Back Into the Swing of Things

So it’s just me and the kids again this week. We’ve been fortunate to have Jason home with us for 6 weeks, while they worked on their project from here. Now it looks like he may be jumping back into the frequent flyer club. After 12 trips up there, from May-December, I have found myself getting a little more comfortable with holding down the fort on my own. At first, I was heading to Tyler, to hang out at my parent’s house, for a week or more at a time. Now that this is all kinda familiar, I’m staying at home, taking the kids to playgroup, hosting Bible study, and keeping things running as usual. Yeah, we eat a lot of left overs and more frozen dinners and fast food than I care to admit, because the chef is out, but we are even getting better about that too. I made a meal plan for this week, so I won’t get discouraged and unmotivated to cook.

Hopefully that’ll help keep me on the right track with my focus word for this month too, Health. As I may have mentioned, or not because I’ve kinda been a slacker blogger lately, my New Year’s Resolution for the year was simply one word. Focus. I have a lot of areas of my life that need improving, but I think to succeed at any of them and not get burnt out and fed up with it all by mid February, I have to focus on them one at a time. So after thinking about the changes I wanted to make, and grouping similar ones together, I came up with 6 words to be my focus for the year. One word per month, twice a year. So although I intend to attempt everything on the list, the focus word of the month is my fall back plan. Failing all else, I WILL FOCUS on this one thing. It’s worked for the most part and I’m excited that this month’s word is health, because with 2 weeks of winter storms and 2 weeks of flu all around, I’m ready to get back into the swing of things.

So far in this journey I’ve had:
January:Education – spending more time making and following lesson plans for the kids, kinda home pre-k if you will. Plus, learning some new things myself! I did pretty well with the pre-k thing and developed a system for putting my plans together quickly that allowed flexibility during the week. I also took the belly dance class I’ve wanted to take for a while, which was a lot of fun! 
February:Productivity – the idea was to get into the habit of doing my FLYlady routines around the house, and generally declutter some things. I jumped right on board with de-cluttering and spent the first 2 weeks going through baby clothes and toys and listing them on craigslist (I’ve made over $200 so far!) My one track mind was so focused on that, though, that I didn’t do any cleaning to speak of, which was the whole point really. I kinda felt like I failed the mission on that word and got into a major funk about it and didn’t feel motivated to do anything. Which is why I’m so glad it’s finally MARCH! The warmer weather, the spring flowers popping up, and a fresh start on everything is making a huge difference. I’m actually better with my cleaning this month than I was last month when it was supposed to be the focus.

I think for April I may go with Devotion. I really want to start doing a pre-school aged Bible study with the kids, get better about praying at every meal and throughout the day with them, and doing the same for myself. I want to dig into His word and grow in our fellowship with the family of our new church we’ve just joined. Being that Easter falls in there some where too, that’s probably a good motivator  to stay on track too.   That would leave Discipline (focusing on using love and logic tactics with the kids and getting penny into obedience class finally) and Companionship (date nights, shared hobbies, weekday mornings together as a family, dates with the kids, etc) for May and June before I start all over again.

This post is kinda all over the board I know, but it’s where I am now, and where I plan to be. I’m excited that I’m back in the swing of things in so many areas right now… home maker, home school teacher, athlete (just ran a solid mile, this week, for the first time since my high school knee injury!!!), wife, bargin grocery shopper, and most importantly, child of God.

And now for a few parting pictures!

Jonah and his friend, Lincoln, on the tire swing.

I finally found a bedding set for Jonah’s room that I liked!

“Riding” the elephant at the Dallas Zoo

Carly feeding the giraffe was pretty cool.

A fun but LONG day (for Carly) at the zoo.

And because I am making a lot of scrapbook pages these days, here’s a few others I’ve made since my last post! Enjoy!

New Project for the New Year

New Year’s resolutions are always a tough thing, and I think that goes for everybody. You want to be gung-ho and do everything, then you fail miserably and give up on all of it. I have a lot of areas in my life that I want to improve on, but trying to do it all at once is overwhelming and I find myself burnt out quickly. So this year, I’m taking a different approach.

In the photography community, there is the 365 project (which I did for Carly’s 1st year) the 52 project (the once a week photo) and the 12 project (for one photo a month). I had already had in my mind to step it down this year and just do the 52 or even just 12, when I heard about Ali Edward’s (fairly famous in the scrapping world) “one little word” project. Instead of resolutions each year, she takes a word and makes it her mantra for the year. So I decided I’d glean from that idea, the 12 photos and combine it with all the resolutions I wanted to make.

My word for the year is going to be FOCUS. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a racoon, attracted to whatever is shiny and cool. I have a hard time staying on course because SQUIRREL!! … uh, because stuff distracts me easily. So I think FOCUS is going to be a good word for me to meditate on this year. With that in mind, I decided to break my resolutions down into themes so that I could choose a theme each month to FOCUS on. That way, when life gets crazy and I find that it’s just not realistic for me to keep ALL of my resolutions up at the same time, I have a fall back plan. A failing-all-else-I-WILL-focus-on-this kind of plan. I came up with 6 themes to my resolution. Here they are and kind of what I intend for them to entail, because if I tell you, then I have to keep accountable for them.

EDUCATION -
- making and sticking to a pre-k home school lesson plan of sorts
- spending one on one time with both kids each day to work on age appropriate stuff together
- to learn something new myself
DEVOTION -
- making time for a daily quiet time with God
- making prayers at meals and bedtime more regular and more meaningful with the kids
- getting and working through some type of pre-k devotional book so the stories are more prevalent in our house
HEALTH -
- staying within my calorie budget as much as possible
- exercising at least 3 times a week
- drinking 8 glasses of water a day
BONDING -
- having a rotation of weekly “dates” with each kid/parent combination, the two of us, and a family fun night.
- spend more time with Penny (our lab) since it sadly is an area we don’t prioritize much with two small kids.
- keep in touch with friends more (via FB, emails, phone calls, and *gasp* old-fashioned snail mail letters even!)
DISCIPLINE -
- sticking to what we’ve learned with the Love & Logic book
- actually making use of the chore chart and reward system
- teach our dog some manners!
PRODUCTIVITY -
- spending 15 minutes, twice a day, to keep on top of daily chores (like dishes and tidying up clutter)
- spending 15 minutes a day on a FLY Lady focus zone of the week (like doing some thorough cleaning in one area for the week)
- making sure I do the things I need to do before the ones I want to do.

To keep myself accountable for this challenge this year, because it WILL be a challenge, and to make it fun, I decided to follow Ali Edward’s idea of making a scrapbook about my one little word. So each month, as I shift my focus, I’ll scrap a page or two about my thoughts on the subject before and after and compare my results to what I had hoped to accomplish. I am hoping this kind of continual project throughout the year will keep me on track with my new goals.

I hope your new year is richly blessed and that you live it as He would have you!

Getting Ready for Galveston!

We are getting ready to go down to Galveston for the weekend. I know it’s not the most beautiful beach or anything, but it’s close, and it’s where Jason and his family has gone for as far back as they can remember. Here’s a little trip down memory lane!

Jason: About 3-4 Years Old

It was the first trip I ever took with Jason, in 2001.

Us on the ferry, headed to Crystal Beach

It also happens to be where Jason proposed to me in 2003…

My Ring

and where we honeymooned (at the San Luis Resort)!

From our Balcony

We took Jonah to the beach for the first time 2 years ago.

We went with our friends, Ben & Ginger that year.

Of course, we skipped last year because Carly was so small, but now that she’s the same age as he was for his first trip, we are all really looking forward to it. Before we get down to the beach though, we are going to take advantage of the free admission that Bank of America is offering to its customers at the Houston Children’s Museum and the Houston Zoo. This trip is really going to be cheap I think. The hotel rooms are all paid for by Jason’s Hilton Reward Points (from all these trips to NY he’s had to make for work) and with the attractions all basically free, we are really only going to have to pay for gas and food! Sweet!

Also, as the Labor Day Weekend approaches, I have some very exciting news (well, it’s exciting to me at least!) that will have several new people stopping by our blog. Since I’m expecting lots of visitors this weekend, I did some virtual house keeping and updated the kid’s pages and just generally tried to update our content! Hope you enjoy!

A New Foodie Initiative

In driving around at a local little strip mall to take Jason’s jacket to a dry cleaners and to ship a package to a friend, I realized there are a LOT of neat little privately owned businesses in our neighborhood. Just in that shopping center there is an Indian meat market, a carribean restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, a burger joint, and 2-3 other little hole in the wall restaurants I’ve never noticed before. I know there are restaurants like this in at least 6 of the 8 corners at the major intersections on either side of our house… so as bad as we are about always going to the same places over and over, we thought we might trying out some of our local fare and writing about it here. It’s an initiative to be different and support some local businesses, and maybe even discover a hidden gem of a place!

Plans for a North Facing Front Yard

I am by no means a green thumb. However, when we moved into this house almost 2 years ago, we had 2 problems taken care of at once… overgrown shrubs and a foundation in need of repair. Shortly after we moved in, the foundation repair guys were kind enough to remove our shrubs for us, and there it has sat… empty and bare, for the last year and a half or so.

What it looked like when we bought it.

Our painfully blank canvas.

So knowing nothing of what grows where, I’ve started trying to self educate by getting some library books, asking around, checking out plants at Lowe’s and other nurseries… man is it ever overwhelming. I consider myself a pretty good designer sometimes, but this plant thing is hard. I mean I can plan a room quite easily… furniture shapes don’t change, wall colors don’t change every few months, decorative accessories don’t grow and overtake a space… when you buy it at the store, it is what it is and you can count on that. Plants? The grow, they change shapes, they disappear in winter sometimes, they change colors…. it’s pretty hard to design around that. So here’s my kudos to successful landscape designers and avid gardeners the world around!

Being that I’ve got a north facing house, I’m also finding it difficult to come up with a great shade loving plan, but after much deliberation, I think I sort of have a plan for at least half of my front flower beds. We haven’t finished prepping the East side of the house yet (to your left) but I think I sort of have a tentative plan for it on paper. That may change by the time we get there, but here it is thus far:

Actually I can tell you a good part of this has already changed in my mind, but here it is anyway!

The West flowerbed was pretty much ready to go, so that’s where we’ll actually start. I found it much easier to plan with photoshop than the pencil drawing so that’s probably how I’ll proceed when we start working on the other side. Here’s what I’ve got in mind for our West side though:

Before.

My Plan: Summer Time

From left to right, back to front: Existing “Large Scale Monkey Grass” as I call it, pink Caladiums, Violets from my grandmother’s house, a Pink Camellia bush (not in bloom in the summer), purple looking Black Mondo Grass,  a few Dwarf Yaupon Hollies with Varigated Hostas and Varigated Grass alternating in between, and pink Impatiens in between that. Purple Iris from my other grandmother’s house (if she’ll let me have some hehe) (also not in bloom during summer), existing pink Crape Myrtle tree we whacked off at the stump to make it grow more like a bush and stay off the roof, a purple Chinese Fringe bush at the corner (not in bloom, but a pretty purple color all year) a pot of hot pink Geraniums, surrounded by the white Dusty Miller, with “Small Scale Monkey Grass” from my mom’s house around that, and Japanese Box Wood to line the West side of the house and obscure the AC unit from the street. Oh yes, and you’ll notice how much nicer the shutters will look once they’re black! Jason thought I was crazy when I told him we should paint them black. This picture convinced him I think!

.

My Plan: Very Early Spring

I think this is mostly right, based on what blooms in the cooler months (Camellia, Iris, and Chinese Fringe), and what has died off (Caladiums, Hostas, Crape Myrtle, Violets, and the annuals)… could be wrong though. Oh, and I swapped out the pot of Geraniums (which have to come inside to avoid the frost) for some pink Dianthus.

My Plan: Christmas Lights

Because I am my mother’s daughter, making sure I had a good foundation for my Christmas lights was important too! Take the flower pot inside and put out a Christmas tree in the corner!

Anyway, we started working on it a little this past weekend, but I doubt we’ll really get much done on it until Jason is finished with school… TWO more weeks!!! I’m so excited for that!

The Swing Set Project

As spring approaches, it’s time to start thinking about a swing set for the kids, using the money given to them by relatives over Christmas and such. After looking at Wal-Mart’s cheapest wooden swing set, it became apparent that these things are by no means cheap, nor small. Most have a swing arm that, in combination with a slide tower, would pretty much consume our entire back yard. So… being the designer I like to think I am, I came up with a design for a custom built swing set, using parts and pieces from a swing set found on craigslist for free. The family that gave us this one has no idea how richly they’ve blessed us because, though the slide and glider are faded, they’re in good condition and buying them new would be about $350. The swings and other pieces I’d hoped to salvage are in pretty bad shape, but those parts are relatively inexpensive to buy at Lowe’s… they could even be put on the kid’s birthday wish lists for that matter…. while I’m thinking of it, here are those items for anyone who cares, in the order of most wanted:

Swing-N-Slide Multi-Colored Tarp $22

Swing-N-Slide Extra Duty Swing $35

Swing-N-Slide Ex.Duty Swing Hangers $35

Swing-N-Slide Steering Wheel $15

Swing-N-Slide Safety Handles $10

(10-15) 50lb. Bags of Sakrete Play Sand $5ea

Trapeeze (replace baby swing in future) $35

Anyway, as I was saying… we got the slide and the glider and a truckload of mostly un-usable wood this weeked, and not it’s sitting in a big heap in our back yard. Jonah asks us multiple time a day “we can build swing set now?” Poor guy… unfortunately, this is definitely a task slated for spring break, which is still another 3-4 weeks away. I think I do have the design figured out for the most part though… check this out… Google Sketch Up is an awesome tool for drawing out things in 3D, so this was pretty simple for me to put together:

View from the kitchen window

View towards Penny's yard

View towards the house

View from Penny's yard

Oh no! Elmo, here we come!

As you all know, from a previous post on the subject, I have tried to keep cartoon character infatuation at bay, in order to keep the more expensive/lower quality “licensed character” items out of our house. Well, I’m here to admit that I’m bringing this soon-to-be Elmo infatuation on myself, and I’m even asking for your help to do it!

We’re about to start potty training soon, and as I started reading the library books I checked out on the matter… most techniques seem to encourage the use of a few teaching tools, to help make potty training into a big deal. They say to have a potty weekend where that’s the focus of everyone’s attention, all weekend long… kind of a “coming of age” thing for the trainee. They say to start off by helping your kid “teach” a doll how to potty, then let them read books and watch dvds about pottying. Then start hourly potty-sits and give rewards or stickers on a chart for good tries and even the smallest of sucesses. By the end of the weekend, the kid should pretty well have it down, and to celebrate that, some say you should have a potty party to invite a few friends and family over to congratulate them on their potty success.

So after reading all that, I’m starting to feel a little overwhelmed. I did sit down and start a shopping list of supplies that to get the ball rolling. A potty book, a dvd, a potty doll of some sort, and a progress chart w/ stickers. Once I started researching what was out there, I discovered a major money pitfall… most of the stuff is geared for either a boy or a girl. I have one of each, and I don’t want to have to buy this stuff twice, cause it’s expensive! So, I needed to find something gender neutral.

I first found a pretty cool potty monkey doll that came with a book for the kids and one for the adult. But being that I had already checked the adult book out from the library, I really wished it had come with a dvd instead. Then I found a a wide variety of potty bear items, but no cohesive set, which I feel would make it easier for Jonah to understand the relationship between what the character is doing in the book/dvd and what we’re trying to get the doll to do. Then I stumbled across Elmo. There is a complete line of Elmo potty training products out there, and since Jonah’s never really watched much Sesame Street, Elmo will be new to him.

I was going to put a big Amazon.com order together with everything we’ll need for potty weekend, but then I decided that I might have friends who might have some of the stuff on my shopping list that might be wanting to sell/get rid of it. So let me know if you have any of the following to offer up for borrowing/buying/giving away!

Potty Time Elmo Doll -OR-  A Plain 1-2′ Elmo Plush Doll that we can teach to sit on Jonah’s Potty Chair

Potty Time With Elmo Little Sound Book

Elmo’s Potty Time DVD

Potty Book Coloring & Activities With Elmo (Let me know if you know where I can find this new in stores anywhere… I imagine if you own it, it’s already been colored and the progress chart used up)

Anyone’s leftover Elmo Party Supplies to make a VERY small (like maybe just us if that all we can get) Potty Party with (preferably ones that don’t say happy birthday on them, like the Hooray for Elmo or Elmo Loves You supplies, but beggars can’t be choosers right? hehe)

The New To-Do List

With only 5 days left to get stuff done before baby comes… I’ve revised our “to-do” list down to the things I really want to get done most, assigned them a day and who’s doing them (Me, Jason, or both of Us)

• Wednesday
  • Do a whirlwind “home blessing” cleaning spree throughout the house (Us)
  • Install 5 nails over the crib for her name letters (Us) … oops, can’t do cause the spacing will be different depending on which letters we need to use.
  • Give boy child a much needed haircut (Us… may be a 2 person job!)
  • Boy Child Bath (Us… usual routine)
  • Watch Lost (Us)
• Thursday
  • Last day of work (Jason)
  • Address the rest of the announcement envelopes (Me)
  • Write a few Thank You notes (Me)
  • Finish writing down boy child meal options (Me) … eh, save it for tomorrow.
  • Charge extra batteries for the camera (Me)
  • Go to Ghengis Grill & Watch the Mavs on TV with Brent (Us)
• Friday
  • 3-4 Hours to do last homework assignment (Jason)
  • Last Dr’s Appointment (Us)
  • Go somewhere and do something fun with the boy child (Us)
  • Start painting the dresser and side table (We’ll say Us or Jason, but know it’s really Me hehe) was forecasted to rain today… start it tomorrow.
  • Visit the Fosters? Or maybe on Saturday, whichever they’d rather. (Us)
• Saturday
  • Start laundry and change sheets (Us)
  • Move the queen mattress to the dining room and inflate air mattress for boy child in his room (Us)
  • Call people who haven’t looked at/rsvp’d to Jonah’s b-day evite (Me)
  • Paint 2nd coat on dresser and table (Me)
  • Gas up the van (Jason)
  • Buy Stamps (Jason)
  • Take care of Mother’s Day & Giving-Birth-Day Gift(s) (Jason)
  • Vacuum out the van (Jason/Us)
  • Get a video of the belly jumping (Me/Us)
• Sunday
  • Go to Church (Us)
  • Buy Groceries & “Berries” (Me & My Mom maybe? or Us)
  • Pay Bills (Jason)
  • Paint the likely needed 3rd coat on the dresser and table (Me)
  • Finish Laundry (Us)
  • Pack Jason’s Bag (Jason)
  • Finish Packing My Bag (Me)
  • Load the truck (Jason)
    • My Bag
    • Baby Bag
    • Jason Bag
    • Pump Bag
    • Laptop Bag
    • School Bag (Jason’s SUPPOSEDLY going to study for his exam, while we’re in the hospital.   We’ll see.)
    • Boppy
    • Picture Frame

Mini Darth Vader

Posing With the Light Saber

We went to a party last night with a few of our college friends that was to be a “lash hoorah” sort of party before Sarah-jenne and I have our babies in a few weeks. The theme was Star Wars so Jonah and I dressed up (Jason’s a slacker)… Jonah was Darth Vader, a costume I picked up the day before at Party City for $6 because of a fluke with their system… guess they’re not used to selling costumes in the off season cause it said “item not for sale” when they rang it up. It was supposed to be $19.99 according to their website, but the manager gave it to me for $5.99! I got a couple of cute pictures of him, but never got a picture of myself with my Jawa costume on. I have one from when I wore it for going to see Episode 3 in theaters, but didn’t get a shot of the pregnant Jawa. Oh well. I think for Halloween this year, we’ll all 4 dress up as Star Wars characters since Jonah will still probably fit in his Vader costume. I just need to get an infant sized Princess Leah costume for our little girl when it gets closer, and Jason needs to pick a star wars costume too.

Trying to Collapse the Light Saber

The snacks were all Star Wars themed too. We made some Princess Leah Garlic Bread Rolls. There were also Chewy Wookie Cookies, Light Saber Taquitos (you could dip them into queso, salsa, or guacamole to make your “light saber” whatever color you wanted hehe), Bobba Fettacunie, Ham Solo, and a Death Star Cookie Cake. We watched episodes 4 & 5 then started playing Munchkin while episode 6 started up before heading home. Jonah was really well behaved the whole night, but it was way past his bedtime when we left. We got him in bed at about 10pm! Poor little guy, so tired, but he had a great time. So did we!

A Growing To Do List

With less than 2 months, now, before our little girl arrives, my brain has started churning over all the things that I have to, and would like to, get done before that time. My friend Sarahjenne made a similar list on her baby blog, so I guess I’m stealing the idea from her!

Need to Do Before She Comes:

• Make arrangements for going to the hospital (with back up plans)
  • Write down Jonah’s schedule, routines, and weird habits
  • Write down Jonah’s usual snack/meal options & preferences
  • Write down Jonah’s most difficult to understand phrases
  • Get volunteers that can come watch or come get Jonah from the hospital, if I go into labor before the c-section date, until my parents can gather up their stuff and make the 2 hr drive here.
• Get baby clothes and bedding ready
• Get baby bottles ready
• Pack for the hospital
  • Her bag. Since she’ll be rooming in with us most of the time at the hospital, and because I’ll be there for 3-4 days, I plan to take:
    • (3) newborn t-shirts
    • (3) 0-6 mo gowns
    • (3) burp cloths
    • (6) pairs of baby socks
    • Her cherry-print onesie for a twinkie photo op w/ Sarahjenne’s baby if they come to visit.
    • Her homecoming dress, shoes, socks, hat & hair bow (I plan to clip the pink bow to her little white hat)
    • Baby Nail Clippers
    • Pacifier
    • Pink gingham print blanket & ladybug blanket for photos
    • Her Baby Book
    • Nursing Cover
    • Video Camera & Power Cable
  • My Medela pump bag just in case I need it at the hospital like I did last time.
  • Boppy Pillow
    
  • Shop for & purchase a big brother t-shirt and a few small surprises to have for Jonah at the hospital when he comes to visit.
  • Buy a picture frame from Ikea to take for visitors to sign like we did for Jonah’s arrival. (w/ tax return $)
  • My hospital bag.
    • Birth Plan
    • Insurance & ID
    • Cell Phone, chargers & Headphones
    • Laptop (load the announcement files on and include internet cable just in case!)
    • DSLR Camera & USB Cable
    • Hair Brush
    • Hair Bands & Clips
    • Deodorant
    • Toothbrush & Toothpaste
    • Chap Stick
    • Going Home Outfit
    • Slippers
    • 3 Pairs of Socks
    • 3 Pairs of Throw-Away Undies
    • 2-pc PJ set
    • Nursing Bra and/or Tank Top
    • Nursing Pads
    • Snacks
    • Hard Candy
    • Jonah’s 4 big brother surprise gifts
    • Gift bag and tissue to put his gifts in
  • Jason’s hospital bag… who knows what he plans to take.
• Install the car seat
  • Buy another vehicle seat protector, like Jonah’s, to install under the baby’s car seat
  • Get the car seat’s instruction manual from the internet (bought on craigslist, so it didn’t come with one)
  • Install the baby’s car seat
  • Have the car seats checked for correct installation at our hospital for free
• Pre-Register at Centennial Hospital
  • Fill out the forms
  • Drop them off at the hospital or mail them in
• Buy a few last things for Jonah’s Easter Basket
• Prepare for the Playgroup Easter Party at our House
• Prepare for the Baby Announcements
  • Make a few templates
  • Load templates onto laptop
    
  • Order & address envelopes
  • Order pre-paid prints
  • Buy stamps

Would Like to Do Before She Comes:

• Finalize Jonah’s Birthday Party Plans
  • Send out invitations/Call those who don’t check email!
    
  • Put together party favor bags
  • Order the party favors online
  • Buy the rest of the party supplies
  • Do a 2nd practice run of making the train cakes (first attempt failed miserably)
  • Get the rest of Jonah’s birthday gift(s) and wrap them
• Finish the nursery
  • Get Jason to raise the mattress back up on the crib
  • Paint the picture frame mat and the lady bug in the middle
  • Hang the picture frame and 2 heart canvases up behind the chair.
  • Find a place to hang her 1st year calendar.
  • Buy the side table and unfinished crib-side mini dresser from Ikea (w/tax return $)
  • Get the mini dresser primed and painted white
  • Get the side table primed and painted white
  • Organize the dressers and the hutch
  • Buy and install a new ceiling fan/light fixture & dimmer switch
  • Hang the letters for her name
  • Find and buy a heavy ladybug garden ornament to use as a door stop when we have the windows open.
• Finish the guest bathroom makeover
  • Install a hand held shower attachment in the guest bathroom
  • Hang up a new shower curtain
  • Replace the bare bulb light fixtures in the guest bathroom?
  • Install trim around the mirror?
• Buy some Velcro and finish up the Boppy cover I made
• Make a Taggie blanket or burp cloth to match the Boppy cover. (buy ribbon first)
• Do some gardening
  • Plant something in the new back yard flower bed
  • Plant some tomatoes in the new back yard flower bed
  • Add in the 2nd back yard flower bed on the other side of Penny’s gate?
  • Till up the garden spot and plant some veggies?
  • Clean out the rest of our front  flower beds and plant something there
• Make the train table operable and the area semi-presentable for Jonah’s birthday party
  • Buy & hook up a power supply & locomotive (w/ tax return $ maybe?)
  • Cut, Finish, & Attach the nice wood sides
  • Install the cork board or picture frame with sketches and diagrams of the finished plans above the table
  • Install the 2nd and maybe even 3rd level of plywood just for looks?
  • Install the light above the table
  • Install the shelves for the HO scale trains
  • Hang a couple of picture frames with the shelves
  • Swap the small black arm chair for the big red one in the office
• Mothers Day/Birthday Presents
  • Mamaw’s Mother’s Day and Birthday Present
  • Nonna’s Mother’s Day and Birthday Present
  • MY Mother’s Day and Giving-Birth-Day Present (nudge nudge Jason!)

Need to Do at Some Point:

• Get roof leak fixed (call insurance company during the next big rain)
• Make her Christmas stocking
• Buy & Install new blinds in our bedroom
• Get window screens for the whole house
• Have A/C serviced or replaced
• Replace the ceiling fans in the playroom and master bedroom (at least)
• Get chimney swept
• Start working on her 1st year scrapbook (traditional style)
• Do family scrapbooks for 2006, 2007 & 2008 (digital style)

That’s all I have the energy for right now. I need to be napping while the boy child is down, so I’m sure I’ll come back to these lists to add more later.