A Little Water Never Hurt Anyone

We have a 10x10 storage unit that we have been very quickly filling up in order to make our house as easy to clean as fast as possible, but also to help our place look as big as possible. Well this Friday David and I had spent our day being so very diligent about packing and cleaning (we had our relator coming on Saturday morning).Friday seriously just FLEW by but we got a LOT done and we were feeling pretty good about our progress. 

Frozen water on the ground

Once we had finally gotten to our agreed upon stopping point we loaded up the boxes we had spent all day packing into David's car and headed to our storage unit. Upon opening our unit we immediately realized there was ice/ water on the ground and that it covered a little more than half of the floor. Grreeeeat. 

Wet boxes that have books in them (my heart just dropped)

I won't go into extraneous detail, because it doesn't really add to the story, but the bottom line was nothing that was irreplaceable (like yearbooks or photo books) got wet. Also these pictures are lack luster at best since it was dark, but I think they rightfully portray our level of misery and work. The worst part was completely reorganizing our storage unit in the dark, cold, on slippery ice and in a super short amount of time. It took about 5ish hours (7pm until midnight) and I was not super helpful.

It was an easy fix for boxes that had material in them BUT I've since had to wash about 4 extra loads of laundry. Everything just takes so much time and effort! In the end David's brother again came to our/ my rescue and helped David move and re-stack all the heavier items. The good part is our storage unit is now SUPER organized safe from future incidents (we think) and more roomy (part of David's great organization skills). 

We emptied about 75% of our storage unit that night to put things on pallets and reorganize.

That wasn't the end of the night for David or I though. Around 11pm I took Davie and my little self home, laid Davie down in bed and just went to town on our place. We had scheduled with our relator to meet the next morning at 9:30. This phone call took place about... oh an hour before we realized our storage unit was flooded. 

So poor David came home at midnight and then joined me in the cleaning/ organizing, painting, shuffling, moving and everything else at our house. We stayed up all night, it was frustrating because before the storage unit flooding we knew we were going to be up late but after losing 5 hours we KNEW we were going to HAVE to pull an all-nighter. 

Some of you might be wondering why didn't just re-schedule our appointment with our relator and the answer is this was already our second visit with him to take pictures. The first time we met we went over basics, the second time we did paperwork to list the house and we were supposed to take pictures, but we just weren't ready.

David and I almost called to reschedule the second we saw the ice in our storage unit. For maybe two seconds. Then reality hit us and we realized with a baby being due a week away and my mom coming to visit pulling an all-nighter to just get-it-over-with was WAYYYY worth it. And it was.

This was all topped off on Monday when we went to go to our storage unit only to realize we had misplaced our keys.... It's no surprise since David was already a zombie after coming home at midnight from the storage shed. Then this morning as David was re-installing Davie's carseat and the new baby's in our car he looked on the garage floor and saw his keys. WHEW! Crisis averted, now to make copies ASAP!

I feel like so many incidents like this have been happening to us lately, and they all remind me of this Mormonad- 

Only the opposite... if that makes sense. All this kind of bad stuff keeps happening, but thankfully (so far at least) I feel like I have been able to say it all turned out in the end. Like on Sunday morning, when we realized that for some reason our stupid freezer door had popped open in the night somehow. I was really annoyed, and we did have to throw some stuff away BUT it wasn't as bad as it could have been, just like the water in the storage unit wasn't as bad as it could have been. I'm actually really proud of myself for being able to address these issues this way. It is so tough when you have a plan or action set out that is being executed so well and then "that one thing" happens. I'm learning that unplanned "incidents" can be lived through and as always they make great stories and conversation starters LATER, haha. 

Here's to hoping that in the near future your "incidents" can be lived through and laughed at as well!

Finding Motivation

Is it just me or is the last semester of college/ school in general the HARDEST on the planet to finish? I seriously have NO motivation. I can't tell you how many things I was "so sure" I would have done by now. My only excuse right now is that David and I have successfully filled our new storage unit with boxes and packed just about EVERY unnecessary item in our house (for now). Which makes it sound trivial or unimportant, but it is quite a feat. Also the pictures on this post are just random ones from a University activity that we took Davie to and lunch with David earlier that same day.

 Oh Daddy! You are so funny :)

However my school school work? Well I'm not behind per-say but I am definitely not ahead, like I need to be/ really should be. Have I mentioned that I REALLY hope this little girl is at LEAST as good to me as Davie was, especially in the sleep department? I cannot wait until I do not have school. All you moms out there who get to deal with regular life, it may seem unfulfilling at times, however I can't wait until my house is a mess and my two kids have made getting things done impossible all day BUT I have NO homework. 

It's true, for whatever reason homework just tips me over the edge of overwhelmed-ness. I'm sure you can all relate to those days that by the time breakfast is over you've already given up for the day. Yea, that's probably been happening a little too often around here lately. I have so much to do that I do nothing, trust me it makes a lot of sense.

 I managed to get my 4.0 in summer and Fall and I am so unmotivated that I'm tempted to just let it all slide and get B's or C's my last semester because I could put in sooooo little effort and still graduate with a rather great GPA. Heck I could almost fail and still graduate and it's hecka tempting.

I guess this last part is where I should admit to some of the less great things that have happened around here lately. One of the reasons for not being able to get into my school work will is definitely physical exhaustion.

David and I have been packing, organizing, project finishing and cleaning like crazy people to get our house both ready to list, show, sell and baby ready. It very often feels like it's to no-avail and it leaves me wanting to COMPLETELY veg out when we finish for the day. Taking a book shelf apart and packing it's contents takes a while, and not all of the things in it need to be or should be packed just yet. This leaves us with the dilemma of where to store certain files, books, or folders in the meantime.

Gettting a little too excited over table hockey

Just in case you were wondering, yes he threw the stickhandle right after this picture.

 Also I figure once I have the baby these physical tasks are not going to be on my "able to do" list anymore.

Watching Daddy fetch the stickhandle

Pretending to be angelic until he gets his toy back. Davie actually did pretty good with the air hockey table and it was quite fun to see him play.
Not that I am doing so great with physical tasks right now anyways, I mean I did just pass 39 weeks this last Friday. So hopefully I won't be brain dead after this baby just physically out of the game for a while. Once again wish me luck!

Vegetables and Life

FYI- This is a long blog about a little bit of everything.

About two years ago we discovered kale. I feel weird being part of such a trendy vegetable craze, because I really don't care for vegetables. The ones I like are few and far between, or at least that is how I feel. I shared this recipe a while back, but it was the first time we had ever made kale and I am here to say that we have made some changes. 

First of all we love kale because it doesn't have strong flavor and we eat it baked so it's neither mushy (we are both texture people) or bitter. The recipe I originally followed baked the kale after mixing olive oil into the kale and then adding salt. Well that took quite a while, made a big mess AND some chips were a little too oily while others had almost none. Secondly we decided salt alone just wasn't cutting it for flavor. 

So we added these two wonderful things to our recipe. Now after rinsing the kale all I have to do is lay out the kale and spritz the olive oil onto all of the leaves, which means less oil and a more even spread. Secondly that garlic salt is soooo yummy on kale, don't be afraid to just dump it on because a lot of it doesn't stick/ stay on the leaves. 

Lastly I give you evidence of a stinker who also does not eat his vegetables very well but will in fact eat kale chips. He even asks for them! So when I see people on the internet complaining about kale or making fun of how it's trendy I roll my eyes because kale is a vegetable I can fully endorse. For example, Jim Gaffigan made fun of kale in an interview with one of the late night show hosts recently and he and I share a love of bad food things so when I say I like kale (like a lot) you can almost picture Jim Gaffigan endorsing this vegetable. People who dislike vegetables know good vegetables when they eat them, so you can take that to the BANK!

Subject change- Paczki season is upon us and I would just like to say that I feel I have controlled myself (and David haha) quite well so far this year. I kept thinking I would blog about paczkis after we discovered them in 2012, but I never got the chance. Basically they are Polish treats that are made for fat Friday and before lent. They are like powdered/ granulated sugar covered doughnuts with custard or fruity filling only SO much better. 

Davie and I went on the tour of the fire station a couple of weeks ago with some of the kids and mom's in our ward. I'm not sure how much he really cared, but there were other kids there, we got to get out of the house and he brought home a shinny red hat!

This hat is not compatable with a carseat haha, so he often wears it backwards. 

 He refers to himself as Daydee. So he will say "Daydee ret (red) hat".

This is a little hose that keeps exhaust from the trucks from building up all over the station walls. Who knew? So of course all the kids wanted to touch it.

We recently toured the hospital where I will have our little miss and once you get into the inner part of the labor and delivery section you have to wear a face mask because of flu control. These pictures pretty much sum it up. David had to abruptly leave the tour and I stayed to listen.

His face mask had Mickey mouse on it, which we thought MIGHT actually help. Nope. About 2 minutes into wearing the Mickey mask he was yelling "No Mickey, No Mickey!". 

We recently went to a snowman themed story time and because this little guy loves books it went quite well and was a great way to break up our day.

The activity was glitter glued onto a snowman, such messy fun!

Come on mom lets break out the good stuff, i.e. glue and glitter.

Davie isn't really into crayons or coloring but he will scribble a bit. The snowman theme was perfect because this is what Toledo has been like this last month and a half.

Like this

and this,

and this

AND THIS.

I have now experienced my first level 3 snow storm, our first year here was a big snow year and we had one level 3, but I was visiting family down south so I missed it. This year has been our worst winter, in terms of extreme weather, that we have ever had here in Toledo. 

While it is definitely beautiful and I enjoy the snow removal service our condo association fees pay for to clear our driveway and sidewalks (meaning I NEVER shovel EVER) the days of snow do have me dreaming of the possibilities of moving to Florida or Arizona for residency. I feel warm and happy, like the sun is on my face, just thinking about it!

This is a regular sight at our house. About every other day Davie decides he won't eat something that we KNOW he likes. This day was cottage cheese. For Pete's sake what is it with toddlers? 

This kid already is a little small for his age if only I could EVER rely on a single food from every food group. And before you say anything that's only 5 different foods which I think is completely reasonable. 

We LOVE Kroger, I think it is a little more expensive then Wal*Mart and some other stores, but it's always been the closest store to us and the couple of cents I might have saved by traveling to Wal*Mart are never missed. Back in November they opened a BIG HUGE brand new Kroger and it is such a nice store. Not to mention carts like this have been added to their fleet of regular ones. Davie Loves this cart and so do I! A little bulky maybe? Sure, but I don't have to buckle him in (I know you are supposed to so don't even bother telling me) and he just kind of hangs out but is still free to move around a little while I get the goods. 

This balloon here has been welcoming us into Kroger the last couple of weeks and Davie always begins to yell "sunbeam! SuNbEaM!!" when he sees it. 

I managed to make my sister in law Anna this sensory square/ Taggy (I don't really know what they are called) for her new baby, which I thought I would share. 

It actually turned out pretty good.... 

except for this one part. It's seams like this that make me hate DIY presents to people. I am a perfectionist and that big sideways off track seam gets me every time I look at it. It's a good thing I made this for a baby who will gladly drool on it either way!

Proof that this little boy does occasionally slow down.

After his 2 year old photoshoot this little guy got himself a new doo.

And instantly grew up a little :(

Davie LOVES the headbands I have for his little sister. I don't know how I am going to keep them away from him. I feel bad too because he gets so mad when I take them away and my biggest concern isn't any gender issues its that his head will stretch them out because lets face it these little headbands are cheap!

Towards the end of 2012 David finally caved and let me get a storage unit. It was essentially a small 5x5 closet that held things like our luggage, Christmas decorations, the baby swing once Davie had outgrown it and a couple pieces of nice furniture that we just couldn't fit in our place. And it was AH-mazing! By the beginning of last year (so 6 months after we got the unit) it began to look like this. 

Totally full already, right? Wrong! David is like an organizational whiz when it comes to organizing boxes in a moving truck, in storage and or in the garage.

This is how he did a lot of the boxes towards the top,

haha it always made me laugh because it was kind of like a game of Tetris.

But like all good things this unit was not meant to last.

Because we have too much CRAP! So we upgraded to a 10x10 unit about 2 weeks ago. 

Believe it or not this unit is already quite full. It's been great to pack all the extra blankets, towels, certain dish ware, decorations (although I do probably miss those the most), certain seasonal clothing and just about anything else we don't NEED. I'm still tempted to donate this stuff, but David might die if I did that, haha he's a big pack rat and I just LOVE my clothes. 

The day we moved our stuff it rained. All. Day. LONG! David did about 90% of the work because it was pretty slick outside and lets face it I'm barely useful even when I'm not 9 months pregnant. Thankfully our storage units were only a couple yards apart. I'd also like to give a special thanks to David's brother Mike at this point for helping David with the bigger pieces of furniture I know it really helped! Who needs movers when you have TWO Wardens close by! Seriously these guys are great.

Lastly this was what I walked in on last night. Davie just relaxing and enjoying a good book. That's just about all that's been going on around here... I think. Blogging this last year and a half has gotten tough between school and life in general so this year I decided to attempt the 356 day challenge by uploading a picture each day to Facebook. That actually makes blogging even more tricky because I don't want to repeat myself and not a whole lot goes on around here... or at least that's how I feel. Yesterday I blogged and I couldn't really find a picture moment to share on Facebook so my new rule is if I blog on any given day I don't have to post a picture of the day on Facebook. Call it a loophole. So blogging might be scarce until like July? this year. Thats hopefully when we will have settled wherever it is were are going and life calmed down a bit.