Birthday Party!!

This year was the first year we had a birthday party for Macie and all of her classmates. We never invited any children besides her cousins. We decided this year, since she is in 'big school', we will throw the bash for her. Her whole kindergarten class was invited, plus cousins, and a few friends of hers whose parent's are our friends. We rented out a local fitness center and they planned the games and took care of cleaning up. It was well worth it. I don't want to put details on here, but I recommend it, so if you are interested, let me know and I will fill you in.

The kids played about 4 games. The trainer that was hired for the party coordinated them so the parent's could just sit back and watch, including Jeremy and I. The children played a scooter racing game, a parachute game, and showed off their skills on a rock climbing wall. The trainer then took them into a room where racquetball is usually played in and had the kids throw a huge ball in the air. If you have ever been in such a room, you can imagine how loud it was!

Here is Macie on the rock climbing wall.


Zoa climbing...and she didn't fall and get another knot.


Here is the big pink ball.


They played "Cat and Mouse" with the parachute. Our niece didn't want to get under the parachute, but all the other kids did!


The Scooter Races



Blowing out the candles on her High School Musical Cake.


And the presents!




I think everyone enjoyed themselves and with her birthday being so close to Christmas and Zoa's being in the end of November, our house looks like Toys R Us relocated to our home for the time being! Thank you to everyone who came and gave the girls presents! They love everything!

Tonight, Jeremy and I took the girls to see The Water Horse, Legend of the Deep. It was a decent movie, but in my opinion, they portrayed it to be more of a kid's movie in the previews. There were a few scenes where I had to describe to Macie. We enjoy taking our girls to movies - it is something we can all do together and all have a good time. We have seen Enchanted, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and now The Water Horse. To us, they are rated from best to worst in that order. But we still had a good evening and spent some quality time, so it all worked out.

Tomorrow, we are in for a busy day. Church, wedding dress shopping with my sister, back to church for AWANA, then a baby shower. Whew...I am already tired just thinking about it! Have a good week!

Back to school, back to school...

I have decided to start taking classes again. I already have 40-something hours but I am ready to finish it up and get a job that I love! My job now has everything I like - flexibility, good pay for what I do, somewhat easy, although somewhat time consuming tasks - but I don't love it, as in, don't love it enough to do it the rest of my life. I want to do social work. I have wanted to do this since I have been 14 years old. The pay would not be that great until I get my master's, which I plan on doing as well. I really want to be a child therapists, or focus on children anyways. I want to help children deal with death, divorce, school...etc. I was going to do psychology, but I can do the same thing I want to do but with a degree in social work. There are a lot more options for jobs with social work, as opposed to psychology.

I signed up for part time classes at a community college. They are Internet classes so I will not be driving a lot and I can do them in the evenings. I have done this before and signed up full time, and with the girls and work and having a home, it was too overwhelming. I am taking 7 hours, which once I get to 50-60 hours, I will transfer everything to William Woods University. They are located in Fulton but 'branch' out all over the sate. They have an accelerated program to get your bachelor's in two years going 2 nights a week. Once that program gets going, I will be done in roughly 2 years. Then I will get my master's. But I will cross that bridge once I get there.

So, it's back to school for me. Reminds me of that song on Billy Madison. Ha!

Other than that, everything has been nothing but normal. We decided to get the girls in ballet/tap. So, that will start up the week of Feb. 4. I am really excited to see them in their little tu-tus. Macie will begin this time in Pre-ballet and Tap and Zoa was going to begin, but Monday nights are not good. (I already committed to a church group.) In August, they will both be going with a recital in May! I cannot wait. Zoa is just now getting to the age to start extra activities. I hope she likes it. We went their to sign up and as we were leaving, she wanted to stay and have a dance party. So cute! Macie has not found her niche yet so hopefully this will be it. We have tried soccer and gymnastics so far, but nothing she absolutely loves yet. Maybe I will get lucky and they will love the same thing! One can only pray!

Between work, school, the girls and their stuff, Herbalife, and church, I should have a few minutes of each day to myslef! But, everything will come out better when it is all done, so I am happy!

Last night, the girls stayed with my parent's and here is the conversation between Zoa had my mom:

Zoa: What's that, Maw-maw?

My mom: That is my badge for work. I need to put it on a different string because that one is old.

Zoa: Yes, maw-maw. That is dwangwous. (Dangerous)


My mom called me and we were laughing so hard! I love their little words!

Step 1:

Dana, the writer of a blog I read, Think Pink, shares one of the same New Year's Resolution as me. Oragnize! She posted a link to a Decluttering Calendar, that makes sense! Each day, you complete a small task. I will do this this year.

After I signed up for the email newsletter, which I hope will keep me that much more on track, I recieved my first tip. I will write these on here as I get them.


1. How do you want to feel this week? What is one action you can take.
Accomplished. I need to get my house back in order. Not in depth, but just visually.

2. Identify one time waster you can decrease.
Collecting laundry from throughout the house. It just needs to go in the laundry room.

3. You are enough. Write down 5 accomplishments from today.
1. Called Dance Extensions.
2. Got my thoughts together.
3. Put together the calendar for the year.
4. Printed pictures for the toy bins.
5. Semi-cleaned my desk.

4. Calm yourself down with deep breathing during stressful situations.

5. Make a list of things you would like to finish up from last year.
1. Painting the inside of our house.
2. Finish the girls' closets and dressers.
3. Organize the garage.
4. Finish decluttering the basement.

6. Do one task that has been on your to do list since 2007.

7. Do something you are passionate about.
Read!

Going Green

I have added a couple of New Year's Resolutions. I don't expect to get them fully done and checked off anytime soon. I realize that I cannot organize my car, desk, home, basically life, in one day. So instead, I take it one day at a time. That's all I can humanly do.

My new resolution is to start being more 'earth friendly'. I have put a lot of thought into it and everything around us, we take in. Chemicals we clean with, we breathe in. Preservatives and chemicals for food, we eat. The list goes on and on. I have always tried to buy organic food when I see it. I don't think that because our children are just that, children, that they should eat chicken nuggets and french fries every night. They get their side salad with Jeremy and I when we go out to eat. I have not always felt this way about my girls. Jeremy and I have always tried to eat healthy. I have not always been a stickler about it with the girls. We were blessed with children who will try anything and 99% of the time, they will like it. So, my theory on this is if they like healthy choices, then why not give that to them over other food?

So back to the resolution, I have organized the toy room. We had these open stackable bins for all of the toys. I bought new ones so for the old ones, we will use for our recycle bins. I have been doing some research on how to start a home recycling program and never realized how in depth it is. The are quite a few different types of plastic. You can recycle paper, but not envelopes because of the sticky part. That is just a few of the tips. You can visit Earth 911 to find a center close to you, plus their contact information. Our location does not have a pick-up service, but it is just a few minutes from our home, so we can drop it off.

Our other going green move was to start buying "Family and Earth Friendly cleaning products". Thankfully, my mom and dad bought Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day products for us for Christmas. They smell so good! It is not outrageously priced either - nothing more than we would have spent at Wal-Mart for all of it. I bought Method products at Target about a month ago and they work great also. These are all non-toxic and green friendly!

We also have started purchasing these light bulbs. They are a little more expensive than regular light bulbs so instead of re-doing our whole home in them, as a bulb goes out, we will replace it with an energy saving one. That way, we are not out a lot of money at one time.

I have been thinking about this for about 2 months now and researching all of it. Then, I turn on Oprah last week and Method and Mrs. Meyers Clean Day was on there, so I know it is okay if Oprah likes it! There were a lot of great tips on there and it helped us realized that if everyone did something, that it would make a difference.

On a lighter note, it is a somewhat dreary Tuesday. It is kind of scary how much it feels like spring. Here is a picture of the girls after they had baths last night. They love the new towels Ninny and Pop got them for Christmas!

Getting Back into Life

Birthdays were celebrated. The holidays are over. The toys are picked up. Chrsitmas vacation at school is over. We are finally getting back into how daily life is. Normal. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays. Really. But deep down, I am a home body. I love to just relax and watch television or read a book. I am ready for my home to be clean again so I can do that without feeling guilt over it. Maybe I am just getting older. I never thought being 24...nevermind...it cannot be that.

I think that everyone should get a two week vacation around the holidays, not just students.

Is 2008 the year?

A new year is upon us, and that means times for resolutions. Is this the year I will actually follow through? I think in the past, my resolutions have always been somewhat unrealistic. Work out everyday (not enough hours in the day to do that), lose weight to get to 'x' amount of pounds (I will never be that skinny), or always keep my house clean (once again, not enough hours). This year I have made two resolutions. I am only going to post about one because the other one is somewhat a cliche resolution, if that makes sense. But this is one of the most important ones and will make me feel better overall.


1. Become more organized. Our home appears somewhat clean if you were to just take a glance inside. But if you really start digging, the closets are unbearable and we have too much clutter. I do not like to throw things away, except if I am in one of those moods and then I start pitching without regret. Do I really need a size 3-6 months white onesie from Wal-Mart with formula stains on it? Really? Nope...in the trash it goes. My goal is to go through the entire house, one cabinet, drawer, room, etc. at a time and do this. I like to keep quite of bit of the girls' drawings, homework, and crafts for later on. I plan on keeping this, but I need to come up with a system for it.

I have started with the toy room. You can ask anyone who has been to my house, this is the root of our home's evil. We bought about 10 clear storage containers. I then printed out pictures of the toys that belong in there - baby dolls, kitchen stuff, dress-up clothes, electronic toys, etc. - which will help the girls be able to identify what goes where. So far, the system has proved that it will work, with a little more learning on their part.


So, there it is. I hope that the organization comes easy and not too time consuming, and I hope it stays.

Happy New Year! What's your resolution?