The birth of a rebel

Today is pea #3's birthday.  My little Hannah is now a "big girl" she says.  She can "do what she wants."  Great!

Hannah is hilarious, cracks me up every day.  In honor of her birthday, I created a little acrostic poem for your reading pleasure.

H- has her own opinion

A- always independent

N- never leaves her brother and sister's sides

N- needs to take her blanket everywhere

A- attitude galore

H- has had my heart from day one :)

 

Even though I will probably have to glue her windows shut when she is a teen so she doesn't sneak out, I still love this little pea with all my heart and soul.  She is caring, feisty, smart and funny.

Happy 3rd birthday Hannah Emily!!

 

Someday you'll show the world who's boss....and I couldn't be prouder <3 <3

Top Ten Tuesday: work related expenses

As we were doing our taxes this past weekend, my husband was doing the entering and I was doing the reading. When we got to "work related expenses" he was diligently entering the money on clothes, shoes and travel he did for work.  This had me thinking: where's the section for MY work related expenses???

Top Ten Tuesday- 10 things a stay-at-home mom should be able to claim as "work related expenses"

1. Wine, obviously.

2. Caffeine: whatever your pleasure is.  This is again, obviously, a necessity.

3. Hair colorings.  Whether it is by the box or at a salon.  Gray hairs come naturally with children.  We need to cover these up so we can continue to pretend we are not getting older.

4.  A very good concealer.

5.  Black yoga pants.  Some nice ones.

6.  Memberships to kid places: the zoo, children's museum, yadda, yadda.  We need to entertain these kids some how and at times, I just run out of ideas. 

7.  Running shoes.  So I can run and stay sane...so I don't run away ;)

8. A DVR...because a mother can never watch a show she likes when her kids are awake.

9. Tylenol.  For all things headache related.

10. Date nights once a month.  Babysitter, a nice dinner, a cute new outfit, and some cocktails.  So a mother can have a night away to rekindle with daddy and come home refreshed for a at least a few hours where more of #1 will be needed.

The Color Run!

 

 

This Saturday my friend's Courtney, Breanne and I ran the infamous Color Run up in Tempe.  We ran with a group of bloggers and it was quite an adventure!!

 

It never rains in Arizona.  In the off chance that it does, it rarely lasts more than a few minutes and almost always in the afternoon.

 

Well the weather gods were not in our favor this weekend because we woke up to a torrential down pour and it just steadily got worse as we got closer to Phoenix. 

 

We had some ADORABLE white outfits picked out: white knee high socks, our cute blogger t's and our awesome handmade tutus.  Short sleeved shirt and shorts.  When wouldn't this be appropriate in Arizona??  On Saturday.

 

 

 

Here's our starting line picture.  Very rainy!

 

Here's Courtney and her sister Breanne.  Still feeling the Color Run love!

 

The Color Run!

 Here's the whole group of us, getting ready to go!  Cute tutus, eh??

 

We ran the rainy, colorful race in about 30 minutes.  We waded through knee high puddles and over muddy hills; and no, this was not an obstacle race.  We were blasted with thick, chunky plods of color.  I think it's suppose to normally be more of a powder.  Well, water mixed with it made the consistency quite different!

 

 

 We still had a blast.  We had to wait awhile for some of the others in the group to finish, which was when we got really cold.  I mean, so cold, we couldn't feel our hands for probably a good three hours later.

 

Here's our adorable Color Run nails and smurf hands!

 

After having the most joyous experience of changing out of those drenched clothes, my feet had transformed into zombie feet.  Eating at In and Out was hilarious.

 

Overall, we had an awesome time!  I would most definitely run this again...I would just PRAY for a sunny day!  Any temperature, just no rain!!

 

Another run in the books...and one with a now-hilarious story (but if you had asked me about it while I was shivering soaking wet under an underpass like a homeless person, I would have had a different response ;).

Happies and Crappies- 1st edition!

I was invited by my good friend and fellow blogger Courtney over at what's up with the wilhelms to link up do do this weekly blog about all the great and not-so-great things that happened to me this week, adorably titled "Happies and Crappies". 

 

So without further a-do, here is my 1st edition of Happies and Crappies!

 

Happies:

 

- This weekend I spent an awesome three days away in Vegas with my two lovely Wives's Club ladies! It was a great time away from my regular job as "mom" and a time to relax and have fun.  We danced, drank, walk, people watched, ate a ton and played the slot machines.  All of this with out any littles following me around.

 

-Coming home to my peas and Mr. Pea.  Yes, I realize I just described a wonderful weekend away from the ordinary, but as much as I love a break, I do love coming home.

 

- I made all my to-do lists for Hannah's 3rd birthday party.  Have I started crossing items off yet??  Not quite, but this week I will be busy doing so.

 

- The Color Run preparations!!!  Tomorrow I will be running in a stream of color and joy; all while wearing our handmade tutus. Is there really anything better than a tutu?? I don't think so.  I also rainbow painted my nails for the occasion.  We are going to look amazing out there!!  I cannot wait!

 

- We got our taxes done.  Hooray!

 

Crappies-

 

- Two more sick kids.  Not as bad as Abby was last week, thankfully.  Low fevers and a dang cough.  Poor muffins.  Jake had to miss one day of school and he was sad about it.  Hopefully after a restful weekend, they will be on the mend.

 

- I didn't get as much running in as I wanted to this week.  I am hopeful that next week will be better. :)

 

Less crappies and more happies...I think that makes for a pretty good week, eh??

 



Top Ten Tuesday: 10 things I did NOT miss in Vegas

 

This weekend I took a ladies only trip with my two Wives Club besties Wendy and Marissa. (All of our hubby's work together, hence why we are "The Wives Club") We had LOTS of fun.  In honor of my trip, here is a Vegas-themed Top Ten Tuesday!

Top ten things I did NOT miss while in Vegas!

1. Being forced to wake up early by a poke to my shoulder while it's still dark out. (even though I did wake up by 7:30 each day anyways, but that's better than 6:30!)

2. Having to get up 300 times during my meals to get someone something.

3. Having to cut everyone food first.

4. Not being able to have a Bloody Mary and/or Mimosa straight away in the morning because I have to be "mom" and "pay attention" to my kids. ;)

5. Not having to worry about anyone but myself while crossing the street.

6. Paying for drinks (it's quite easy to drink and do things for free in Vegas.  I had MANY drinks bought for us while we were gone AND got us in the club we went to FOR FREE even though the girls in front of us were told "it was full" Ohhhh yea...that's right!  I liked to refer to it as Vegas Couponing)

7. Someone asking me "Can I have that?" about everything, constantly {my food, my drinks, my money}

8. Having to make multiple beds.

9. The illegality of walking around on the streets without a drink in my hand.

10. Doing dishes.

** I did miss my babies and my hubby when I was gone and was glad to come home, but I still had a blast with my ladies.  Even us Mamas need a break now and again!! 

fitness friday- a new app! {get sworky!}

Feeling lazy??  Don't really feel like doing a workout, but know you must do SOMETHING??  I have just the app for you :)

I discovered the Sworkit app: fun name and equally as fun to use.  It's free, unless you want to upgrade to the Pro version.  I have no clue what's better about the Pro and never will because I am too cheap to pay for it.

This app gives you set of exercises you to for 30 seconds each.  You begin by choosing "strength" or "yoga and stretching".  Then you choose the desired section you would like to focus on and how long you would like to work out and press start.

The robotic lady will tell you what to do and if you are unsure of what a particular move it, each has a video link that you can watch and see how to do it.  It's very easy to use.

I tried it a few times and it's a decent little workout.  There's no weights required and I did bust out a little sweat.  Now, it's no replacement for running a 6-miler outside or doing a massive weight set, BUT if you are short on time and want to do something quick, this is a nice option.  Plus, you could facebook "sworking it" as a status and it will sound awesome.

This will be my last post until Tuesday because I am off to Vegas with my Wives Club!  Have no fear, though, because I have lots of hilarious stories upcoming and also, I'm sure, many more fitness days because I will have many, many calories to burn when I get back :)

Happy sworking!! :)

Sick kids are like the zombies

My oldest daughter has been sick all week.  It's been the worst.  Both for her and for me. 

Tending to sick kids reminds me of what the world may be like if the zombies every attacked...sort of.

5 ways having sick kids is like the zombie apocalypse

1. The shades are drawn all day, the sight of daylight burns your eyes.

2. Everyone looks disheveled.  Showers and baths are scarce.  The house smells funny.

3. There is a trail of used tissues and possibly bodily fluids from room to room.

4. Everyone is scavenging food and fresh water.

5. Normal day-to-day tasks, like vacuuming, dish washing and wearing deodorant seem futile and, therefor, are hardly ever done.

6. The tv repeats the same show over and over and over and over....

7. People are wearing the same clothes over and over and over and over...

8. All sense of time seems lost.  Minutes, hours, and days blend together.

9. The counter is full of all sorts of vials of mystery medicines, attempting to ward off the virus.

10. You are functioning in survival mode.

Ok, so I'm sure if the zombie really did come, if would be much worse.  But having a sick kid or kids is pretty dang crappy too.  I'm glad Pea #1 is feeling much better so life can resume to a state of normality.  Thank you amoxicillin.  Now please excuse me while I begin to disinfect my house.

The most annoying phone call

There are many murphy law's of parenting. One of them is that children and speech recognition phone calls do not mix.  I think it's Law #135.

You know the ones I'm talking about. When you call some company, ie bank, cable, credit card, insurance..., and you don't talk with a person, you have to skillfully navigate through a series of menus attempting to find your desired destination.  This is tricky enough for your average person, let alone someone with kids.  It wasn't too bad, however, until lots of companies switched from number dialing to voice recognition.  So instead of pressing one for English, you just say "English".  This can be difficult for someone who has an accent, such as myself, but it's usually doable.  It is nearly impossible to do with children.

It is best that these phone calls are made when your children are napping, away, asleep for the evening, outside...just some place other than where you are.  Unfortunately, most of these phone calls needs to be made from 9-5, when most kids are awake, and if your life sucks and don't have nappers anymore, like me, then you are screwed.

I have been trying to get a hold of one of our insurance companies about some cards that haven't arrived ALL week.  The wait times were unbelievable so finally, long story short, my husband got me an alternate number that should've taken me to the correct person faster.  Even though I knew it would be a challenge to try and call them with all the kids home, I needed to do it. 

I am in the kitchen and the kids are in the other room playing so I dial the number. 
"Hello, thank you are calling blah blah blah.  If you would like to continue this call in English, say English."
I open my mouth to say "English" but Jacob runs into the living room yelling "I'm Spiderman!!!"
"I'm sorry.  I don't recognize your entry.  If you would like this call to continue in English, say English."
Oh lord.  "English!" I say loudly.  I run into the other room, cover my phone, and tell the kids to zip it!  I need to make a call!
I run back into the kitchen.  The menu starts to give me options.  Before the option I need is said, Hannah and Abby run by laughing or whatever.  Loudly.  "I'm sorry, that is an invalid option.  Please listen to the menu and make your selection." F*ck! 

Now I start the moms-on-the-phone dance.

 

You know the dance.

 

After being interrupted at least twice more, BEFORE I have even got to pick my option, I run into the bedroom, praying for quiet.  No joke, as I am running by I hear "I'm sorry, that is an invalid option."

 

q;lwkdniwnhfi7834xno%$@Y&HG%#H!!!!!!!!!

OMG!

I close the door, and FINALLY hear my option.  I get to my desired destination and have to "say" some verifying information.  Abby busts in crying about Jake not loving her. 
"I'm on the phone!" I yell.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are trying to enter.  Please re-enter your information now."
For the love of Christ.
Jake busts in, I just push him out and lock the door.
"Thank you, please hold."
HOORAYYY!! I made it!!!
"Our offices are currently closed."

FML.

Fitness Friday- a treadmill workout

So I've been wanting to do a fitness-themed day on my blog for awhile as a way to share some knowledge and also give me an added reason to force me to workout :)  So here's the first installment: Welcome to Fitness Friday!

Working out can be fun.  Eating healthy is fun.  Working out and eating healthy isn't as fun when you are trying to lose weight.  It adds an extra layer of stress and knowing you HAVE to do it makes me not want to do it :).  I have some personal fitness and weight-loss goals I am working on right now.  I would like to run 1,000 miles this year and also lose 10 lbs.  I don't, however, want to not each a bunch of yummy stuff or not have some wine at night, SO it's all about balance and moderation.  I used to be a terrible snacker at night, after the kids went to bed.  Not sweets, but salty stuff like crackers and chips.  Yum!  The past few weeks I haven't done that, which has been great!  I haven't been counting my calories, just because I hate it so much.  I know it's a good thing to do.  I've lost almost 3 lbs in the last 3 weeks, so I'm happy with that. If that starts to change, then I will probably start counting again for awhile.

I am a runner, as you all know.  That's my primary source of exercise and I really enjoy doing it.  With less daylight hours and a hubby that's at work so much, I will sometimes use the treadmill.  Since I am training for the tough mudder in February, I am also doing some weighted cross-training workouts 2x a week, in addition to the 4 days I am running. This is the second week of my training schedule and it's working out well so far.  I can't always stick to the same days each week, like my long run for example, because of Mr. Pea's work schedule.  One day is a long run, where I increase my distance by a 1/2 mile or a mile, two are shorter runs with varying depending on the week (between 3-6 miles) and one "training run" which is usually interval training on the treadmill.

Tonight is treadmill night since David won't be home in time for me to run outside.  Treadmill workouts can be boorrriinng so it's nice to spice it up by doing speed intervals.  I don't normally run for distance on the treadmill, just time.  Tonight I will be doing 30 min.  This is a fairly standard interval treadmill: warm up, run fast, recover, repeat.  I will do all of this on a #2 incline, just because I am not in the mood for hills today :)

0-5 minutes: 3.5 (warm up)
5-10 minutes: 4.5
10-12 minutes: 6
12-14 minutes: 3.5
14-16 minutes: 6.3
16-18 minutes: 3.5
18-20 minutes: 6.5
20-22 minutes: 3.5
22-24 minutes: 6.7
24-26 minutes: 3.5
26-28 minutes: 7
28-30 minutes: 3 (cool down)

If I feel so inspired, I may bump it to 35 minutes because I would like to do 3 miles.  We will see though :)

This is also a good thing to remember too for all us mama's out there :)

                                                                    Happy running!

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Reasons I love Shopping Alone

                                     
Tomorrow is grocery shopping day and David is off so you know what that means....I GET TO SHOP ALONE! Yippee!!

In celebration, here's my Top Ten reasons I LOVE shopping alone:

1.  It  takes half the time.
2.  I don't have to talk to anyone if I don't feel like it.
3.  I can get a Starbucks and actually DRINK it before it gets cold and/or the ice melts.
4.  I don't HAVE to go to the toy/Christmas/Halloween/Valentine aisle.  *Now I may CHOOSE to, but no one is asking me to buy some sh*t we don't need while I am browsing.
5. No one asks me to buy cookies.
6. No one knocks my coupon binder onto the floor.
7. I can use a regular human-sized wagon and not a twelve seater at Target or a ghetto car one at Fry's.
8. I can go down the aisles without the sound of whining or complaining..."are you done yet??" when I am trying to compare and contrast the best deals.
9. I can quickly speed past the other moms with annoying kids and think to myself, "lucky me!!!!".
10. I can actually ENJOY myself.  Yes, ENJOY.  If you don't have kids, you may not understand this, but it is true. Shopping without children is like a mini-spa vacation for moms.  It's the best. :)

Craftastic Monday

Yay!  It's Monday and back to school for Abigail.  I am happy for her to be in school, she tends to get bored quite easily at home.  It'll good for her brain to get a workout.  Back to school tomorrow for Jacob, which is also nice.  That leaves me my two morning a week with only one kiddo.  {{sigh...}}  :)

This past week, I made two different crafts that I would like to share with you!

A few friends and I are running The Color Run in Phoenix at the end of January.  It's going to be so fun!  It's a non-competitive race and only a 5k, which is easy peasy.  It's more for the fun of it.  And....what's more fun to wear during a fun race than a tutu?!?!  So my friend Courtney with "What's Up With the Wilhelm's" and her sister Breanne and I spent all of Friday in tutu-ville!  We made 7 total.  It was quite easy but a bit time consuming to make.  We ended up buying tulle by the yard since it was considerably cheaper than the rolls of it.  The idea of The Color Run is to wear all white since you get sprayed with color as you run.  We made an almost all white tutu, but put a few splashes of color, to spice it up :)
We had LOTS extra (our collective math skills appeared to fail us at the fabric counter at Joann's) so I plan on making two for my girls.  Obviously I will make the waist smaller and length of the tulle shorter for them.

I was going to give you a tutorial on how to make these adorable gems, but Courtney did an awesome one on her blog, so now I don't have to!! 

If you want to see how we made these, check out her blog here: http://wilhelmfam.com/

Adorable, eh???  We think so and cannot WAIT to rock these while we run!

The second craft I made is...wait for it....another wreath!!  Surprised??  I know, what a shocker ;)  I just love these and have been excited to work on seasonal ones to hang up during different times of the year or for certain holidays.

Since I had to put my beautiful Christmas wreath away, I NEEDED to make another one asap!  I decided to make a wintry one that can hang up for the next month or so.  Soon I can make one for St. Patty's, Easter and spring.  I'm not a fan of Valentine's day so I'll probably skip that holiday!

Here's my BEAUTIFUL winter wreath!

I love it!  I chose sparkly white yarn with a light gray.  I used some white bulbs in the background and then glued some snowflake ornaments on it.  I also made three mum felt flowers for the top.  Very pretty! 

I hope you enjoyed my crafts!  Happy Monday all!

The worst sleepover in history

Abigail has been BEGGING to sleep over her Nanni's house.  She's done it before and loves every minute of it.  So, since Christmas break was almost done, we made arrangements for her to sleepover.  After sledding and playing in the snow all day, the kids were wiped out.  We bring her over and stay to hang out for a bit, the whole time her telling us to leave.  We say our goodbyes and head home, get the other two fed and bathed.  Not wanting them to feel left out (mistake #1), I suggest that Jacob should "sleepover" with Hannah and sleep on the floor. They are very excited and I get Jacob's floor bed all comfy.  Now, Hannah wants to sleep with Jacob, so I reluctantly say ok (mistake #2).  I make MORE floor bed and get them all settled.  After a quick Skype session with Abigail, I tuck them into the floor bed and say they can have 10 minutes to talk and then bed.

Yeah right.

After 45 minutes of them messing around I am getting VERY frustrated.  Then the phone rings.  Abby wants to come home.  WHAT?!?  UGGG!  Feeling bad for Nanni to drive all the way to our house, I tell David to go meet her half way, and he reluctantly puts his beer in the fridge, while I get a wine refill.

While he is gone, I tell pea #2 and #3 that Abby is coming home and it's time to go to SLEEP.  Now Hannah wants to have Abby sleep WITH them on the floor, and I say "no way!" (FINALLY a good decision by me).  After he is home, I get now exhausted Abby in her pj's and tell the other two that the next time someone comes out the sleepover is OVER.  Abby crawls into bed.  Jake begs to stay.  Fine, one more shot.  5 minutes later, now exhausted Hannah comes on crying that SHE wants to go in her bed.  FINE.  Tuck her in and Jake begs to stay.  Last chance I say. (I'm pretty sure I said "last chance like 10 chances ago, but who is counting??)  7 minutes later, Jacob comes out and wants to go in his bed.  OMG!  Fine, I grab all the crap out of the girls room, while those two are already asleep, tuck him into his bed and say GOOD NIGHT! for the last time.

"Well THAT was an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back!" I said.  To which Mr. Pea replies, "You're no fun!".  I would like to give him a punch, but I resist...

Now, did they sleep in today since they were super exhausted and were up an hour and a half later?!?!?!?!

NO.

They were up at normal time and were total nightmares all day!  To say the least, they will be in bed asap so I can attempt to recoup some of that lost time from last night.

WORST SLEEPOVER IN HISTORY.  Total fail.

Life organized...binder-style!

During my adventures on Pinterest, I have come across these "home management binders" many times.  I have wanted to make for quite a while, but haven't {like a lot of my projects}.  I consider myself a organized person, but am always looking for ways to organize further.  One can never be too organized!
This binder is a way to keep your important papers in one place, for easy access.  One of the first blog posts I did was of my "command central" where I keep all the things I need on a daily basis to keep the household running. Here I have my planner and two cork boards with my meal menus, important schedules and school papers.  I also keep pens, my address book, stamps and papers to be filed in our file boxes where we keep our important-adult papers (which going through those is one my next projects!).  I wanted my binder to be an extension of this center, but I also wanted it to include my bills, some cleaning info and important contact numbers.  I had a bill binder and blogging binder and it was just too many binders!!  This binder would become the end all, be all of binders; combining all of this into one.
I started off getting a one-inch binder at good-old Target and some dividers. I have pinned MANY home management binder links so after going through all of these, I found some excellent printables for you!  All of these are free, which is great.  There are some ADORABLE ones on Etsy, but I just don't want to pay $$ for them.

My binder includes seven sections.  This is what I have in them:

1. Bills-
* My monthly bill recording sheet, which I have all our bills listed with due dates, what I paid and when. (this sheet I made myself)
* An annual bill schedule, where I keep track of any bills that are paid quarterly or weekly.
* A list of all our bill-related user names and passwords
* Utility/services contact sheet

2. Budgeting-
* currently empty, haha, BUT I plan on trying to stick to a better budget, so I want to make/find a nice monthly expense tracking sheet SOON!
* Lined paper, for jotting down info

3. Contacts-
* A list of couponing/store user names/passwords
* A list of all other miscellaneous user names and passwords
* A master list of all birthdays
* Insurance policies contact list
* Medical and Health insurance contact sheet
* A list of the most important friends and family contacts.  I keep all in an address book, but these are more for emergency purposes.

4. Cleaning-
* Daily, weekly and deep cleaning monthly cleaning lists

5. Blogging-
* Calendar printout
* Blogging recording so I can jot any ideas down of what I wanted to blog about!

6. School-
* A copy of the school schedule
* Important teacher/school info sheet (with phone numbers, emails, and bus info)

7. Ways to play-
* I found this cute monthly "way to play" printable a ways back on pinterest (where else??) and thought it would be a cute addition to my binder, for when I run out of ideas of crap to do with the peas.

Other sections that you may want to include would be:
- A printable calendar where you can record important appts and things, if you don't already have a planner.
- A meal planning schedule.  I print out a calendar every month and write out what we are having for supper and tack it on my board, but it could go in here as well.
- More in-depth medical records.  After having three kids with lots of appts, I made a huge binder solely devoted to medical information.  This is where I keep track of our Flex Spending transactions, keep receipts and all copies of papers we get.  This info gets filed at the end of the year when we do our taxes and I start fresh again the next year.  I wanted to keep this separate, since mine is just so dense as it is.
- A section for your pets info, if you take your animals to vet more often than I do ;)

I am toying with the idea of making a couponing section where I can track my savings and also a section for planning freezer meals, which is something I would like to work on more.  I haven't gotten that far yet, though.

So there you have it.  My Thomas Family Home Management Binder- Yippee!  I love being organized...it makes my heart happy <3

Enjoy!


Here is where I got the majority of my printables from:

The cleaning printables: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/search/label/Cleaning

Basically everything else, except the ones I have made: http://www.organizinghomelife.com/archives/4275

Some of the blogging organizing papers I like:
 http://www.babble.com/crafts-activities/10-free-blog-planners-to-download/

http://www.homeschoolinmama.com/2012/05/blog-post-organizer-lets-get-started.html

http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2012/02/free-printable-blogplanner.html

Ways to play: http://lets-explore.net/blog/ways-to-play-monthly-downloads/