A Day Off

Staying home today from work and it sure feels good not to be running up and down the roads for a day. The space for the store is huge and with all the walking I'm doing, I'm pretty sure I'll lose a pound or two! By the end of the day, my poor feet are killing me and when we get home, I plop on the couch and just melt into the cushions! The first night home from work, Hubby and I both fell asleep on the couch and woke at 2 am to drag ourselves to the bed.

People are trickling in with their items for us to put away and display and I just know that there will be lots of last-minute procrastinators rushing in on Saturday, the last day we accept items. Not looking forward to the hectic-ness of that day, but we will be gone in the morning to our nephews' 7th and 5th birthday party and then go to work in the late afternoon. We will be jumping into the fire for sure!

On Tuesday, we talked and thought it would be nice for Hubby to take the older two girls to the movie theater. They've never been to one before and we thought they would enjoy the time spent with Daddy and the thrill of seeing 'Horton Hears a Who' on a huge screen with popcorn and everything. Work was a little slow so off they went to the movies.

WHY?!?!?

WHY do movies cost so much?!?!? They went during the matinee times which is supposed to be cheaper ticket costs. The total ticket cost was $22.50 for a 5 year old, a 4 year old and 1 adult. Then 3 drinks and 3 popcorn totaled $32.50!! Do you realize that going to the movies cost us $55?!?!? Had we known it was going to cost that much, we would have never decided to go and wait for the damn video instead! Don't movie theaters make enough money as it is? Is it really necessary to take out a loan to get popcorn and drink at the movie theaters? When Hubby ordered the drinks, they did not have any sample size cups out so he had no idea that 1 small drink would have quenched the thirst of an entire African village. The poor girls had to drink bucket-sized sodas and eat suitcase-sized popcorn. At those prices, I asked Hubby if he made sure they ate every kernel and drank every last drop?!

My dear, darling husband has not been to the movies since we started seeing each other. Because I am deaf, I don't go and the last movie I saw at the theater was Splash. I have encouraged Hubby to go the movies if he wanted to, but he has been content to wait until it comes out on DVD and then we can both watch it together on the captioned TV in the comfort of our home with the ability to pause if one of us needs a bathroom break. So on that note, Hubby has not stepped foot inside a movie theater for more than 11 years. We had no idea that prices sky-rocketed for ticket costs and snacks.

Ok, venting over.

I'll return to work tomorrow and will be back Sunday to write another post. Until then, Happy Spring!!

Tagged!

As I am about to embark on my little 5 week stint at the children's consignment shop, I won't be able to post very much. Things will be busy with me taking along 3 children to work and leaving home at 9 in the morning and returning home at 11 at night, only to do it again the next day. I'll try to post once or twice a week, but no promises, because I cannot foresee how I'll feel when I am home. (tired.. very tired!) I'll be reading blogs but probably not leaving comments, so I hope you'll come by every now and then and don't forget me!

Barefoot has tagged me with a meme of sharing 6 non-important things about myself. Every time I see a meme on some one's blog, I think about the answers I'd give if it was me. Of course now that it is me, my mind goes blank! Figures!

Rules, because everything has them:
1. Link to the person that tagged you. (See above)
2. Post the rules on your blog. (Right here)
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. (Check it out below)
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (More checkin' it out below)
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website. (Will do as soon as I figure out 6 people).

1. I have 8 piercings-- 7 in my ears and 1 in my tongue. Each piercing happened at a certain milestone in my life and I clearly remember each time. At thirty-something, and a soon to be mom of 4 kids, I get funny looks when people notice my tongue piercing, but I got it over 13 years ago and it feels funny when it isn't there.
2. I can't stand the taste of coffee, but love the smell of it.
3. I haven't worn perfume since I got pregnant with Oldest. I would get super sensitive to my own as well as others' perfume and come down with a scratchy throat that would soon become a full-blown sickness almost as bad as bronchitis. I miss my perfume sometimes.
4. I once had a pet snapper. Mom found him as a little baby, the size of a 50 cent piece and brought him home to me. I adopted him, not knowing it was a snapper. Named him Herman and took him to college with me. When anyone else picked him up, he peed on them, but never on me. I was his turtle-mama! I had him about 2 years before he ran away from home. Yes, ran away. Put him outside on the grass for some "tummy time" and whoever says turtles are slow is a liar! Never saw him again. *sniff-sniff*
5. I only wear silver jewelry, with the exception of my wedding ring. It is a celtic love knot ring made of white gold edged with yellow gold. The knots have no beginning and no end and mean eternal love.
6. I love the smell of bleached whites when I do laundry. When I fold them, I am always taking a sniff of each item, inhaling the bleach-y clean scent. Reminds me of my summers in the pool when my hair would always smell like chlorine.

I tag: You! If you read this, consider yourself tagged! Let me know and I'll come and read it.

Check out the website for the kid's consignment shop I'll be working at and you'll get an idea of where I have gone to. I have been with her since almost the beginning and it has always been fun, though it is lots of hard work, too. Even though I've moved farther away and it takes me 3 hours round trip to get there and back, it's too good for me to pass up. I'm hoping to score some free baby outfits for both a girl or a boy and some maternity tops as well. A recent search through my closets turned up zero maternity shirts and my regular tops keep riding up the front of my belly. See you in a few days!

Pregnancy Update #2

At 5 1/2 months pregnant, I feel pretty good. I feel like I am further along than I am, but all my pregnancies have been large and this one proves to be no different. All my babies were over 8 pounds, and this will probably be the same.

I do feel one big difference this time around-- I am more conscious of where the baby is and feeling more "loose", for lack of a better term. I can feel the baby bouncing around inside my belly and it is a very sweet feeling at this point. I'm sure by 8 or 9 months I'll be begging baby to stop kicking my bladder or putting it's foot under my ribcage, but for now, it's so soft that it simply reminds me that my belly does not belong only to me.

As for the "looseness" I feel, because this is my fourth pregnancy, it feels like my body is easily slipping into pregnancy mode and assuming the positions. I feel like my belly grew faster this time, and when I squat, I can feel more pressure between my legs than I can remember with the other three. Nothing painful, just a vivid reminder that soon, I'll be squeezing a baby out.

The first time I felt baby inside me move, was about a month ago. It was about 2 weeks ago that Hubby could feel the baby as well. On an active kicking session, I could see the top of my belly bouncing and putting my hand there, could feel it, too. I grabbed Hubby's hand and soon, baby kicked hard enough to startle Hubby. Brought tears to my eyes to know that Hubby felt the baby move and made it seem more real to him, too.

Here's me, 5 1/2 months pregnant.

Still no certain food cravings popping up yet with this one. Though I must admit I got more than frustrated when my favorite ice cream flavor was not in stock at the local food store. I go wild for Edy's Cherry Chocolate chip ice cream and when it's on sale, I tend to stock up and buy 2 or 3 or 4. Came on sale this week and I was there the first day of the sale, but nothing. Looked all over, scanning each carton in case I missed it-- nothing! Hmph! Walked out without my ice cream. Pregnant lady is not happy!

Exercising more, but only because there are 3 kids to chase around the house! Gained 9 pounds so far, so maybe not having my ice cream was a good thing?

Won't Be Long Now!

The first signs of Spring!!

The temperature warmed up to the high 50's today, and we all spent some much needed outdoor time today. Hubby worked on the chain saw, and I walked back and forth across the yard, dragging fallen branches to one big pile. Youngest followed and helped me with little twigs of her own, while Oldest and Middle climbed trees and explored among the azalea forest. I say 'azalea forest' because that's what it is-- a forest. The previous owners planted over 100 azaleas in the front yard and it makes for a beautiful display in the spring when they bloom. BUT! In the last few years before we bought the house, they were getting older and unable to care for the lawn the way it needed to be, and then the husband got a lung transplant and the wife spent all her time caring for him. So meanwhile, the azaleas grew and grew, with no discipline or training.

Now, we have wild and crazy azaleas and we are working hard to beat back the crazy escapees (did you know they have very long root systems and baby azalea bushes pop up more than 20 feet away?) and trim back the mature bushes without killing them.

This was taken last Spring in front of one of the bushes and I plan to take one every year with the kids in a similar pose, sort of to make a traditional photo and to keep a yearly Spring photo of their growth. (They are holding cupcakes in their hands, because I was taking some photos to use for a birthday invite)

Hope the signs of Spring are showing for all of you and Old Man Winter is losing his grip where you are!

Is There Anything Better?

Than fresh-squeezed orange juice?

Is it possible for juice to taste even better when it is squeezed with a vintage juice press?

How about when you drink it out of a vintage glass, too?

Yum!

Everything In It's Place!

As promised...

...a picture of my new cabinets full of crafty stuff! I managed to fit everything in them and re-discovered lots of items I forgot all about: 5 bins of new and vintage fabric! 5! F.I.V.E. Five!! I had no idea I had so many!! Time for some sewing projects! I also had no idea that I had so many vintage sewing notions-- see that wire basket on top in the middle with the basket sitting on top? That's FULL of old rick-rack and zippers and buttons and needles and edgings and pin cushions and.... Time to weed through some and keep my favorites and sell or give away the rest. See the pink basket on the far right? That has been such a blessing this week! I forgot I had it and the girls were all over it and it kept them busy for 3 days straight! 3 days of 3 little girls threading long shoe laces through wooden beads and cardboard animal punchouts. 3 days of Oldest "sewing" cardboard punchouts and proclaiming herself a better "sewer" than me! I actually got those beads and punchouts (is that what you call them? I'm calling them punchouts) from the trash at the landfill 'trash or treasure' shed before we moved and stashed them away in a box, saving them for when the girls were older. I'm SO glad I saved them!

I emptied 3 plastic bins of stuff and 12 cardboard boxes and I am feeling pretty pleased with the progress! There are still a few bits of crafty items around the house that I need to corral and put in their proper place, but this is the majority of it. Ahhh! Such a nice sight to see when I go down the stairs and see fewer boxes lurking in a corner of the basement and clean cabinets all organized! So nice to know where the soap making stuff is, or the stickers and stationary are in those 'matrix' boxes or where the glass seed beads are hiding. Hubby doesn't have to hunt around for his model car paints (in the rack on top) and the girls can find all their kiddie craft kits in one place.

Having Mom here was great! I look forward to when she retires and lives with us permanently! She realllly didn't want to go back to work on Saturday and was dragging her feet. She will be coming back next month for another 5 days, when we need her to babysit for 2 nights while we work at the kid's consignment shop. I start working next Sunday and Hubby will be joining me unless he gets a call from someone offering him a job.

A Place For Everything!

Since we moved here nearly 3 years ago, the majority of our boxes are unpacked. There are still maybe 20 boxes that have been opened, but not unpacked because there is no where to put them. Those boxes are full of crafty items. My sewing machine got unpacked because it gets used fairly often, but I've had to put a lot of other crafts on hold. I had plans for a craft room, but then the budget happened and we had to watch our spending and buying stuff for a craft room just didn't take priority. So when I wanted to make something, I had to dig through a box and figure out where everything was, then when the project was finished, I had to either put them back in the box or find a place for the materials.

There was a very good sale on storage cabinets and we used just a little bitty part of our tax refund to buy some cabinets. I am SO excited at the prospect of finally finding a home for all the crafting materials and not putting projects off because it was too much hassle to pull out of the boxes.

We bought 3 cabinets, and 2 are put together so far. They're pressed wood, which is not my first choice, but I priced the real wood stuff and that was wayyyyy out of our price bracket. It's either spend $40 on a pressed wood cabinet or let my crafting stuff languish in boxes for who knows how long!

Tomorrow, I go and get my Mom and bring her up for 5 days! I am going to keep her busy with the kids, so I can get busy and unpack my craft boxes! Yay! I'll take a picture of the finished cabinets after I've unloaded everything into them! I can hardly contain my excitement! I probably won't be posting much while Mom is here, so have a good week!