Saturday, March 16, 2013

Brain dump

I don't even know when I posted last. I think it's been about a week.

I know I could manage working full time and having a family, but thinking about it makes me shudder. Even my three days a week eats up a lot of time I could be cleaning, cooking, crafting, running errands or snuggling Sophie. Of course I'm sure even if I didn't work at all I'd still be feeling like there weren't enough hours in the day...

We are working on our house again, a little. Thank you Sophia for your contribution to our tax return :)
John rebuilt some porch steps and railings, and he's also in the process of completely killing all the weeds and grass in our yard, and then we'll start over with new grass seed. The yard kinda looks awful right now and probably will for awhile, but I have to keep the end result in mind.

We replaced all our appliances except the fridge. I found an excellent deal on craigslist on a white smooth top GE range/stove. Only $200! We bought the dishwasher from a friend for $50 and John found our over-the-range microwave at a thrift store for $18! So the new-to-us appliances are all white, but the fridge is still black, for now. I really want a side-by-side fridge, but none that are in good shape have shown up on craigslist yet. It's also limited because we can't get anything wider than 34.5 inches. But I know the right one will come along.

I also got a new rug, dish towels and wall art in the kitchen. Once we get a newer fridge I'll put up before and after!

Last night my pastor's wife had all the ladies to her house for dinner and crafts. I brought supplies to make a mesh ribbon wreath. The mesh was half off at Hobby Lobby and they had a how-to book right next to it, so I took a peek. Seemed pretty easy. I'll have to share how it turned out.

I'm going to attempt to paint chevron stripes on our mailbox. I found a stencil on Pinterest, now I just have to transfer it to card stock.

I have paint samples up for our trim and shutters. I'm hoping to decide and paint within a month.

It's so exciting to spruce things up!

Well, I better sign off and chill out. Mom and I are going shopping tonight to find Sophia an Easter dress!




Sunday, March 10, 2013

My Sopphhhhhiiiiiiiaaaah

Has anyone heard this song:

My Maria

Well, I have my own version:

(Sorry, video not working, I'll try again tomorrow)

So what's been up with us lately? Well, I've been back at work 3 weeks. This week was my first week doing 3 days. I'll do 3 days all of March. I've asked to back down to 2 days whenever they can do without me that extra day. Right now there's a lot of change and new hiring going on, and I will help out as long as needed.

Work has been pretty busy. I am learning a new position so I can cover it for 2 weeks while the normal person is on vacation. It has to due with insurance and there is a LOT to remember. I hope I can get out of there in 8 hours when I'm doing it alone. The good and bad of the position is that it ends early, 2:30pm, the bad is it starts at 6am.

I've been busy enough at work to not miss Sophia too bad. Plus I get lots of pictures from daddy showing how happy she is. He takes such good care of her.


Tummy time



He sends me all kinds of fun photos while I'm away.

One negative is that being away more has affected my breast feeding. I have to pump for all but one feeding a day now. I guess from getting the bottle all day while I'm gone, she's gotten to be an impatient nurser. She no longer wants to suck for 1-2 minutes until my milk lets down. She just pops off and screams. The first feed of the day she will nurse, because my breasts are really full from going overnight without feeding, and the milk has already let down before she starts nursing. But other than that she wants a fast flow of milk and she wants it immediately. I find pumping kind of annoying, another thing to add to my day. But for now I'm keeping at it. To be honest, the 7 extra Weight Watcher points I get for part-time breastfeeding is a big motivator.

Sophie is getting big! I have not weighed her since her last doctor visit, but I can tell just from holding her she is filling out. She seems to be having a bit of a growth spurt. She has been taking random long naps and eating 8 ounces at some feedings! She smiles, squeal/squeak/laughs, acts bashful sometimes, and still has the most pitiful pouty face ever. The real tears also help.

She has rolled from belly to back 3 times. But I only saw it once. I've tried to convince her to do it again. no luck so far.

I've also taken up a hobby/experiment. I am buying in style excellent condition baby and toddler clothes at yard sales and selling them for a little more than I pay for them on a Facebook group. So far I've broken even and been able to cover $30ish in clothing purchases for Sophia.

We got our tax return. New baby+New house+Small business = pretty nice return. We used/are using it to upgrade our phones and upgrade/repair the house and lawn. Our lawn is just plain ugly. It's cut, but it's like 90% weeds, brown and patchy. John is killing all of it, cutting it really short to "scalp" up the dead grass and weeds and then he will aerate it and put down new grass seed. That sprinkler system is going to get used this year! My next crafty project will be painting our porch and shutter and doing some decorative painting on our new mailbox. I'm hoping to give it a chevron detail.

Well, my husband is going to bed and pouting that I'm not there too. And since we spring forward tonight I guess I better get in early!





Our 3rd anniversary

Friday, March 1, 2013

Review: SensatioNail

So- unfortunately I am not a big-time blogger and no one sent me this kit for free in return for my post.

I asked for a DIY gel nail kit for Christmas. I had not researched any of them.

My grandma ending up getting Nailene's SensatioNail system from Wal-Mart.



When I found out the price ($50), I was a little shocked. The starter kit comes with enough product to do 5 manicures, by the box description. So it's about 1/2 price of a salon gel manicure (here they run about $20). But, there is only one color choice. Additional polish shades are about $10.

Well, my starter kit came with a raspberry shade. In fact I think the one in the stock photo above. It's very nice. But for Valentine's Day John got me a aqua and light pink shade.

I decided to try and be bold and trendy and do the aqua shade. I will not be doing it again. I've decided I'm just kind of traditional when it comes to nail color. I like shades of pink and red, or neutrals, and I have been known to do black a few times. But it's just not often I do purple, orange, yellow or anything too crazy.

So I was not prepared for this bold shade, that lasts about 2 weeks.

So here's my freshly done manicure:
Sorry it's blurry. But they were nice and shiny and completely set and ready to go.

I love how there's no fear of smudging or chipping while they "dry"
At 2 weeks. Minor chipping and some peeling where they have grown out at the cuticle


The Pros:
It really is easy to do. Takes about 30 minutes.
They are hard-cured as soon as you finish the last step. No dry time.
They keep the "wet" look the whole time.

The Cons:
Still a bit pricey in my book.
It's a big pain taking every last bit of polish off. It's stubborn. But you need a completely smooth nail before doing another one, or it will look bad. I haven't tried the removal tool, but I did use 100% acetone.
Limited color selection available in stores. They say they are adding 32 new shades, but they're not at our Wal-Mart, that's for sure.

Overall, it is a good option for me. There is no way I would EVER get 2 weeks of wear out of a regular manicure. And I do love to have nice manicured polished nails, but I don't have time to re-polish every 2 days.

So if you were thinking of trying it- I say do it! As long as you are going to use it at least 5 times you will be saving 1/2 off the salon price, and it isn't very difficult to do.