Operation: Spring Cleaning - Week 1

     I've started my spring cleaning.  If you missed the first part, you can just catch up by reading my post Operation: Spring Cleaning.  After the first week, everything is...going.  Let's start from the beginning:

Day 1
     Woke up all nice a ready to get started with the cleaning.  Got out of bed, ate some breakfast, made sure Piggy Baby was nice an content, waited until Hubby was up before starting to clean the bedroom first.  Once he got up, I got started cleaning.  Unfortunately, half an hour into cleaning, the lights shut off.  I thought, "oh, great.  The power's out."  I started into the living room to tell my husband just to see the dining room light on and my husband sitting in the living room with the glow of the dining room on him.  Come to find out, the circuit blew.
     Great.  Easy fix.  Just get it done and we'll be back to cleaning in no time!  He goes to the breaker box and tries to figure out which breaker is the living room and bedroom.  Flip, pause, flip.  Flip, pause, flip.  Flip, SPARKS SPARKS SPARKS, FLIP!  Turned out that there was a loose wire.  So much for doing much of any cleaning on the first day.

Day 2
     Since day 1 resulted in no spring cleaning done, I had to do some rearranging.  Today, I cleaned the range hood, cleaned the fridge and freezer, and dusted the ceiling.  I'm bumping cleaning the oven and back splash to tomorrow along with wiping down the walls from today to tomorrow.  Anything that didn't involve the kitchen is getting moved to tomorrow as well.  My husband didn't get a chance to do any of his stuff because Piggy was in the mood of being moody and would cry the second you sit her down.  So day 2 was at least more productive than day 1.

Day 3
     Absolutely nothing was able to get done today.  Hubby didn't wake up until about a hour before he had to go to work and had to take a shower so he didn't get a chance to do anything.  As for me, I had a very fussy Piggy Baby on my hands all day.  I even tried to organize the Tupperware while trying to calm her down but she just insisted on sitting in my lap with one hand on her back and the other had on her stomach.  All I have to say, spring cleaning is getting far more complicated than I was planning for it to be.  I figured there would be a few delays, but no.  Having entire days that are delayed?  Me no likey.  Fingers crossed that I'll actually be able to get something done tomorrow!

Day 4
     Unfortunately, today was no success in cleaning again.  Hubby has his wisdom teeth taken out and was throwing up because he was swallowing too much blood and I was running a fever so bad that whenever I stood up, a few seconds later I would have to sit back down due to what seemed like the world was running away from me.  The only one in the house who felt fine was Piggy Baby.
     Tomorrow doesn't seem too promising that anything will get done.  I can only hope though, right?

Day 5
     Well, I'm still running a fever, but Hubby is feeling better.  Enough so that he washed the windows and did laundry.  Kudos to him.  I'm still stuck on the couch staring at everything that still needs to be done and everything I'm running behind on.  It is a good time to catch up on my reading though!

Day 6
     Today, I was actually able to get some cleaning done.  I organized the cabinets in the kitchen (which took longer than I planned), organized the Tupperware, changed the light in the living room, cleaned the stove, and cleaned appliances (which also took longer than I planned).  I still have quite a bit of catching up to do.  Hopefully, I can knock more stuff out tomorrow!

Day 7
     Today, I, once again, didn't get anything done.  At all.  Well,  I lie.  I did make tutus for Piggy.  I just got so excited that the last of the stuff finally came in that I didn't...get any...cleaning...done.  I couldn't help it.
     Anyways, I revised the cleaning schedule so that way I can actually make some sense of it instead of taking the copy that I have and scratching things out, rewriting things, drawing arrows, scratch out arrows and then rewriting arrows, and then getting cleaning stuff on it causing the ink to smear.  I actually like the revised version a lot better than the original.  Mainly because it lines up with my regular cleaning schedule.  I wrote about that in my post "Cleaning: (Beginning of) Conquering My Foe".  Now, everything that is kitchen is done when I'm cleaning the kitchen (Monday).  Everything that is bedroom is done when I'm cleaning the bedroom (Friday) and starts to trickle into Saturday and Sunday.  Hallway and hallway closet is on Saturday and Storage room is on Sunday.  Hopefully, this will make it easier to do some cleaning.

     Stay tuned for the third (and final) part of Operation: Spring Cleaning!

Coming Soon: Tutu Tuesdays' Tutu of the Week-Sneak Peek

 

     Coming soon will be Tutu Tuesdays starting on April 1st (and that's no joke, teehee).  On Tutu Tuesdays, I will be presenting Piggy Baby in the Tutu of the Week!  The cuteness factor will be off the scale and taking over!

     Right now, here's a sneak peak into the Tutu of the Week!

Piggy's Piggy Bank

     I believe that every child should have a piggy bank from the day he or she was born.  Piggy actually had hers a month before she was born.  Every time Hubby or I found loose change (not quarters though, those are for laundry) we would plop it into her piggy bank.  This is the perfect way to save money for her in the future.  Who likes to use a bunch of dimes, nickels, and pennies to pay for something?  Granted, we do throw in the occasional dollar that was found on the floor or in the laundry, but the majority is still dimes, nickels, and pennies.  Since those random dollars are out of sight, they soon become out of mind!

     Eventually, that piggy bank has to get full, right?  So what is there to do with that full thing?  Get another piggy bank?  I beg to differ.  If that was the case, then by now, I would have had a plethora of piggy banks taking over every room of the house (my mom did this for me and my brother, too.  It's kind of where I got the belief of having a piggy bank).  Instead, the thing to do is open a bank account.

     "A baby with a bank account?!  Why?!"  Well, why not?  By the time she's old enough to start working or go to college (depending on when we decide to give it to her), there will be enough saved to drastically cut down costs.  If she's old enough to have a job, she should be responsible enough to buy the things she needs (work or school clothes, school supplies, food, gas, etc.) and wants (hair done, movies, fun clothes, jewelry, laptop, etc.)  If she happens to spend all of her money on shoes and song downloads and needs money for gas, sure, we'll give the money to her, but her next paycheck, she's going to pay us back.  This way, she'll be ready for when she's out on her own to balance the wants and needs.  If she just goes to college and doesn't get a job before then, that money can drastically bring down the cost of school!

     Like I said earlier, my mom did this with both me and my brother.  I knew about my account when I was eight (?) years old.  My piggy bank (at the time it was actually a one-gallon water cooler jug with duct tape with a slit as the top.  It's amazing how I didn't break into the thing to get candy money) was over flowing so my mom took me and the jug...and half of another jug to the bank.  She explained to me that when I'm old enough, the account becomes all mine and I get to do what I want with the money.  Now, fast forward to when I was 13 and had my first cell phone, I woke up one morning to find my phone had fallen off of my nightstand and into a cup of water on the floor.  Being a phone of the mid 00's, it was done for.  The way my mother put it "the first phone was a gift, this one you're paying for" and she took the money for it out of my account.  About a year later, my brother lost his phone when we were at a hockey game.  Since I was moving to my dad's within a few months, my brother was going to get my phone and my mom did the same thing with him that she did with me, except this time, since it was my phone and used, she took the price of my phone when it was new, cut the price in half, and took that amount out of his account and put it into my account.  It was as if he paid me for the phone.  Awesome work, mom.

     I finally got the card for my account when I went off to college.  The first month, I used it to get random snacks, go to the movies, and get clothes.  I then realized that I had gone from $400 to $100.  My mom was putting $50 in my account twice a month.  So, what did I do?  With that $50, I put $25 to save and $25 to spend.  If by the next time I got the $50 and I had $50 or more for spending, I would leave only $25 for me to spend and the rest went to be saved.  By the next year, I had $700 back into my account!  Unfortunately though, that year wasn't so good for me and saving money because some stuff happened (it's too long to go into detail) and I didn't have a way to get gas money to go to and from school every weekend (and I had to because of the school's policy...plus I didn't want to pay $3 per load of laundry every weekend).  I tried to find a job, but there weren't any places that were hiring or they wanted people with more experience.  So by the end of that year, I went from my hard saved $700 to a mere $50.  My mom did continue to put in that $50 twice a month (thank God for that, otherwise I would have run out of gas money half way through the year!) and I was able to get $300 saved up before I got married.  Once I got married, that's when she stopped the $50.  I was sad to see it go, but I understood why it went.

     Anyways, enough story telling.  Here's my plan for Piggy's piggy bank: keep putting change in.  Once there is $100, open up a bank account for her.  Continue to put change in.  Every time she gets money for her birthday, Christmas, or whatever, put it in that piggy bank, but once she's 12, half will go into the piggy bank and the other half will be hers to decide what to do with it.  Once piggy bank is full (or there's $250, whichever comes first), take it to the bank.  Ta-da!  And to keep her dad and I from spending it all, we aren't going to get a card for it until we give the account to her.

     Now, at first, I was really hesitant about setting the amounts to $100 and $250.  I just kept thinking "That's a lot of change!" but then, I remembered "Hey, we're also putting in the dollars we find on the floor and in the laundry!  This won't take that long!".  I was right too.  She's not even two months old yet, and she already has over $60 in her piggy bank!  The change in the truck isn't even in there yet (and believe me, there's a lot of change in the truck!)  She'll have money built up in no time!

Operation: Spring Cleaning

     It's that time of year again.  The snow is melting (if you have any) and the temperature is warming up.  The month of March has begun signaling what every person either dreads or anticipates: spring cleaning.
     Being the first year as a stay-at-home mom, I needed to attack this thing I dread head on.  I was determined to conquer, not only cleaning, but spring cleaning.  As if regular cleaning wasn't bad enough, I had to get the winter out of the house and start bring in the summer.  I planned two weeks at the end of March to attack.  The week before, I sat down and strategically planned this attack.  I went around the house with a pad of paper and a pen, went room to room, looked around, and wrote down everything (and I mean everything) that needed to be done.  After I had my list, I sat down at the computer and scheduled what would be done and on which day.  To disperse the work, I decided to have two hardcore cleaning days per room and about two things on the rest of the days until I ran out for that room.  Throughout the rest of the week, I added and tweaked up until the day before.  Once midnight hit of the first day, the schedule was set in stone and was to stay.  This is what I ended up with this:

Friday, March 21, 2014
Kitchen

• Clean range hood
• Clean behind & under stove
• Clean oven
• Clean back splash
• Change lights

Truck/Car

• Clean front seats
• Clean mirror

Bedroom

• Clean light switches
• Clean door

Saturday, March 22, 2014
Kitchen

• Clean behind & under fridge
• Clean freezer
• Clean fridge
• Dust ceiling
• Wipe down walls

Truck/Car

• Clean back seat
• Clean windows

Bedroom

• Dust ceiling
• Change lights

Sunday, March 23, 2014
Kitchen

• Organize Tupperware
• Clean under sink
• Clean stove

Living Room

• Clean under couches
• Organize arm rest
• Clean under entertainment center
• Dust ceiling

Bedroom

• Wipe down walls
• Clean vents

Monday, March 24, 2014
Kitchen

• Clean dining room side counter
• Clean lights & switches
• Organize drawers

Living Room

• Clean vents
• Wipe down walls
• Clean windows (in & out)
• Clean blinds
• Clean window sill

Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Kitchen

• Organize cabinets

Dining Room

• Clean windows (in & out)
• Clean blinds
• Clean window sill
• Wipe down walls
• Dust ceiling

Living Room

• Clean lights & switches
• Change lights
• Shampoo couch

Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Kitchen

• Wipe down cabinets
• Clean appliances

Dining Room

• Clean lights & switches
• Change lights
• Clean table & chairs
• Clean under counter
• Shampoo carpet

Living Room

• Dust bookshelf
• Dust DVDs & books

Thursday, March 27, 2014
Kitchen

• Clean drains
• Scrub floor
• Clean trash can

Bathroom

• Organize cabinets
• Wipe down cabinets
• Clean under sink
• Clean vents
• Clean lights & switches

Friday, March 28, 2014
Truck/Car

• Clean consoles

Bathroom

• Wipe down walls
• Scrub floors
• Clean door
• Dust ceiling
• Change lights
• Clean shower curtain

Hallway

• Clean lights & switches

Saturday, March 29, 2014
Truck/Car

• Clean cup holders
• Clean tool boxes

Bathroom

• Clean faucets
• Clean drains

Hallway

• Change lights

Bedroom

• Rearrange furniture
• Vacuum under dresser
• Vacuum under nightstand
• Vacuum under crib

Sunday, March 30, 2014
Truck/Car

• Vacuum
• Clean bed/trunk

Living Room

• Clean door
• Shampoo carpet

Bedroom

• Vacuum under bed
• Clean closet shelves
• Go through clothes
• Vacuum closet
• Wipe down closet doors

Monday, March 31, 2014
Storage Room

• Go through everything
• Wipe down walls
• Clean lights & switches
• Change lights

Hallway

• Clean vents

Bedroom

• Organize closet
• Clean windows (in & out)
• Go through dresser

Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Storage Room

• Clean door
• Sweep & mop (mop x2)

Hallway

• Dust ceiling
• Wipe down walls
• Check & clean smoke detectors

Bedroom

• Clean blinds
• Clean window sill
• Go through nightstand

Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Truck/Car

• Shampoo

Hallway Closet

• Go through everything
• Organize
• Wipe down walls
• Clean door
• Clean shelves

Bedroom

• Clean cabinet shelves
• Organize cabinets
• Check & clean smoke detectors

Thursday, April 3, 2014
Truck/Car

• Car wash

Hallway Closet

• Vacuum
• Shampoo carpet

Hallway

• Vacuum
• Shampoo carpet

Bedroom

• Wipe down cabinets
• Shampoo carpet
• Shampoo closet

     Of course, Hubby is going to help out even though he has a short attention span causing him to sort of clean (for example, this one time he took out the trash, he got out a new bag and opened it up and everything...but it never made it into the trash can even though you just have to turn ninety degrees from where the bags are and there you go).  The way I think of it, I am the supervisor and he has to do everything to my standard.  Needless to say, he's going to want to kill be by the end of spring cleaning due to all of the "You need to clean that more!", "You still need to...!", "Do it this way!" s he's going to hear.  It's probably a good thing that I planned the first week (which has the most demanding days) around when he'll be home from getting his wisdom teeth taken out.  Nothing like having a doped up husband to take any nagging that may occur.  I'm not that mean to him, though.  I'm giving him simple things like cleaning the windows or cleaning lights and switches when he's on his meds (give him the easy things so I can focus on the harder things and not have to worry about whether or not he's doing it right).

     Well, I'm off clean!  I'll post a one week update next week with pictures.  Wish me luck!

5 Baby Things: Newborn

     Every parent has their list of must-haves and don't-needs.  These are my top five...and bottom five.  Argue with me all you want, but these are just what I have found to be useful beyond belief and pointless beyond belief.

Couldn't Live Without

1 Swing/Bouncer combo

     After spending several hours with Piggy in her stroller and Daddy walking around the house with it, we decided it was time to get a swing.  We got to the store, found two swings I we liked.  One was small and portable and the other was big but had a bouncer.  I We decided on the bigger one, the Graco DuetConnect Swing and Bouncer, because it (supposedly) had a plug in (which it didn't), there was a bouncer, and the bouncer was at least on the portable side.  Piggy Baby is absolutely in love with the bouncer part.  The swing...not so much...or so we thought.  The other day, I thought "Gee.  She's all the way over there in the dining room and we spend a lot of time all the way over here in the living room.  She must get really lonely over there."  So I brought the swing into the living room, made a spot for it (in front of one of the recliners), attached the bouncer, turned it on full blast, and...what do you know?  She fell asleep in the thing when before, we couldn't get her to sit in it for more than ten minutes!  When Piggy is on the fussy side, just plop her in the swing.  If she's still fussy, then take off the bouncer and bounce her.  If she's still fussy, time to either feed her or change her diaper.  In fact, last night, she had just eaten and had her diaper changed and was really fussy and wouldn't go to sleep.  I sat her in the swing and turned it on and she fell right asleep!

2 Breast Pump
     I breast feed.  Starting breast feeding killed my boobs...well, nipples.  It got to the point to where I would burst into tears from the pain.  Even using nipple butter, nipple cream, and breast milk (as a nurse told me), I still couldn't stand to feed Piggy Baby.  It got to the point where I was considering feeding her formula (and I did...but it was only 40mL by doctor's orders...so it doesn't count against EBF!)  I was about to die with sore nipples and engorged breasts.  Fortunately, my mother-in-law sent me a breast pump my sister-in-law never used and wasn't planning on using.  I saw that gorgeous thing in that box and it was like angels were singing and blinding lights were shining and all was happy and gorgeous again.  The pump was so much easier on me and allowed me to let my nipples heal up.  I just pumped, put the milk in a bottle, and fed it to Piggy.  Once my nipples healed up, I made sure to use that nipple butter just in case, pumped when my milk tanks were full, and all was good.

3 Travel System

     At first, Hubby was hesitant at getting a travel set "We wouldn't use the stroller.  We could just carry her around instead of pushing her.  I don't want to spend $150 for something we'll barely use!"  But for Black Friday, I noticed that this $150 travel system was on sale for $100, I forced him to take me to the store to get it.  I mean, 33% off?  I'm game!  The fact that there is a base to put in the car and not have to hassle with hooking the car seat in every time is a life saver by itself.  Adding that the car seat just clicks in and out of the stroller and car means that a sleeping pig can sleep!  Also adding that the stroller folds up with a press of a button and a twist of the wrist is just awesome!

4 Bath Flower

      This little handy-dandy bath flower kind of is as it sounds.  It's a flower...used during a bath.  This is an insert that goes into the sink for bath time.  It gives Piggy a nice, soft surface to sit/lay in while she gets her bath.  She loves it!  The only two problems I've found with it is that the way she sits in it causes the sink to not drain fast enough so one or two times during her bath, I have to lift her and the flower up just enough to let the water out.  The second one is that it takes at least a day to dry.  The tag says it can be thrown in the dryer, but considering that we have to pay to do laundry (curse you community laundry rooms!), I just hang it off the shower curtain rod to dry.

 

5 Moby Wrap
     I was really hesitant to get this because, while I'm not short, I'm tiny and quite a few reviews said "Not for petite/small/thin people" and "hard/difficult/time consuming to put on".  I decided to get it anyways because I was in desperation to get the house clean since it hadn't been cleaned since Piggy was born (more than a month) and it was driving me CRAZY!  I couldn't even cook dinner because she would want to be bounced in her bouncer or her swing wasn't going as fast as she wanted it to or she just wanted some lovin'.  Have you ever tried to cook spaghetti while holding a baby?  While the noodles are cooking, it's all cool, but once you have to drain them, that's where the problem comes into play.  While waiting for the thing in the mail, I looked up some videos and how-to's for this thing so once it got here, I could just tear the box up, throw it on, plop in baby, and get on with the cleaning.  The second I saw the package, I did just that.  She loved it, I couldn't figure out what these people meant on the reviews (I can throw it on within half a minute then add twenty seconds to put her in it and it wasn't swallowing me, dragging the ground or anything), and the house got cleaned and dinners got cooked.

Can Live Without

1 Crib
     Go ahead.  Call me crazy.  Go on.  I'll wait.  I just haven't really found this as a "must have" or even "maybe use" kind of thing.  Piggy doesn't like to sleep in it, she doesn't like to lay in it, she just doesn't like it.  The only way we've been able to get her to even accept it is to put her in the few seconds it takes to whip out a diaper for changing her.  While there is a changing table attached to the crib, we use the changing table...but not the crib.  At night, she sleeps in the bed with Hubby and me.  She can't sleep without me and I can't sleep well without her.  So this $150 crib (that we only paid $60 for) is just a big waste of space.  Eventually, though, I do plan on training her to sleep in the thing, but for now it's just...there.

2 Toys
     I got a few toys as a gift.  I even got some toys from people I've never even met or know (gift basket from Hubby's work from a church...if that makes sense.)  They all seem awesome, but right now, they're just a waste of space.  Piggy is just simply too young to play with them and the one that she can even remotely come close to playing with, she has no interest in.  Even the little rattlers that were given to us are for older babies and she just doesn't seem to want anything to do with them.  As of right now, her favorite "toys" are Daddy's fingers and Mommy's hair (which is why I got it cut and even then, keep it put up...but she still manages to grab ahold of the little sections that escape the clip.)  So until she gets older, it's Daddy's fingers and Mommy's hair.  I'm hoping she'll be more interested in toys by the end of April (she's getting some toys in her Easter basket.)

3 Washcloths
     Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I can already hear some of you right now "Washcloths?!  Live without them?!  What kind of drugs are you on?!"  Yes, washcloths.  I have yet to find a die hard use for them.  Even when she's getting a bath, I just simply use my hands to soap her up and a cup to rinse her off.  I will give them some possible credit for the future.  Maybe I'll use them when she's grabbing stuff (besides my hair) and needs some entertainment.  Just hand one to her to do what she will with it.  Maybe I'll have to wait until she's learning to bathe herself.  I don't know.  Until then, they're just thrown in her diaper bag in case she has a little spit up and a spit up/burp receiving blanket isn't around to save the day.

4 Pacifier Clips
     Let's just say, the only time she even wants to use a pacifier is when she can't be fed right now!  When that's the case, the majority of the time we are in the car going somewhere so it just falls into the car seat.  It's not like the car seat is the vast wasteland where there's no hope of finding anything that's lost in its abyss.  It's just not.  Otherwise, her favorite thing(s) she loves to suck on are her hands.  Why?  I don't know.  I sucked on my index and middle finger (started when I was first teething because I could wrap the two fingers over my gums and chew) while my brother sucked his thumb.  I'll give this one the possible future credit.  When she's walking around and feels the need to suck on something (like her hands) and whatever that something is, is dirty for whatever reason ("Ooo!  Look what I found in my diaper!") and wipes aren't readily handy.  Right now, there's just no point.

5 Swaddlers
     I've heard absolutely raving things about these swaddlers.  My mother-in-law and mom even got some for the little pig.  When I was first trying to get her to go to sleep in her crib, I tried to use these handy little things.  I would grab Piggy, lay her in one, wrap it up, then set her in the crib...only to have her cry her heart out trying to free her arms and legs from the entrapping fabric of doom.  I tried to tighten it (she cried) and I tried to loosen it (she cried) and then I didn't put it on her (she didn't cry).  She just loves for her hands and feet to be free (gee, I wonder why the hands).  I don't even see potential for these things.  Unfortunately, swaddlers will just have to deal with the feeling of rejection.  Sorry, guys.

30 Blog Posts Challenge

     To get this thing started, I decided to give myself a challenge: predetermine 30 topics to blog about.  Some of these topics aren't the slightest bit hard, but coming up with 30 of them gave my brain a workout.  Not only did they have to be 30 topics, they also had to be relevant with parenting.

     So, without further ado, here is my list!

30 Blog Posts Challenge

1.  5 Baby Things: Newborn
2. Operation: Spring Cleaning-Getting Ready
3. Piggy's Piggy Bank
4. Operation: Spring Cleaning-Week 1
5. Easy Carpet Deodorizer
6. Operation: Spring Cleaning-Week 2/Aftermath
7. Things No One Tells You About Pregnancy
8. Plastic Bag Storage
9. Easy Window Cleaner
10. Cleaning With A Baby
11. Piggy's First Easter Basket
12. Get Wrinkles Out of Clothes
13. 5 Things to Do With Baby
14. Easy Toilet Cleaner
15. Mother's/Father's Day Ideas
16. DIY Drain Cleaner
17. My First Mother's Day
18. 5 Baby Things: 3 Months
19. Homemade Face Wash
20. DIY Make-up Brush Cleaner
21. Easy Scouring Scrub
22. What Was In My Hospital Bag
23. Homemade Laundry Detergent
24. DIY Key Holder
25. Homemade Body Scrub
26. What's In My Diaper Bag
27. Hubby's First Father's Day
28. Easy Tub & Shower Cleaner
29. Free Topic
30. Free Topic

     Yes, technically #29 and 30 aren't "predetermined topics", but the list is in order of how I'm going to do them.  Things like teething aren't really predictable so I have them as being more on the lines of a spot holder.  Just switch the "Free Topic" with whichever one it interrupts.  Yes, I could just change the "Free Topic"s to "Teething" and "New Foods" or something like that, but I don't know if "Teething" would change to "Repairing Baby Blankets" or "Cradle Cap".  It all depends on when it's thrown at me.  I don't want to wait to write them and then save them until I get to them because, think, if you were desperate to find out a way to calm a teething baby and I was to have a way that you haven't tried yet, wouldn't you want to know about it right now?  You never know who could use that information right now.  So, I do it for them.

     So, let the blogging begin!

A Quick Intro

     I'm starting a new chapter in my life.  One that the majority of women dream about: becoming a mom.  But with this new chapter, comes some changes that occur in daily living.  Not only do these changes have to apply to me, they also have to apply to my husband.  It'll be a long road through parenthood, but it is a road that must be traveled.  This brings us to why I'm here.

     I'm here to share my experiences.  I'll go through the troubles of learning things the hard way so, hopefully, you don't have to.  Be it limiting how much is spent on eating out or what products to NOT get, I will offer you what I have learned on the journey of a new addition to the family and beyond.

This is me!

     A quick background on me:


This is Kevin, aka Hubby/Daddy and Piggy

     I'm Aimee.  I was born in California, but raised in Georgia, where I lived for twelve years before moving to Mississippi.  I met my now husband, Kevin, in high school and we lived happily ever after.  Right after graduation, he enlisted in the Marines while I went to college.  We got married in June of 2012.  I'm back in my birth state with my husband while he is stationed here.  After a failed first pregnancy, we got a pleasant surprise that we were once again expecting.  Neither one of us thought I could even be pregnant again so soon after the first pregnancy, but thanks to a miscommunication with the hospital about blood work, we discovered that it was possible.  Eight months later, we welcomed Mackenzie into the world.



This is Mackenzie, aka Piggy Baby

     Now, before I get ridiculed about calling my baby "Piggy Baby" and having misunderstandings in people thinking I'm calling her fat or a pig, I have a perfectly logical explanation.  Since the day Piggy was born, she would make pig noises!  The first time she ever mad a pig noise what when she had her first diaper changed.  She started to squirm around and the just randomly let out a pig grunt! 
After that, she would continue to randomly let out grunts and I would ask her if she was trying to be a piggy baby.  Then it stuck.  To this day, she still makes the pig grunts and has added snorts and squeals.  I can't help to think how cute and adorable it is!

     Now enough dilly dallying, it's time to blog!