' circa 1982. My expectations weren't that high. Like most of the reviewers, I liked the scent. It's sort of a woodsy, citrusy smell. I've used it three times since I purchased it Friday evening.  My hair does seem a little fuller than usual but nothing over the top and I can get the same results from a little mouse and an upside down blow out. My ends were a little more dry afterwards but I used some Fekkai glossing creme and that smoothed things out.  My normal hair is not usually dry or frizzy. There is one thing that makes it unlike anything that I've tried before and will help it establish a place in the regular line up. It makes my scalp less noticeable and that is awesome. I bought mine at Ulta but I it's available at Sephora (unless it's in JCP) and our Nordstrom's has it. It's a little on the pricey side at $24 for 8oz but a little goes a long way. I used a nickel sized amount and it was plenty of coverage.  But I also have fine, shoulder length hair.  Different hair types and lengths may need to use more. The scalp coverage is a huge reason this is a keeper for me.  I can't say that everyone will have the same results but for now I'm a fan, even if that means I have to use glossing crème for a smooth finish. 

The Freshman Fifteen

 In my youth, I was never concerned with what I weighed or how I looked.  I was always thin and could eat whatever I wanted.  I was also decently active so even in high school, my weight was pretty steady.  When I started college, I was definitely a victim of the Freshman 15 due to lack of movement and late night border runs after the bar.  Fortunately that weight came off as I started a regular running routine with my roommate.  From that point on, my weight was pretty consistent and I worked out 2 or 3 times a week.  My body wasn't at it's best, but I certainly didn't hate the way I looked and would enjoy putting on a nice outfit to go out. All that changed during my pregnancy with Goose.  I had morning sickness throughout the entire pregnancy and definitely ate for two (give or take a few).  I gained a ton of weight but figured I'd be able to lose it once I had the baby.  Fast forward eight years and that never happened.  In fact, I steadily gained weight over the years.  Only two or three pounds per year, but still too much for someone that was already overweight.  I'd always tell myself that I'd start exercising again and that I'd watch what I was eating and I'd get back to feeling good about myself but that didn't happen.  I had a goal over the last year to lose as much weight as I reasonably could before we went to a family wedding in May.  That didn't happen.  I didn't lose any weight.  In fact, I was at my heaviest.  Finding something to wear for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding was a nightmare.  I didn't like the way anything fit my body and nothing I tried felt comfortable.  I ended up going to the Nordstrom's personal stylist and she helped me pick out something that wasn't a complete disaster.  The tipping point came when I saw pictures of myself. I was a completely different person in my head then I was in pictures. I don't think I've ever had such a low opinion of myself.  It wasn't entirely because of vanity.  It was also because it was just so unhealthy.  I knew that if I didn't make a change, I wouldn't be happy with myself and  I'd be impacting my long term health too.  Over the next couple of weeks, I started making small changes but nothing significant.  During this time, I also started a new job.  I basically had to buy a new wardrobe due to the fact that my previous job was jeans & tshirts casual and the new job was business casual.  It had been awhile since I was in that type of job and my old clothes didn't fit anymore.  I decided to only buy a very basic wardrobe with some transitional pieces like wrap dresses (thank you Banana Republic) in the hopes that I wouldn't have to buy in-between pieces if I lost weight.  I wanted to use this new start as a motivator to get healthy. It's helped that my supervisor had been on a "get fit" journey and has been great with encouragement and support which helps me stay on track.  She turned me on to myfitnesspal.com and that helped enormously. As of today, I've lost about 25lbs and I'm pretty proud of myself.  I still have a ways to go to be where I want to but I know I'll get there.

It's Not Monday

In a quest to be "on top of things", I've booked our flight for my sister-in-law's wedding. I was about to book our hotel room, but hit a little snag. The couple have reserved a block of rooms at a fantastic hotel and scored at great rate to boot. I'm counting down the days until we'll be there. Any chance I get to stay somewhere that someone else cleans the bathroom and I'm all over it! I tried booking on-line with their reservation code and was surprised to see the difference between the price we'd have to pay versus the price we thought we were paying is about $400 before taxes.That's a big jump in price for a 3-day hotel stay so I called the hotel to figure it out.Turns out the block of rooms included in the contract only includes rooms with a King bed. Because those rooms don't fit a roll-away bed and they don't allow more than 2 guests in those rooms, we're stuck with getting a double room. Which means we have to shell out more money. Even if we could get a King room, the wedding rate wouldn't include the first night we'd be staying. Since we planned on going out a day earlier than we need to see the sights, it's not included in their contract and the price difference is about $200. There are a few things that could happen so we have some things to think about.  

1.) We could  just pay the difference. 

2.) We could change our flights and fly out a day later than planned. This isn't my favorite option because we'd be getting into the city around late afternoon on the day of the wedding rehearsal. Since S and Goose are in the wedding, that would be cutting it close in terms of checking into the hotel and getting ready for the evening.There wouldn't be a flight change fee but I've looked and there aren't any other non-stop flights that work with our schedule which means a lay-over.

3.) Sister-in-law could ask to have double rooms included in the contract. The front desk let me know that she could call and have it included in her contract if there were double rooms available. This would take care of nights #2 and #3 but night #1 would still be about $200 more than we originally thought.  This is also not a favorite option because I think it's bad form to make that kind of request and she's getting married and has enough things to worry about.

If I had my choice, I'd pick option #1 but we'll have to see what S thinks and go from there.  I like to have things in place so being prepared to have something ready to be checked of the to-do list and then having to table it makes me grouchy.

Quintessential Monday

  By 8:00a today, checkmarks in the "today's Monday" category have been sufficiently checked off...

1.  Unexpected Wi-Fi restore session at 5:00a so I can balance checkbook and watch Netflix while on the treadmill

2.  Only able to get 30 out of planned 60 minutes on treadmill (see #1)

3.  Forgot to put mini pizza bagels in the freezer for Goose's lunch...so a quick 6:30a trip to the grocery store for more

4.  Forgot to grab a yogurt out of the refrigerator for breakfast (I usually get one for each work morning)

5.  Because of #4, decide to get McDonald's sausage biscuit for breakfast instead.  Pulling up to order and realize I do not have my wallet.

6.  Decide it's necessary to drive home to get said wallet because while forgetting breakfast is not ideal, forgetting to grab a frozen meal out of the freezer and therefore not eating until dinner would be even less ideal.

7.  Run home and grab wallet forgetting again, both yogurt and lunch.  All before 8:00a.

8. Fast forward to 3:24p when I finally look at the clock.  Sheer panic fills my body as I realize that there is no way that I'm going to be on time for Goose's school for a 3:40p pick up.  Crap! 

9.  Finally get to school.  See Goose standing outside, where he's been for 10 minutes.  This wouldn't be so bad but it's 18° and it's the first time EVER that I've been late for work.

Fortunately none of these things are true emergencies or even "real" problems, but they did make for a long day.  As for Goose, he was easily swayed into forgiveness with a hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookie from the Starbucks drive-thru.  I even remembered my wallet ☻!

Updates

So much has been happening around our house in the last couple months!  With the school year ending, a family wedding, summer camp and a new job (for me) there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging.  The biggest (and most stressful) change was the job change.  I was at a place that I loved and could see myself for many years to come but an opportunity that was too good to pass up came by and I've entered the professional world once again.  A funny thing is that I'm actually working less hours per week than I was when I worked at the school office.  It's also a lot calmer and less chaotic too.  It's amazing how less stressed I am even though my workload deals with more complicated matters.  I'm pretty excited about the opportunity and so far it's been a good change.  I've had a lot more time and energy to get things done around the house AND start working on some long neglected projects.

A Hyena Tale – Part 1 T-shirts

At the beginning of March, I answered the call to volunteer by helping out with the First Grade Musical at Alex’s school. Somehow (maybe through cloudy judgment on my part), I ended up being in charge of costumes for 19 hyenas. The requirements for the costumes were; the shirts needed to be tan with black spots, there needed to be some sort of earpiece, a tail and black bottoms with black socks. The parents would supply the bottoms and socks but the rest was up to me. The budget was about $10 per kid for the pieces that weren’t supplied by parents. After a little bit of brainstorming, I knew I wanted to stencil the shirts. I’d done some T-shirts over the summer to put in the favor bag at Alex’s birthday party so it wasn’t completely out of my comfort zone and I had some black fabric paint leftover from that. While waiting for the t-shirt order to come in ($2.99 per shirt from hanes.com), I looked around at a few stores to see if there was a pre-made animal stencil with non-leopard, non-cheetah spots. There was not. I ended up tracing scrapbook paper with“animal” spots onto a stencil mat and used an exacto knife to cut out the holes. After that it was pretty easy. I’d put the shirt over a glass cutting board (so the fabric paint wouldn’t seep through to the backside of the shirt) and tape the stencil to the shirt. Then, I used a sponge pouncer to apply the black paint. The longest part of the labor process was the paint application but Netflix and Pandora helped me through the monotony. All in all, I think it took about 5 hours (over a few days) to do all 19 shirts. The finished product was something I was happy with too.

1. First I traced the spots onto the stencil.  I used a colored pencil for tracing and then cut out the spots with and exacto knife.  I used a cutting board beneath so I wouldn't scratch anything while cutting out spots and then later to protect the back of the shirt from paint seeping through from the front of the shirt.

2.  I found that taping the stencil to the shirt helped with stability and lessened the bleedthrough from the spots.

3.  The finished product.

 

Painting the shirts was by far the most time consuming part of the whole costume.  In addition to the actual painting time, the shirts also needed to lay flat for 4 hours (per the instructions on the bottle) so the fabric paint could cure. 

Next up: Ears and Tails

Incredibly Long Post of To-Do's

I’ve had a few posts outlining the whole 1^st grade musical hullaballoo, but my camera battery decided it didn’t want to cooperate. I don’t want to post those without pictures because they will help illustrate the how-to process.  I’ve been waiting for the replacement but it seems as though the mail system has conspired with the battery gods to keep me waiting on picture downloads.  Until it arrives, I’ll be sans photos.  I had planned on writing a few things so I could keep to posting at least once a week but I’ve been enjoying a hiatus during my spring break.  It’s been wonderful!  I’ve loved being able to catch up on housework, organization and general home upkeep.  Next up on the to-do list is to come up with a general “To Do” list for the house.  Since there are so many things that we’d like to do, it’s a little overwhelming.  My mother-in-law had some fantastic advice of going one room at a time.  We have 10 rooms on the main floor (including 2 bathrooms) and every one of them needs some attention.  Some rooms need more than other L and there is a basement with 5 rooms (including 1 bathroom down there).  Unfortunately every room in the basement needs attention.  Fortunately the basement is not even on the list right now, it’s so far down.

Mud room (not an actual room)

• remove table top like surface from alcove
• add shelving to alcove
• add hanging hooks to alcove
• add hanging hooks between shelves
• some sort of sitting structure between shelves
• Paint room (including outside entry and garage entry)
• purchase/make curtain for outside entry door
• paint trim
• artwork
• wall calendar/organizations system

Half-bath/Laundry room

• remove (or frame out) 80's-tastic wall sized mirror
• replace 80's-tastic light fixutre
• paint room
• paint trim
• replace faucet
• purchase/make curtain to conceal laundry area
• purchase/make curtain for window
• new shelving/paint old shelving
• artwork
• add area rug

Kitchen 

• paint cabinets
• paint walls
• paint trim
• remove upper cabinets from south and east wall
• add open shelving to south and east wall
• replace cooktop
• replace built-in oven
• replace counter tops
• add area rug

 
 Dining Room

• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint built-in wet bar
• replace counter top on wet bar
• replace sink/faucet on wet bar
• replace track lighting
• replace light fixtures over bar and sconces
• purchase make curtains for patio doors
• art work
• add area rug/door mat 

Formal Dining Room/Office

• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint doors
• paint desk
• purchase/make curtains
• add furniture (not sure what yet)

Entry Way

• add artwork
• replance lighting fixtures
• retile

Living Room

• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint doors
• replace ceiling fan
• add sofa table ?
• add coffee table ?
• add area rug
• replace track lighting

A’s Bedroom

• paint walls
• replace ceiling fan
• add dresser
• add desk
• replace curtains
• replace area
• replace area rug
• paint headboard
• add artwork

Guest Room

• paint trim
• replace ceiling fan
• add bed
• add area rug
• add artwork

Jack & Jill Bath (between A’s room and Guest Room)

• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint vanity
• replace counter top
• replace faucets (there are two sinks)
• replace fan
• tile shower
• replace shower doors
• tile floor (part is already tiled and part is carpeted)

Master Bedroom

• paint trim
• replace ceiling fan
• replace lighting
• add area rug
• new dresser
• new nightstand(s)
• add artwork

Master Bath

• remove 80's-tastic mirrors and replace with larger individual mirrors for both vanities
• remove 80's-tastic lighting from above mirrors
• paint vanities
• replace countertops for vanities
• replace faucets for vanities
• replace sinks ?
• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint skylight
• remove carpeting
• tile floors
• add board & batten to walls ?
• remove step-up to the tub
• paint tub
• replace bathtub faucet
• purchase/make curtains for windows & door
• tile shower
• replace showerhead

Master Closet (not a real room)

• paint walls/ceiling
• replace lighting
• reorganize shelving/rods
• remove carpet?

Gettin-er-Done

In the spirit of gettin-er-doneness, I’ve finally finished with hyena costumes and spring musicals are in the rearview mirror.  This week has definitely been a whirlwind but it’s thisclose to being over.  Here is a little snapshot of the finished product.  I wish this shot would’ve included the tail, but it doesn’t so bummer… For safety (and because I’m not 100% sure about showing pics of the boy), I’ve added the “black bar” to cover a good portion of his face.  The black bar reminds me of a Us Weekly hot or not column.

 

 

Hmmm...if only the mess in the TV room would clean itself.

Behind, Again...

Once again I find myself completely behind on everything…blogging included.  It’s public school spring break around these parts and schedules aren’t matching up.  Since I work in the office of a preschool that doesn’t adhere to the public school schedule and since I have a child in public school, our spring break schedules seldom (if ever) are the same.  So, this week Alex has been with me at school with me, at his grandpa’s and over at a friend’s.  That’s how we roll at our house, we piece things together to make it work.  I’m fortunate to have a great boss who lets me bring my kiddo to work during spring break and also a grandpa that watches my kiddo too!  They definitely help make the work/life balance thing workout.  I’ve crossed a few things off the to-do list, but I’ve added some too.  Such is life.  I was able to finish up the shirts for Alex’s musical.  I hope to share details before the weekend.

Two Weeks, Really?

Yes, it really has been two weeks of not committing to a regular cleaning schedule even though I've created one.  I'm pretty sure that makes me really lazy or a great procrastinator.  It's been sitting on my computer desktop waiting to be printed, laminated and put in a household binder.  Of course, since #2 & #3 haven't happened, I couldn't use it.  Does that happen to anyone else?  Inability to complete somthing because steps haven't been followed perfectly.  Hmmm, just me? I'm going to have to work on that.  Add in a snow day, hunting down a Marvel Comics costume (specifically Spiderman), volunteering to make/coordinate 20 hyena costumes for the 1st Grade Musical and a computer that decided to not work anymore and I've had a few things going on.  But since those are all normal parts of life, I shouldn't use them as excuses.  What, you don't volunteer to make 20 hyena costumes?  That's not crazy; that's working mom guilt!

Getting It Done

The last couple of years have been a real doozy for my household.  You see, I’d always worked at least part-time since my son was born seven years ago but was able to do my errands/housecleaning while my son was in preschool and I had a break in my work schedule.  Fast forward a few years and I’m working more hours (full-time during the school year) and there isn’t any room in the day for errands and cleaning.  All of that stuff has to wait until I’m home from work.  Of course, the household chores have taken a hit as I’m adjusting to this new life schedule.  I’m scrambling to get things done, my bills are unorganized and I’m just getting by and some things are falling through the cracks.  I’ve never had a “schedule” as far as when things would get done, I would just do it on my afternoons off and it worked out nicely.  That is so far from the case now.  I’m uncomfortable with not being “on top” of things in my house and rushing to meet deadlines that I’ve forgotten about.  I’m thinking that if I want to have things work efficiently, I’m going to have to go to a daily plan.  I’m looking through a few blogs for cleaning/life schedules and I’ll adjust them to fit the needs of our house.  It’s just so chaotic right now and the more I avoid things, the more things pile up.  I’ll keep you updated on what kind of schedule we keep, the adjustments we need to make and if I can keep up the follow-up.