I had to stop blogging for awhile. I don't know why in the beginning I thought I could do it all. I don't know what got into my head that made me think I could go to work, come home and do school work, cook supper, keep my house halfway decent, and blog. Obviously something had to go. Actually many things had to go. We have been living on survival mode for the past few months...cooking only when I have to, cleaning only when necessary, doing what we have to get by. But now I can finally say that school is OUT for the SUMMER! I have been waiting to say this since January. Once August comes I am sure I will be counting down the days until Christmas break! But for now we are enjoying the summer!
School started slowing for us about three weeks or so ago, so we have been able to get a few things accomplished recently. Last weekend is the perfect example. Last weekend Josh went to the camp with friends, and I stayed home because I was on call. I had tons of things to accomplish though, so it was ok. After barely surviving this past semester I have started to get a little stressed about what next semester may be like for us. The baby will be here right before the semester starts. My course load may be a little tougher, and I will still be working of course as well. Josh will have a pretty tough course load too, and he will be working again as often as he can. I am trying not to stress, but I already know that it is going to be hectic! So, in trying to be a little proactive, I decided that I would cook up a bunch of meals and freeze them all. That way once we are crazy busy and stressed to the max (yet so excited and grateful to have our sweet baby boy here), we will have some easy meals ready to go. I know that if I hadn't done this that we would be eating out way more often than is healthy or cost effective. So last weekend was a weekend of cooking. It started on Friday after I got off work. I had a major grocery list already ready of things we needed at the house for the week but also of all the things I would need to make my meals. Originally I had hoped to make 30 meals (because that is what the crazy lady on Pinterest said could easily be done...not sure how she defines easily). I got a little overwhelmed making my list, so I ended up with a master list of 15 meals. This major shopping stint took quite a while in WalMart, but I got it all done. I didn't factor in my tiredness when planning this feat though because after a long day at work, a massive WalMart trip that almost required two buggies, then unloading and organizing groceries I was pretty pooped. I forged on though and defrosted and cooked all of my meats and sauteed down all of my vegetables (of course I cheated and used the pre-chopped Season's Blend). I think I ended up with about 8 pounds of ground meat and 3 bags of chicken. I put together a couple of meals that night, but it wasn't long before I was done. There was no more pushing myself, so I threw everything in the fridge and went to bed. Saturday was a new day that brought with a very much needed burst of energy. I was able to finish preparing and packaging all of my meals. I used almost an entire roll of aluminum foil because I am so afraid of this hard work getting freezer burned. Of course the freezer had to be cleaned out and reorganized before it could be packed with anything new, but that got done and all the containers are now in place and labeled complete with directions. I made all kinds of things like lasagna, chicken pot pie, chicken and vegetable casserole, baked ziti, and chicken spaghetti just to name a few! We shall see how all of this turns out! I do know that if we end up having to evacuate this hurricane season we will either be bringing all of this food with us, or we will have to have someone in charge and willing to come over and run our generator for us so we don't lose all of this hard work. I really might break down if we came back and all these hours and all that food was wasted!!
So after all my cooking and then major cleaning of the kitchen, I decided that the kitchen cabinets were much too cluttered and that I couldn't take it any more. Plus I know we will soon be accumulating a lot of bottles, sippy cups, and the like and we have absolutely no place to put them in our cabinets. Three trips to WalMart later, I fixed all of that. All of the kitchen drawers were organized, the knives were moved out of the bottom drawer, spices and cups had to be rearranged, all the cabinets and drawers got lined with liner...now it looks nice and functional. I am very proud of my feat!
In other news, Josh and Kevin fixed the baby's closet a few weeks ago. They added shelves, storage space, two rows of hanging space, and a bookcase. It looks great...my paint job is a little less than stellar but that is to be expected! We have some baby clothes that people have given us because they are so unbelievably sweet...precious things their baby boys only wore a couple times maybe...sweet baby clothes all the way up to 4T! We were so excited. So one day Josh and I got to work separating everything and organizing it all by size. We vacuum sealed and labeled everything from 9 months and up, and Josh put it all in our new storage space. Then one night we washed all of the baby things that we have that he will be able to wear in the first three months, and we started putting everything up. It was so much fun, and Josh is of course an awesome daddy already. We debated what should be hung and what should be folded and in what order we should put it all up before we realized that in a few months we probably won't care anymore and will just be throwing it into drawers after we have washed it for the millionth time. It was fun organizing it all just right though. Now Tyson's closet is ready to go, his room is completely cleaned out, and we can get to work. We have been waiting for summer to work on his room since we were so overwhelmed with school last semester. Somebody (me of course) got a little nail happy when Tyson's room was merely a guest bedroom, so this weekend we will be puttying walls and touching up the paint. Soon we will be getting his crib and getting his room ready for his arrival! We can't wait!
In news other than baby and my crazy organizing habits, I have to give a shout out to my husband. What can be said other than OMG. He is amazing, and I really don't know how I got so lucky to have him. First of all I want to say that I have gotten better, but from about weeks 8 to 22 of this pregnancy I was a little testy. I like to blame it on school because I was so beyond stressed I had no more available coping mechanisms. For those (LONG as Josh describes them) weeks, almost everything was a major deal. I would cry about almost anything, and almost everything was the end of the world. It was pretty terrible. I was lucky in the pregnancy department that I didn't have any sickness, but emotionally I was a wreck. Josh was a life savior though. I know I was driving him crazy, but he never stopped being supportive. He did nothing but encourage me more through school as the work would get tougher. He never said anything about the messy house or the lack of supper or having to eat a ham sandwich for the millionth time. He kept up with his school, encouraged me through mine, and did fabulous things in the backyard and around the house on his down time. He really is the greatest ever. And talk about going to be a good daddy. I have never seen him more excited about anything! He has never missed a doctor's appointment and can't wait for the next one to come along. He reads up on how the baby is growing and developing every week, and he is always making sure that I am eating the best and doing everything just right. He cannot wait for this little boy to get here, and I know once he is here he will be an even better daddy than any of us ever imagined. Ty and I are pretty lucky to have him in our lives, and I can't stress enough how grateful I am for him.
This may have been the most boring, cut and dry blog that I have posted yet. There was just so much that needed to be said. I am sure more entertaining things have happened throughout these past few months, but not being able to blog hindered me in expressing them. I will say I have another hindrance. My laptop died. Thank Heavens it waited until close to the end of the semester to kick the bucket, but sadly it is not in working order at this time. I like to blog whenever and where ever the mood strikes me, and now I feel tied to the desktop to do that. I am getting my computer fixed though, and I can't honestly say it just died for no reason. The keyboard went out on it..not the whole keyboard just the second row of keys. Those are apparently the most needed keys though! I can't be for sure what happened, but a little tiny splash of milk did hit the keyboard right before the keys went out. I am certain that those two things aren't related though...couldn't be! I do have to have it back before next semester. It will be heading in to the Apple store soon for a workup...hopefully a very inexpensive work up...we'll see!!
So for now I am desktop bound, but at least I am able to blog again...for a little while at least! Busy summer to come! I am sure August will be here before we know it...and we can't wait!!
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