Addicted!

"Hi.  My name is Anne and I am addicted to contests."
"Hi Anne."

But seriously, I have to blame one of my Disney mom friends, because she showed me all these links and it's free to enter.  Can't win if you don't enter!  Anyway, she's won quite a few, so I figure certainly I can win something, right?!

So if you follow me on twitter or see all of my new "likes" on facebook, there's a reason for all of the crazy! 

Can you believe February is almost gone??  I can't.  I've barely blogged!

We usually go to Houston to visit my in-laws the weekend in between BIL's and MIL's birthdays.  We even mentioned this the last time we saw them.  But now they are having a guest and we may not get to go.  Been kind of upset about that. 

I've been playing with different flours for gluten free baking.  I need to start giving this stuff away!  My brother's going to get half this cake I baked.  I am so pleased with how it turned out.  Other news with me is I am going to try to get voice lessons.  I've felt really shoddy lately, so I just want to feel better vocally.  I have a couple of groups wanting me to sing and I'm just not "there" right now.  I am honored they would think of me.

We met with this one couple who also lives in Irving from our church yesterday afternoon.  What a nice couple!  They are expecting their first in July and they are just a fun couple.  Can't wait to get to know them more!

So that's been what's up.

Pictures of our (prayerfully) new place!

Thought I would post pictures from the listing of our townhome here, since I am not ready for facebook world to know.  May never put them there, who knows?!  But I am just so excited about this place and know this blog gets a whole lot less traffic, so consider yourself privileged as you, yes you, get the first look at our new home, Lord willing!

Found our new home!

Both of us were excited yet nervous about looking at places today.  Excited to start this new chapter, nervous about uncharted territory.  Other things too, that's just all I could identify.

We found a place!  It's wonderful and we both love it.  Now the application process.  I pray it goes through!

It's a great little corner townhome in a quiet little community.  The whole lower level is hardwood and new stainless appliances in the kitchen.  The bedrooms are on the 2nd story and brand new carpet has been installed.  2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths.  Perfect for us, really.  TONS of storage.  And a little yard.  My only complaint was that a stackable washer and dryer comes with it and it looks kinda old and I love our full sized ones, but all utilities are paid.  So it doesn't really matter if I have to do a ton more loads.

Anyway, we are excited!

New homes

Today we're supposed to look at places to live!  I am so excited about this new chapter.  We drove around the area and it seems nice enough.  Not as nice as this area, but certainly not as expensive.  And it seems convenient to a lot.

I got annoyed the other night, because as I was telling a woman about Brent's new job and where we're moving, she got this disgusted look on her face and said "Irving?!  You don't want to move to Irving!  Just the sound of it...Irving!"  I was so taken aback, that I just didn't say anything.  Actually I asked her if she had been there and her response was "no".  What I should have said was "I don't care what you think!  Here I am so excited that Brent found full time employment with benefits and moving out of this mold-infested house and you rain on my parade?!  How dare you!"  Obviously was someone who hasn't ever and doesn't know anyone who has gone through a touch financial situation.  Argh.

I hope we find a place when we look.  I am heavily leaning on this one in particular, but we'll see.

This is why I can't have nice things.

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning up like a madwoman for a showing of the house since they called like 20 minutes before they wanted to look at the place.  Argh.  Anyway, in my rush, my phone was baptized in the toilet.  Nice.  I was able to get it working again since I took it apart and gave it a sun bath for a while.  It works.  It's almost time for my upgrade anyway, so not too heartbroken.

But tonight I got really upset with myself.  Brent needed his work shirt washed, so I decided I would do a load of cold wash.  I go ahead and put in what I was wearing and started it up.  I then took a shower and did my nightly ritual of writing in my journal and reading my devotional.  Brent takes Audrey back to give her a bath after I had cut my nails and I sit for a second, then I realize....

my iPod touch was in the back pocket of my jeans.

Oh *beep*

I had put it there to keep Audrey's hands off it, because she usually hides it after she plays with it for a while.  I can't believe I did it.  Then Brent makes me feel like an idiot for doing that too.  It's not like I did it on purpose.  I use that thing all the time!  More than my laptop.  If there was an app for my blog, I would probably blog more.  Ugh.

I've got it in a Thirsty Bag my dad got.  I hope it can be used more than once, since it's my dad's.  I hope it brings it back to life.  If it doesn't, I will try to look at it as "oh well, it's only an object".  But I am already realizing how much I've depended on that thing.  Poopie.

My sweet in-laws are who got it for me too, so it makes me feel so ungrateful to not treat it better.  I've only had it a year :(

Probably doesn't help that I haven't been sleeping well, due to excitement.  Tuesday morning I woke up at 2 and couldn't go back to sleep and Wednesday morning I woke up at 4:30.  At least I slept well last night.

At least I can finish the evening with an all-new episode of The Mentalist! :)

Put on your Sunday clothes

Something has Audrey all congested and has made me extremely dizzy.  I have been dizzy for hours now.   That can't be normal.  I don't ever remember being this dizzy for so long.

Since she doesn't feel well, I am letting her watch more TV than normal.  I actually try not to put the TV on at all for her, but do limit to just an hour if it does go on.  But she's sick and not wanting to play or anything, so on comes Wall-E.

It starts out playing "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" from the musical "Hello Dolly!".  I was in it twice in high school.  My church's production was better though and I did get a better part as well: Ermengarde.  It's been so long since I've acted.  I sort of miss it, but don't know if I could do it again.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Audrey is getting a kitchen for Christmas from her Grammie and Gramps.  It came today.  She hasn't noticed the large box in the front room :)  Brent and I will put it together so she will see it Christmas morning.  That will be fun.

Gingerbread Houses

I forgot to post these!  Here's my little village :)

Christmas is Coming!

So we've caught 2 more mice since my last post.  What the heck?!  Hoping this house sells soon for so many reasons.

I can't believe it will be Christmas Day a week from today.  I am so excited!  We went to a party at our Japanese church last night, but had to leave at the beginning of the program because Audrey was being very disruptive.  There were a lot of new faces that we felt needed to hear the message, so we removed ourselves.

I hadn't slept well the night before as well as the previous couple, so I was glad to leave.  Thankfully last night I got a full night of sleep.

I've been thinking about all these horrid bits of news I've been getting lately.  The worst involves one of my brothers and I won't post it now, but please be in prayer for him.  That is all he has been asking for.  I will just say that I know the Grinch who stole Christmas is his MIL.

Brent is turning 30 after Christmas, so I am throwing a surprise party in Houston when we visit.  He knows there's a party, but he has no idea I invited every friend I could think of who still lives in Houston or may be visiting family.  Of course, there will be a lot of family there too.  My (absolutely wonderful) MIL and I have had fun planning it together.

This time of year is always so quick!

Dang AF.

Ugh.  I do not feel good today.  My once a month little joy.  The dark day doesn't help, then everyone around me has been really mean to me, not returning emails, or is a screaming 2 year old.  I just want to curl up in a ball and let it not be today any more.

I've got dinner on the stove.  Made a stew made of leftovers and I am a little concerned.  I will be so annoyed if it not very good.  

Sorry this is a bummer post.  Praying for a better day tomorrow.  Or maybe when Brent gets home it'll get better.

Eek!

Tonight we got back from bringing dinner to our friends who just had a baby and I am starving.  I immediately got to the crock pot and shovel out my delicious southwest chicken soup.  I say a quick prayer and dive in while Brent starts to get his bowl.

Then I hear the weirdest sound coming from DH.  He makes some pretty odd noises, but I can't even describe this one.  Dying marine life?  Yeah, that's all I can come up with.  He does that sort of thing all the time and usually it has to do with Audrey.   It always freaks me out.  So I glance over and he says, "I just saw the mouse!"

Oh great.  Here I am eating my dinner with the spoon I had left on the counter and I had served myself with the ladle I had also left on the counter.  Great.  I have probably eaten mouse germs.  Joy.

We finally get a bowl over it and I call my parent's to see what they want me to do with it.  I am thinking maybe my brother would want it.  I kind of have a soft spot for mice.  I had a pet one growing up.  No.  Take it out in the yard and let the dog Bluebonnet deal with it.  Bluebonnet was quick with the execution and was appreciative of the attention and entertainment.  Now we've put out all sorts of traps.  I keep on thinking of the movie Ratatouille.  There's probably a whole nest of them up in the attic.

*Shudders*

Time to move.

Christmas Cheer

We had a glorious concert last night.  It was by far the best we've ever done it.  The orchestra was perfect, the soloists were phenomenal.  I hope there's a good recording I can get my hands on before Christmas... I am sure my MIL would love it!

This morning was Cup of Cheer, something the ladies at my church do just to get together.  The only reason I ever go is because my dad's quartet gets that gig.  They did a good job.  It's something he has always enjoyed doing.

I love this time of year.  It's not as busy this year as it was last year.  Could be because I am turning more down though.  I just have issues with this whole food allergy thing.  Even last night at the after party I had people trying to get me to eat.  But there was nothing I could eat.  Just nuts.  So I had those, really good hot apple cider, some of the nastiest limoncello I've had, and a really delightful red wine my friend Katie brought.  Usually not a red fan, but this wasn't as dry as reds can be.  But back to the food allergy thing, at least I am not gorging myself on things that are not-so-good for anyone, let alone me.  I've got to put some sort of positive twist on this!!

I made a gingerbread house today and started a gingerbread church.  I left them at my parent's house to set, so I will have to take pictures later.  I am kind of impressed with my first attempts.  I think I got a little too ambitious with my church though.  The steeple is sort of weighing down the roof and so the whole thing is lopsided.  Oh well.  It's kind of cute, really.  Pictures to come!

Reflections

I can't believe it's already December!  Every year flies by faster and faster.  At the end of the month, Brent's turning 30!  I really need to do something for his birthday, but am not too sure where we will be.  So I guess I need to make 2 separate plans.  Hmmmm....  What to do??

I was reflecting earlier about how different of a place we were at this time last year.  We knew we were going to Japan to be missionaries and were going through all of the paper work and interviews.  We had met with several churches and organizations to raise money.  We had gotten 70% of what we needed promised, all we needed was to just be sent.  I was actively trying to learn Japanese.  Every thing here seemed so temporary.  Best not get too involved.  We'll just leave.  It's hard to believe we pretty much have lived in my grandparent's house just as long as we had our home in Austin.  Lately our pastor has been saying in every service that God is using you right now where you are.  You are where He wants you.  I feel like he's saying that for my benefit.  This time of unemployment/underemployment for Brent has lasted so long.  But I hold on to the fact that God knows.  This isn't forever.  He has provided and has been so good to us.  I hear of much worse situations than ours.  So I consider myself blessed.

Results!

I got my blood work back yesterday when I went to the doctor and got to fill out her little questionnaire again.  My blood work is near perfect and all my bodily functions have improved greatly.  She said she wanted to make a poster of my before and after.  I still am having trouble losing weight though, which is quite frustrating.  Ever since the time change, I haven't been working out.  Audrey gets up earlier and I don't get a chance.  Pretty sure the moron who thought up the whole daylight savings thing did not have children.

I am going to introduce goat cheese back in to my diet and see how I feel.  I am pretty sure it's okay.  Now that I know how my body reacts, I should be able to tell fairly easily.

The house had a showing today.  This was frustrating on many levels.  I know God must've been teaching me something.  First they called yesterday 20 minutes before they wanted a showing and Audrey had just gone down for a nap.  I try to be easy to work with, so I said it would be fine but they could not go in the back as I had a sleeping toddler.  They called back to reschedule.  Today at 10.  Okay, that gives me time to clean and set up the place.  This morning they call at 9:34 saying they cancelled that showing.  Grrr.  Okay, fine.  But THEN I get ANOTHER flippin' call asking to see the house from noon to 2.  Fan-freaking-tastic.  Audrey's usual nap time.  Alright.  So I fix the place up and keep my toddler up and I have no idea if they actually came or not.  Ugh.

We'll take the rain!

Texas has been suffering.  Finally we are getting some rain!  When it hasn't in so long, it kicks up all sorts of thing's though.  None of us feel great.  I've started wanting to go to bed at 6 since Thursday.  Not a great feeling, but we need this rain and the cooler weather is fantastic so I will try not to complain.

Christmas is coming up!  I have almost all of my Christmas shopping done.  Just need to get one of my SIL's, MIL's, FIL's and my youngest BIL, not to mention all of Audrey's.  Audrey will be the most fun to shop for, so I am not worried about it.  FIL and BIL, DH gets to be in charge of and I am pretty sure what to get MIL.  I love that I do my shopping through the year.  I am usually always done by the end of October.  I am waiting on Audrey to see if her tastes changes.  So it might end up being later, so we'll see.

I have to make my list for the IL's.  I have so far thought of a cook book.  I thought of a bunch of books, so I may just ask for the cheapest Kindle and that's it.  Oh well, I still have time.

Audrey has been singing along to her shows more.  I have been hearing her saying more and more.  I attempted to trim her bangs yesterday by myself for the first time.  Trim fail.  Oh well, at least it grows!

Full Weekend

October weekend's end up being crazy-busy.  Why is that?  This last weekend, we had a choir "retreat".  I put it in quotations, because it isn't what it sounds like.  It's more of a workshop and is very tiring.  After it, I think I just stared at the wall for an hour in shock.  I don't recall that afternoon....

Brent's parent's came in this weekend.  Audrey LOVED it!  She was sooooo mad when they left last night.  Total devastation.  Poor baby.  When someone gives you a chocolate shake, you are pretty sure you never want to see them leave (she is her mommy's girl after all!).  They took her shopping yesterday while Brent and I took a nap and she had such a good time.  Of course she's good for Grammie and Gramps and also the fact they were shopping for her.

We finally got much needed rain.  I think it's messing with my allergies, but we need it so bad.  It is also nice and cool because of it.  Feels like Fall finally.

Might go to the fair Thursday.  Or wait until next Thursday.  Why Thursday?  Because my Dad volunteers then and I can get in for free :)

My Parent's 40th Wedding Anniversary

My siblings and I threw an anniversary party for my mom and dad in honor of their 40th anniversary on Saturday afternoon.  I think it was really nice and although my parent's knew about it, they didn't know who was coming.  I think it was a nice surprise for them.

I made my first "wedding" cake.  It turned out ok.  The first 2 layers were allergen free and they turned out fine.  A little on the dry side, but pretty tasty.  I really don't have any leftovers, so I guess that's a good sign :)

Fun weekend ahead!

I've been watching a cute, feel-good Korean show and there was a quote I liked today.  I have no idea if it's a true saying or if it is one in Korea or what, but the main girl character said something like: "It is said that if you share your worries, they are cut in half.  If you share your joys, they are doubled".  I like that.

I am getting ready for my parent's 40th anniversary bash we're having here on Saturday.  It's going to be so much fun!  I made a 3 tiered cake.  The smaller 2 are allergy free, while the bottom is a plain white cake. I filled it with fresh strawberries and just frosted it plainly.  I went to the grocery store and got some nice flowers on clearance to put on it.  I hope it turns out well.

I've been settling more in to the gluten/dairy/egg/soy free life more.  Soy is most definitely the hardest to avoid.  It's in a lot of thing's, even grilled meat!  Which is scary, because an over-consumption of the stuff can lead to breast cancer in women and infertility in men.  But it's cheap to grow and so sneaked in to a lot of our food.

I wish Brent was more supportive.  He acts like it's this huge pain in the bum and an inconvenience for him.  It's aggravating.  Like tonight, I was trying to feed Audrey and myself some dinner since he was going to eat with a friend.  I was hoping that he would get together Audrey's so that I could get mine and make it easier.  But since I am trying to keep Audrey off of gluten as well (several reasons for this), he kept complaining about he didn't know what to feed her because she can't have Ritz or bread.  Finally I had to stop what I was doing and make a pb&j on a corn tortilla. How freaking hard was that?!

Complaint over.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to seeing family and friends this weekend.  My 1st friend I ever had (seriously, we were babies) is coming along with her little boy who is a few weeks younger than Audrey.  I just have to do some cleaning tomorrow.  We aren't dirty people, so it's not hard.  Just doing the mopping and vacuuming and dusting.  Shouldn't take long.  I haven't seen my big brother in a few months, so I am excited!  He's the one who planned the whole thing.

Rough Afternoon

We finally got our pictures done for the HPPC directory today.  Talk about putting it off until the last moment!  Audrey ralphed right before and I am tired because I started my period today and there was a shadow in all the pictures making Brent look like he had a black eye.  So not our best pictures, but it's done.

Right after us was another young couple with a girl I pegged to be around Audrey's age probably a little older.  Then I asked and the mom said she was 22 months.  What??? And here she was having full conversations and this that and the other and here is my closer to 2 and a half year old babbling like some crazy old woman at a nursing home.  I wish I could eat a dang cookie.  It's kids like them that make me feel like I have got to be the worst mother in the world.  Like I've failed somewhere.

But then I had a friend post this on her facebook: http://blogs.babble.com/babys-first-year-blog/2011/09/19/10-disturbing-baby-fails/?pid=2209#slideshow
It is disturbing but part of me says, at least I'm not that bad!

In other news, it's less than 2 hours until the season premiere of Castle!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!!!

Treasure Keepers

Starting yesterday, we all felt better.  Yay!

I went to Treasure Keepers, which is a Bible study for young moms.  I was really blessed by the teaching and there are some really wonderful ladies in there.  I am hoping to get really involved with that.  Well, as much as I can get being a one car family.

Audrey is cutting another 2 year molar.  It is the devil.  She woke up early, had a very short nap and was extremely cranky before bed.  She snuggles a lot and is screaming bloody murder the next second.  I made gluten, egg, milk, and soy free brownies and gave her one.  They are so yummy!

I have another holistic doctor appointment tomorrow morning.  I need to sit down and write down all the questions I have.  Then I have my first choir board meeting as robe chairman and choir practice, so it's going to be a long day.

Sick

I've been sick since Tuesday.  My throat started to get achy then.  I ignored it, thinking it was allergies.  Audrey had started being sick Sunday night and Brent stayed home from work on Thursday.  Today and yesterday, it's just my sinuses.

The more I think about it, the more I think I know where Audrey picked this up from and then felt compelled to share with her parents: a lollypop from 1/2 Price Books.  We had a family outing and we were all enjoying looking at the wonderful books they had to offer.  Since it was Audrey and 4 adults, I admit my eyes weren't always on her, but looking for a particular book.  Mistake.  I happen to turn around and she had a 1/2 eaten lolly in her hand.  Sick sick sick!  I didn't know if she stuck it in her mouth, but I took it from her and wiped her down with a butt wipe, but she does suck her thumb so if the germy lolly slime got on her thumb...*shudder*....

My sister said it reminded her of the line in Elf "the gum on the sidewalk is NOT free candy" or something like that.

Anyway, there are a couple of other places it could've come from, but I am pretty convinced someone's pumpkin child who left their nasty lollypop at 1/2 Price is the culprit.  Gross.  Parents, if your child brings food in to a place, make sure they ate it all or threw it away.  I had to do this the other day.  Finally hunted down that cookie.