I went to bed at 9:30 last night! And then Deric got up with River when she started screaming at 6am so I could sleep until 7:30ish. Yay for being caught up on sleep!

I went yard saling this morning. I got a little greenhouse so that we can grow our tomatoes and peppers and vine plants early on so that we can have a more successful garden. :-) ($2) I got a "cozy coupe" for River (you know, the little tykes cars) it was a police cruiser, but the light on top broke off ($8). I found two vintage fisher price toys, the wobble chime ball ($.50) and the "teaching" wind up music clock ($.50)...probably more for Molly to play with. I LOVE vintage toys! I got an umbrella for the patio for free! I was going to see if the pole fit the one I already had, nope, but this umbrella works well enough. I also got some outdoor hanging lamp lights for my neighbor who has been trying to come up with a way of making some. I paid $5 for them so I figured it would be cheaper to do it that way. I also got my Christmas wrapping paper for like $1.50 (3 rolls). So, yah, fun stuff.

I then went grocery shopping and price matched on like 15 things. I got River's birthday balloons and cake and candle for tomorrow. And of course all the party food. :-) Took me forever, since it is Saturday and Walmart is rearanging everything in the store to upgrade their look. I can finally hang the rest of Molly's clothes now too.

Diana is supposed to be calling me about 3ish to let me know when she will be here. We'll see what happens with the rest of the day!

tired...

I am SO tired. River has been skipping naps the last couple days. And I don't get to sleep until like 11:30. Then River wakes up at 7. I need a nap each day to feel awake.

I just got off the phone with Diana and she and her family are going to come over tomorrow night to visit. Since they are going to be in town. It will be fun to finally get to see Logan. I saw him in early November briefly in the car seat he was in when they stopped by the house. I didn't know for sure if I was pregnant at that point...so here I am, at the end of my pregnancy and I get to see them again. Haha! :-)

I think I am going to go yard saling tomorrow morning since it will be the last opportunity probably before Molly comes. Since next weekend we are going to go camping and the 24th Deric is working in the SLC parade for Pioneer day as a Ham Radio operator.

I went to Visiting teaching interviews today. I probably complained a lot more than I should. Oh well, these last couple weeks have been bad as far as my attitude and energy level have gone. My visiting teaching companion stopped me on the way over there and was like "I think we should just skip this month because of how close you are". I was like "Well, I am planning on skipping next month, so really I am fine with getting this month done since I don't know how it will be after Molly is born..." She's like, "Oh, well, ok, I'll set it up then". Just funny... At the interview we got a slice of pie and then got to choose a vinyl lettering saying. Mine says "Home for the Harvest" which will be nice at Thanksgiving/Halloween time. I needed more things like that...now to just make it!

Today I am going to go do our grocery shopping after I go to Kohl's and use yet another free $10 gift card. It's fun, I go there with these and spend like 11$ and then get 10$ off, so I get all this new stuff for like nothing! So, gonna go make the meal plan now...

Play day...

We went over to the park by Alaris' house to play and then went back to their house for a little bit afterward. They are actually going to come over later today to see the couches and play a little bit. :-) Between now and then we will just be hanging out and taking our nap. Maybe a little tidying up.

Framing

Well, I gave my pictures to Ben Franklin to have custom framed. It will be a couple of weeks before I get them to hang in my living room. Oh well...at least they are getting done finally. :-)

I went to the bank today. We started a 5 year dedicated savings account for River with the $225 we have saved for her in the last two years. Her birthday money and $10 a paycheck have gone into a savings account until now, and we moved it all over today. We will just keep putting it in each of the highest yield dedicated savings accounts each time they end. But she will be 7 when this one closes! Wow, that will be crazy. We plan on opening a savings account for Molly next month too. The goal is to do the savings for each of our children...and since it is in something we can't pull money out of there is no temptation for us to use it either. haha! When they are old enough to earn money for themselves we plan on matching fifty cents for each dollar that they put into their savings (up to $1000/year). They have to continually have an increase in their account balance at the end of each year to keep the money we matched with though. So, they can't spend any of it. When they are 18 the money is totally theirs. But, with the stipulation that they spend it on something important like schooling. I think it will be a great way to encourage them to save their money and use it wisely.

I don't know what to do today...maybe something crafty.

Couches day!

Well, I have spent the morning working on cleaning each room of my house. I have made sure everything has been put away and that there are fresh towels and such. It feels good to have it all cleaned so thoroughly. I figured that it would be good to do with the new furniture coming and wanting to focus on creating my living room and bedroom spaces. Now we have room for everyone to sit if you come out for Christmas. ;-)

Rob Parkes offered to send me $5 because of the shipping costs. So, I am getting a little money from doing the bag after all!

Well, I'm tired for now so, nap time!

Ps. I put a picture of the bag and the parrot up on the days I talked about them so check 'em out!

Happy Anniversary to us...a little early! :-)

Well, we went to RC Willey yesterday to look at sectionals and eat free hot dogs and soda for lunch. I have been looking on KSL and have found a couple that we have liked that have been pretty nice, but an hour drive or so, more money than we were willing to spend on used furniture, or not quite the right color. This was supposed to be my "brand spanking new" living room set that is going to last me until my kids move out (in theory). So we went to the store this weekend because of the big sales going on.

I had kind of given up on finding a sectional in our price range that I liked enough. Everything was less comfy than it looked, or smaller than I wanted (and too much!). So, I was going to move on to a couch and love seat combo to see if we could find something that would work there. We would lose the corner wedge which is what makes the sectional so enticing for the size family I hope to have. Then I saw it; this huge, comfy sectional that fit within our budget (we have been putting money in a CD since last August), that matched my decor, and would stand up to kid's messes! The best part, it was on sale 37% off. Actually, it was probably the best deal there, because two other people bought the same one yesterday while we were there looking at it. All the while saying, "It's sooo comfortable! I love this!" Haha!

We had looked at a lot of the ones that had recliner seats that were more theater type seating and Deric really wanted that kind of thing. He also went and priced out actual theater chairs that had the same things and they were twice as much as just buying the one piece out of the sectional that we were interested in. So, we asked if there was a discount if we purchased the two things together and there was. Since we were planning on getting it eventually anyway we got a two seat recliner with console in the middle (with a compartment for remotes or whatever, and two cupholders). It is a pretty neutral color so we can keep the "microsuade" couch we got from Grandma down there and get rid of the two white floral couches Grandma's friend gave us when we moved in. We just have to figure out how to get rid of it by tomorrow. I am planning on announcing it in church today that anyone can come get it if they want it by tomorrow or it is going to the DI. I'm excited, my house is coming together really well! Well organized, nicely decorated, comfortable. YAY! And...we saved nearly $800!

Deric spent the day yesterday rearranging everything. He moved a lot of what we had in the living room out into other rooms to make way for the couches, moved his desk out of the bedroom and the recliner in, and set up his office downstairs. We have a few little things to do befrore tomorrow. But, mostly it's done! This means we don't have to tear apart the house right after Molly is born, and it is all done for when he is gone over our Anniversary.

We went to the fireworks last night and took Joan. It was really fun, but River was afraid of them for the first 15 minutes. She finally started watching them toward the end. I wish she would like to sit with me when we do fun things like that. But no, she has to have Grandma or a stranger...makes me feel like she doesn't love me sometimes. It's hard when I am so emotional all the time. Oh well, such is life I guess. We blew bubbles while we waited, and talked, and River made friends with the people next to us. Of course. There were some really pretty ones that sent out showers of glittering sparkles that slowly fell to the ground (sort of like the "willow tree" ones, but brighter and more pixie-like). So pretty! And they added light pink to the colors too.

Happy 4th of July!

I'm not sure what we will do today...maybe we will move Deric's desk downstairs and finish that project. Deric was at a lan party until almost 2am so I don't know when he is going to wake up and want to do anything. I made pancakes, but that Isn't super enticing to him.

We might go to RC Willey's and see if we can find the sectional we want, or one like it at least to look for on KSL later. They have free hot dogs and drinks today.

Tonight we plan on going to the fireworks.

Yah, that's about it. We don't do anything as an extended family for holidays out here...

What I can't believe is next weekend is River's second birthday! I invited the Sharps and the Boyles and Joan and Mark. Joan and Mark and the Boyles can't come, so, it's just the Sharps and us (as usual). Anywho, we are having a BBQ and opening presents and playing in the backyard.

Well, hope you all have a fun day!

Deric and his projects...and a Parrot??

So, yesterday Deric decided to launch his own project. We are now moving his "office" downstairs into the theater room behind the couches. Actually, this really helped with the organization down there. The theater "room" is where the rug is up front sectioned off by the couches and it looks almost "finished". Behind the couches will be his desk and chair, so when he has to work late he can without disturbing me...or if his computer needs to run all night for some reason. This means, however, that I have to go downstairs to edit the trek video when we start on that next week...but it's cooler down there, and River now has part of the room she can play in. This whole scenario opens up our bedroom for the recliner, swivel chair, and bassinet. Which works out pretty well. I will have somewhere to nurse Molly at night and there was no room for the basinett before. Today I plan on making little accent pillows for the little blue kid's couch I got at a yard sale. :-) Just thought it would be fun and cute.

We finished the storage room yesterday too by organizing the holiday stuff into one section of shelves, clothing in another, and so on. It looks good. :-) And it feels good. We still have a bunch of Deric's stuff to sort into bins, label, and put away. But, we are almost there!

I wish I could find my boppy cover...

I finished framing 3 of my pictures for the living room. I just have to go get more professionally framed. Deric said I can do one a month. So, I guess I will then. :-)

...Added:
SO, I caught a parrot today. I was outside in our back yard and there was this very odd loud squawk like a falcon type sound. The other birds were being really loud and obnoxious too. I looked up in the tree and spotted a neon orange and yellow-green belly of a parrot! The robins were all flustered and had their feathers all ruffled getting mad at this "intruder". I coaxed it down with an apple wedge...he didn't eat any of it, but he sat on my shoulder a while and let me pet him and talk to him. He kept saying something that sounded like "receiver" or "feedher", couldn't really make it out. Then when I tried to move toward the back door he flew away and was chased by all the neighborhood birds. I ran inside and got some crackers and my car keys and drove around the block to where he was. I found him again and he got chased off again to the next street over. I drove over there, jumped out of my car and whistled until I found him. He was sitting in a little plum tree low enough to the ground that he could come to me without being chased again. He munched on the crackers and let me take him to my car. I got home and found a box for him and gave him some water in a little dish. We got the ID number off his leg tag and called the Animal Control. They came and got him and said if he isn't claimed in 3 days he will be put up for adoption. They apparently go pretty quickly. So, it was a very eventful afternoon. :-)

black paint...

Well, today I am going to finish up painting the three frames I had that would work with the pictures I want to hang in my living room. But I need to get more paint, ran out last night. I have decided that I am going to frame just the photos I have taken for in there. So, mainly black and whites, with some color (like my senior project). I will have to find couches (or a sectional) that will match the decor in the room and I will probably have to make some black accent pillows. Which will be easy enough since I found some stuffing at a yard sale for twenty-five cents this last week. I'm excited for our Anniversary gift. Deric actually tried to use the ploy of "lets go get our couches for fun!" last night to get out of doing the basement organizing work. Haha! Foiled.

We got a lot of stuff pulled out of the storage room, all the old computers are gone. Monitors are the only things I have to get him to go through. But, we still have everything he pulled out and sorted through to organize into bins; the task for tonight. I am just going to organize the other storage down there this morning and do some vacuuming. (there is lots of dirt everywhere)

My artwork that is more colorful I have decided to frame for the theater room. I have track lighting that I am going to point on it so that it gives the room a colorful/funky/theater feel. :-) I'm excited...though I won't see this in motion until probably next year sometime at the earliest.

Well, i think I will get moving...

Frames

I am a bit bummed. I guesstimated how much it would cost for me to mail that stupid bag...and it was off by $5. So, I made *no* money on making that for him. :-( I am too nice...I hate to overcharge, and I always take the hit. In the end I made 1 penny. Blah, oh well...if he orders anything else in the future I will just charge more.

I am starting on an art project today that should keep me a little bit busy the next couple days. It is framing my artwork. I have been collecting picture frames at yard sales if I can get them for a quarter or so. I am going to paint them all to go in my living room (like mom did). Though, mine will all be black. Then I am going to put my artwork in them. I don't know how many of my pieces will fit in the ones I have, so that is my project today...figuring out what I have and what pieces will fit and what I will need in addition. Then I will paint the ones that will work and save the others for projects I do in the future.

Tonight we are going to tackle the other half of the storage room downstairs. Deric's stuff that has been peed on by the cats and needs hosed down and organized into labeled boxes if it is useful or (this is what I am hoping) mostly thrown away. FINALLY after 4 years of keeping it around in the condition it is in...yuck. So, wish me luck!