Happy 2nd Birthday, Jaxon!!

Elmo and Cookie Monster Cupcakes that Hillary and I made today!!

It's my 200th post!!! :)

I don't post with much regularity or really have anyone that reads what I write anyway, but this is officially my 200th post here on my blog.  I started to keep in touch with Adam and with family since we live out of state, but Adam couldn't tell you my blog address if someone paid him and I'm nearly certain that none of my family members have ever stopped by.  But it's totally fine, I blog because I wanna.  I blog because I like to write...though I never write about anything that interesting to others...just my life with the boys.

Tomorrow Jaxon turns 2.  Already.  My little guy is growing up so fast!  It's hard to believe that we'll never again have little baby clothes to hang up in the closet, or a cute little swing in the living room, or a brand new baby to hold and snuggle.  Sometimes the finality of our decision to stop having kids is sad.  Sometimes the thought that I'll never have a daughter is a little more than sad.  But the constant reminders of my amazing life with these amazing boys is overwhelming and wonderful.  I'm so blessed.  The idea that we'll soon be able to go places without worrying about diapers and sippy cups does sound pretty exciting.  :)

Today we finally got started on school work again.  We took a break for Christmas and because we were outta town and we definitely needed to get back on track.  Because we'll be moving in just three weeks, I'm trying to keep things light and not too overwhelming.  I'm hoping to get the next six weeks planned out this weekend.  Adisson did ok today, but grumbles so much about math that he ended up doing twice as much work because of his attitude.  I don't want to use school work as a punishment, but I want him to understand how great it is that he learns at home.  Even with extra work today, we only schooled for three hours.  I mean, he got to spend a chunk of his afternoon playing the xbox with his Dad.  You think he would have been a little less grumpy. :)

Zander did his school work today.  He's learning to write his letters and I told him after he's done with that, he gets to work on learning to read.  He seems pretty excited.  I'm excited to be the one who gets to teach him to read.  I get to be the one that sits beside him as he learns how words go together and as he figures out what it's like to read.  To be a reader!! :)  It's an exciting thing for me!!

I didn't have my treatment today because my hemotologist's office didn't get my insurance referral secured before today's appointment.  :-/  It was a little frustrating because my old doctor's receptionist would have never let that happen.  She took care of everything for me.  And I miss her.  :)

So I guess it's about that time.  I'd like to get some cleaning done tonight so I can sleep in a little tomorrow before my favorite 10 month old comes over.  But that would mean Jaxon would have to quit terrorizing me, the dog, his dad, his sleeping brothers....in order for me to do that.  :)

If only I knew how to say "gyro"....

I had SUCH a good night with my girlfriends.  I try not to think about leaving them because when I do, it just breaks my heart, but anyway....

I FINALLY got my coupon binder updated and reorganized.  It looks so pretty!  Plus my girlies got an impromptu coupon lesson tonight after dinner.  (Hey, they asked!!)  

And I finished proofreading Heidi St. John's book and sent her my suggestions.  It felt kinda weird...telling a published author what errors you found in her book.  I don't handle criticism well, so I hope I didn't sound critical in my email back to her. It was such a good book!  It had so many great tips and ideas that I can't wait to implement after we get settled in North Carolina.  

I think my treatment is tomorrow, but my doctor's receptionist never calls me anymore to tell me when my appointment is.  :(  I got moved to a different doctor at the center after my doctor left and it's been a crazy mess since then. I'm hoping it's tomorrow since I already lined up childcare.  :)

Jaxon's birthday is on Wednesday.  I need to get him a little gift since his "big" gift (little table and chairs) is taking its sweet time getting delivered.  Hillary is going to come over on Wednesday afternoon to help me make cupcakes.  We're going to make cupcakes like Elmo's face...hopefully they don't look a complete mess when we're done.

So I think I'm making a road trip to Fayetteville this weekend.  One of the houses on my list had a huge rent reduction today so I really want to see if it can be the house we need.  I started thinking this afternoon that we maybe shouldn't wait until we get there to find a place.  Adam's uncomfortable not having a definite house prior to arrival in the area. I talked to him about making a super fast road trip and he seemed ok with the idea.  I hope to get down there, check out as many houses as I can, then get back home and have Adam help me decide which one we like.  Then maybe get something official lined up.  We'll see how it all goes.  

Anyway, time to sleep.

Trust me, I've been a lot of candles.

I didn't get nearly as much done today as I was hoping.  Like, I'm terribly behind.  Oops.  :)

This week I've got to catch up on some reading.  

• Finish proofreading Heidi St. John's new homeschooling book.
• Get caught up on my Bible reading plan.
• Finish reading One Bite at a Time.

I've got to get school stuff organized, planned, and scheduled for the next few weeks...including for the move.

Spend 15 minutes each day decluttering my two big catch-all rooms: the craft closet and my school room.

Get my coupons finished (I was reallllly far behind so it's been taking me awhile to catch up but I'm almost there).

Stay caught up on laundry and dishes.  It's been so nice and wonderful to not have piles of dirty clothes and a mountain of dirty dishes.  I'm a little (really, A LOT) worried about how long it's going to last.  When this phase is over (and I'm anticipating that it will be soon), I'm going to miss it.  :(

Ok, so there's the stuff I have to get done this week.  Plus my little guy turns 2 this week.  With all that's going on, we're not going to have a big party (we ask that people not bring gifts so if that's what you're worried he'd miss out on...have no fear!), we're going to have McDonald's (Jaxon's fave), cake, and ice cream.  And of course his gifts from us.  

Right, so lots to do and I want to read for a little while tonight.  gooooodnight, my non-existent readers.  :)

The joy of a sleeping toddler... :)

Well, with a nice and tidy house, I've been trying VERY hard to keep it clean and organized.  If you know me, you know that I'm not the best housekeeper.  I'm not dirty...I'm just messy.  There isn't trash piled up anywhere, dirty diapers littered all over the floor, no flies or fleas, but there's likely a pile of magazines, papers, coupons, bills, and receipts on just about every flat surface in the house.  And Adam HATES that.  So I'm trying.  I don't want to say it's a New Year's Resolution, I want it to be a life change.  I want to be purposeful in all that I'm doing.

Speaking of, so I'm proofreading Heidi St. John's new book on homeschooling.  And ohhhmygoodness do I love it!!  I feel like she's sitting beside me and telling me she struggles with the same things I do.  She gives so much hope and encouragement.  I can't wait to tell her that when I email her tomorrow.  I'm just being so very blessed by reading this "rough copy" of her book.

I've also found a few other books I want to read.  I'll link them up tomorrow.  Fortunately, most were free snags thanks to the online world of free (for a limited time) ebooks. :)  Tiffany told me that if the world ends this year (uhh, we don't really think that...we just joke about it a lot) she'd hate to stand before God and say she didn't have the time to read the Bible in its entirety.  So that's also on my list of things to do...because I haven't done that yet...oops.  I found a super awesome devotional bible and downloaded it to my Nook...with a great reading plan in it.  I'm a little behind (already?? It's barely the second week of the year!!) so I'm hoping to find time tomorrow to catch up.

Anyway, I spent a few hours with my coupon binder tonight.  I got some cute new divider tabs and wanted to reorganize.  Now I have to sort through a TON of coupon's...and get TONS and TONS more tomorrow with the purchase of four Posts.  I haven't been very purposeful in my coupon using lately and I want to be much better about it.  It's another goal.

So, it's late and I need to get to bed...tomorrow I've got coupons coming outta my ears and weeks and weeks of school to plan.  What on earth am I doing online?? :)

Make the screaming stop!!! :)

Tonight, I've been adding some new books to my Nook.  I'd love to get some reading done.  I think it's because my lovely Tiffany has been going on and on about all her reading lately and I want to take some time to get some reading done, too.  I want to do a lot of things on purpose.  Reading is a great one.  :)

So the potential renters came by today.  I wish I coulda been a fly on the wall to hear what they had to say.  I know this isn't "our" house but I would like to know what they thought.  Our landlord called us while we were shopping in Toys R Us (the boys have gift cards to spend) and told us that we'd know by Monday (well, that they would know and I'm assuming they will pass the info along to us).  He also said his wife was very pleased with how nice the house looked. That was nice to hear.

I'm about to head upstairs to work on some coupon organizing and list making.  This weekend, I've got to get six weeks of school planned out for our upcoming traveling "vacation" to a our new house.  I hope I can do some stuff to keep the boys engaged and entertained.  Not everything is supposed to be fun, but it's harder to learn if it's dreadfully boring.  :)

I'm praying that we'll find a house.  I'm trying very hard to let go and let God handle this situation, but that's difficult for me.  I can't believe we're going to pack up and MOVE to North Carolina without having a guarantee of a signed lease.  I feel like we're being crazy, but it's my idea to wait until we get there to look at places and pick one...so I'll quit worrying about it and it will all be ok.  :)

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!

Oh, the love of an Aunt... :)

Ohmygoodness.  We spent hours and hours cleaning and such today.  The potential renters are coming tomorrow to see the house and with as much as we're working, you'd think we owned this place!  My landlord and his wife are really nice people and I really want them to find new renters, quickly, since we're bailing on this lease early.  I really hope they like the house.  Our main goal today has been cleaning and making the house look as nice as we can.  Then for the rest of the month I'll be working on decluttering this whole house.  I don't want movers to box up and move stuff we don't need/use/want.  I hate unpacking something and thinking "Why on earth do we have this??"

All this cleaning should free up some of my time this weekend to get school stuff planned for the next six weeks.  Everything the boys need will have to fit into one bag that can travel with us as we'll be schooling out of a bag until we get unpacked in the middle of February.  I'll be excited to get back in the swing of things with school.  I'm not sure the boys will agree....but that doesn't surprise me. :)

I follow The Busy Homeschool Mom on Facebook and tonight she was looking for a few people to proofread her new book prior to its release.  I emailed her to let her know I'd be interested and she sent me a copy! I'm so excited!!!  I can't wait to read it and help with any suggestions...so I suppose I'll wrap this up so I can start reading!  Oh, but here's a pic to share...

This is a picture of Sophia (left) and Sawyer (right).  Soph was fussing and Sawyer reached over and moved her bottle for her.  :)

This melody was meant for you, just sing along to my stereo

Oh my gosh.  I think the trip gets longer each time we make it!  Sadly, that was our last trip from Ohio to Maryland.  Soon, we'll be living in NC.  It still seems very surreal.  Like it can't be really happening.  I try not to think about how much I'll miss my besties here.... :(

And I'm sad to not be in Ohio.  It was kinda a lousy trip.  Jax was barfy and gross for the first few days and by barfy I mean, took several opportunities to vomit curdled milk DIRECTLY on to me.  Yummmm.  And when we're visiting, I just expect everyone to drop everything to hang out with us.  They don't. And that's selfish anyway, but still. :)  But it was so good to spend time with my brothers and their kids.  My baby nieces were over the top precious and lovely and my nephews get cuter and goofier by the day.  And everyone LOVES Aunt Cole!!

Anyway, we have people coming to look at the house on Friday.  So I have a little bit (read: LOTS) of cleaning to get done.  The contents of a VERY full van, loaded down with Christmas gifts, have exploded all over our house and I'm trying hard to find new homes for all of our new things.  And I have about 40 hours to do it in.  :)  Always up for a challenge I guess.

I'm still working on my list of New Year's Resolutions, but I think some of them might be New House Resolutions because they might need to wait until we get moved and settled.  Ok, this post was a whole lotta rambling about nothing, but it's late, I'm tired and I had a heckuva long day.  More nonsense tomorrow....

Make me your radio, turn me up when you feel low

We gave our notice to the landlord.  It's official.  I felt bad since we signed a two year lease and we haven't even  been there 11 months yet, but what can ya do?  Fortunately, he has an interested applicant that wants to see the house this Friday.  Unfortunately, I'm about to live the life of a person that has to have their house show ready all the time.  :(  This will be a long month.

I can't believe our time in Ohio is over.  :(  I hate being so far away from my brothers, sister-in-law(s), nieces and nephews.  Sure, it stinks being away from the rest of our families as well, but when we're around, those are the people we spend a majority of our time with.  I'll miss them.  Jordan's kids are finally getting to the point where they remember that I'm Aunt Cole and not just some weird, loud person wanting to give them hugs and kisses.  And Luke's girls are so teensy and precious that I'll miss seeing them get bigger and even more fun.  But again, this is the life we live.

Sigh.  I'm so so so overwhelmed.  House decluttering and cleaning, new house hunting...just everything....It's going to be a long, slow, fast, crazy, chaotic month for us.  And February is only going to bring the stress of moving, unpacking, finding our way in a new place, adjusting....

But this is what we do, this is how we roll.  And you know what, bring it on.  :)  As long as my boys are happy, healthy, and with me...we can do whatever, we can be wherever.

Lotsa goals to set...hopefully some work out!! :)

So I follow Money Saving Mom and LOVE HER!! She posted some goals she has for the new year and I'd like to compose a list of my own.  Sure, you could call them New Year's Resolutions...I've got plenty of those, but I'll call them goals...it seems less likely to fail that way.

So for the next week, I'm working on coming up with a new goal for each month.  Crystal at MSM has a new homemade goody that she's trying each month and while that sounds super neat, I'm gonna modify my list to be more suitable for me (the point of personal goals).

Also, Crystal has a new book coming out.  Preorder it on Amazon and show this amazing lady some love.  I can't wait to read it!!

I'm still thinking about what I want my list to look like.  I'm also gonna work on a book list of different books I want to read over the course of the year.  It's hard for me to do too much list making at this point, because we move to a whole new state in exactly one month.  Like a month from today, I'm going to be cleaning up my house after the movers have loaded up all of our stuff.  Crazy thought.

Maybe my goal for January is to COMPLETELY declutter my house. Oh and find a new house....gotta have a place for all these boys to live!! :)