Sunday afternoon naps

I'm the only one in the family not taking one today. Although now that it's too late to start, I kinda wish I had taken one.

So when I ran out of Downton Abbey episodes to watch, my thoughts turned to my little red-headed step child of a blog. Of course Sophia decided immediately to try and wake up early from her nap, but after replacing her lost pacifier and a bit of rocking and soothing, she's fast asleep again.

I think of so many blog topics, but I never write them down and so when I actually sit down to write, all I can think of is updates of what's been going on in our lives, rather than witty observations on current events or deep soulful outpourings of thought.

Sophia continues to amaze and entertain us daily. She is active and spunky. Her poor little legs look like I've abused her with all her bruises and scrapes from running into things and falling down. Her beautiful skin tone deepens with every trip outside. For now, she's almost a blonde-haired brown-eyed girl. In the back where her hair is thicker it's more brown, but her wispy tufts at the top are definitely golden in she sunlight. She also now likes to have her toenails polished. She will sit still while I do it. Yay for me!

John continues to work on the shaved ice truck. Believe it or not July and August are two of their slowest months (especially as far as neighborhood sales) because it is so hot, people are not outdoors much. They do still have events booked, so it's not terrible. He likes his job. Recently he completed all the testing to get into the Radiography program at our local college. The classes do not start until next summer and technically it's already full, but he is on the alternate list and the adviser feels almost certain he will get in as very rarely does everyone who's qualified follow-through with actually starting the program. I'm trying not to be anxious about him being an alternate. If for some reason he couldn't get in and we had to wait until summer 2016, I just don't know what we'd do. It seems like we've waited so long already.

I continue to work 3 days a week. As it is with all jobs, our duties at work continue to expand. There's always more I's to dot and more T's to cross. Sometimes we just have to nod and smile, while knowing that realistically, not everything they want done can be done. I still like my job :) I had an opportunity to take on the same type of job in another company, but for now I turned it down. As long as my job has hours for me, I think I'll stay put. We are fully staffed and looking at possibly hiring 2 more full time workers. That doesn't particularly bode well for me, but I won't fret about what hasn't happened yet. This year our company employees got merit raises based on a formula calculated from our annual review scores. I got a stellar review and may have gotten the maximum raise percentage, but because I'm "as needed" staff, I'm not eligible for a merit raise :( My boss was honest that our company wants all their as needed staff to come on full time staff. Oh well, I don't want to do that. So I'll just keep my same pay rate. If in time that really starts to irk me, I can negotiate for a raise or look elsewhere.

For a minute I thought "Well forget doing a great job if it doesn't get you anywhere". But then I remembered "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord and not to men". So I'll continue to do my best.

We're also going through a bit of change in our church life. Long story short, our church does not have a Pastor right now. I'm not sure if they're looking for another one just yet or just taking time to regroup. We've been having guest pastors fill-in for now. The whole situation has been painful and saddening for us. I learned from John that even prior to this, he'd been considering/feeling that it might be time for us to move on. I was surprised to hear this. As with most big change at first I felt nervous and resistant to the change. But now that I've had time to process it, I'm ready, and maybe even a little excited. I will be sad to leave our current congregation and feel a bit guilty about it to be honest. But I'm also hopeful that our next church family will be a place where we grow and share even more than we did where we currently are.

I know that the primary function of a church is not socialization or even good works. The primary function is to glorify and worship God. But one of the many other functions is the fellowship of believers. We really only have one couple at our current church that we are in fellowship with. There are 3 other couples in our age range there, but none that we have "clicked" with. It is hard to start and maintain friendships when there isn't some common gathering time and place, besides the actual church service. I think we are hoping our new church home will have some groups geared toward younger married couples, with or without children.

John and I have also been taking on a new fitness program for the last month. It is a 60-day challenge through Beach Body fitness. John's mom has recently become a Beach Body coach after doing her first challenge, and graciously provided for us to try it. Part of the challenge includes drinking Shakeology. It's seriously the best protein powder drink I've ever tasted. It's still no Chick-fil-a milkshake, but for all the protein and nutrients in it, it tastes pretty darn good. I'll be sad once our 3 month program is over, because there's a reason it tastes so good, and it's high quality ingredients. So it's also high money. I mean, really high money. And we may be the exception, but we've had a lot of confusion and frustration with the customer service and product side of Beach Body. For the amount you're paying, a lot of their online system is archaic and it's very easy for them to make mistakes. But for now everything is supposedly straightened out.

We are looking forward to more family visits this summer. My dad came, John's mom is coming, and hopefully John's dad also. Sophia and I went and saw my mom a few weeks ago. She did pretty well on her first plane ride.

We are also hopefully doing ISR lessons when a convenient time slot becomes available. I've seen and heard amazing things, and I'll be sure to let you know how that goes!

Of course I can't post without sharing a least one Sophia photo. So here's one of my recent favorites.

I just couldn't do it...

I couldn't do two consecutive months of daily posting. And thus I am missing out on the annual "Thirty Thankfuls/ 30 Days of Thanks/ Thirty Days of Thanksgiving" blogging themes always going around this year.

I thought I might at least participate on Facebook, but I haven't. Since I deleted the FB app from my phone, I'm on there much much less. I don't even upload photos hardly. But no one in my family has complained about a lack of Sophia coverage, so I guess it's okay.

I spent a week and one day without my phone recently. The first couple days were hard. You see, while I was away visiting family, someone (cough cough Hali) picked up my phone (we have the same one but different cases) and took it with them.

By the time it was realized, they were about 45 minutes away. Neither of us wanted to drive to them to get it, so we agreed that when everyone got back to their home cities, it would be mailed to me. Unfortunately overnighting was cost prohibitive, so it came Priority. It was mailed Monday, but we left Wednesday morning to go out of town again, and before the mail ran. We did not come home til Sunday.

The only real inconvenience was that I didn't get a text from my boss telling me not to come in Monday. So that was a wasted trip to work. And then I did think about some "what ifs" since we don't have a landline. Guess I would have had to run across the street to the neighbors in an emergency. But that's all passed now.

We were gone more than home the last two weeks. We went to Macon for John's sister's wedding and then to Alabama (north of Brewton) for our annual church camp. And this weekend Sophia and I are going to Baton Rouge for my sister's wedding shower. Sophia has been a real trooper. She's slept in a lot of unfamiliar places. But I take her sound machine and mobile for stability.

So with all that combined, I have been pretty unplugged from technology. Once I get my photos uploaded I'll do a post on our travels.

For now, I'm helping John with his eBay business. We are finally fully staffed at work again, and so my hours have been a little cut lately. Feast and famine. So I need to help out with the business so we can maximize it's potential.

John had an interview at Starbucks today. He is supposed to hear a decision by Friday. It would only be part time for now. His plan is to return to school this spring. He would like to get into the radiography program in June, but from what we read online that would take a miracle. It would likely be June of 2015. If that's the case he will at least finish his general AA for now.

Changes all around these days. Should be for the good!

Eenie Meenie Minie Mo

So I'm sitting here and decided to "dump" as many things as I can think of in 5 minutes. Just for fun.

I was really grateful for help at work today. I'm covering an area that was a bit neglected, and things were getting overwhelming.
We have two patients that have been in the hospital over 90 days. Both needlessly. One left today and the other is leaving Thursday. Both had bills over 1 million dollars.
I wish my dogs did not shed, or at least only half as much. I love them and wouldn't trade them, but the shedding I could do without. The lint trap in the dryer after I wash our sheets or their bed blankets is just disgusting.
I love my dogs so much that if my kids happen to be allergic, we'll just get them meds. Now if we couldn't cure it with meds, then maybe they'd have to go :(
Today I wore my maternity support band and it helped. It takes some getting used to. I also put it over a cami and then a shirt over that, cause it's kind of uncomfortable straight on your skin. It also give the bump a more basketball appearance :) It still hurts if I'm walking briskly though.
I was putting away John's coffee pot (that's for sale) and I dropped the carafe on the tile floor. It shattered. Sorry honey! That was fun to clean up.
We are hopefully doing maternity pictures in the next couple weeks. I want to find a field with hay bales to do it. I also want to do it before I get so huge it's ridiculous.
Tonight the AC is off and the windows are open. Thank you cooler weather!
I've gone over my time, it's been six minutes. Maybe I'll go for 10.
I'm looking forward to finishing up the baby showers so I can see where we stand as far as what we need to get still. I have some returns of duplicates that I'm anxious to take back, but I figure it's more practical to wait until the showers are done.
My hubby apologized to me out of the blue Sunday night. For something I didn't even know needed forgiving. It was very sweet.
We have three home improvement projects that need to be finished before baby comes. And I can't really do any of them. Does anyone want to replace our tub drains, seal our grout and finish our quarter round shoe molding? I'd really like to be able to clean the floors with something besides water, and have the use of both our tubs!

10 minutes is up...

When I'm in a mood

I ramble. I vent. I want to post things I shouldn't.

Lately I've been much less motivated than normal to be productive. That's really unfortunate since I have more personal time on my hands than before. There are just so many little things to be done. There always will be, I know. But I hate having my mind cluttered with my to-do's.

There's still a few hours worth of touch up painting. And several hours worth of installing quarter round and cleaning/sealing grout. And fixing our closet shelf. And getting a large rod and curtain panels to make a new set of "closet doors". And all the door handles need replacing. And none of our cabinets have knobs. And our microwave needs replacing. And one toilet paper holder needs to be moved and the holes patched, sanded and painted. And on it goes.

If you're not in the mood for whining, stop reading now. Cause I probably have more.

I also want to get a tan, but I don't want to sweat in the hot sun. It's a real problem. Especially since my husband hates the beach, so he's certainly no help in motivating me to get to the beach. But then I think about the cool water and it sounds relaxing. And I want to go. But instead my prego butt sits on the couch. Pasty.

Today my only productive thing has been to clean the kitchen and do laundry. But our bed is getting a complete stripping and washing, so that's good. Even the mattress cover and comforter are getting clean. And I'll take the time to peel off my pregnancy pillow cover and then wrestle it back on. Of course it will all be dirty again in a matter of days. I'm glad I got an inexpensive comforter, because it never stays clean long as long as the dogs are around.

Something I have enjoyed this week is watching some of the Olympics. Gymnastics is still my favorite, but swimming and diving have been enjoyable to watch too. The only problem is, they always break up the gymnastics into two parts, usually doing the finale at like 10 or later. And I never see it all because by that point I'm dozing off. Don't they know the little girls watching need to be in bed by then? And it would sure help out this prego too.

This week I worked all 5 days to cover vacay for a co-worker. I'm glad it's done, because a few of the days were quite mentally taxing. Physically though, I did ok. I even still made it to Zumba Wednesday night.

This week in Bradley class we started practicing relaxation techniques to use during a contraction. Your partner is supposed to run their hands over you to feel if there is any tension anywhere in your body during the contraction and remind you to let go and breathe deep. Let's just say it was hard for John to be serious about that. Our other classmates said they hope we tape our labor because it's going to be hilarious.

We are dog sitting for a few days, so we have 4 in the house. It's busy around here. I don't think I'd want 4 all the time. It's also hard because they are all used to a lot of attention. But for ours, it should be good practice for when they have to share with Sophia. They have been giving some pretty pitiful looks to me.

And I guess that's about enough brain dumping for now. If you made it through this post you must be really bored, or looking for commiseration. :)

And the beat goes on

Ok so I feel bad that I've been posting only once a week. But guys- it has been so busy around here!

The floors are coming along. I can't believe my father in law says he actually "likes" laying tile. It looks like horrendous tedious work to me.

My schedule this week is- work, go to house and paint, eat, sleep, repeat. I'm painting the front door red, and so far it has taken 4 coats. Four. Using a paint that's supposed to be "2 in 1" with primer mixed in. And it's thick like molasses. But I think coat 5 should make it even.

Tonight my hubby moved the bed to the middle of our room so he could rip out the carpet along the edges, so I could paint the baseboards, so we can be ready for the new carpet coming Thursday morning. This left about 1-2 feet of clearance along the walls for me to fit my large self into to both tape off and paint. All while avoiding the tack strips of death. I've found my belly is starting to impede me more this past week. So getting the painting accomplished has been no small feat. Especially when the house is like 82 degrees from all the open and closing of doors to haul in tile.

Needless to say- I will be SO glad when it's all over. I'm not looking forward to all the things that need to be done Friday and Saturday before the reveal party. I had planned on the flooring being finished yesterday so that I would have the evenings this week to clean and organize a little at a time. Instead between Friday and Saturday I need to shop for party food and decorations, do a little crafting for the party, wet vac the floors (probably twice) dust (tile cut in the house = dust of nightmar-ish proportions again), have the furniture put back into three bedrooms, vacuum, clean 2 toilets and sinks, clean off the back porch (and hopefully lay out new carpet), clean the glass doors (our screen doors are a mess of grout and cement prints), cook party food, and somewhat setup the nursery.

Now I feel bad for making you all read my to-do list.

So needless to say, I will be busy. I've asked a friend to come Friday and help I felt so overwhelmed. Oh- and we still have like 20 electrical outlets that need changing, a dishwasher that needs bracing and two towel rings and two TP holders need mounting.

There I go again- making you read my to-do list.

On a funny note- I asked John how we should dress for the party. If we should wear pink and blue and not just the color of the gender- so everyone is still guessing. John told me he wants to wear yellow- because he wants the baby to be Asian. So we can have a genius kid who wins a Nobel prize. He's got such a snarky sense of humor! :)

John is watching me type this blog and asked what snarky meant. So I googled the definition for him. As he was reading aloud he came across "testy". And then said, huh huh, testes, huh huh. So he also has the sense of humor of an 8 year old boy :) He tells me every man has this sense of humor.

Well, it's late and I have way less energy than my pre-prego self, so I better hit the hay.

I hope to have some pictures of the house and the party for ya'll by Monday. I'll add it to my to-do list :)

I would ask that you all say a little prayer

For some friends of ours, who've had their photos and initials on my blog before.

They were so excited to found out their were having their first baby, only to find out today that there was no heartbeat.
It has been a hard 2 weeks for them. "S" had her first appointment very early, around 4-5 weeks, and when she went back for her first appointment where they were supposed to hear the heartbeat, they were told there was a problem. The heart was only beating intermittently and the rate was much too slow. They told her they did not expect the baby to survive. Her body was not giving up the baby though and we all said many prayers and held out hope.
A week later the ultrasound revealed that there were no changes, including no growth.
Today, they were told that there was no longer any heartbeat at all.

"S" will be taking medications to compel her body to expel the "missed" or "silent" miscarriage. This refers to when the baby is not living but the body has not yet expelled it.

With her permission I'm asking all of you to say a prayer. That pain would pass quickly and there would be no permanent physical effects from this.

I know another blog I read experienced this same thing, only she chose to wait for her body to expel the pregnancy naturally, and it took six weeks for that to happen. "S" just does not think she can endure that waiting right now. I don't blame her. I just wish things were different for her.

Doing a little research, I learned that one in five detected pregnancies ends this way. And the risk of first trimester miscarriage is very high. But "S" and her hubby were just not prepared for this. They had no family history of miscarriage and I don't think ever imagined this would happen.

So pray that they would be able to walk through this hand in hand with Jesus.

Quotes

As I'm nearing the end of my "Quote a day" desk calendar, I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you:

"When I buy cookies I eat just four and throw the rest away. But first I spray them with Raid so I won't dig them out of the garbage later. Be careful though, because Raid doesn't really taste that bad."
- Janette Barber

"The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any."
- Katharine Whitehorn

"Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them."
-Ann Landers

"Were women meant to do everything- work and have babies?"
-Candice Bergen

Maybe they'll inspire you too!

Merry Christmas from the Whites!

 

Merry Christmas!

May your homes be filled at this time of year and every year with the light and life of Christ's love, the reason for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope you all have a blessed holiday filled with the ones you love (be they family or friends!) and a grateful heart.

I know I'll be enjoying some much needed or at least very much wanted R&R. I have a few "projects" planned, but one of them is cooking, so I guess it does not really count. I'm contributing four dishes to our feast this year.

My mom continues to be out of town for work. But, her work is fairly close to NYC. Close enough that for Thanksgiving she is taking the train into NYC for the day and going to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! How fun! I've never been to NYC and neither has she.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Purty Pumpkin Pickin'

Happy Friday all!

Yesterday we went and picked out our gourd. This was our first trip to a patch and so of course I had to get photos!

Sea of pumpkins

Wart-y pumpkins. Kinda gross

Dead pumpkins? They are actually supposed to be this color. Ugly. But very ghoul-ish.

"Farmer John"

But no farmer John's wife. Someone had to take the photo!

Then I finally asked the salesman to take our pic :) Please excuse the white pumpkin in the background that was at just the right spot to make me look like I have an Mennonite cap on. Lol. 

Our choice. One for mom and dad and 4 little ones for our fur children

Then we brought it home to carve

The inspiration for this year's design

An Ernie pumpkin!

I thought about getting 3 more after Halloween and doing all the dogs. Not after this! They take a while to carve. Thankfully John did 80% of it. What an artist!

He was terrified to be next to it. Lol.

On display.

All lit up

And I just had to leave off with a group shot of the canine members of the White household. Notice Eby the loner in the back 

I'm so glad the holidays are on their way! Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Consignment Firsts

So my mom is going through her closets and ruthlessly purging perfectly good, stylish, nice trendy clothes. I am very sad I'm too chunky for them :(
But, she also wants nothing more to do with them and was just going to donate them all. And as the pile of beautiful clothing grew, I just knew they had to be too good for a thrift store. Surely I can make a little pocket change off these babies.

So I decided to try consigning. Well, blow my down. I was not prepared for how hoity-toity these places can be. I did not know I would need to provide my own hangers, that all clothing must be on hangers and completely wrinkle-free and that there are like 30 different brands they don't accept!
Anything from Wal-Mart, Payless or K-Mart is excluded. I can kind of understand that. But even some Target brands are excluded! No Izaac Mizrahi for Target??? Sheesh! To me it's not the brand that matters so much as the style and condition of the clothes. Which of course, according to their list, must also be impeccable! I'm starting to feel my clothes won't pass inspection, even after I buy 25 cheap hangers just to be able to take them in.

There's a less stuffy place, but they too require hangers. So since there's no chance I'll be dropping stuff off today as hoped, I figure I might as well try the uppity place first. I mean, that should mean I'll get more money too, right?

Maybe some of you have consigned and have advice?

I'll let you know how it goes after...

Happy Blogiversary

To me!

I don't normally do a post on Fridays, but this day is special. The day before my birthday, one year ago, I started this blog. I was mostly inspired by my bloggy friend (who I used to know IRL), Molly @ StillettosNDiapers.
And here we are a year later! Since I missed doing a special post for my 100th post (35 posts ago), I figured I better get this one!

Don't expect something as beautiful and mushy as my anniversary post for the hubs! But rather I just say that is has been fun to put my thoughts, feelings and happenings down on "paper" for an entire year now and I thank all of you who have followed along. I also thank all you who continue to blog- I love to read your stories too.

I think to wrap up this post I'll pick a "fave" post from each month (May 2010 through May 2011) to share:

May 2010
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
May

Thanks everyone for reading! Happy Friday!!!

New purse

Five bucks baby!
Mint condition. I do love a light colored inside!

I'm so excited!

So, we had planned to go to Destin for our anniversary. We were going to spend one night at a hotel near the beach, but not on the beach. We planned a fondue dinner. It was going to be really nice, but a kinda tight squeeze for our budget.

But then last night, I was sharing with mom about the hotel John booked. She said "oh, I probably had some free nights". What?!?! Well, fast forward and we were able to cancel our booking without charge, book a beautiful brand new hotel right here on the beach in our own city for only $40 with mom's points and change our restaurant reservations to our local location. Now there's less travel time, about $80 less expense for the hotel and much less gas money. That's a big help with gas prices like they are!

Just opened on the 23rd!

The view

It has a lazy river!

Dinner here!

I'm so excited!

An informative rant :)

So, I got this text from my mom a while back:

Mom: "Is it true that Rick Scott wants ya'll to pay 9,000 for your health insurance?"

Me: "I dunno"

And that's about as far as it went. I try to steer clear of too much politics. No sense in borrowing worry for things that have not and may not happen. Until today. I got curious and decided to research it. I found the article the information came from in a Florida online newspaper here.

Two precursors, just in case you don't know: 1. Rick Scott is our governor. 2. I am a state employee.

If you read the article, I fall into the first category, family coverage. Yes, just for adding a spouse, I now pay more than triple the monthly premium I used to. Our dental coverage has an employee+spouse option, but our health does not. Individual or family. Cut and dry.

Now, don't get me wrong, the coverage we have now is still sa-weet. A $180/mo premium for family coverage is great. $20 copay for family practice, $40 for specialists, free annual pap and physical, free outpatient surgery, $50 ER deductible and $250 hospital deductible. Pretty spiffy. Good Rx coverage too.

Buuuut- if the new employer contribution cap is implemented in 2013, my monthly premium for the existing plan (if the coverage and current premium do not change) would be $826.67/mo! Oh my GOODNESS!

That is because while I now contribute $2160/year to my health insurance and the employer (State of Florida) contributes $12,760; if the plan goes into place the state would only contribute $5K, so I would pick up the $7,760 difference. 

Now, don't get me wrong. I am for a balanced budget. I know cuts have to be made, and I will deal with them. But they better darn be sure to start offering some alternative plans. I have the cheapest no-deductible plan there is currently. I like having an HMO. We do currently have the option of Health Savings/Health Investor plans (the high deductible low premium kind). Believe me, I researched thoroughly and ran the numbers. Perhaps if I accessed the medical field more often than I do and had a bigger cash reserve, I would have chosen that plan. In the future, I may be forced to.

But- I feel like these plans are best for major-medical coverage really. I still don't go to the doctor unless I'm severely injured or ill for more than a week or so. I have not been to my primary doctor in a year, because nothing has been wrong. But let me tell you, if all my trips came out of my pocket, I would be even less likely to get "preventative" care. As would many others. Which in the end does not benefit the system at large. That's why just this year all state HMO's had to make preventative care copay-free. To encourage people to do it and not wait until major problems arrive.

This move is to cut spending obviously, and make our benefits "more in line with the private sector." I am for that. But let's also make our salaries "more in line with the private sector." Everyone knows the state has lower pay but better benefits. I could definitely be making more money in the private sector with my BSN. But I chose this job for the schedule. There have been no raises in the 3 years I've been here. And apparently there have been no general raises in the 4 years before that.

The article mentions that the effect on "recruitment and retention" should not be overlooked. I'm pretty sure with unemployment the way it is, there would be plenty of people ready and waiting to fill our jobs, even with less benefits. I'm not so naive as to overlook that. But, I can only speak for my department. There are several departments who already are severely over-worked and under-appreciated. The retention there may not be so great.

I will not worry about it for now. I have no idea what situation I will be in in 2 years, or if the cap will even pass. But, the legislature had better get some way better plan options if they expect any state employees to be able to afford health insurance.

And of course there will be less ramifications if money is cut from the state employee budget rather than the state entitlement programs budget. If they cut our budget- we whine, we protest, we find other jobs. If they cut their budget- they riot, they picket, they are destitute. Since my job puts me in the position of being paid by the state to assess people for entitlement programs, I will probably see big changes either way.