Thoughts on Holiday Shopping

I read this article from Common Sense With Money, and thought is was worth spreading around. I know the thrill of getting a good deal, and that is why it is good to be reminded that there needs to be limits.

Thoughts on Holiday Shopping

I don't want to get my hopes up, but...

Wel, what started out as looking for something to do last Sunday afternoon, turned into a potential move! All I was looking to do was go to a few open houses, just to get out and enjoy the day. After the house we initially went to look had a Sale Pending sign, Jason and I went driving around to scope out any more. Low and behold, we find a house in West Berry Farms, that looked nice enough from the outside, but looked pretty small. When we came home, we looked it up and found out that it had 5 bedrooms, and just about every other feature we have been dreaming of. Large closets, 5 bedrooms, nice big open kitchen (Corain counter tops too), formal dining room, and a fireplace! It had everything.

It just so happens that Brooke and Adam are moving back to Erie, and need to find a place to call home. They mentioned that they would love to buy our home, as long as their house in NC closed successfully. Could it be this easy? I am hoping so, but until I am in my new house, I am being cautiously optimistic!

I am LOVING Alice.com

If you haven't seen or tried Alice.com, then you really need to check it out! They have a great filter called "Bargain Hunter" which lists all of their best deals (razors, vitamins, paper towels, toilet paper, etc...) by price, and the best part is that shipping is ALWAYS free. On top of that, they have clip free coupons which are directly applied to the items in your cart. It also has a reminder feature to tell you when you might be getting low on certain items, very cool.

Our Living Room Makeover

After over 3 years of living in our house, I can say that I am actually pleased about the appearance of our living room. It is such a weird shape, a rectangle makes it hard to postion the furniture in a homey, comforting way. I think we have finally nailed it though. By ripping up the carpet and installing Pergo flooring, we rid ourselves of the dirty, gross, stained, carpet once an for all. We turned our sectional around and split the room in half. Behind the couch we put a sofa table and I purchased a really nice little corner desk for my laptop and bill paying station. Add in a new lamp, a big throw rug and TA-DA! Overall we spent just about $1,000 for the upgrades and I feel like we got way more out of it then the money spent. There is nothing worse then coming home to a house you don't love. Now, I am feeling like this is turning into our home and not just a house to live in.

My Sweet Ansley

I just had to devote a little space here in cyber world to dote over my little Ansley. She is just such a sweet child. Her newest favorite thing to say is "Good Norning Mommy!" I love it when she says it, she makes my whole day!

The flylady way

Of all the things I wish I could accomplish, the thing that tops my priority list would have to be total home organization. I have about a million things that I want to despatetly want to accomplish throughout the day, and yet I feel like I am constantly trying to play catch up. I know that if I could just really get into a routine (after all, with 4 kids I really should have one) and stick to it so that I have more time. That is my overall goal, more time. Time to play with the kids, catch up on babybooks and scrapbooking, maybe read a book, to a fun craft with the kids. But I am always doing some menial task that takes me away from what I really want to be doing.

I know that there are people out there that says that the cleaning can wait, my kids are only little for so long. And that's fine, if you want to live in CHAOS... persoanlly I do not. But breaking the habit, and learning how to FLY can be hard. Especially with the 3 little ones wanting nothing more then attention from Mommy. I keep telling myself that it is going to get easier, and then things will fall into place but that point seems so far off.

I would love to hear how real moms balance everything...

I try to learn something new everyday, try to embrace a new habit, but old habits die hard and it takes work... lots of work.

Mommy Blogging

I am just so amazed at the wealth of knowledge I can discover just by reading "mommy bogs". It is so nice to be able to google just about anything you have a question about, and know that someone out there in cyberworld can answer for you in seconds! It is so comforting to know that we are not alone her in mommy world. And while real world advise is always nice, sometimes you don't want to just lay all your problems or issues out there for everyone to know about.

One of my absolute favorites is www.moneysavingmom.com, the name of the page pretty much sums up what it is all about but I cannot recommend it enough. I tell every mom I meet about it!

I joined SWAGBUCKS

I just signed up for swagbucks, I am not sure if I will actaully get anything out of it but its worth a shot right!

Alyssa actually let me take a picture of her. Doesn't she look cute?

Can you even beleive how beautiful this little girl is? Even when she is crying, and sad those big blue eyes are amazing. She is such a sweet little girl, I think she is destined for a life of caring and compassion. But don't get me wrong, she can hold her own when it comes to fending off her big sister Ava, but, she has such a loving heart. Each one of my children has a unique personality, but I beleive Ansley has what is called an old soul. I am blessed to have her in my life, and I thank God everyday for the oppotunity to be her Mom.

Jace's Birth Story

Well, I am going to give my best account of my birth story. I have never actaully written one out, because as my husband says I have the memory of a goldfish! But here goes:Monday morning I had an appointment at the OB, where I was going to be checked on my dialation progress (it takes me a LONG time to fully dialate) and then the Dr. was going to decide our next course of action. After Dr. Brown checked me she recommended cervical ripening to be preformed later that afternoon. I was to report to the hospital at 3 (pending available bed at St. Vincent) and Dr. Finn would then apply cervidel (spelling?) to try to get me going on my own. I asked the Dr. about membrane stipping, and she said "oh, I just did that!" I guess I was expecting that to be much worse, because I didn't even know she had done it. So I came home and prepared (called parents, checked the baby bag, cleaned up the house) and started to get super crampy. I felt like something was actually starting to happen! Jason came home around 2:30 and we packed up the girls and headed to the hospital. We arrived shorly after 3, and I was checked and was making progress on my own. Dr. Finn said it would be silly to apply cervidel because I was already in labor, so she ordered an IV and pitocin. By 4:08, I was hooked up and in labor! It all happened so fast (well, fast for me whose shorted labor was well over 9 hours). At about 5 pm the Dr. came in and was ready to do my epidural, and I wasn't even in pain yet! I declined for the time being because I didn't want to slow anything down. About an hour later however, I was not about to pass again becuase I didn't want to miss the opportunity. It went perfect, it didn't hurt (last time I had some lady miss twice, and it burned and I was in a ton of pain), and Dr. Glazer was incredible. From that point on it was just the waiting game. Alyssa came in the room and hung out. We watched some tv, tried to pass the time. Most of the time however was spent trying to pick a name... and thus shooting down all the stupid names that Jason was throwing at me! I was determined not to pick a name until we saw him. Frequent checks were indicated that everything was progressing well, but I was certain that I would still be in labor for quite some time yet. Then around 9:30 Dr. Finn came in, checked me and said we were ready to roll. I was thinking "what! already" (again, I am notorious for LONG labors) They broke down the bed, and we asked Alyssa if she wanted to stay... I have never seen a kid move so fast to get out of there! As soon as she was out I started pushing. 8 minutes and about 6 pushes later I met the new love of my life - yet to be named. Born 9:45, weighing 7.8 and 20 inches long.Once I took a look at him, none of the names we had picked out seemed to fit. We had considered: Colton, Collin, and Andrew (Drew) among others. But looking at him, and seeing how much he looked like Jason all bets were off! Jason wasn't crazy about making him a jr., so we started pondering... and then I just said Jace! It fit, that is what he looked like... a mini version of his Dad. Now we just needed a middle name... we picked Daniel because we like the way J.D. sounded. My little guy wasn't named until about 11:45 that night!I was only allowed to hold him a few minutes because he was grunting and really struggling to breath. So it was off to the nursery. They later determined that he had fluid in his lungs and was going to need to be monitored for quite some time. I wasn't allowed to have him in the room or anything! It wasn't until the next day at about 10 am that they requested that I come in and try to hold and maybe feed him, that contact with me might make him better. He still hadn't eaten due to the fluid, poor little guy. The NICU Dr. came in and checked him over and said if I could get him to eat that he wouldn't need to be taken into NICU. So we stayed in the nursery for a while, and just like magic he started to slow his breathing and I got him to drink 15 mL. Things were looking good. Later that afternoon, I was FINALLY able to bring him back to my room and get to know my little guy. Overall we had a tremendous experience, birth, and recovery. I love the L&D nurses at St. V! They rock. So that's it... long winded... but I am glad I wrote it out, otherwise within a week I would have forgotten it!

Jace Daniel O'Neill
Janurary 12th, 2009
7 lbs. 8 ozs.
20 inches