Around the House | Marriage Confessions Around the House

Some fun new things have walked into my little world lately and I thought I’d share them with you. Good finds are worth sharing!

My New iPhone Case

I finally got a new iPhone. I had forgotten how much more helpful phones are when people can hear what you are saying. As much as I love my new phone, I REALLY love my new case. I got it in the Apple store and the brand is UnCommon ($39.95).Â I can’t find my actual case on their website, but when I went to their homepage, I saw something even cooler!Â You can customize your own case using your own picture!Â Well, that’s fun!

“Womb With a View” Baby Sling

I have been using my baby sling so much these days. Gracie is teething (cue the horror movie scream) and she wants me to hold her all the time. To compromise, I’ve had her in her sling a lot more lately. I love this one because the fabric is light enough that she doesn’t get too hot in the summer her and because they have pockets to hold her binky if she drops it. If you’re in the market, you can pick one of these up in my mom’s Etsy shop ($32.00).Â Check out her car seat coolers while you’re there.Â I use those every day!

The New Triaminic Bottles

First of all, I’m always going to be partial to Triaminic over any other brand of children’s medicine because that’s what my mom gave me growing up. I still take the orange one when I have a cold! Gracie is teething and is none too happy about it, so yesterday Chris brought home a bottle of the new Triaminic Fever Reducer (acetaminophen; $6.49) to bring down her little fever and to make her more comfortable. I was so surprised to find that after all these years, they have changed the bottle. Now, it is so much easier to fill your infant dropper because you tip the bottle upside down. Brilliant! I always hate when you can’t get your dropper down into the bottle for the last bit and now that problem is solved! I hope more medications go to this soon.

My Dad

Though Dad isn’t something you can run out and buy for yourself, I have been so appreciative of him this week! On Tuesday, my dad came all the way down to my new house (over an hour drive for him) just to scrape wallpaper all day by himself. Chris and I weren’t even there. He just showed up to help. Then on Wednesday, he came back down to stay with the kids all day while I went to a meeting all afternoon. And today, he’s back over at the new house scraping wallpaper again all by himself. I can’t tell you what a help he has been. ($Priceless)

Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Jumparoo

As Gracie gets bigger, she’s becoming bored just sitting around, so this week I pulled out Bean’s old jumparoo for her. I had forgotten what a great toy this is. She sits in it (though her feet BARELY touch the ground) and just stares at everything and drools all over everything. It’s pretty cute. (Amazon.com; $119.00)

27 comments | posted in Around the House, Fun Things, Just for Fun, Marriage Confessions | tags: summer

In our house, pants are optional only if you’re potty training (no matter what my husband tells you…).

In our house, we don’t own a scale because we’re more concerned with how good we feel than how much we weigh.

In our house, we balance out the oatmeal and whole wheat flour with chocolate chips.

In our house, everything stops for baby giggles.

In our house, everyone eats dinner at 6:00 and woe is the person who doesn’t feed the dogs first.

In our house, naps are not optional, even if it means just playing quietly in your bed for an hour.

In our house, the television is off unless we are specifically watching something.

In our house, music is on all the time.

In our house, shoes are left under the coffee table in the living room and taken to closets about once a week.

In our house, we go to church every Sunday and sing “Jesus Loves Me” in the car.

In our house, we say bad words under our breathe when we step on toys in the middle of the night.

In our house, the maid, cook, and laundress never show up.

In our house, the kids bathroom smells like pee no matter what I do. (sigh)

In our house, we say I love you, please, thank you, and I’m sorry.

In our house, the time out chair is a decorative stool in our living room.

In our house, the lettuce is always ice burg, the carrots are always babies, and the cereal is always Cheerios.

In our house, throwing temper tantrums will result in being sent to your room, no matter how old you are.

In our house, plants die.

In our house, you have to step over babies and dogs while you’re cooking dinner.

In our house, Saturday mornings are slow moving and spent in our pajamas.

In our house, we clip coupons, budget for big purchases, and have college funds for our kids.

In our house, Target trips require a chaperone.

In our house, we share our toys.

In our house, we have bedtimes.

It’s my bedtime.

Goodnight.

*****

Be sure to check out my latest post for Southern Weddings on home renovations with your spouse!Â Click Here!

27 comments | posted in Around the House, Fun Things, Just for Fun, Marriage Confessions | tags: Family, life, love, Marriage

Well, kids. We’ve got a new house. I couldn’t be happier! We aren’t moving in for a few more weeks so that we can do things like scrape wallpaper, paint, and re-carpet the house, but even with big empty rooms, it still feels like home already. I just walk around it with a big, goofy smile on my face. Which is saying a lot considering that the only time we’ve spent at the house so far has been spent scraping wallpaper.

I’d like to talk to the person who invented wallpaper. I have a few choice words for them.

No, let me be more specific. I have a few choice words for the person who invented CHEAP wallpaper. The upstairs part that had that rose colored paper was done using expensive wallpaper. When you peeled it away, it came off in big, clean pieces and was fairly easy to get off the wall. The paper in the dining room? A completely different story. It came off in tiny, little pieces. We ended up using this adhesive remover called Dif to get the paper off. That worked better, but it was still really slow goings. So, I’d like to talk to that cheap wallpaper guy ASAP.

I’d also like to talk to the person who invented baby slings. I’d like to hug that person. Hands free is the way to be!

(Hey, by the way, my mom just added a lot of new “Womb with a View” baby slings to her Etsy shop, if anyone is interested…)

Gracie was having a rough day on Saturday. Her stomach was upset and she wasn’t feeling good at all, which meant she wanted to be right with me – and even then, she really just wanted to cry right there with me.

Chris and I spent all weekend at the house with the kids, scraping wallpaper and chasing Bean up and down the three sets of stairs at the house. We debated about whether to bring the kids with us or not, but I’m really glad that we did. It was so much fun to be in the house with them. Plus, it gave Bean a chance to explore and get to know the house ahead of time before we move right in. Now, when we move, he’ll be more comfortable with where we’re going.

So. Where are we going? WELL LET ME SHOW YOU!!!

41 comments | posted in Around the House, Florida, Marriage Confessions, Moving, Operation BWYP | tags: home projects, homeownership, Moving

This week I completed a course I was taking for my teaching certificate. I’m taking another course online, but this one was in a classroom for the past two weeks. We had a babysitter come stay with the kids and so for two weeks, things have been kind of tricky around my house. Our schedules are all messed up, the laundry is piling up, I can’t find my favorite travel mug, and Bean’s not quite sure what to make of the babysitter coming over all day, every day. Even Gracie has been a little out of sorts. It’s just been a crazy time here.

Because of that, I really have nothing to say for my blog today. My brain is out of whack and when I do have a minute to sit down, all I can do is look around my house and think, “We’re a mess!”

So, I thought I’d turn THAT into my blog post. Here’s what my life looks like at this exact moment: Thursday, June 30, at 5:34pm.

Gracie is sleeping and Kitty Kitty is shielding her sensitive eyes from the filth that is the Casey Anthony trial that I can’t stop watching.

This is my living room. Bean and I were just playing Legos. Haven’t quite cleaned that up yet. Oh, and he just stole Kitty Kitty from his sleeping sister. You snooze you lose, Gracie Girl.

After a quick reminder about what belongs to Gracie and what belongs to Bean (we have that conversation about 10,000 times a day), Bean decided Mr. Bear is cooler than Kitty Kitty anyways and so he asked me to take Mr. Bear’s picture instead.

This is a wedding shower present from a shower that I wasn’t able to go to at the last minute. I still haven’t gotten the gift to the bride and I think the wedding was last weekend. (Hi, Laurel! Congratulations!) So, here sits the gift.

Speaking of gifts, today is my mother-in-law’s birthday. (Happy Birthday, Jackie!) And here is her gift. On my kitchen counter. Shoot.

Here’s the third book in the Hunger Game series that I ordered from the library. Does your library deliver? Mine does and it is awesome! You just sign up for the book and a couple days later it arrives on your doorstep by courier! Brilliant! I can’t wait to read Mockingjay. I’ve loved this series so far, plus I think I might teach with it next year.

Before I can read Mockingjay though, I have to finish the book I’m reading now, Love the One You’re With. It’s cute, but kind of makes me feel dumber for reading it. It’s a good beach book though.

After morning after morning of dragging myself and my clothes down to the laundry room to iron, I gave up and decided I could buy myself two extra minutes of sleep if I just put the ironing board in my bedroom. So, I did. If my Dad is reading this right now, he is shaking his head in shame at his lazy redheaded daughter. (Hi, Dad!)

My watch battery died this week, so I did what I always do. I went out and bought a new watch. Why I don’t just replace the battery is beyond me. I have a whole watch drawer in my jewelry box full of watches with dead batteries. Which is just plain silly. I have some super cute watches. I should just get the darn batteries replaced. Although, buying new ones is how I keep my watch collection so super cute!

Gracie got a new washcloth when her Grandmomma came to visit for Bean’s birthday. Isn’t he cute? I keep him on top of her body wash and she just stares and stares at him through her bath.

In the evenings this week, I cleaned out our junk closet in the office. That’s right. I have a junk CLOSET. None of those silly drawers for me. But, it was becoming a health hazard to open the closet door, so I cleaned it out. I don’t know if you can tell, but just in case you can’t, this is the AFTER picture. The before picture would have looked like a landfill.

I ran out of my favorite face wash last week. And, incidentally, it’s face wash that my sister sells. And, incidentally, my parents were visiting Ginny last week. Wouldn’t that have been convenient for me to call and ask them to bring me a tube home? But that would have been too easy. Instead, I am squeezing the life out of this thing every day, hoping just one more “pfffttt” will give me enough cleanser to make it through. (Ginny – if you’re reading this, I need a refill!)

And this is Bean, who has followed me around the house as I’ve taken all of these pictures. He has now fallen on the floor at my feet and is rolling around, yelling, “Mommy, come play! Come play!” So, I must go play. Because my boss is, quite literally, a two-year-old.