Potty Training Update

Natalie is finally doing very well with potty training. I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm thinking it's almost safe to say she is daytime bladder trained. I took several pairs of panties and several outfits to daycare earlier this week, and she only had one accident! Yay, Natalie! Unless she's super busy playing, she does pretty well to tell me that she needs to "pee pee on the potty". We haven't really run too many errands, but I still plan on putting her in a pull-up for ventures outside the house. Yesterday she got a haircut and wore panties, and on the way home told me she needed to go, but in the car, I couldn't do much about it, and she had an accident. Maybe I should invest in one of those little travel potties that I can set up in the back of my SUV. Does anyone have experience with those? I would LOVE for her to be completely, 100% potty trained (day and night, bowel and bladder) by the time we go on our beach vacation late this summer. How lovely it would be to not pack ANY pull-ups or ANY swim diapers!

On a side note, I'm having a Thirty-One party today, so I've gotta get my house in tip-top shape. Have you ever seen Thirty-One stuff? It's SO cute!
I'm got several little crafty-type projects in mind. I can't wait until I have time to really put some thought, time, and money into them (though they're all pretty inexpensive). When I do, I'll post about them.

I hope it's as beautiful everywhere today as it is here! Happy Saturday!

He Did It!!

Nathan had his PA (Physician Assistant) school interview today. A couple weeks ago he found out that the admissions committee requested to move it up to today (originally scheduled for July19th). We've been spending our evenings doing mock interviews, and apparently, it totally paid off because...

He was accepted!

This may not sound like a huge deal, but it is. This school typically receives about 400 applications each year, does approximately 75 interviews, and accepts 35(ish) students. Nathan was one of the first to turn in his application and was the very first interview for the year. There were three interviewees today; Nathan was first, and he found out he was accepted just minutes after his interview, before the second interview took place. (The school does rolling admissions).  Classes start in January; we have a lot to do between now and then, and need to save up a lot of money, because Nathan will have to quit working for two years.

I'm sure this is interesting and exciting news to no one but myself, but I'm over the moon for him. It's going to be a rough two years, but will be amazing for our future.

I Think I Found It

Natalie's new bedding, that is:



I found it on JCPenney online, clearanced for $43.99! That includes the quilt, sheet set/pillow cases, bedskirt, and 2 shams. The accent pillows are on clearance for $8.99 (orig. price $45.00)!
It will match her ceiling fan perfectly, and I know I can find some great wall art to coordinate. Now we just have to get her full-sized mattress and box-springs ordered. Oh, the money we're dropping lately makes me sick! *pity party for one, please*

She's going to love it! Her reaction when I showed her this picture? "WOW!" haha!

Little Girl's Room

Poor Natalie has never really had a "themed" or "decorated" room. When she was born, we lived in a 700 sq ft apartment and were only going to be there for 5 months, so we didn't really decorate her nursery. I'm working on getting her room all fixed up now. She has a toddler bed, and we have a twin-sized bed in one of our guest rooms (which would make financial sense), but we would really like to get her a full-size bed to decrease the chance of her rolling off. It would also be good for sleepovers with her BFF when she's a smidge older. I've been looking at decor for awhile, but cannot commit to anything, especially with our budget.

Here are some things I like. What do you think?


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My in-laws recently bought Natalie a brightly-colored ceiling fan, so her room will have bright colors as opposed to pastels. Hobby lobby also has a few cute things.

I've been reading some amazing blogs that have included decorating and organizing kids' rooms, so hopefully it won't be much longer until I fall in love with something and get over my fear of decorating-commitment.

Do you have any good decorating sites to recommend for inspiration?

Things I Don't Want To Forget

It seems like I haven't done one of these in awhile, and Natalie's so funny right now, I thought it would be an appropriate time:

* (This was just a one-time thing so far, but it was funny)- Natalie told her daddy she was going to "fix his toes"....then she pulled a hair out of his big toe :) Hahaha!

* Natalie is such a little fish. She LOVES the water and is totally fearless at the pool. I'm kind of an overprotective momma and won't let her go under at all when she jumps in. We've never ever had ear issues (*knock on wood*), and I don't plan on starting with swimmer's ear.

* The daycare teachers all seem to like Natalie a lot. Apparently she's VERY well behaved during the day. However, there's one teacher in particular that just loves Natalie. She was Natalie's teacher around the time Natalie turned one, I guess, and it was a terribly rough transition to this teacher's classroom. (Let's call this teacher "Sue" just to simplify things). Natalie cried and screamed daily in "Sue's" classroom, and Nathan and I didn't get a lovey, butterflies-in-our-tummies feeling from her. We actually seriously considered pulling Natalie out of daycare because we didn't like the thought of leaving her with "Sue" all day. After many weeks, Natalie finally warmed up to "Sue", and then the time came where "Sue" was the only one who could make Natalie stop crying. "Sue" and another teacher got Natalie a sweet birthday present back in December, and this week, she got Natalie a cute little "towel dress" just because. So super sweet of her! I don't know the correct term, but by "towel dress", I mean something like this: 

* As of today, Natalie has said two naughty words. I never said I was proud of all the things I don't want to forget! I always knew Nathan would be the first cause of a dirty word, but it was me. Nathan was second...but his word was worse. Just for the record, the words were a 5-letter "B" word and a 4-letter "S" word.

* Natalie loves to sing "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" and sounds really cute doing so.

* Natalie knows that any time she washes her hands, she has to scrub them and sing the alphabet, then she can rinse her hands. She almost always goes from the ABCs into "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

* Princesses are a huge hit around here, as are ballerinas.

Just for the record...some things I would like to forget:

* Potty-training...it's not a fun thing.

*Bedtime...also not a fun time. We've had to resort back to the "cry-it-out" method.  Nathan has slept in the basement for the last two nights so I have to be the tough one losing sleep. I don't mind...I can handle it a little better than he can. Two nights ago, Natalie was up 4 times and cried for a minimum of 30 minutes each time. I went in once to put her back to bed and was in there for less than 3 minutes. The rest of the time she cried. It was pretty heartbreaking. Last night I didn't hear a peep out of her until my first alarm went off at 4:40. She returned to her bed for 15 minutes, then I let her into our bed since I was getting up anyway. We will see how tonight goes!

Liberty Wall Art

Remember this?

My quick how-to:

• The plans
• Paint each piece before assembly. I originally used red and white spray paints. I wasn't happy with the way it turned out, so I used white paint from the basement that was used on our walls, and I bought a small sample of red Valspar paint from Lowe's for $2.94. The blue paint was a free sample of Valspar that I had gotten in the mail from Lowe's. I didn't use the dry-brush technique as the plan had recommended, but I could still see the wood grain through the paint, which I was really pleased with.




• Lay the pieces out on your plywood before using glue or nails. There should be a little bit of overhang around the plywood. I used a 1/4" thick piece of plywood (4'x4'), which was definitely not thick enough. I used furring strips to build this piece, and it was so heavy that my plywood bowed when I tried to move it. It took Nathan and me moving it together. A 15/32" was the next thickness I saw, and that's what I'd use next time (probably not for the small one I plan to make, but for this size).



• After laying out my pieces, I figured which sides would be exposed and painted those. Only the tops of the "inside" pieces are painted.
• Then, I glued all the pieces down with Gorilla wood glue. I didn't nail the pieces down; since I used furring strips, I was afraid the wood would split and all my hard work would be ruined. Although, I think it would have looked really good. I also didn't distress the piece. Again, I was pleased with how it looked, and I was afraid I would ruin it. This would have been my first time distressing anything.



• Since my plywood was flimsy, we glued and screwed three 1x6 or 1x8 scraps that we had to the back, to add a little security. We did this sort of in the shape of an "N" to provide the most reinforcement. I'm so glad we did!
• To get the stars on there, I printed the pattern from the computer in various sizes and traced them onto cardstock. I originally used my brush to paint the stars on, but decided that spray paint may work better...and it did. I had to let the excess paint that got onto the back of the cardstock dry in between stars. I learned that the hard way. If you really look, you can see my "error" stars.

This was such a learning experience. It was intended to be a very cheap project, made out of scraps from previous projects. I have only done one other project, so I didn't have a lot of 1x4 scraps, which is primarily what this piece is made of. I think overall, I invested about $40 into this piece. How cool would it be to do something like this for each season (smaller, of course!)?

Craft Reveal

I posted a teaser yesterday about the craft that I made for our family reunion auction. I was pleased with the way it turned out. I knew it was going to be big, but I didn't actually think about how big it would be; make sense? Whoever bought it would have to have a good amount of space to lean it against a wall, because it would probably be almost too heavy to hang on a wall. I got a lot of compliments on the "modern art", so I will definitely attempt it again, only making the next one much smaller. I'm going to build one for my home, and probably one for the auction next year. I'm thinking of cutting the size in half, so it will be about 2'x2'.

And now, the big reveal.....

My goal was for the piece to go for at least $75. Whoever bought it would have to have a truck to get it home, or would have had to live on the reunion grounds. (The reunion was at the property of my aunt and uncle, where there are three homes- my aunt and uncle's, my grandma's, and my cousin and his wife's). The proud new owners of this dandy are my parents :) They bought it for $60. I think they genuinely wanted it, and didn't just buy it out of the goodness of their hearts. My dad is going to seal it and it will go on their front porch in honor of Memorial Day and 4th of July. I will post how the project came to be later...in time to link up with the Tuesday project link party of one of the blogs that I read.

I purchased a plant at the auction. It was a plant that my mom brought that was given to her by my dad's mom about 25 years ago. Wow! That thing's older than I am! It's called a Mother-In-Law's tongue. We seriously have zero plants in our house. This plant will sit on our front steps during the spring, summer, and early fall months, but I will haul it inside during the winter, just like I remember my mom always doing. I actually sort of have a fear of taking care of plants. Flowers, actually. I can't keep flowers alive. Hopefully I can keep this plant alive. It's all green, and I don't think it blooms. If anyone knows how to best care for Mother-In-Law's tongues, please let me know!

I mentioned that some things that are sold at the auction are family heirlooms, so to speak. My aunt shocked us all when she donated my great-grandma's wedding band for the auction. I didn't hear the whole story, so I'm not completely sure how she ended up with it (she's the middle daughter...not that it really matters, I suppose), but she said she never wears it, and she thought someone else in the family might like to have it. It sold for $200 dollars, and was purchased by my aunt's husband. How sweet, right?! She donated it, but apparently it's totally sentimental to her (as it would be for anyone, right?), and he wanted her to have it. That's love right there, folks!

I failed miserably and didn't take any pictures at the reunion. We were only there for a couple of hours. Next year the reunion will be at my uncle's house, which is always a fun time. He lives in the middle of nowhere with horses, a pool, horseshoe pits, four wheelers, a trampoline, and plenty of open land for a skeet shoot. Yep, we're hillbillies. The word "hillbilly" always makes me think of this:



It was an absolutely beautiful weekend, minus a few short thunderstorms. Today was an amazing day to work outside, and Nathan and I were pretty productive. Hopefully this house will be all spruced up before long.

Teaser

Just a little sneak peek at my project for the family reunion auction. I'm pretty pleased with it.

That's all for now! I will post more about it later. I'm anxious to see how much it goes for this afternoon.

Work....*Le Sigh*

Working in healthcare is always a risk, but it seems to be especially scary right now. Maybe it's not everywhere or in every discipline, but in my field, it's a little nerve-racking. Between culture change and the economy, we're all watching our back extra closely. People expect an "instant fix" for all of their health issues, and orthopaedic patients want to be up walking independently at 100% independence right after their knee and hip replacements. It's so frustrating when we're doing our very best, and we get patients and families saying things like, "Don't worry, I'm watching every move they make," or, "...., so you better watch out!" Families seem to be more focused on their wants and expectations, as opposed to the best interest of the patient. A lot of times families don't realize it, but they are actually impeding the healing process. If I could go back, I would choose a different career path. I realize that I'm young and still could, but I'm hoping that Nathan will get into graduate school and after he's finished I can go part-time and not deal with quite as much crap. He wants me to quit working altogether, but I can't see myself as a stay-at-home-mom. I think I'd go crazy. There I go rambling again.
Anyway, it's especially worrisome when we get patients who are lawyers (or parents of lawyers), nurses (or parents of a nurse), or physicians. It's so much easier to work with friendly, understanding families who trust our judgment. I think I, personally, generally seem to be more willing to bend over backwards for those families who are trusting and are willing to work as a team with us, not against us, as well. I would never intentionally be one of "those" (aka- dreaded) family members, but I hope and pray that I'm never unintentionally one of them, either.

I had intended to write this post earlier this week after a long, irritating day at work when my blood was boiling. I could seriously feel my heart racing, my blood pressure rising, and my stomach turning; this post would've been a LONG one. Now, I've had time to cool down; I still wanted to post, but it's much shorter and much less angry- sounding that it would've been several days ago.

We have a family reunion this afternoon. Every year we all (or almost all) take something we've made or a family heirloom (or nicely-framed picture, etc) and auction it off to someone else in the family. That money goes into an account to put toward the following year's reunion and to donate to family members in times of need. Last year we donated a good chunk of money to my mom's cousin who's battling liver cancer in order to help pay medical bills. It's a really neat thing, and I'm glad someone thought of the idea. I will do a post about my craft project later today or tomorrow. I'm proud of it, minus a few minor flaws. Oh well, they give it character!

Wordless Wednesday

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Show Us Your Life- Appetizers

Veggie Bars (this was my one request for my bridal and baby showers)

3 cans crescent rolls                                        ¾ C chopped green pepper

¾ C mayonnaise                                              ¾ C chopped red onion

¼ C sour cream                                               ¾ C diced Roma tomatoes

2-8oz pkgs. cream cheese (softened)              ¾ C chopped broccoli

¾ C shredded cheddar cheese                                    ¾ C chopped cauliflower

1 envelope (small) Ranch dressing mix           ¾ C shredded carrots

Cover 11x17 (13x9 works too) baking pan with crescent rolls.  Bake at 350 degrees 8 to 10 minutes until light brown.  Cool crust.

In bowl, combine Mayo, sour cream, cream cheese and dressing mix.  Spread over crust.  Chop and/or shred vegetables.  Toss together, and then spread over crust.  Top with cheddar cheese.  Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.  Cut into 2” square bars. They will look something like this:



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* I don't always use each of these veggies. Sometimes I mix it up. Just use whatever veggies you like.

Beer Cheese Dip (I take this to pretty much every party, and it's been a hit each time)

2 blocks cream cheese, softened

1 pkg dry Ranch mix

2 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 can beer

In a large bowl, begin mixing cream cheese, ranch dressing mix, and beer with a hand mixer. Slowly add in shredded cheese. Continue mixing with a hand mixer until all ingredients are combined. Chill in the fridge and serve with pretzels. This is great to make a day ahead of time!



{picture source}- I don't garnish mine, but it sure is pretty.