Hubby's car battery died yesterday in the middle of his workday in Tucson. He got it into a Chevy dealer and slid in the "warranty" period by 39 miles....praise the Lord!! Anyways, they changed his battery but didn't get it done until closing last night. He had planned on coming back home last night and had left his computer and everything at home so he could just come home and work. Well, since his car was going to get done so late, I hated for him to have to drive home so we went down there and stayed with him.

Half of today was spent hanging in the hotel room waiting for hubby to get done with his workday. We drove home "together" and met Mom at Recollections (remember, the COOLEST scrapbooking store ever!). They were having their yearly clearance sale. I went there intending to *only* spend $20.....I spent $30. I'm working on a project for a childhood friend of mine that is having a baby next month. I'm making them an "explosion book" to put pics in of their new baby. It starts out as a "box", then you take the lid off and it opens all up. Very cute idea! I also got some paper and embellishments to start scrapping photos of Hannah and Hailey. I'm starting with the girls, doing their pages at the same time, then I'll do the boys' together.

After Recollections, we went to the mall and watched "Ratatouille". Very cute movie. I would have enjoyed it a bit more if I wasn't busy keeping the baby "happy" but she wasn't too bad for me. She actually sat and watched about 20 mins of it. The other time was spent nursing, burping, and rocking......over and over LOL.

Well, that was our last 2 days!

I ended up having my cheat night last night. I was craving fries really bad and had Wendy's chicken nuggets and fries for dinner. Then later I had strawberries w/cream for dessert. I ordered a diet coke with my dinner so I didn't do TOO bad.

Today, well tonight, was a little hard for me but I forced myself to make good choices. Believe me, it wasn't easy! I actually headed out to go get a soda and some sort of snack, a BAD one, I ended up with a diet soda and sunflower seeds LOL. Oooh, life on the edge.....

Becky will be joining me here tomorrow (Wednesday) if she didn't start today. I'm NOT giving her a choice about it, she's going to be my diet buddy again! Becky, luv ya!

Today I finally got my business license. It was a little more expensive than I expected but nothing too major. I guess I'm "legal" now (g). Look out world, here I come....

I hope my business cards come soon, I'm really wanting to get another client by the end of July and one more by the end of August.

Mom came over last night and I got Quickbooks loaded on my computer and my business set up. Now just need more clients!

Hubby finally got me high-speed internet. It's *only* 14.95/month for 6 months then it goes up to $30/mo but that's still a pretty good price. We're going to lose our "landline" since we don't use it, so it's a wash.

I don't have batteries for my camera so i've not been able to get a recent pic of Hailey on here. I'm making it a priority though since I don't wanna lose any time getting pics of her.

Ok, nuff rambling?!

My weigh-in this morning was 182. Down 4 lbs since last Monday. I will have my "cheat" meal tomorrow night probably.

Just found out some GREAT news. I don't have to file taxes with the state or get a state business license! I just need to go down to the city and get an occupational license but "services" are non-taxable in Arizona. No wonder I couldn't figure out how to register properly online! (g)

Ok, off to make some phone calls, so gotta get off the net now....

Oh, if anyone's interested my website is http://sparklecleaningonline.com

I'm still tweaking it a bit but the "look" overall is what I'm sticking with.

Ok, gotta go!

Last night was movie night. We watched an older movie from the 90's called Jungle 2 Jungle. Stars Tim Allen and Martin Short. Funny movie and the kids got a kick out of it.

Today we went to the mall with Mom. We were looking into dropping our land-line phone and dial-up and getting DSL. They didn't have a lower price than our current phone company, so we'll be going with our current one. I saw a couple of things that I wanted to get (ok I was coveting!) specifically they "Chuck Taylor" Ladies Converse shoes and there was a purse at the Fossile store that I just adored. We simple can't afford those kindof luxuries so opted "no thank you". The purse COULD have doubled as a diaper bag though.......::snort::

After the mall we stopped at my favorite scrapbooking store EVER! Recollections. Not sure if they're a chain or not but they have EVERYTHING you could ever want to use scrapping. Seriously. Anyways, I stopped in and got the 4 pieces of paper I needed to complete a project.

Got home and made a roasted chicken with various sidedishes for dinner. I say "various" because I actually made 3 different sets of sidedishes. Cucumber salad, jicama, and tomatoes for me (low carb!), pasta for the kids, and baked potatoes w/corn on the cob for Mom and Michael. I think I had 5 "servings" of veggies in that dinner and I'm completely stuffed. I totalled it up though and my dinner had under 250 calories and 10 grams of carbs. Feels like I ate a horse though! Not sure I could do the 10 servings a day thing.....ugh.

Hailey's wearing one of her new dresses that she got at the shower with little white tights and black patent shoes. She's going to be adorable! I'll make sure and get a picture and post it on here. Hannah of course had to find something that sortof matches so they can "match" tomorrow. If I could find them "twin" outfits for them she'd be all over it! She's fully embracing her big-sister role....

I had Hannah weigh herself, then weigh herself holding Hailey today. Hailey is 10 lbs. I've got her 2 month checkup next week so I'll know exact weight, but wow she's growing fast! I'll spare you the whole "They grow up so fast" thoughts that are running through my mind....though I will say that I really DO wish they could stay babies a little while longer.

School is going great. Hannah is cruising along, she's got quite the workload though compared to the boys. They finish before her everyday. Brandon is doing well, still struggling a bit with reading. He's just missing some thought process that most people have, we're working around it the best we can. I'm trying HARD to be patient with him. I'll leave it at that. Jake is doing very well, he'll be reading by the end of the year. He LOVES math just like Brandon and always asks to do more pages. Poor Matty is feeling left out a bit. I've gotta get him some kindof workbooks to work on when we do school. Hailey wants in on all the school "fun" too. She wants to be laying smack-dab in the middle of everyone. It's funny.

Got my website running. It's not "perfect" yet so I'm still not posting the link but I'm soooo stoked that it's running already. I've honestly had much more trouble getting a site up before. I've even got my own email and it forwards automatically to my hotmail inbox. Too cool!

Hubby left this morning to go to San Francisco. He'll be back tomorrow night.

My "diet" is going strong. I've already weighed myself and I've already reached my goal for Monday's weigh-in. Anything more is super great!

Tonight we went on a hunt for a cheap table to put in our school room. Right now we school on the floor of the school room. It works but we have all of our stuff laying everywhere. I'd like to at least have things up off the floor. We have a bookshelf but I'm just too lazy to put everything on it everyday. We have sooo many books, manuals, etc. I will just do better to have everything laid out already. Oh, anyways we found a "maybe" table at Goodwill. I'll have hubby go first thing Saturday morning and see if it's still there since they're having a 50% off sale then. I did pick up some 3-6 month pajamas for Hailey. She's already outgrowing her 0-3 month ones. I also picked up a pair of denim shorts for me and one for Hannah as well.

The spy kit was a hit! He's been going around the last couple of days "sleuthing". Today was his actualy birthday. My Mom came over this evening to take him shopping for a gift. He came home with some kindof racetrack. I didn't get a very good look at it. He also picked out a Transformers book.

I ordered my business cards this weekend as well as my website name. I don't really NEED a website but I couldn't get an email address from a "free" service, they were all taken. I figured the fastest way to get my "own" was to get the domain and make my own. It'll be more professional that way anyways. I'll post the link on here so you all can take a peek if you want, as soon as I get it finished. It'll probably take me a little bit to get it up and running. Hubby helped me make a professional looking invoice last night and he turned it in today when he went to work.

I've done really well on my diet yesterday and today. I cheated a little bit this weekend but not over the top or anything. My weigh-in yesterday was 186. I'm hoping to lose at least 2 lbs by next Monday, we'll see. I weigh-in on Mondays because it FORCES me to be good on the weekends when hubby is home!

We finally started back with school yesterday. We're behind the curve now so we've got some catching up to do. Between school, my biz stuff, and regular "home" stuff, I've just been plain busy! It's a good busy though. I don't do good when I don't have things "pressing".

Hailey got her first "cold" on Sunday. She was a little worse yesterday but she's a little better again today. Poor baby, I can't stand when my babies are sick. She's been a little extra fussy and wants to snuggle more, which I don't mind!

Becky, thanks for the ideas for Brandon's spy kit. My dad is sending a magnifying glass and I was already planning on picking up a pair of binoculars tomorrow if they aren't too expensive. The disappearing ink thing is a great idea. I think crayola has something like that out. I already got a watch, guess I forgot to list that. It's one with all kinds of buttons on it making it look real "spyish". I picked up a small toolbox to put it all in but the lunchbox was a great idea. Might check out the price of those as well tomorrow.

Not much else going on around here except I'm still working on my business details. Trying to figure out how/what kindof business licenses to buy. Az is so confusing compared to Wa! I think I'll actually have to go down to their office on Monday.

Oh-Oh-Oh! Exciting news! I picked up the Tradesmen account today. Well, actually my sales rep. (errr hubby) landed it for me today. I start tomorrow and it's a bi-weekly account. Things are rolling.....

On other news, I've been doing pretty well on diet this week. I'm down about 3 lbs so far. I did eat a little more than I should've tonight but didn't stray too far. I had SF pudding and a SF Jello with whipped cream on top. Hubby actually had a "cheat" night so I feel pretty good about my choices, I could've been so much worse!

Ok, piece out!

(I know it's "peace out", but the whole "peace" thing is not my style, a little too hippie-ish. I visualize "whirrled peas" not "world peace".....snickering and ducking)

Let's see, yesterday we went down to Tucson again to stay with hubby in the hotel again. We decided to go ahead and do part of Brandon's birthday "party" yesterday and did Peter Piper Pizza for dinner. Birthdays here are week-long events. The kids spent their allowances at the Dollar Tree today, they were thrilled. I was also able to put together a pretty cool (at least I thing so!) gift for Brandon with things from there. I put together a "spy kit".

This kit included:

Flashlight
An i-pod looking radio (for receiving secret messages of course)
Pedometer (to count your paces)
Notepad (to record your "clues/info")
Mechanical pencils for above mentioned notepads
"Funny glasses" and "false teeth" (for cleverly disguising oneself)
Tapemeasure (never no when you're gonna need one!)
Some glowsticks (think McGuyver here)

I think that's all I got for it. I'm gonna check out Walmart when I get his other gift and see if they have anything good to add to it. I'm pretty excited to give it to him, I think he'll love it! I think I might hide his gifts and come up with some clues or something so he has to find them. For his cake, I'll probably decorate it with white icing and then put black "?" marks all over it.
Sound like fun?

Ok, the "official" name for my cleaning biz is Sparkle Cleaning Services. Anyone like it??? My business cards are going to look soooo awesome. Spent last night working on my logo and final design for biz cards. I'm looking into getting a couple of polo shirts with at least my name on them, will try to get my logo as well, but so that I look more professional. Hubby is totally on board with this, I've just gotta get all my ducks in a row!

Ok, so for some reason I was a little melancholy yesterday. Ended up "snacking" last night and pretty much moping around (for no reason!). Then we headed to bed, Hailey just wouldn't sleep, so I went downstairs. She still wouldn't quiet down so we headed to Walmart because I needed to get a couple of things for school. I was able to get my things and as I was getting back into my car, a little old lady came up and asked me for a ride home. Her car had broken down and she had just had it towed and her husband was out of town. I sat there for a moment thinking as fast as I could if this would be a good decision--I DON'T GIVE RIDES TO STRANGERS!! But, she seemed nice enough, told me she had been trying to find someone who looked nice enough to ask a ride from (ooh flattery!). Anyways, as I was moving a few things out of the seat I prayed that God would bless my good deed and that this little old lady was not going to "mug" me or anything. Turns out that she lives not too far from me, she is Baptist like me, she has a daughter who homeschools, anyways we just had a nice little chat on the way home. After I dropped her off, I literally drove home with a big smile on my face. Totally changed my mood! It felt so nice to help someone out when they needed it, and I'm glad *I* was there to give her the ride and she didn't get one from someone crazy. So, please don't post a bunch of "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!" comments. I NEVER give rides to strangers, but I think God brought me along to help that woman out when she needed it....

Ok, I thought I'd try and get everyone's opinion on a name for my cleaning biz. Just a simple #1, #2, #3 would be great!

Just in Time! Cleaning Services

Omega Cleaning Services (Your search for a quality cleaning service "ends" here...)*snicker*

Clean and Simple

A Clean Sweep

Above and Beyond Cleaning Services

Jen's Janitorial


Thanks!

(Becky)That book was part of the Alli stuff that's out. When I saw if though, I'd not heard of the Allie stuff, just saw the book at the grocery store.

As for Hannah's school. I guess I didn't clarify that she's strictly choosing how fast she's progressing through things. NOT choosing or organizing her curriculum, I have and have done all of that already. She's way too young to be planning her areas of study. I will have her do that though probably starting in Jr. high.
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I've figured out what I'm doing for an income! I'm going to start a cleaning service. My step-momma started her own a few months ago and has already done very well with it. I'm hoping to do at least half as well and start methodically paying off some bills. I'm gonna try and figure out the name of the business today and probably order my license tonight. I think I have a good chance of picking up my first account with hubby's office in Tempe. They had the wife of one of the other employees doing it but he's now moved down to Tucson and he's working with hubby down there. Anyways, I think I've got my first account! I'll have my Mom help me set up my books, I just have a few supplies to get but it shouldn't be too much startup. I also know of a place to get "almost free" business cards, just have to pay for shipping. Ooooh, I've never been so excited to "clean" before! LOL I'm sure it'll wear off very quickly though....

We had a family over from church on Saturday. We grilled some chicken and made hotdogs for the kids. We all had such a great time! The adults played Cranium. It was a new game that we had gotten back at Christmas to play with our family that was in town but we never ended up playing it. It's such a fun game, glad we got to try it out.

Weighed myself this morning and I'm down 4 lbs from yesterday morning! Just wanted to do a happy dance on here...

Ok, was looking for a funny comic and came across this one. Not exactly what I was looking for for my blog but my hubby will get a kick out of it!

Last post got too long so I started a new one.

I started my "diet" again today. There was a full-length mirror in that hotel room yesterday and I've got me a horrid picture of what my body REALLY looks like. NOT a pretty sight! Tonight when I was tempted to munch on something, just whipped out my cell phone (took pic with my cell) and stared at it....worked like a charm! (VBG!) I had some very tempting situations today also and I'm happy to say I made the right choices! Hannah very innocently came up to inform me that I had a candybar up in the pantry, it's been there for a couple of weeks now. It was hard since I had not eaten yet and it was almost lunchtime. Then, ended up taking the kids to Wendy's for dinner. Those fries were calling my name but I chose my salad instead. I was even tempted to get the salad....with a small order of fries! I'm so bad I know!

Talked with my step-momma tonight. Me and Hailey are going to be flying up there sometime in late July or early August to visit them and my Grandma. Not sure how long my Gram is going to live, so I want to make sure I get to see her, and let her meet Hailey. Becky, wanna come up and see me??? I'll be there a Thurs-Sunday so maybe that Saturday? I'm totally excited, I miss my daddy! I'm also hoping to lose at least 15-20 lbs by then. We'll see since I'm not going to be hitting the gym. Can't afford it right now...I know, I know, I can always go walking, but it's too stinkin' hot outside.

I finally told Michael about my idea about becoming a photographer. I've tried so many "work-at-home" things that he's been pretty much jaded by it, and wouldn't even entertain any of my ideas since. He actually had a better reaction than I thought he would this time! We actually discussed details of what I was thinking a little. We kept getting interupted by kids, and haven't been able to talk since. I'm going to keep researching things and get it all together, keep praying about it, and we'll see where this crazy idea goes. Maybe it'll stay just that, a crazy idea in my head, but maybe it'll turn into something. This idea just kindof came out of nowhere. Not sure if it's from God or from that pesky "frustrated artist lady" who keeps nagging me from time to time. We'll see:)

Ok, well hubby STILL isn't home, it's 11:48pm. I'm gonna get off this thing though and read my book, journal, and pray. Goodnight!

It's 11pm and hubby is STILL at his deacon's meeting at church, it started at 7pm. Poor guy is gonna' run himself ragged. Tomorrow he has to get up early to work in Tucson...

Tuesday night me and the kids drove down to Tucson to stay the night with him in the hotel. We had planned on spending the day there and going to a museum but hubby had a busy day yesterday and left town early to go to a meeting up in Phx. We weren't going to hang around if hubby wasn't even in town so we left around lunchtime. I stopped at Michael's on the way home and picked up some scrapbook paper. Me and Hannah are going to start scrapping on the night's that Michael is down in Tucson. I've gotta get my boxes of photos organized (somewhat!) first though.

I decided to start giving Hannah some more "big girl" type decisions to make. We had a somewhat serious discussion on the 2 hour drive home from Tucson. I asked her to seriously consider whether she wanted to continue with the piano or not. I was starting to have to "fight" her a bit to get her to practice and I was hoping that she'd take the initiative to do it on her own after just being "reminded". I was also looking for an attitude of "practicing till she got it right" instead of just putting in her 30 mins. KWIM??? I told her I was willing to pay for something else, like painting classes, if she would rather be doing those. I also told her though, that I think that God has given her the "gift" of being able to play, and that she has done very well in the 6 months of lessons that she's had. She stated some complaints about it being "hard" etc...which followed with my "some things TAKE work" speech (Becky this included bowling examples...). She thought about it for awhile, and I think has decided to continue taking piano. This is HUGE! When we first started talking, she jumped at the chance to "do art". After more contemplation, I think she's decided that she can still work on art/crafts but use her "lessons" for piano. Not sure if I'm getting across what I'm wanting to, but she made a "mature" decision, not just an emotional one or just picked what would be "easier". I'm also going to put her in charge of setting her goals for her schoolwork rather than just assigning pages. She will be required to stick with those goals though once they are set. Of course I will go over everything with her and not let her set unreachable ones or anything. I'm sharing all of this boring nonsense for a reason. This is a big milestone for ME:) I've been a micromanager with my kids and an authoritarian. I'm working really hard to NOT be like that anymore and let my kids be more responsible for themselves, their decisions, etc...It's really easy as a mom to get stuck in the rut of just bossing them around and managing their every waking moment. Don't wanna' be like that anymore! I want to be my kids' MOM, not their MANAGER.

Becky, thought you might get a little chuckle out of this...

I was at the grocery store tonight and they had a display of books for sale. The title was, "Are you losing it?".

It was a book on dieting....

I don't know about you but I'm just about to "lose" it! LOL

This pretty much sums up our day today...

Got up, ate breakfast, watched cartoons.

Kids played, I wrote a bazillion "thank you" cards.

I napped w/Hailey, took a couple of more pics of her, kids watched more cartoons.

We picked up house for daddy.

We mailed "thank you" cards, picked up fastfood, and went to Mom's to swim in her pool.

I ran in the grocery store on the way home from Mom's so I can start my "diet" tomorrow and the kids can have a REAL breakfast and lunch. We've been scrounging for 4 days now...

Pretty much a leisurely and boring day. We're starting back with school tomorrow or Wednesday. We left off "mid-week" when we stopped, so this week will be a halfy.

These are the pics I took today...

I couldn't resist getting a pic of her cute little "ruffly" bottom.

Ahh, like that fuzzy pic of her feet that I posted yesterday, this one turned out that way too.

I'm still gonna work on getting a "good" one of her hand and feet.

I'm going to use these to put together a sortof "portrait study" like they sell at Sears. I'll be putting it in her scrapbook though, and it won't cost me $100!

I've been toying with the idea of becoming a photographer. Been thinking about it for a couple of weeks now. Anyways, I was playing around with our cheap little digital for a few minutes before we had to leave for church tonight.

Came out blurry but didn't have time to mess with settings. I wish it was clearer because I really loved the "shot".


I love how this one came out. It looks great in B/W as well.

I've been wanting an "old fashioned bootie" shot since before she was born. I really love this one as well. Can't wait to scrapbook it! (These are not the booties I crocheted...those ended up too small for her, but I picked these up for less than $3 at Sears on clearance!)

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So what do you all think? Should I pursue this crazy idea a little more? Maybe I could actually be GOOD with a better camera and if I actually KNEW what I was doing??? LOL

Our baby shower yesterday

This was the posterboard that they had in the church's foyer for the last couple of weeks announcing the shower. Isn't it cute!

Me opening gifts...

This was one of the games. You had to use the spoon and try to get the most cotton balls out with only one "scoop"....this is my Mom

Our nursery director scooping/flinging out her "scoop".

This was one of the other games...pin the bottle on the baby.

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It was such a fun time! I'm so glad my friend convinced me to let them throw one for me. I'll try and get some pics in the next couple of days of some of the CUTE clothes and things that they got Hailey.

A little sad news to report. Hannah's little guinea pig died today. I had a feeling something was up, she's not been acting "normal" for about a week and a half...

We're sad of course, but I'm a little relieved to finally be pet-free. We're not getting anymore pets for quite some time.....like when the birdies have flown the coop. ::snort:: I can see myself as a "old lady" with a little "yippie" dog riding around with me in the car. Until then, I'll be content just taking care of my 5 little monkeys.....

Here are some of our latest pics.

Hailey's first bath....12 days old.

Auntie Rikki holding her newest neice. The mountain man in the back is my Gramps.

The mountains in Sedona. Wish we could have spent more time up there.


Hailey, 4 weeks old. She's getting so alert.


Hailey enjoying her new swing, this was taken today about an hour ago.

Tonight I broke down and bought a swing for Hailey. I love her and all but sometimes you just gotta' be able to put a baby DOWN. LOL She's really such a sweetie, she just likes to snuggle is all! So far it's working incredibly well. I just might have to let her sleep in it tonight so I can get a better night's sleep. Last night she was really hard to get to sleep and kept me up most of the night.

Today Hannah had her last tea party. It was a brunch and they made some melt and pour soaps. Hers she scented with "baby powder" scent.

I've gotten some kindof food poisening. Maybe I'll hit my weightloss goal for the week afterall...LOL