Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Rain, Rain Go Away

I'm a teacher.  The school district I teach at is 35 - 45 minutes away depending on traffic and lights.  We had a huge storm come through yesterday and last night that dropped anywhere from 4 - 15 inches of rain.  The county I live in had up to 8 inches and the county I teach in had up to 15 inches.  On my way home yesterday, I was having mild panic attacks because waves were being made on the road.  At one point, I had to drive in the middle of the street because the water was so high.  I was panicking.

Just got out of the shower to start getting ready for work, and my phone rings.  We have a 2 hour delay.  Looks like I have some time to work on lesson plans.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

My To-Do List for Saturday

So, today has repeated itself from yesterday.  We woke up EXTRA late today.  When I say late, I mean I haven't slept this late since I've had children.  We woke up at 9:00.  I'm usually awake no later than 6:30 on the weekends.  I'm now worried that when Monday gets here that I won't be able to wake up at 4:00 to get ready for work.  I'll have to go to bed early tonight to get up early in the morning.

So, I have another long list of things to do today.  Of course it's going to include the things I didn't do yesterday.  Tomorrow is my sister's birthday, so after church we'll be going to my mom's to celebrate her birthday.  I have to get everything done today.

Gather all dirty clothes (it's never ending)
Seperate and begin washing
Set timer with dryer to remove clothes as soon as they are done
Fold and put away all clothes

Dining Room
Pick up and put up
Organize desk area and change ink in printer
Dust all furniture
Windex glass
Wipe down windowsills
Disinfect table and chairs
Once table is dry, dust using Pledge
Clean art table with Mr. Clean eraser
Sweep
Steam mop
Put out Easter decor

Katie's Room
Spray bed and pillows with Lysol
Make the bed
Pick up and put up
Organize dresser drawer
Organize both closets
Dust all furniture
Windex both mirrors
Clean ceiling fan
Vacuum
Lysol stuffed animals and toys

Eben's Bathroom (I dread it)
Put away all toiletries
Take out everything that needs to be wiped down
Empty trash can
Clean vanity
Windex mirror
Clean bathtub
Clean toilet
Wipe down all knick-knacks and pictures
Sweep
Steam mop
Put out new towels

Kitchen
Clean out icebox and organize
Clean off the top of icebox and wipe down
Wipe down all sides of icebox
Do all dishes
Wipe down countertops
Wipe down stove and vent-a-hood
Clean microwave
Organize pantry
Organize spice/cooking cabinet
Take out garbage
Clean garbage can
Sweep
Mop

Living Room
Pick up and put up
Dust all furniture
Windex
Clean ceiling fan
Vacuum out couch and the big chair I hate
Fluff couch cushions and pillows
Clean Bella's cage
Vacuum floor

Girls' Bathroom
Pick up and put up
Clean vanity
Windex mirror
Clean tub
Clean toilet
Organize closet
Sweep
Steam mop
Put out new towels

Kinsley's room
Strip bed
Wipe down mattress with Clorox wipes and let dry
Pick up and put up
Clean ceiling fan
Dust furniture
Spray stuffed animals and toys with Lysol
Make her bed
Vacuum

My bedroom
Strip sheets
Spray mattress and pillows with Lysol
Pick up and put up
Dust furniture
Windex
Clean ceiling fan
Make bed
Organize closet and remove all winter clothes
Organize dresser drawers
Vacuum
Box up winter clothes and put in storage building

Finish all clothes
Pick out clothes for next week for you and Katie and iron them
Pick out church clothes for tomorrow and iron
Update class website
Work on lesson plans for next week
Clean and vacuum out car

*Update:  It's a gorgeous spring day outside.  The girls were getting antsy and wanted to go outside.  I told them that if they help me make the house look pretty then we could go and play outside.  They helped me!  Katie dusted and vacuumed.  Kinsley wiped down the cabinet doors, vacuumed the kitchen floor, and helped me put up dishes.  My neice, Abby, is staying with us.  She vacuumed Katie's room, Kinsley's room, and the living room.  They did such a great job!  I decided that all of the "spring cleaning" things that were listed on my to-do list will have to wait.  I'm ready for some relaxation.

Friday, March 16, 2012

My To-Do List

We started out extra late today.  I went to bed around 1:00 AM last night.  I wanted to get the most out of my second to last day of spring break.  I set my alarm for 6:00, but didn't get up until 8:30.  Wow!  I can't remember the last time we've slept in that late. 

I brought the girls to daycare today because I have a HUGE list of things to do today.  I used my notebook app on my phone to create my list, but you have to delete each item as you go, rather than just cross them out.  I'd prefer to cross them off, because it gives me a chance to see what I've accomplished.  So, my little blog here will be used for my to-do list today.

Call about beach cabin rental
Get summer clothes from storage and go through them
Wash all summer clothes
Take out Easter stuff and set out
Make grocery list
Organize coupons
Go grocery shopping
Get Amy's birthday present (my sister)
Finish washing all clothes
Iron clothes for next week
Work on lesson plans for next week
Go to pet store: bedding, food, hidie house, ball, tube
Charge Kindle
Organize computer files
Update class website
Upload pictures to Wal-Mart.com
Balance checkbook
Charge camera batteries
Vacuum out car and clean it
Bring 1/2 rent for beach cabin
Charge iphone and sync with itunes
Clean out junk drawer
Charge Leapster
Bag up clothes for Lilly
Bring Lilly's clothes to Amy
Put Katie's 5T winter clothes in storage
Visit dad

Do you make a to-do list?  Do you have a favorite app that helps you stay organized?  Let me know how you plan your day.  I would love to hear about it.

*This is the day after I wrote this post.  I finished quite a bit of stuff yesterday.  My house was not clean, but we now have summer clothes, groceries, diapers, birthday presents, and a beach cabin for the summer. 

I had put the box of Easter stuff and a bag of my summer shoes next to the door before I left.  My husband called me around 6:00 (I was just leaving the place where I paid for the cabin), and he seriously asked me what I had done all day because the house was a mess and he couldn't even get the through the door.  WHAT????  ARE YOU KIDDING ME????  Needless to say, that phone conversation didn't last long.  The cajun came out in me, and I immediately disconnected from it.  I let him call back a few times and I finally answered.  He apologized.  Let me tell you, my hubby doesn't do that often.  He knew he was wrong and had a bad day at work and then took it out on me, but he actually apologized.  I was SHOCKED. 
Even though he made me extremely mad, I forgave him and made him rub my shoulders when I got home...hahahaha.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

What a Fun and Exciting Day!

We did more today than we've done all week.  Let's start from the beginning.  My last post stated that I FINALLY cleaned Kinsley's room and took out her winter clothes.  I've still got to bag them up and ship them all off to my sister for her little girl. 

My best friend from high school, Nikki, brought her 6 year old over for a playdate.  We haven't seen eachother in a while and our kiddos haven't seen each other in 2 years.  We had a lot of catching up to do.  We started off by going out to eat.  I chose Chili's because it's close to Wal-Mart and we needed to get the girls some cheap swimsuits.  I love, love, love Chili's. 
Kinsley giving me her "cheese" face.

Katie and Camdyn coloring.  They were so cute playing together.  They even started singing Adele's song, Someone Like You.  They were cracking us up, because they don't really know the words to the song.  They have the right tune and rhythm, but that's about it.

One of my dearest, oldest friends.  We've been friends since the sixth grade.  That is 19 years...WOW!!!

The girls being silly at Wal-Mart.  We got the cutest bathing suits.  I also bought some spring/summer clothes for both girls.  Kinsley is excited because I never by her clothes except for her birthday and Christmas.  She gets Katie's old clothes and her cousin's old clothes.  She was thrilled!!!

Look how stinkin' cute that bathing suit is.  It's was $10...yep, that's it.  I fell in love with it when I saw it.

Kinsley's is super cute too.  It gave her a droopy bottom though.  She'll grow into it....I hope.

After the Splash Park, we went home and rested while we waited for Daddy to get home from work.  Kinsley took a nap and Katie drove me crazy while asking every 5 minutes when we would be leaving to go to the festival.  She has been waiting all week.  The bad thing about making her wait to go to the festival all week, is that we live right down the road from it.  We can hear the screams from the rides when we step out our back door.

Once we got to the festival, Katie had to ride the pony.  She looks like she's having a blast, right?

Poor Kinsley had to sit and watch.  She was too little to ride.

Kinsley wasn't too little to ride the carousel.  Daddy has to ride it with them.  It makes me sick.  Plus, I'm too short to stand next to them.  I alost dropped Katie when she was little.  Never again.

This child scarfed down the bloomin' onion.  She would pull the crust off and eat the onion.  She was the last one eating and cried when I finally took it from her.

We also ate boudain balls.  YUM!!!  Momma and babies love some boudain.

He's a silly daddy.

Katie and I rode the ferris wheel.  She got on it like she had ridden one all of her life.  She even sat on the other side from me, and she talked the entire time.

I had to add this one.  I had one of those, "Oh no, my baby is growing up!" moments.  She looks so grown up here.  I can see a very big kid in her face.  Made me a little sad.

Kinsley was great the entire time we were there, but when I took her out of the stroller...

She got so mad at me.  She would not look at me and even turned around and put her back to me.  I knew then that it was time to hit the road and go to bed.

As we were walking to the exit, Katie wanted to ride the big, fun slide.  She walked up and rode down all by herself.  Wow!  My baby isn't a baby anymore.

We had a very fun, exhausting day.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Kinsley's Room is CLEAN!!!!

I finally cleaned Kinsley's room.  Her door has been shut since Monday.  I just didn't know where to start. 

She has been sleeping with me, which never happens.  I finally decided that it was time to just tackle it.  It took me approximately an hour and half to pick up and clean it.

Her room is so stinkin' cute when you can walk in it.


Of course someone had to come in and supervise while I was cleaning.


When I finished she yelled, "It clean!  It clean!"  She was so thrilled.


When I was finished cleaning, I did what I said I wouldn't do.  I took out all of the winter clothes and 24 month clothing.  I think it's time that we go shopping!

My Mother

This past weekend, Kinsley got to spend 2 days with my mom.  She loves staying with my mom.  She especially loves the fact that my mother gives her coffee milk.  Yep, that's right.  My mom gives her coffee milk.  That's a big fat no no in my house, but when it comes to my mom, she says, "I gave you coffee milk when you were young and you turned out to be okay."  I'm pretty sure I wasn't 2.  My mom sent me these two pictures to rub it in my face.
That would be a thumbs up to coffee milk.


My mom always makes them a big breakfast when they stay with her.  That's another reason why they like to stay.  I rarely make big breakfasts.  It's usually for special occassions.  My reasoning is that my children LOVE cereal and oatmeal.  That is usually their breakfast of choice when they are at home.  They occassionally get biscuits with sausage, but they never eat the sausage and they whine and complain when they see the biscuits going in the oven.  They usually scarf them down, but I have to hear about it beforehand. 

My mom also has a dog, named Abby.  My children love this dog and she loves them.  My mom named her Abby Cadabby after Katie's first love.  Mom loves to take pictures of Kinsley with Abby, because they're best pals.  These are pictures of Abby and Kinsley, growing up together.

This picture is from this past weekend.

Kinsley and Abby meeting for the first time.

Abby wants to lick that face so bad.

Playing with her pal.

That poor nose got pulled out and poked so many times.

This one cracks me up.  Look how long that tongue is.

My favorite Kinsley and Abby picture.  First of all, I'm in love with my mom's bedroom furniture.  It's GORGEOUS.  Second, Kinsley looks so darn cute here.

Best friends.

Abby even sleeps with Kinsley when she spends the night.  Of course, they both don't stay in the playpen too long.  Kinsley is the only one of 8 grandkids that gets to sleep with her Maw Maw and Paw Paw.  She's spoiled.

My mom loves her grandkids!

She loves me too!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

3 Hours to Clean

Before I began cleaning I had to take a shower.  I felt yucky.  Then I was off.  I set the timer and started by gathering all of the dirty clothes that were in my house.  I brought them all out to my lovely laundry room (the detached garage) and began sorting.  It literally took me 20 minutes to sort through all of those clothes.  Some of the clothes were already in the garage, and when I picked some towels up, the biggest spider ever ran out.  I ran out of the garage screaming.  I had to calm down and let the goose bumps subside before I went back in there.
I'm a horrible wife and mother.  I can't believe I let the laundry get this bad.  I do have to say that every blanket that we own is in that pile.  I wash them all occassionally and today happened to be their lucky day.


All sorted and ready to roll.  I didn't sort all of the blankets...I just put them in a big pile.  That's why you see a red blanket in with pink sheets.  I'm saving those loads for last.  I have since washed 3 loads of laundry, and dried, folded, and put away 2 loads.  Folding and putting up clothes takes FOREVER!  Especially when a two year wants to help you.

I can now safely walk from my back door to my computer.


The living room.  I still haven't vacuumed because the girls fell asleep watching Mickey Mouse.  I don't think Katie actually fell asleep.  She was up asking for lunch soon after I took this.

Kinsley asleep on the big chair that I hate (I will always call it that...I don't fit in it right.  I'm too short and my head hits the back of it where it bulges out which causes my chin to go down into my chest).  She had a major melt down right before she fell asleep.  She woke up at 4:30 this morning and never went back to sleep.  It was inevitable.

My room was easy!!!  I still hate the green shag carpet...yuck!

I do, however, love my furniture.

I then had to stop and make lunch.  We had breakfast for lunch today because like I said before, I'm a horrible wife and mother and I haven't been to the grocery store in like 2 weeks.

I then had to stop and take a picture of Katie holding Bella.  She took her out of her cage without asking, but she was doing such a good job at holding her.  I ended up closing all of the doors in the hallways and putting the gate up so that Katie could let Bella run around.  She hops and does this popcorn thing...it's great.

The kitchen is done.  All dishes are clean and put away, everything has been wiped down and disinfected, and the floors have been swept.  I still need to mop, but I use one of those steam mops and it's a little loud.  Kinsley is still sleeping on the other side of that half wall.

I love a clean kitchen!  I even wiped off the little handprint that was on the dishwasher.

The dining room didn't take long at all.  I wiped down the table and all 6 chairs, dusted the rest of the furniture, and swept.

That is all I got done in 3 hours.  I didn't even enter Katie's room, Kinsley's room, or either bathroom.  I know, I know.  What am I doing still sitting here?  Well, this momma needed a break.  Plus, I broke a sweat trying to beat the clock (it's over 80 degrees here in S.E. TX today).  I'm sitting in my nice cool dining room at my computer while enjoying the cool air that is coming from the window unit.  It's blowing right on me and I'm LOVING it. 

Alright, time to get up.  I'd like to have it all done before Eben gets home.  He had one of his teeth pulled today and then he went back to work.  He'll be grumpy when he gets home.  I'd like it all done so he has absolutely nothing to complain about.  With the exception of why I'm not dressed and ready to go to the Heritage Festival.


Spring Break Laziness

I've been on spring break this week.  It's been so relaxing, but I've accomplished a whole lot of nothing.  I told ya'll that I would be posting the good, the bad, pretty, and ugly.  This is one of those bad/ugly moments.  Like I sad, I've been a tad bit lazy this week.  I'm usually going 90 mph and I've been going maybe 5 this week. 
I know that my hubby was probably thinking, "What in the world did she do all day?" when he came home from work yesterday.  He'll probably be thinking the same thing again today if I don't get off my rump and do something.  So, here are the before pictures.  I will post the after pictures once I finish.  I'm going to time myself to see what I can get done in 3 hours.  Wish me luck!!!
I haven't washed clothes in a week.  I'm ashamed.

We use the dinner table to feed the kids, and hold anything and everything that needs to be put someplace as soon as we walk in the door.  My purse is a regular on the table. 
This is Katie's room.  I'm washing her sheets; therefore, her bed isn't made.  I found a great website that gave me an idea of something to use to get the stains out of the carpet.  My $200 carpet cleaner didn't do the trick.  We'll see if vinegar does.  Oh, and this room was clean yesterday.

Eben's bathroom.  I refuse to clean this mess.  I will do it today only because I'm afraid that he'll get sick from being in here.  I have cleaned it in the past only to have him walk in it and destroy it in the same day.

The clean dishes that are on the cabinet have been there for 2 days.  There are a few dishes in the sink, but not much.  Kinsley and I fell asleep pretty early yesterday evening.  Eben and Katie ate at the festival that is going on down the road.

The living room isn't that bad, but I'd much rather not see toys and dishes on the coffee table.  Kinsley is actually lying on the couch in this picture and Katie is standing in front of the TV.  Kinsley is yelling at Katie to move.  This is going to be a very long day.

Clean clothes on the big chair that I hate.  At least they are clean, right?

My bedroom isn't bad.  I just need to make the bed and pick that little pile of clothes up off the floor.  Don't you just love the 70s style green shag carpet?  It's my fav! (hint of sarcasm)

I dread, dread, dread cleaning this.  This is Kinsley's room.  Did Kinsley make this mess?  Nope.  Katie and my niece, Breanna made this mess.  I let them play with the Calico Critters, which are cute little things with these big fancy houses that come with all of these teeny, tiny pieces.  These are special toys that only come down occassionaly.  They will not be coming down for a while until they can clean it all up themselves.

The monkey bathroom that I share with the girls.  It's also used as a laundry room because I have no where else to hang wet clothes.  I'm so ready to have a bathroom without little monkeys that seem to laugh at me when I step out of the shower.

So, that's the mess of a house that I'm giving myself 3 hours to clean.  3 hours may seem like a long time to some, but I have this OCD problem.  When I clean, I destroy, and then put it all back together again.  I like to clean everything out as I go, closets, dressers, drawers, etc.  That is not my plan today, but sometimes I just can't help it.  My husband doesn't understand why it takes me 2 1/2 days to clean this house that is just over 1,200 square feet.  He can clean it in 30 minutes (huh huh).

Well, off I go.  Time to put on my cleaning music which consists of a variety of songs.  Including but not limited to Flo Rida, Carrie Underwood, Zac Brown Band, LMAFO, CCR, Otis Rhedding, Etta James, Percy Sledge, Adele, Brad Paisley, George Strait, and even some Justin Bieber for the girls (ok, I'll admit...I have a tiny crush on him too).