#konmari What a Difference Already!

So I have always had a lot of stuff. I've been a lover of shopping and as a result I've also been a fan of different organizational techniques. Earlier this year a friend mentioned the konmari method. I'd never heard of it, so I thought I'd get the book and check it out. The method totally resonated with me. Here are some pictures of day 1.

I tackled clothes, performance attire, scarves, belts, and shoes.

Here is the 'discard' pile. The 'keep' pile is less than 1/4 this size. Crazy eh?

My sorting buddy.

Folded shirts/tanks post sort. Only the ones that make me happy. 

Bottoms post sort...love!

After going through everything once, I let it sit overnight then went back this morning to see the things I'd decided to keep...at that point I removed several more items that I don't look forward to wearing. Hopefully they can be of use to someone else...a bunch of them are hardly worn and some have tags. Mostly from the time periods when I was trying to discover my individual style. Now I just need to figure out how to get it all to DI!

Here is the final clothes/shoes discard pile. 12 bags of clothes and 2 bags of shoes.

Taking on jewelry next. then I'll move on to the rest of the house.

Happy sorting!

Sleep Training? Mommy win!

Ok. Those of you who know me well, or who pay attention to my sleep deprived posts on facebook, know that Rhett has never been an awesome sleeper. He doesn't cry at night, he just fusses. And fusses some more. And does that every time his binky falls out. All night long.

Now I am new to this whole 'not sleeping' baby thing. Evelyn was a great sleeper. She slept through the night (8hrs + 4hrs) starting at 8 weeks old and by 3 months was sleeping 12 hours straight. She has been like that ever since with the exception of teething and sickies. I have recently realized how lucky that was.

By 3 months old Rhett was sleeping 3 hour stretches...not awesome, but doable. At 4 months old he backslid and started waking every 45-90 minutes! I was pretty much non-functional as a mommy and as a person. I dropped my workouts to a bare minimum. Sometimes I skipped them all-together!

Last week I realized something had to change. I had done some research and knew that Rhett had sleep associations with his binky. I was sure that if I kept it from him I would get even less sleep. So I just let him keep it.

Now I believe in a God that cares about the little things in my life. Believing as I do, I prayed. I prayed a lot. I got the feeling that I was the one who had to fix the problem. Boo. Fixing problems is hard. So I started asking for advice and reading articles. I found a lot of good information, but no solutions for my specific problem. Rhett is a super sweet and mellow baby and the idea of letting him 'cry it out' was not OK with me. I think it has to do with both of our personalities. I am sure it works for a lot of babies and awesome parents, but I didn't think it was for us.

During my search I found a system called Sleep Sense. I read a lot of reviews and pretty much every page on the website. The system offers 'stay in the room' options as well as 'leave and check' options. That was more of what I was looking for. I went ahead and bought in! The e-book teaches about infant and toddler sleep and offers how to's for different age groups. It is a gentle program for teaching baby the needed skills to fall asleep on their own and setting them up for success.

Well, I decided to start during naps that day. I followed her instructions and Rhett went down on his own without his binky in only 20 minutes! It was like that all day. By bedtime (7pm) he went down after only talking to himself for 10 minutes in his room. No tears! He woke up at 10pm and I knew that would be the real challenge. Getting him to go back to sleep without a binky. There was 45 minutes of protesting. Since I was right by his bed I could pat him and keep him 'calm'. Talking to him kept him from getting super upset, but I could tell he didn't like the change from habit. At 45 minutes he rolled onto his side with his little panda and fell asleep. He woke up a couple of times but babbled himself back to sleep in a few minutes. He ate at 3:30am and was up for the day at 6am.

Not perfect, but day two was even better. I stuck with the instructions and he went down easily all day and at bedtime. I didn't even need to sit with him after putting him in his bed! This time he slept from 7pm until 4:45am when he ate. He promptly fell asleep and didn't wake up till 6am. Then he talked himself to sleep again and slept until 7. Bam! Sleeping baby! I feel SO much better. I know there may be setbacks, but it was far easier than I thought it would be.

You can get a free sleep report emailed to you by filling out some basic information here: http://sleepsense.net/ Filling out the report also takes you to a page where you can get the basic system for $20. Next to the babywise system, this is the best money I have spent on programs to help baby learn.

Happy sleeping!

Aaaaaannnnd Done!

Well I am convinced that life with the little people will never slow down! I don't think I'd have it any other way though...except maybe time for a bath without little fingers wiggling under the bathroom door...or maybe a 4 hour stretch at night without a tiny tummy getting hungry...but hey those are just details!

I have a lot to be grateful for. This whole mommy gig is full of ups and downs, but every down has a far more rewarding up that accompanies it. Rhett has more than doubled his night wakings for the past 2 weeks. I tell you what that is rough! But when I finish feeding him, and he has already zonked out, I give him one last squeeze and he gives me this incredible drowsy, milk drunk smile. I know he won't be this little for long, and I LOVE that he loves me so much in that 'I adore you' way that only babies can pull off..

Did I mention Kevin got a job? We are done with the job hunt!

Yet another thing to be grateful for...really, really, really grateful. My last blog post was about our last year and how it has been pretty rough. I still don't know why I felt like I should write about that, but the following afternoon Kevin went to an interview and received a job offer on the spot! He will be working for a federal contractor at Hill Air-force Base. We put off letting most everyone know until now since he had to pass a crazy DoD background check for secret clearance to work on his projects. Kevin has never done anything that would disqualify him, but I still worried until this morning when we heard back...

I won't know what Kevin will be doing at work, but lets be perfectly honest...when have I ever really understood his work? He'll have about a 40 minute commute each way right now, but we hope to buy a house closer to the base in a few months. There are a few neat little (and not so little) communities I have my eye on.

That is really the biggest news around our house. Smaller ticket items are Evelyns new kittens tiger and teddy, and Rhett learning to sit. All in all it is a very good life and I am grateful to have it.

Here are some pictures from the last month.

 Still looks like daddy.

 These were my favorite toys as a child. Evelyn is absolutely LOVING them now. I am talking about hours of dedicated play time. Score!

 

 When Evelyn wakes up in the morning this puzzle is the first thing she wants to do. She can do it on her own! Bring on the geography bee!

 

 Look who turned 4 months old last week and is already in 9mo jammies! 18lbs and counting!

This face makes night wakings worth it. Is that not the sweetest smile!?! 

 Move over GQ.

 Watching his sister from the safety of the bleachers...

 He sits! 4 months and 1 week.

I think there is a monster in my laundry pile...

Alexanders Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. (...LONG)

I have been thinking about this post for a couple of months, but I keep putting it off and coming up with a list of reasons why I don't need to write it. I've started and deleted the words a couple of times, but a nagging feeling keeps letting me know that I DO need to write it. Often when friends have asked about the job hunt, I have been vague. The details are pretty rough, but if you care to read on here they are.

It is strange to feel that sharing my experiences is important...especially since they've been kind of a downer. This past year has resembled Disney's remake of Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Seriously. In the movie, everything that can go wrong, does. The family sticks together and by the end they have learned all sorts of valuable lessons. Maybe one of you will feel better about your year after reading my post. Maybe one of you will say, "I totally get it!". Still another may just laugh at all the irony...feel free. I do it too.

Despite what the previous paragraph may have led you to believe, I still have a lot going for me. I am married to my sweetheart (who is also a genius), I have a super smart toddler who makes me laugh all day long, as well as an absolutely beautiful baby. I have loving extended family and some dear friends who I know will always care about me. It HAS been a crazy year though! I suppose it was our turn. As a married couple we hadn't really dealt with serious illness, financial issues, or lack of awesome jobs.

Last spring-term Kevin decided he no was no longer enjoying his masters program. He LOVES developing software, but doesn't enjoy reading about academic research. After a lot of prayer and some sticking it out, he decided to withdraw from school.

By the time he decided to withdraw it was August and I was 5 months pregnant. We decided to go together to speak with his boss. His boss/advisor said it was fairly common for the CS guys to decide not to finish their graduate programs. We left his office hopeful and ready for the future. We had been VERY lucky in our employment during school and we had next to no debt, very few expenses, and a nest egg set aside that was to be the beginnings of a down payment for a house.

August and September were crazy busy with phone screens and interviews. Kevin was "wined and dined" at several companies headquarters and we were sure we'd soon be off into the real world and settling into a new life by the time the baby came. While the interviews were going well, we saw no real offers. The only numbers we heard were numbers I could make working in a call center...not awesome. Over 3 months Kevin interviewed 15 hours with one company alone. We were always told he was a strong candidate, but still no offer. Final round after final round came and went with companies saying their timeline was a few months out for decisions, and months later nothing.

Our car started shifting hard in October so we took it to the shop to have the transmission looked at. Our mechanic said the transmission looked fine, but that there was a BIG issue with the power steering. We hadn't noticed any real issues there so we took our car back home sans repairs. Three days later we couldn't turn the car at all. The power steering had suddenly gotten super bad. (I think the power of suggestion works with cars too!) We decided to repair the power steering at a whopping $750. That was about the extent of the money we were willing to spend on our not-so-new grumpy college car. It worked great! Three days after getting the car back from the shop, the transmission went out.

Thank heavens we lived in Provo where things are relatively close to home! I learned that I was capable of hard things like walking across town to Smith's at 7 months pregnant and walking home with my groceries. Evelyn learned to share her stroller seat with a gallon of milk with another gallon on her footrest. This was about the time I realized that in my own way I am super prideful. Only our siblings and a couple of my best friends knew about our lack of car for the first couple of months. I didn't want people to know how tough things were for us, and I didn't want anyone's pity.

My visiting teaching companion and dear friend made sure that I never had to walk the 20 blocks to my OB's office. If my brother wasn't available to give me a ride, she would pack up her kids and run me to my appointment, wait, and bring me back. I was so grateful for that. I still walked a lot though. To stretch our savings even further I learned how to coupon. Some days I walked 24 or 25 blocks to get great deals, and kept doing that up until mid-December. We are still using the shampoo, conditioner, make-up and diapers I bought then. Siblings hated it when they found out I hadn't asked for a ride, but I stubbornly wanted to be as independent as possible. I hated feeling like a mooch. It turned out that being in good shape made labor and recovery super easy...so really being car-less was a blessing in disguise. A really annoying and inconvenient disguise.

Interviews became scarce in December, but I was happy to have Kevin's help around the house! I was still working as an apartment manager and although I loved my tenants, I was also super happy to see them leave for the holidays so I could rest my uber pregnant self and take care of Evelyn who had RSV and then secondary ear and sinus infections (her first ear infection ever).

Being VERY pregnant and without a car has a unique set of challenges. Let's say that you have been having strong contractions for nearly 2 hours, they are 3 minutes apart, and it is 2 in the morning. What do you do? Hop a bus to the hospital? Have your husband call his brother and wake him up for a ride?  I can check that off my bucket list! ...unfortunately it was a false alarm and we were sent home.

The new year rolled around and we welcomed baby Rhett into our family.  We were home from the hospital 25 hours after he was born and 3 days later I went back to work. I felt great but I would suggest that if you try to do that, you bring a pillow to sit on. Save yourself some heartache...or other-aches as it were :)  Rhett isn't a great sleeper at night, but he is mellow and willing to just sit and watch Evelyn and I during the day. I am glad he was so easy because the rest of us caught the stomach flu week 2 at home.

It was after Rhett was born in January that Kevin's parents (who I love) decided that it was not OK for us to have a new baby in the winter and not have a car to get around in. They gave us a loaner car. While it had been working great for them, it promptly stopped working for us. My visiting teacher asked me how I liked having a car again and I surprised her by saying it was sitting broken-down in our parking spot. That weekend her husband surprised us by coming over and tinkering with the car until he got it running...BLESSING!

Working with Evelyn and Rhett was an adventure. Evelyn wanted so badly to 'play' with her new little brother. If I went to the bathroom and didn't take one of them with me, Evelyn would be hauling new baby Rhett around the house by the time I finished. It was even tougher while I was in the office. I'd be working with a tenant and a moment later Evelyn would bring me baby Rhett. GAH!!! The stress of sleep deprivation, working, and of Kevin being unemployed was really getting to me.  Kevin was trying to help with the kids while I was in the office, but it was seriously cutting into his job hunt time. We needed to look closely at the situation and figure out what to change to get the best possible outcome in the long run. I had reduced my office hours when Rhett was born. The pay covered our rent and utilities, but nothing else. My parents had invited us multiple times to come stay with them while we looked for work, and we finally decided to take them up on their offer. I wouldn't have the stress of work, and I could take care of the kids while Kevin focused on the job hunt.

We spent a month training replacements, packing, and cleaning and were back in Tremonton by the beginning of March. Yep that is us. Almost thirty and living in my parents basement. While this is just about an all-time low, we are able to stretch our savings even further here and being close to family is super fun...especially when we have several date-night sitters willing to watch kids so Kevin and I can go to the temple.

Since living here, Rhett contracted an RSV type illness and for a week we made daily trips to the ROC clinic to visit with a respiratory therapist and to clean poor Rhett out. Luckily he is on the mend. Evelyn had her 2nd ear infection and the car broke down again. Noticing a trend? Really, it is OK to laugh.

Since we are now considered long-term unemployed, we have some extra hurdles to overcome in the job hunt. Since the 6 month mark it has been tough to get interviews where we knew before Kevin would get at least a phone screen for nearly every application he submitted. We are focusing on networking now and are hoping it can help us overcome the pre-screen process. Kevin was a great student and any company would be lucky to have him.

I am learning so much about grace and the enabling power of the atonement. That extra umph that gets you through the days and weeks has been absolutely essential. Things may stink right now, but I know they will get better. I know that God has a plan for us and am hoping that we stumble on it soon.

It feels good to stop and just be real about the situation. I don't know about you guys, but I always feel so much pressure to make everything perfect...or at least make it seem perfect. So to avoid appearing imperfect I had stopped talking about it. The truth is the truth though...and its not pretty. I suppose this is where I say, "Don't cry for me Argentina!" The truth is, we really ARE doing alright. We are not the first to go through this and we won't be the last.

I am grateful that we were a naturally frugal couple and that we were able to save enough in school to carry us through this tough year. I am grateful that we have the gospel of Jesus Christ. It gives me perspective and hope for the future. I am grateful for Evelyn. She is fantastic and keeps us laughing. I am so grateful for baby Rhett. He couldn't have come at a better time. Sure I'd love to spoil him, but he is too busy spoiling me. He is an angel baby and I am so glad he is mine. I am VERY grateful for Kevin. He'll pull us through. I am glad he is a nerd, and SO glad that he loves me and our children as much as he does.

For those of you who made it to the end of this crazy long post, no, I haven't lost my sense of humor. Some days I wonder, but I think it is still hanging around. Strangely enough, sometimes in the middle of everything is when it is the easiest to laugh about it. You hear some new bad news and instead of thinking, "Oh no!" you laugh, shake your head, and think "Of course...why not?"

Halloween

Well I'm only a month behind. That's not too bad.

Halloween this year was loads of fun! We got Evelyn's Halloween costume several months ago. She spent the next couple of months SO excited to be Minnie Mouse.

Her costume came with Minnie gloves and apparently they are terrifying. So those were a no go, but once I put them away, everything calmed down and we had a fantastic evening. Provo has downtown trick or treating at businesses and we opted for that since it happened early in the day and there were so many fun costumes for Evelyn to see on the street.

 So Excited for candy!!!

 Our Minnie Mouse :)

Daddy is the only reason we went Trick-or-treating. I'd been having sciatic back pain so his presence was necessary to manage our little ball of energy!

Well, now I am 33 weeks pregnant and in the home stretch. I can't believe we'll have another baby in just a little over 6 weeks. The past couple of weeks have been SO much better around here as far as how I've been feeling. I only get sick every few days now.

I am SO grateful for so many things right now. I suppose it is appropriate for this time of the year. I don't feel like the time of year has caused the gratitude though. I am so grateful for learning. I am grateful for the things that God teaches us. Sometimes I don't appreciate the methods, but I can definitely understand why God teaches us the way he does. What a great opportunity we have to be alive and learning. 

Catch up!

Boy! My well intentioned blogging came to an abrupt halt when life got crazy with leasing for the year. Now that all 196 of my tenants have moved in and settled down I can resume regular life. Work pretty much dies around here in October, and during the 'off season' I get my projects done and try to re-order the chaos that has become most of our closets :)

BABY!!!

I suppose I can't blame my lack of time or effort entirely on leasing and work. After all, this spring Kevin and I found out we were expecting baby #2! We are thrilled! We found out in August that we will be adding a BOY to our little family.

Roses are red, violets are blue
Where there was one, now there will be two.
Now we are three, but soon we'll be four.
Kevin was outnumbered, but not anymore!

Looks like we'll be spending Christmas and New Years at home since traveling anywhere at 38 weeks pregnant sounds like a bad idea to me :)

Those of you who know my pregnancy history know that I spend most of my time super sick. I have a fairly common hormone disorder that would make pregnancy very hard to achieve and maintain without treatment. The medicine that treats the disorder increases progesterone and a rise in progesterone is often linked with 'morning' sickness. This time around I felt better from 20-25 weeks before the nausea came back. I think this pregnancy has been rougher that way. It may be going away again. I've had 3 good days in a row so hopefully I'll feel better for the duration.

I have to tell myself that we all have our own trials and pregnancy is one of mine. Being sick all day for months at a time is no fun, but the result is worth it! I have days all the time where I run that through my brain as a mantra. "The result is worth it!" And it is. Evelyn has been the perfect complement to Kevin and I. She teaches us so much every day. We know we are lucky to have her and another baby on the way. We are so thankful for modern medicine!


Evelyn!!!

Evelyn turned 2 this summer. She is an incredible little girl. She started speaking in full sentences this spring and seems to have a knack for being social with all of our tenants. She loves to sing and rarely listens to music without singing along. My favorite is listening to her sing "Brave" by Sara Bareilles, or the cover by Vocalpoint. This was back a few months ago, when she was first starting to sing. Now she knows all the words and generally sings them while running in a circle.

A girl after my own heart, she loves Aaron Copland's 'Rodeo', and Ravel's 'Bolero'. She will even sit down and listen when I turn on Jonas Kaufmann...*sigh*.

Evelyn has always been too busy to sit and read books, but during the past month she has begun to take an interest in sitting long enough to read. It is kind of nice for this pregnant lady to just sit and snuggle while reading "Micky's Picnic" or "Bunnies New Shoes" a dozen or so times before lunch.

While lots of girls love princesses and castles, Evelyn LOVES cars, dinosaurs, and monsters. She even picked out 'The Nightmare before Christmas' last week and laughed through the whole thing :)

This fall we began to realize the power of bribes....ahem....a reward system. It is really funny, but Evelyn will do almost anything for a tic tac. We alternate that with letting her take a bath, or sleep, with her zoo animals and I rarely find myself in power struggles these days.

We marvel all the time about everything she is learning and are so grateful that she is ours. She is super excited to have a little brother ( I don't think she actually understands though) and has come up with names for him on multiple occasions. So far the best are "Toes" and "Mater".

Here is a massive photo overload of the past 7 or 8 months...

Starting early on Personal Progress :)

This painting was my Valentines day present.

A broken pipe caused an eruption out in front of our house TWICE this summer!

A big family BBQ/pool party for Evelyn's birthday.

Opening presents with Uncle Paul

Trying out her new bike.

Foraging for candy during a game at Kevin's families reunion.

This is the type of thing that happens when Evelyn is quiet upstairs.

Evelyn had a stomach bug and since I am pregnant, sick and not up to dealing with puke it was Kevin's job to take care of Evelyn for the day.  Adorable.

Kevin teaching Evelyn about grass and bugs at the ward camp out.

Sunday afternoon dance off.

First trip to the temple in Provo.

Kissing a goat.

Loving the petting zoo.

I think she gets this from papa. We couldn't keep her away from the horses.

Simplify!

So I have never been great at having a list of New Years resolutions. Some years I have them. Some years I don't. The years I have them, they cause me stress for a couple of months and then slip through the cracks. Rather than making a list of things to do this year I prefer to have one thing I will do now. Once I have mastered this one thing I will think about what comes next.

Simplify

This has been my mantra since the beginning of December. It means multiple things to me, but all of them seem doable since I am only worrying about that one word...which I can interpret however I want. I love the diverse meanings this word has in our family right now. 

Simplify. Playgroups, workout groups, clubs, memberships, and associations are not super high on my priority list right now. Do we have play dates? Yes. Do I work out? Yes (Insanity again: month one). I am just working to avoid the commitments that usually add stress to daily life. Often I feel as though I am expected to be everywhere at once. Working, cleaning, cooking, play dates, department parties, games nights, dinners, weekends away...the whirlwind is incessant. Now we nix a lot of those things once we see that they are overly complicating life. We still enjoy getting away, but extended trips are challenging with a toddler and after about 4 days Evelyn is a crazy person. I like doing all of the above things, but just when it is really worth it. 

So far it has been very rewarding. I have had time for myself, and that hasn't happened much in the past couple of years. I just read a couple of books written by my friend Kristen Niedfeldt. They were titled "Ending the Rain: a fairy tale", and "Finding Ever After". I pretty much read each of them in one sitting. They were that good. By the time I was 20 pages into the 1st one, I was hooked! (Available at Amazon.com. I just thought I'd throw that out there in case you guys are looking for a good book to read)

Although I have been taking time for myself, a lot of that time has been devoted to thinking about how I can make life better for my family. I guess it is just something moms do. This leads into another application for the word simplify. I am trying to find alternatives in our home that will remove toxins and extra processed foods. I am not holding myself to a super strict standard, or a specific set of goals in this matter. I am just trying to find better options that feel like a step up, rather than a restriction. 

For starters: I LOVE homemade bread. I love how few ingredients it has and how wholesome it is. I decided that making my own bread would match my definition of simplify. I bought a bread maker and have been making my bread for all of 35 days! It has been great! I went to one of my favorite sites 100daysofrealfood.com and used their 100% whole wheat bread maker recipe. It tastes great, but I switch it up with a more complicated recipe from a lady in my ward. The more complicated recipe makes great sandwich bread to it is worth it. From that same website I have also started making my own toaster pastries, fruit roll-ups, crackers, and granola. Evelyn LOVES the whole wheat toaster pastries. I just fill them with homemade jam and BOOM, awesome healthy breakfast.

In addition to that I made my own deodorant. No, I am not a particularly crunchy person, but I realized I was out of deodorant on a Sunday and couldn't go to the store. Just like me to forget something like that! I could have used Kevin's, but I thought I would see if I had the ingredients to make my own, and I did! I scented it with lavender and tea tree oil. It works great! I may keep it up to avoid the aluminum in most other deodorants...plus this one works better. 

Sometimes I worry that by simplifying I will wind up with a super boring life, but I don't think that will happen with Evelyn around. She is a ball of fire with a HUGE personality! She just turned 18 months old and is everything a toddler should be. Crazy!

Her vocabulary has grown to include between 50 and 60 words now. She's learning so fast. She started nursery last month and loved it. Success! So nice to have my brain back at church :)

Kevin is doing well in school and is getting started on his thesis. I am so grateful for his mind and that he enjoys doing what he does. Software engineering is totally not my thing, but I am grateful that it is his!

We just began leasing for the year so life is going to be pretty busy again, but busy or not we have a lot to be grateful for!