Going off the grid

Hey guys, we are in the process of trying to host the website on another space so this doesn’t get lost in the move, but if I am not replying, please just wait a few days, we are getting a cell repeater and cell internet card and the earliest we might get them is Tuesday. Possibility of going into the library to use internet, but not sure.

This is good news, though, it means we are finally moving into our new place. It will be very different, but we are excited. Prayers for us and those coming to help us move tomorrow (or good thoughts if you don’t do prayers).

Ready to countrified again!

Why don't they have stuff like this in the US?

For a long time, I was on the cusp of Plus Size Clothing. After I had the baby, I'm no longer there (knock wood), but could be easily enough. With nursing, I definitely have the 'top' to be in the plus category and have long had to wear a bigger top than bottom. What is nearly impossible, though, is finding something to flatter your figure, especially a post baby figure.

Do you hide your tummy, or ignore it, figuring everyone knows by the 20 lb lump of sunshine and dirty diaper that you're carrying around accounts for it? How exactly do you dress for post baby staying at home, going to church and oh dear lord! family functions! In the summer. Especially when you gave up all your too small clothes (which you desperately wish you now had) when you found out you were pregnant?

Well the site linked above, yeah I wish we had that in the US. The bras alone would be worth the expense of going there if I really had to. I mean, who really has all those sizes that you don't have to special order some ugly thing from a department store catalog to get? All the cute stuff I see in the stores stops at a C. Sorry, some of us just have bigger girls than that. Especially us nursing ones! Definitely a favorite!

I also love the swimsuits, not all the models are a size 0 and look like they haven't eaten in weeks. Rock on! It would be something I wouldn't mind my daughter seeing at some point. Most of the catalogs in the US are full of the same 5 women over and over again in various 'I could be blown away if a gust of wind came up' sizes. Not so with this one. The clothes are SO cute! I think my sister in law would like them too, she's young, but needs more trendy stuff than she can find at local stores. I think the dresses actually look better on the plus sized models, too, you get an idea of what YOU would actually look like wearing it, versus guessing how your lumps and bumps would fit under the size 0 magnified. Awesome. Now if we only had something like this in the US, it would be great!

I'm not happy about it or anything!

Shopping Shopping Shopping

I am going shopping this week! YEAH!!!

Fun Summer Get Togethers

Summer is a time for parties, is it not? What kind of summer party do you throw? Bar-be-ques, mother's day and father's day bashes, graduations, memorial day, and way at the end of the line, labor day. Who wants to think of that now, though, right? We're all just enjoying the spring flowers and hint of summer grill smoke in the air.

So what about those impromptu things you just throw together at the last minute? Have you ever had one of those? I haven't, but I've been to several that my parents did. Usually it's on a weekend and all the sudden, all three of us kids show up with all of our kids and it gets close to a meal and we're all starving. Well, obviously mom did not plan on feeding us all. Luckily, everyone but us also lives in town, so they can either go back to their house, or just hit the grocery store in less than half an hour and be back with everything you need for a good time. Usually the guys volunteer to go, you know, to heave the manly bags of ice, and then call the women with 'what should we get?' as soon as they get there. Ha!

My favorites are the cookouts that involve some good grilled chicken, yes it may be kind of common, but when you usually end up with baked chicken, grilled tastes really good around about this time of year. Grab all the condiments out of the fridge and you've got a smorgasbord of opportunity waiting for you. These impromptu parties don't usually have themes, but 'cookout' is good enough, with a checked table cloth, or even butcher paper spread over the tables (which can be easily recycled at the end of the night) and some crayons in some coffee mugs or decorative pails spread around the garden. Adults can write goofy messages to each other that the kids try to decode, and kids can draw animals and practice writing their names. It's always a good time, makes the kids feel involved, stems off boredom from the adults while the food is cooking, and the kids stay occupied enough not to destroy your house in the meantime! The parents of little kids will definitely want to do this at your house again!

So do you throw impromptu parties? I think the time is ripe for us to try one out. This summer seems like a good time to put our culinary and hosting abilities to the test!

Why am I lil mouse?

Am I still lil mouse? Or is the baby lil mouse? We think she's a lil moose at this point in time. She's definitely grown a lot in the last few weeks, she's almost out of her 6-9 month clothes, but the 12 month ones still seem a bit big.. sigh. I guess it all just is in how you look at it. Moose, mouse, what's the difference? (about a thousand pounds, I know!)...I was always called mouse because I was so small, maybe my baby will be giraffe because she's so tall?

Hope you all enjoyed your mother's day!

Deer damaging your yard?

Ever find yourself in need of deer repellent to restrict the damage to lawns and landscaped areas of your home? My mom has tried everything, including human hair (from the barbershop), rotten eggs and milk, and of course, bars of soap to try and repel the deer from her garden. She even tried planting turnips in their valley to try and get them to go for them instead of her stuff! Mostly, they managed to make their 2 black labs fat and full of stuff they shouldn't have been eating, but must have smelled oh so yummy to them!

The biggest problem for the deer were trees planted around the garden as a windbreak. Even though they were very fast growing, the deer really liked the new shoots and leaves on the small trees that first summer. After rescuing some soap from puppy teeth clenches, mom gave up. But she didn't need to. Havahart® products could have helped her while she was waiting for those trees to get 'out of reach' to deer teeth. Some of them are listed as safe for organic gardens and by the EPA. What could be better than that? Safe, green, and not disgusting enough for the dogs to want to roll in or chew up, awesome!

Out doorsy stuff...

Why am I writing about outdoorsy stuff?Mostly because I've been stuck inside for almost 6 months inside the city. I love to get out of town and hang out with the family, which we did for mother's day yesterday. Awesome. Checked out the pond (2 little fish, a million tadpoles and some GIANT bullfrog tadpoles that you could roast on a spit). Didn't get a chance to look much at the garden, but I did see some onions growing that I wanted to make into pizza sauce! Yum! It was nice to be outside despite the gnats and the skunk smelling dogs that were draped in pond moss!

Got gear?

I must admit, you probably will not see me with a gun any time soon, but you can get a Blackhawk holster for yours from LA Police Gear, which was founded by police officers from Los Angeles to serve their needs. Neat, huh? They do not only sell to police officers, but also to military (the government), security guards, and the general public. To be honest, I had no idea such a thing existed, but the holster is right or left hand accessible, something my husband would love to know! It's hard to find gear that a lefty can use just as easily as a righty! There are also tactical flashlights (couldn't we all use a flashlight that's super bright, because obviously you ONLY need them when you're looking for something small or need light to read by in the dark, right? Checking electrical panels or finding the number for the electric company, right? Of course there's also tactical clothing, which I imagine would be darn handy for people playing paintball or laser tag as well. It's really an all out outdoorsy thing, because of course hunters would find great boots and camouflage items here as well. Check it out.

Need suggestions

what other types of things do you want to hear about on this blog?

Hi!

If you've been redirected to this site from http://lilmouse.blogsite.org, don't worry! I'm just redirected so you all don't think I got lost or anything! The server is shut down until after the move (Monday), so be sure to come back and say hi then!

Sometimes...

you just want to bang your head against the wall!

March of Dimes

They have now sent me 3! three! sets of labels. Argh, we are moving again, so my hubby suggested just cutting off the picture and using them to decorate things with. I'm always running out of stickers for all the cards I send out, so I guess I will have to do that! In the meantime, don't forget to walk or sponsor a walk for someone you love!

Preemie days

Preemies are all over the internet these days, clothing, special items, but of course, what is the real issue is health problems with them, that's why I sponsor the March of Dimes when I can. My own baby was a couple of weeks premature, so besides focusing on pregnancy issues, I like to also donate to the cause.

Trendy maternity clothes

Maternity clothes we've all seen them, we've all been scared by them. They're expensive, they look like tents, and are manufactured more to hide your body than show off your baby bump. This time last year? It's ALL I could think about. I found out the Thursday before Easter that I was pregnant. The biggest freak out, besides the health of the baby, was the clothes. I've heard of people having only one shirt they could wear during the last month because they could not fit into anything else, and wanted to save their money for diapers.

Finding a dress for my baby showers or church was a nightmare. They were SO expensive and I wound up with a dowdy black dress that hid my bump more than anything. This site, though: http://kikisfashions.com has around 30 cute dresses, for anyone's taste, that show off that little one you worked so hard to create- and they're all under $30! In fact, I can't find anything over $30 on the site, and even tshirts at regular department stores cost that much at regular price when I was looking last year. At this site, it's all in one place, and a great selection. Check them out the next time you've got a bun baking in your oven.

Expecting? Bloggers and Friends of Bloggers receive an exclusive 20% Off! Just use coupon code "blogfriends" during checkout to apply.

Blogging from time to time

I will be back blogging here from time to time, please keep me in your readers.

We've moved

Please check your links and follow me to my new site.

http://lilmouse.blogsite.org/

Fun Monday and A FUN ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Jan is the hostess for this week's Fun Monday! She wants to know what the quirkiest thing in my household is that I would never throw away.... hmm... them of course!
Eh hmm. This is why I haven't posted in a few days. Please redirect your browsers to my new (combination) blog. I have found that keeping up with a mommy blog and a human blog is too much. So my husband worked this up for me, so I can update everyone all at once.

Happy New Year!

To you!

A year in review...

January--political commercials had been going on for about 6 months in Iowa, we finally got to go vote in the caucus. It was pretty cool. There was a ton of snow, and the worst winter in Iowa for like, ever. I started doing Blog 365 (today as I write this is the last day, hallelujah!), blogging for cash on an occasional basis, and did a bunch of memes and fun mondays!
February--tracking presidential election results, the side of the road debacle, baby making, valentine, leap year birthday hubby.
March--we found out a new baby was on the way, and celebrated quietly! Found out that the Bears gave away a lot of their good players, which angered me somewhat, started exercising.
April--We thought we'd live in Iowa forever, so we started looking for places to buy, with no luck. We enjoyed the wildlife in our backyard coming around to new life in the springtime and dreamed of our baby to be, and wondered if we'd be as good as parents as the animals. Morning sickness began in earnest.
May--the big announcement was made! Maternity clothes became the staple, and I started a temp job again.
June--I got to visit with my friend/baby's godmother Tricia who was also pregnant, albeit beating me by about 10 weeks (due in September), had our sonogram and got to see our baby, and took a vacation to NC to see my aunt. Also, the Cedar River flooded like an insane amount and totally destroyed the downtown of Cedar Rapids.
July--gas prices hit an alltime high of $4 a gallon. We paid off my student loan and our truck. We rock!
August--Set up the nursery, watched the Olympics, Matthew went and interviewed for a new job, was offered and accepted it! I finished my temp job and vowed to be done for a while. I sang and read to the baby every day.
September--Had 2 baby showers, Matthew was officially cleared for hire for the job he accepted! We looked for houses and found 2 that we weren't totally in love with, but I was exhausted and told Matthew to choose. We packed up all of our clothes in preparation for a move.
October--We voted for the President of the United States. We moved and stayed with my parents for 2 weeks while we waited for a decision about the house we were trying to buy. It should have been a warning. The alarms were ringing but we didn't hear them. We rented the hell hole for 2 weeks and decided against buying a house at the current moment. Our very unexpected surprise of a sweetheart, our baby girl arrived 3 weeks early!
November--We moved into our current apartment, gas prices start dropping rapidly. I counted my blessings and blogged about moving with an infant. It was a lot of sleepless nights.
December--We got used to our new baby, got some cloth diapers to try out, settled into our apartment, and started to feel safe again. My parents had their anniversary, and I got to spend it with them, as well as Christmas. Two things I didnt' think I'd get to do, I got to do. I've completed 9 and 10 on my bucket list as of the end of the year, yeah!

Happy New Year everyone!

Fun with baby

We've been having a pretty good time now that Matthew has been able to be at home with Keeley and I for a week or so. We're getting into a good routine and I'll be REALLY upset when I have to deal with her alone again! It's so great that he can run and get her when she cries in the morning, and bring her to me, hungry, but with a clean diaper and ready to go. It's also nice that he can put her in bed and soothe her to sleep and I can either get some rest or work on other things that I don't normally get done until dark when he's been home for a while at night. Anyway, I think she and I will both be very very spoiled by the time this week is over!