Tuesday Happy List!

I'm happy that...
...I'm finally feeling better after being sick Thursday-Saturday. My mom and dad both ended up getting it too...and luckily they're starting to feel better as well.

I'm happy that...
...last night my sister came over and brought my nieces...so I got to snuggle the baby. :) She was born on Tuesday and is still in that sleepy, squishy newborn stage. It's my favorite baby stage. :)

I'm happy that...
...I'm making progress getting done with all the pictures I took of my niece's birth! I got sick shortly after she was born so I didn't get them finished as fast as I was hoping...but now I'm making headway!

I'm happy that...
...I picked up my diploma yesterday! I still need to order my 5 free copies of my transcript...but it finally feels "finished."

I'm happy that...
...I'm going to dinner with a friend of mine Friday night. She and I try to get together every few months and catch up. Friends and Olive Garden...definitely happy list material! :)

I'm happy that...
...my girls come home an hour early tomorrow! :) I let their dad have them an hour early on Sunday to take them to a hockey game...so I get them an hour early Wednesday. :)

Just a sample of my happy things. :) What are you happy about this week?

Boob Tube Babble!

I found another blog carnival that I like! My blog is fast becoming a collection of bloggy meme answers. But...right now it's what I've got! I'm a little bit late but I just found it...and I just finished catching up on my shows. I like a lot of shows. ;)



Favorite 90s TV Shows!
- I actually wasn't into Friends or Seinfield. They were really popular in the 90s but I just never got into them.
- But I did like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (Michaela and Sully are my favorite couple!) and I now have the series on DVD and my kids really like watching it.
- I liked Dawson's Creek (Pacey and Joey were another favorite couple!), Buffy, Angel, Party of Five, and Beverly Hills 90210 in the late 90s.
- I watched Chicago Hope and ER in the 90s but didn't watch it in later years.
- My family also watched Sisters if anyone remembers that one.

And now...what did I watch this week? (watch out for spoilers if you haven't seen these shows yet!)

CRIMINAL MINDS - I really love this show. I thought it was a pretty interesting case this week with the home invasions committed by a guy whose motivation was influenced by a politician's hate crime attitude. Pretty interesting. I also caught up on the episode the week before...I loved the moment in the elevator when Rossi was quizzing Hotch about his date. :)

CSI MIAMI - I loved the beginning where Ryan was freaking out about the horse and Callie was able to easily walk to the horse and calm him down. "Don't put your fingers in his mouth!" :) The whole being stuck in a tanning bed thing...UGH. I'm claustrophobic and the fact that she died from no air just makes that even more creepy. I liked when Horatio said "attempting to lie to me is an unwise practice." The ending was sad but I like that Horatio got there in time and it turned alright. I like Horatio's soft side.

GREY'S ANATOMY - It was an okay episode. I loved McSteamy throughout the episode...he's always nice to look at but he was kinda cute the way he was trying to set Avery up with a woman...not really what he was doing but how he looked doing it. ;) lol. I also liked the moment at the end with Bailey teaching Derek how to fix Zola's hair...it was cute. :) The situation between Richard and Adele was really sad, though.

PRIVATE PRACTICE - Mmmm...I like Benjamin Bratt. He's nice to look at. ;) I'm glad things are going well between Cooper, Charlotte, Erica, and Mason. And I'm curious to see how things go with Amelia. For some reason, the week before I wondered if she was pregnant. And I also want to see Pete and Violet back together. I have a thing for Pete, too. ;)

HOUSE - I'm not into it as much anymore as I used to be. But I've still been watching it. I do think it's been a little better the last few weeks. The foreign wife thing is an interesting plot...I wonder how that will play out. I liked House and Wilson in this last episode and loved the moment when Taub said he'd split the pay raise with House to get the job.

NCIS - It was an alright episode...but not really hugely spectacular. I am kinda indifferent to Jamie Lee Curtis's role. I don't know...just wasn't one of my favorite episodes. It had too much of the shrinks and not enough of the characters I already like.

ONCE UPON A TIME - This is a new show that I got into this year. I think it's been a pretty good one...it at least keeps me interested even though it's really not my kind of show. I'm curious to see what will happen with the affair thing..and where the chick was after the car accident.

SVU - I kinda liked the glimpse into Benson's private life and seeing her date someone. I'm not particularly a fan of the dude...but it's not that bad. And he is pretty sweet with her. I like a balance of case and private life. And I thought it was an interesting case in this episode.

Friday: I confess!

I'm all about memes and blog carnivals and all that good stuff...especially lately when I've been in kind of a bloggy funk. So...here we go!



I confess....
...that even though I REALLY missed blogging last year during my hiatus, I struggle with what and how much to write about now. My ex-husband's grandma has always been my biggest blog stalker and I find it incredibly annoying. According to my statcounter, she realized on January 28th that I started blogging again and has been visiting my blog regularly ever since. I can't quite figure out why a woman who didn't even like me when I was married to her grandson would spend SO much time stalking me on the internet now that we've been divorced for six freaking years.

I confess....
...that I really, really miss having a dishwasher. I was in the mood for strawberry cake (really any dessert would've been good...I was craving sweets something fierce) but I weighed baking a cake against having to do the dishes afterwards and the whole not wanting to do dishes thing won. So...no cake for me.

I confess....
...that witnessing the birth of my niece on Tuesday ALMOST made me miss being pregnant and giving birth and all that good stuff. It really doesn't matter since I can't have babies anymore...but that whole moment is just something so amazing. I can still remember when my babies were born...and now it seems like SO long ago. My oldest will be TEN years old this year which is just insane. And since I'm feeling nostalgic...this is my oldest the day she was born...hard to believe she was ever that tiny:



I confess....
...that I still haven't gotten done with the pictures I took of my niece's birth. So...I should probably stop blogging and go do that. :P

WWTK - Week 45!

Hosted by Mamarazzi, Queso and Crazymama


PAMPERING!

{1} What is your go to color if you paint your nails? do your toes and fingernails match? I used to paint my nails all the time when I was in high school and I loved painting them silver. I honestly don't remember the last time I painted my nails...and definitely don't remember the color. But I painted my girls' nails a bright pinkish color not too long ago. :) And I rarely ever paint my toenails...I'm just not crazy about feet. :P

{2} Have you ever gone for a mani/pedi? how often do you go? I only get a mani for special occasions like mine and my sister's weddings and prom back in high school. I have gotten a pedi twice in my life...my sister's wedding and an outing with my friend about a year after that. Hm. I'm kinda low-maintenance.

{3} Do you color your hair? do you have a salon do it or do you do it yourself? I've never done it myself but I've gotten it colored at the salon. The first time I ever colored my hair at all was back in 2006 and the stylist wanted to add blonde highlights because she'd never met someone who had never colored their hair before and she offered me a huge discount to let her do it. LOL. The last 3 years or so, I've gotten it colored about twice a year: darker in the winter (usually an auburn-ish color) and then add blonde in the summer. I really love the darker color but my mom and grandparents always tell me how much they miss my blonde. I used to be really light blonde as a kid but it's gotten darker as I've gotten older anyway...and I think I look better with darker hair.

{4} Facials...have you ever had one? Nope...never had one.

{5} Would you or have you ever done botox? I haven't and probably wouldn't. I'm just a really low-maintenance kind of chick...and by low-maintenance I mostly mean "lazy." ;)

{6} Beauty knows no pain, do you believe in waxing, electrolisis, eyelash extentions, anti-aging creams, micro-dermabrasion, peels, botox? I'm just too lazy to do much of anything with myself. Coloring my hair was like HUGE for me. I don't even get my haircut but maybe once a year. Now, boob job...that I could get on board with. ;)

I'm becoming obsessed...

It's true. I think I'm obsessed. Addicted.
With organizing and rearranging my apartment.
Which actually means tearing everything apart and completely revamping. At least that's what it feels like. It's one of those "it gets worse before it gets better" things.
I'm not sure everyone else does it that way...or IF anyone else does it at all. :P But I'm the kind of person who basically just has to take EVERYTHING out, sort it, and put it back in a more organized way.

I've talked a lot about the closet project. And I'm sure everyone is probably tired of hearing about the closet (and frankly my obsession with organizing in general) but it's something that's actually making me feel pretty good about life. I'm a little overwhelmed lately with health problems, issues with my apartment manager, trying to decide what the heck I'm going to do now that I've graduated, and of course dealing with the girls' dad. But I don't really want to talk about all that right now. Instead of continuing to be overwhelmed...I'm just trying to keep busy. So...enter my obsession with redoing my apartment. :P

My living room doesn't really have a lot of rearranging to do. The furniture pretty much has to stay where it is because it won't fit very well anywhere else. But, I DID organize the bookshelf in there. Then of course there was the closet project. And then I started rearranging my bedroom. I'm not finished with it yet, but I'm still not completely sure how I want to arrange it so I took a break on that.

Today's project...rearranging and organizing the girls' rooms. I've been working on it all day...but had to take several breaks because I live in a 2-story townhouse and the upstairs gets unbearably HOT (while the downstairs is very cold...there's no happy medium). I've made a few minor changes off and on in the girls' rooms since moving in...but I basically took everything out and I'm trying to put it back in a way that will help the girls KEEP it organized.

I started with Aubry's room...which was mostly just cleaning up her mess because she's kind of a slob. :P I even vacuumed...which I don't do upstairs as often as I should because it's such a pain carrying it upstairs. I know, poor excuse! But Aubry's room DEFINITELY needed it. I managed to find homes for her stuff...there are just a few odds and ends that still need to be put away...but I ended up getting a brilliant idea while I was in Aubry's room and then switched to Ashlyn's room to make the idea happen.

Since the girls' closets are now empty of clothes...I've been trying to find ways to make the most of ALL the space in their rooms. I am still trying to decide exactly how I want to situate Aubry's room...but the good idea that came to me was for Ashlyn's closet. I'd moved her bed half into her closet after taking all the clothes out but it just wasn't working for me. So I just moved her bed to the opposite wall and decided to put BOTH white shelves in there (one was previously in Aubry's room).

Here are their rooms shortly after we moved in a year ago. Ashlyn's closet is on the left and Aubry's room with the shelf is on the right:


This was halfway through my process today...what a mess!


And this is what Ashlyn's closet looks like now!

If you'd like to know all the details:
Almost all the "toys" are in Ashlyn's room now. She plays with them a lot more than Aubry does and Aubry really hates when Ashlyn goes into her room. So having both shelves in Ashlyn's closet with all the toys on them will work better, I think. All the plastic storage containers have labels (yay for the cheap label maker I picked up at Walmart last year on clearance!).
All the Littlest Petshop and Ponyville toys are on the left shelf. The houses are on the middle shelves and the little pieces are in plastic containers with a lid on the top and bottom.
The top shelf on the right is all the dress-up stuff. Ashlyn still LOVES playing dress-up. I have the clothes in the large pink pink and then the smaller bins next to it have makeup, jewelry, and then I put the magnetic paper dolls on top (kinda dress-up!) and the Legos next to them for lack of a better spot. Oh and the plastic high heel shoes are on the very right of the top shelf.
The next shelf has all the Barbie furniture and big items, small Barbie toys in a container with a lid, and then the Barbie clothes are on the right. I need to figure out where I'm going to put the Barbie car. :P All the actual Barbies are in an underbed plastic storage container.
Then the next shelf, Ashlyn uses it as her desk. It has her notebooks, pencils, office supplies, etc. After I took the picture, I found her chalkboard and it fits perfectly on the shelf (it's *almost* too tall but it fits just enough for the shelf above it to hold it in place).
The bottom shelf just has a mixture of her other toys...snap dolls, Tinker Toys, her princess castle dolls and furniture, a fold-up Barbie house, and some other random things.
The Little Peoples and the princess castles are still on the actual closet shelf that was in the before picture. And the crates in between the shelves have Little People toys in them. And the bookshelf on the right was previously in her closet along the very left wall. She likes it now at the foot of her bed.
Ashlyn REALLY likes how everything is set up now...she can't wait to start playing. I told her I at least want to have it all organized ONCE before she makes it messy again. :P

I still have quite a bit of work to do. Tomorrow I'm hanging out with the girls but they leave at 5pm and then I'll have until Wednesday to get their rooms all done. Hopefully I'll have some final photos soon!

another meme!

It's my lucky day. :) The wonderful Erin posted this meme so of course I decided I needed to do it, too. I'm breaking the rules, though, because I'm not tagging anyone either. What can I say...I'm a rule breaker. ;) I just don't like to presume that other people like to play along with memes as much as I do. Feel free to do it if you like and let me know if you do! :)

Rules:
1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

1. When I start watching a new TV show...I have to start from the beginning of the series and watch them in order until I finally get caught up. I've done it with pretty much every show I watch: House, Smallville, CSI Miami, Greys Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Law & Order SVU, NCIS, etc. I do have a lot of favorite TV shows...but I don't have cable. :P
2. If I ever sit down to read a book...I generally have to read all the way through until I'm finished. If I pick it up, I don't want to put it down. I think that's why I don't really like a lot of long books. I don't read very often, either. I have too many other hobbies. :P
3. I'm OCD...typically with patterns and things being in "order." I don't always know what order something needs to be in, I just know it's out of order when it starts to bug me and I can't focus on anything else. If something is "off" it just bugs me until I can fix it.
4. I'm a very indecisive person.
5. I love quotes from movies, tv shows, and song lyrics.
6. I have really, really bad short-term memory. I used to have somewhat of a photographic memory but it's not as good now as it used to be, either.
7. I love lists!
8. I tend to talk first and think later. :P
9. My mom had two daughters and both of her daughters have two daughters.
10. Myself as well as both of my kids were born on an astrological cusp. And one of my daughters was born on the first day of summer and the other was born on the first day of fall. I think it's cool. :)
11. I love to travel...I don't get to do it nearly as often as I would like.

Questions from Erin:
1. What is your greatest accomplishment? - I would say going back and graduating from college because I know it's a big thing...but I really think my greatest accomplishment is my kids. I have some pretty amazing kids. And if I never do another thing in my life...I'd be satisfied with being the best mom I could. I'm not perfect...but I love my children something fierce and I try very hard to raise them to be good people and to do what's best for them.
2. If you had to wear just one color for the rest of your life, what color would it be? - I've been sitting here trying to decide on an answer. I even went and looked in my closet. :P 10 years ago I would have said navy blue. Through high school and the years after, I really loved the color navy blue. I still do...but I wear a lot of other colors now, too. One color I would NOT choose is purple. I actually don't have a single purple item in my closet.
3. What is something you've never done that you wish you could do? - Honestly, I would go to grad school. I really enjoy college...I love to learn. I've spent a lot of time lately looking at different online programs...but it's all so expensive! That's really the only thing that makes me hesitate.
4. If you were on death row and had to choose a last meal, what would that meal be? - Oh man! I think I'd want my own little buffet...just a little bit of everything. Steak, baked potato with lots of butter, a garden salad with ranch dressing, a hamburger and fries, french toast, my family's buttermilk pancakes...I could really go on and on. Unfortunately I can never eat a lot all at one sitting so I would want my last meal to last the entire day before execution. :P
5. What was your favorite childhood toy? - I really loved my Barbies. My mom built Barbie houses for us when I was a young and they were awesome. Actually...I think a picture would explain better:

6. Is there an item that you wish existed, that you'd invent if you only knew how? - I would invent a potion that would make me invisible. I'm a super nosy person and I would love to be the ultimate fly on the wall. Not practical at all but I think it would be fun. :P
7. If you could enter any TV show, movie or book, what would it be? - Hm. Actually I think Criminal Minds. In another life...I would have loved to work in the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. But...not this life. I'm pretty devoted to my kids.
8. What's your biggest pet peeve? - Oh my goodness...biggest? Hm. I really think bad drivers is my biggest. But I'm really annoyed by a lot of things.
9. Do you have any hueg fears (like my fear of the dark!)? What are they and how do they affect you? - I have an irrational fear (I guess fears are generally irrational anyway) of going to the dentist. I can handle pain pretty much anywhere...except my mouth. Unfortunately, I just have to go and deal with it. I do take anti-anxiety meds before I go to the dentist. Actually no...my biggest fear is going completely blind. Everything I enjoy requires sight...the thought of losing it really scares me. So I just try not to think about it. :P
10. Do you have a nickname? What is it? (I really like this question!) - well Candi is my nickname...my given name is Candace. My grandma always calls me Candace Dawn. In 6th grade I was given the nickname "tiny" during cheerleading and it kinda stuck. When I started getting online, I started using "tinycandi" and it's lasted quite awhile now.
11. Tell me about a defining moment in your life. - I really have a lot. Becoming a mother was the first big one, leaving my abusive husband was another, and overcoming depression (for the most part...sometimes I have hard days) after leaving my marriage. I think those three things combined really kinda "made" me who I am now. It was then that I truly grew up.


And my questions for anyone else who wants to play!

1. What has been your favorite vacation so far? What would be your dream vacation?
2. What is one of your bad habits?
3. What was your favorite movie as a child?
4. What kinds of things decorate the walls of your home?
5. What is your favorite scent?
6. What is your favorite room in your home?
7. What kind of cell phone do you have? If you have a smartphone, what are your favorite apps?
8. What is your favorite social networking type of site?
9. What was your favorite grade in school? Favorite class?
10. What is your dream job?
11. What is your favorite board game?

WWTK - Week 43

A new bloggy meme! I wish I would've found this sooner! I don't know what my fascination is with answering personal questions but...for some reason I just like it a lot. One of my favorite things back in the days of myspace was filling out surveys. I'm weird...I know this. ;)


Hosted by Mamarazzi, Queso and Crazymama


{1} What is for dinner tonight (bonus for sharing the recipe)? - I have no idea yet. The girls go to their dad's house tonight...and it's cold and dreary out so I may just stay home. Dinner will be whatever I find when I get hungry that is quick and easy. :P

{2} Share something you are currently looking forward to. - My second niece will be born this month!

{3} What are your thoughts on re-gifting? - I think if something is in like new quality and you're not giving it back to the person who gave it to you...no big deal. It's kinda like paying it forward. And it's a lot better than just keeping something for the sake of keeping it but never using it. However, if it's something that is clearly used then I probably wouldn't. One example that comes to mind was a woman who gave a whole bunch of used baby clothes at a baby shower...wouldn't have been as bad if they weren't all boy clothes for a baby girl. :P

{4} How often do you rearrange your furniture? - Not very often. I've been in my apartment for over a year now but I really haven't rearranged much. But lately I've been on a rearranging kick! I'm trying to get my apartment all organized. I started with the girls' closets...I moved all their clothes into a closet I created in my laundry room. Now I'm working on rearranging the bedrooms. I would rearrange my living room but I have a big sectional sofa and entertainment center and they're kind of in the only spot they will fit in. ;)

{5} Share a picture from your cellphone or camera. - Pretty boring...but here is the last picture I took with my phone...more progress on the girls' new closet!

Laundry Room...almost done

I finished organizing the laundry room.



It feels so good to have everything sorted and put away. Everything has a home and it looks all neat and tidy. I am still working on getting the rod up to hang the girls' shirts. I have the brackets up but I'm getting the bar cut to size and everything. So it will be done this week. I may also need a few more drawers...but we'll have to wait and see how much room we have after the shirts are hung up.

The girls really like having their closet in there so far. They take their pajamas off, put them in the dirty clothes hamper (which is the stacking hamper on the right with three separate canvas bags) and put their clothes on for school. It's also MUCH easier when they're changing their clothes to go to their dad's house.

There are hampers on top of their drawers and they have play clothes/clothes they can wear to their dad's house. Before, I had them in the dresser that used to be in the laundry room...but the drawers were broken. So either a drawer would fall out, wouldn't close, or whatever...and the girls always ended up calling me in there to get their clothes (and then gripe about what I'd get). We definitely don't have that problem anymore, and it's great!

It's so much easier to do laundry, too! I was a load of laundry, take them out of the dryer, and then just fold and put them away right there. I have a hamper to put my clothes in since I still have to take them upstairs...but overall it's just SO much easier. I also don't wait until I have 10 loads of laundry to fold and put away, either. I would keep up washing and drying but actually putting them away...I always put it off. So this has really helped that bad habit of mine. :)

OH! And one of the best decisions...the tall set of four drawers were already in the laundry room. They used to have bags and purses and miscellaneous stuff in them. Now they have clothes that the girls will eventually wear but don't fit into yet. I'd been keeping them in under the bed organizers that were stacked in my room. But it wasn't convenient and I tended to just stack all the clothes on top instead of putting them away. And I didn't check them often enough to see when they'd fit. But now...clothes that I've gotten for Aubry that she can't wear yet are in the top drawer...then the next two drawers have tops and bottoms that Aubry has outgrown but Ashlyn will eventually wear. When something doesn't fit...Aubry can just fold it and put it in the drawer instead of throwing it on her floor for me to eventually put it on top of the pile and maybe someday put in the plastic bin. :P I'm really excited about that part!

My goal is to get the whole house organized. The house looks a bit chaotic in the process and it seems to be a lot of work...but I think it's worth it in the end. My hope is that it will make things easier in the long run. If everything has a *convenient* home, it will be easy to put away and keep everything moving smoothly. I get excited about things like organization. ;) And it has really become my "theme" this year.

YouCapture: Still Life

The theme this week was Still Life. I'm still doing my 366days of photos project and here are a couple still life photos...





Reading a book in the waiting room at the doctor's office:

This is a ceramic tea set the girls got for Christmas...they loved painting it. Here was the finished product:

And this is how we practice Ashlyn's spelling words:

Closet Progress!

I've been thinking about my closet idea for quite awhile and trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to do it. I even went through all the girls clothes, folded them, and decided how much space I would need. I looked online and used the measurements of different things I found to see what would work best. I even drew a diagram of the drawers and what I would put in what sizes...I think I was a little over-invested in the "planning" phase of this project. :P

So I went to Walmart the other day after having lunch and decided to jump in and actually start *doing* something with my ideas. So...I did! I was able to get *almost* all I need. I still need a couple more drawers and the hardware for the rack that I'll be hanging clothes from...but I've definitely made a good start!

Walking through Walmart was fun! I had my entire cart full of the drawers. They were stacked taller than I am so I was having to kinda look around them to push the cart. They are clear so I could kinda see through them but looked around to be sure I didn't run into anything (or anyone).

One of the women who worked there walked with me and moved a stray cart out of my way which was very helpful. Then at the check-out line, I was able to just tell her how many I had of each instead of putting them all on the belt. And then she went and got an extra cart for me so that I could put half the drawers in there and make two trips instead of walking outside in the wind and losing everything on my way to the car. I'm sure it was entertaining for anyone looking at me. ;)

I loaded everything in my car (filled the trunk and the backseat) and then unloaded when I got home. I had some help moving the broken dresser (that had been holding the girls' play clothes) out of the laundry room and cleared all my painting supplies out of the way (I still haven't decided where I'll put all of that yet). And then I started setting up all the drawers, organizing the girls' clothes, and getting everything put away...

I love how it is coming along! The narrow drawers on top hold shocks, undershirts, leggings, and all that kind of stuff. The medium tall drawers in the middle have pajamas and jeans. Then the large drawer on the bottom has skirts, shorts, and capris pants. The hampers on top have all their play clothes and clothes they can wear to/from their dad's house. They hampers also hold the top drawers in place...when they were open and looking through them they had a tendency to fall forward. But now it works perfectly!

So far, all of the girls' clothes fit but the drawers are packed full and I'm gonna need room for more. Like mom said...they're clothes are only going to get bigger (unfortunately!). And the bottom drawer is really *too* full so when I get more drawers I can remedy that. I also want to have some of their t-shirts and sweaters in drawers. So...I need to decide what sizes I want to get and pick those up. I think I'll also get a few extra (if I can afford it) because I have bad luck of things that I use end up being discontinued (another good point from my mama).

And...these kinds of things can be used for SO much stuff. I could use some in my room, put arts and craft supplies in them...pretty much anything! Ultimately that's what I decided to go this route instead of building some type of shelving unit. If we move or decide to do something different or anything...I can still use the drawers for something else.

Disclaimer: this isn't a sponsored post...I just happen to like the product! :)