Get Rid of "Honey-Do-Lists" Petition Request!

(kyle speaking) A guy can only do so many things in one day. A couple of days ago I was relaxing, thinking to myself..."what a great day it is today, I have the perfect life with the perfect wife. I couldn't have married a better woman in the whole world." And then I was reminded of the "few simple things" it was recommended that I do soon. Here was my honey-do-list:

Fix the door that won't close cause the door sags.

Fix the flat tire on the Subaru so I can get the Honda back.

Fix the vacuum cleaner so......you know why. If I say I will get in more trouble.

Fix the garage door opener so we could get into the garage.

Buy and cut the top off two barrels so I can burn leaves and sticks that make a mess in the yard.

Install a doorbell to the door since I ripped the old one off.

Since my wife loves these lists so much, I wonder what would happen if I created one.

That's just the way things go...

The Woodburys are officially housing three babies right now. :-) After tucking the kids in I gave a sigh of relief-- everyone was quiet and in bed--- and it was 7:15! I crept downstairs and found myself stepping in a huge puddle of water. Sure enough our washer was leaking water all over the floor. I guess Kyle-the-great thought he'd throw in a load of laundry before he left for Scouts tonite. Lucky I was home to take care of the mess. Fortunately we have tile floors so there won't be any damage to that effect. I kind of had to laugh to myself about the situation and I got my phone to text melody the good news that her son was fed, bathed and sleeping and the only problem we were having was with the beloved washer. And then just after i sent it, her son woke up in tears--- the culprit: a poopy diaper.

So then it was round two with the kids, only this time it was tyler and savannah as cade (surprisingly) was out for the count. well, knock on wood, they are all quiet!

Extra! Extra!

Savannah rolled from tummy to back yesterday! I know Kyle is beyond proud-- he put her through Spring Training early and finally reaped his reward. I personally am a little lax on such things. I am in no hurry for my baby to start rolling, scooting, crawling, walking and getting into things. I am really enjoying her for the lovable lump of sugar that she is.

Among other news, we are gearing up for child number three! Yes folks, we are getting another addition to the Woodbury family. The great thing about this one is he comes to us already walking! Unfortunately, it's just temporary. Yep, my sister is letting us take her son Tyler for a few days. Cade is going to be in absolute heaven having a constant car-zooming companion again.

We went to the Brookfield Zoo today and it was a great time. Our ward does some fabulous playgroup activities. Even if it's just opening up the cultural hall and letting Cade zoom around on his bike on a wintry day--- it does a world of good getting him out. And of course it is also fun to converse with other moms on hot topics such as what detergent gets poop out the best, where to enroll children in PreSchool, and potty training tips.

Busy Bees!

We finally got a taste of spring this last week, so we've made ourselves scarce in Blog-world (our temporarily out-of-order desktop also contributed to the dry blog). Don't worry, we'll give you a full update of what we've been up to in the coming hours! Until then, we hope you enjoy this week's music selection!
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The addage "a picture is worth a thousand words" can aptly apply to last week. Allow us to give you a virtual tour......

We've been busy...

Eating (who needs plates when you've got a table?!)

Sleeping

Bathing

Playing Dress-up

working (these 7 bags are just the beginning....unfortunately)

Sleeping some more

and working some more....

The Spring Cleaning Event continues in the Woodbury household and the weather was excellent.. Cade thoroughly enjoyed playing in the dirt and "helping" mommy rake leaves. I cleaned out our linen closet and organized our toiletries in little plastic bins (complete with labels from my great label maker--thanks Don and Mary!), spray painted more storage baskets for the nursery, transformed our back porch from a catch-all storage area intto just that--- a back porch, and hit several home runs in our front yard with Cade.

Kyle was also hard at work tackling the honey-do list despite his long hours. He fixed the garage door, the front door, the lawn mower, and sawed the tops off oil drums so we can burn our never ending pile of leaves without the neighbors calling the police on us. Now if I could just get him to finish hanging my drapery rods i'd reeeeeeeally be in business.

Shout out

Although I publicly shot down Southwest Airlines in a previous post for their lame math skills during a winter storm, I do have to say, I will continue to fly with them for the following reasons:

• They are so family friendly. I can pre-board with the kids. This means, no getting to the airport more than an hour before the flight leaves. Cuts down on waiting time (energy draining time).
• If the flight isn't completely full (which is 99 percent of the time) I can put Savannah in her car seat next to me and not pay for the seat.
• The flight attendants are always so helpful in getting me and my chilluns on and off the plane.
• They have cheapest fares out there and I can almost always get on a non-stop flight---a necessity when traveling with children.

Why the free promotional spot on my blog? I am flying high because today I scored big: 50 bucks to fly to Salt Lake! 50 bucks to fly back from Salt Lake! I could have flown over a dozen places for 25 bucks each way! (oh, if i had no children where i would have gone.....we'll save that for another day) For Cade, Savannah and I to fly to and from Salt Lake it was a grand total of $241.50.

I hereby say to anyone who travels at least once a year to download DING! off their Web site so you can take advantage of their great fares.

A third serving of Ketchup: My mom the rebel, a trip to the zoo & Cade's 3rd b-day

Kyle and I thought it would be nice to have Savannah blessed the day after Rebecca was married. My parent's bishop and our bishop here in Chicago were supportive of it, so that was really nice. Kyle's family came down from Boise and my Grandparents from Idaho stayed in town an extra day after the wedding to be there for it. My cousins living in Provo came up and my girlfriends Lindsey and Lindsay (not a typo!) also came up. It was great seeing so many people I hadn't seen in forever for this special occasion. I dressed Savannah in my old blessing dress, which is absolutely gorgeous. You will also note that it is purple. There has never been any clothing "dress code" for babies getting blessed, but it seems to be the tradition to dress them in all white. Well, back in the day my mom was feeling a little spunky and rebellious when she was picking out the fabric for my blessing dress and went with purple. Hiliarious! I myself opted out on traditional, springy seasonish attire and wore a black polka-dot dress. Oh we are so bad. We got to eat leftovers from Rebecca's reception (yummm) and used her flowers for centerpieces and such. It was fun having lots of pink Gerber daisies to play with.
Although we lived in Utah for 5 years (minus the summers), I'd never once been to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake. Sister-in-law Lesley and I packed up the chilluns and met cousin AnnMarie there during our stay. The boys had a blast:

Cade was hung up on seeing the elephants and tigers and was not satisfied until he saw them. He was also thrilled about seeing the crocodiles (he had just been introduced to the movie Peter Pan at gramma's) and the boa constrictor (he loves the book The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash). The outing was really fun and manning (or womaning) two children was easier that I anticipated. Savannah slept almost the entire time and my only struggle was Cade, who insisted on pushing her stroller without my help.

Also during our trip we celebrated Cade's 3rd birthday. We met Melody and Tyler at the Chuck E. Cheese's in Sandy and they had a ball. (so did I!) See details on Melody's blog. For the big birthday dinner, Cade chose to have-- PANCAKES! Yes, my sugarfreak son chose the sweetest meal possible. Gramma got Cade a fantastic CARS! ice cream cake, complete with a huge Lightning McQueen car on top.

Chocolate, my saving grace

Bloggityy-blog-blog-blog. It sloshed today. Slosh is an undesirable combination of rain/snow/ice when the temp is sitting right around 33 degrees. Slosh can also be an undesirable combination of crying/whining/whailing going on. Unfortunately, today I had a dose of both.

Savannah and Cade got immunized today-- no fun. Really, ----- no fun. I'm talking beyond the yanking my heart out while I watch my kids cry in pain non-fun. I mean it was that plus wrestling with my three year-old darling, angel son to get out of the place because he was hysterical non-fun. Why was he hysterical, might you ask? I really can't put my finger on it. Let's take this play by play.

After he received the shot, the nurse asked if he wanted a lollipop. She opened her drawer, and picked a few out, telling Cade to pick which flavor he wanted. Cade defiantly said he didn't want one and threw himself on the floor. I ignored this behavior and sat with Savvy to get her shots done. After that painful experience the nurse asked him again if he wanted one. He took one, then he gave it back, obviously quite frustrated. When we left the room and paid for the shots he started shrieking and screaming at the top of his lungs that he didn't want to leave. Maybe he...

• was insulted that a grown-up would think a lollipop would make up for sticking him with a needle
• was really in the mood for peas and squash
• realized when we were leaving he couldn't be asked a third time for the lollipop, and he had previously decided he would accept the lollipop on the third offer
• saw all of her lollipops and when he was only offered ONE instead of the drawer-full it ticked him off. He should have ALL lollipops (this is the most likely scenerio. my son loves all forms of sugar.)
• didn't know what the heck he wanted and was tired, cranky, and hungry and just felt like expressing those such emotions in a self-interpretive way.

Oddly enough mid-way through the car ride home he decided to switch to Angel Cade, personality number 5 and pretend as if the whole shirade never happened.

Well, I'm tired, cranky, hungry and I still have groceries to unpack out of the Subie. Wait! Do you know what this means? OREOS! Oh yes! I forgot about that. Well, i suppose life isn't so bad after all if you can end the evening inhaling a row or so of refined chocolatey scrumptiousness with some cold milk. I am a nursing mother, you know. Some days I am too busy (or choose to proccupy myself with a dozen other important tasks) to consume the necessary calories to keep my milk factory in business... so I'm left to find some way to do it when there is a little more time in the evening. Hence the Oreo binge. Thank goodness for Oreos.

Happy Birthday Savannah!

Our cute little angel turned 3 months old today. Her gift? Snow. No kidding. Unfortunately mama was too busy today to go upstairs and sip cocoa and enjoy the view. Maybe it will snow again tomorrow.

More Ketchup: Goose's Wedding

I'm going to play catchup yet again....

Our second Utah trip took place just 10 days after our return from the first one. Traveling with Kyle makes the journey so much easier! Cade loves being on the airplane with Daddy. Of course it was snowing the day we left, and fortunately not bad enough to delay our flight.

Cade was estatic to be back in Utah to see Gramma and Buddy. Upon our arrival he made a beeline for Auntie Becca's matchbox cars. For the next two weeks all that came out of his mouth was "Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooooommmm." My mother received her official teaching certificate in the mail that day--good timing! We finally had proof that she had passed her FINAL test and she was not allowed to worry anymore. We all knew she had, but for some reason my mother was not as confident. My mother is a perfectionist when it comes to school. She reads EVERYTHING required and never gets less than a 110% on her assignments. No kidding. We went out for dessert to celebrate... i'm always looking up for an excuse to eat cake!

Saturday Daddy-o worked and we played. Sunday my parents had Stake Conference and we heard Elder Oaks speak. It was brilliant.

Now for the good stuff: Goose's Wedding! Believe it or not, my mom did not take off a single day of work for the wedding. She worked the entire day on Friday even. Workaholic maybe? Or maybe she just had it all together because, unlike me, she is NOT a procrastinator. Maybe it's a little of both. Friday night Becca pulled into town starving but I didn't let her eat--- Leslie and I took her out and we all got pedicures. Come on, you can't get married without your toes looking purdy!

Saturday morning I rose before Savannah did (now THAT'S early!) to get ready and "help" Rebecca get ready. My job was make-up, but land sakes, Rebecca could have picked a better person to be in charge of that. I can't even do my own make-up! Thankfully she is a natural beauty, so I couldn't do too much damage anyway. Her hair turned out awesome, thanks to her fashionably gifted friends. They should've done my hair, too.

The morning was chilly, but perfect weather for wedding pictures. The wedding ceremony was beautiful and it was great to see family and friends. The Bountiful temple was gorgeous and Rebecca was all smiles. She and Jake did not stop grinning the entire day.

Jake's parents hosted a luncheon in Bountiful and I think the nephews had the best time-- all you can eat chips and salsa? Cade and Eli were in hog heaven.

The reception was in Layton and prior to that we had family pictures. For the first time EVER in Sheppard family history, we had the entire family in attendance and, get this, all in matching attire. The pictures turned out great. Hopefully nobody gets pregnant for a while so it won't get outdated.

The reception house proved to be excellent grounds for vroooming cars around, chasing cousins, and playing in dirt:

I personally enjoyed the delicious desserts served. Rebecca was a stunning bride, and she and Jake proudly displayed their perma-grins.

I was proud of my mommy for holding it together. After all-- her baby girl was getting married. Dad did the same. It was a bittersweet day. Mostly sweet, just a little bit bitter.... one morning I woke up and my baby sister was all grown up.

Isn't Love Ironic?

Allow me to turn back time a bit to re-cap for my own sake some trips we've taken. The trip we made in February was quite an ironic one. . .


Kyle had plans to go to Utah on business and just prior to leaving for that one, he would have just gotten back from a business trip to Boise. He realized his trip to Utah would force him to be gone on Valentine's Day. He said without blinking that I should come out and join him and we could leave a day before V-Day so we could enjoy the holiday together. Sweet, isn't he? We don't have any particular traditions, but we've always done something to celebrate whether it be watching Kyle play soccer (very romantic) or eating sushi somewhere (almost as romantic---ewww). After some thought, it made more sense for Kyle to blend the two trips together and have me meet him in Utah the day before Valentine's Day. Ha ha. Kind of like Sleepless in Seattle. And get this--- Gramma and Grampa "Berry" offered to watch Cade in Boise while Daddy-o worked. That's when the amazing Kitchen and Bedroom transformation took place. (see blog "I Have Arrived" for details).


After a relaxing and productive week with little Savvy, I woke up on Feb 13th to snow, snow, and more snow. My flight was cancelled so I rebooked for a later one that day hoping the weather would let up long enough for my plane to leave. My friends Jared and Jodie were conveniently in the same predicament and on the same flight. Thanks to Jared's skillful driving and his robust Land Cruiser, we made it to the Chicago airport as the snow storm continued. Our flight kept getting delayed (key word here) so we stopped at a restaurant to eat, passing time.

After the restaurant we headed to the skycap counter. We were told the airport was closed. We were told by a pilot there was no way any flights would leave that night. But our flight was still just delayed, not cancelled. After making a few loops to the drop off counter to see what other stories the aviation industry could conjure up, I called Kyle and he booked me a hotel online so if my flight ended up being cancelled, I could stay the night by the airport and fly out the next day. En route to the hotel I spoke with a customer service rep for the airline (i bet you're dying to know which one) urging me to wait it out at the airport. So, like good friends would, Jared turns his Cruiser around and drops us off at the airport and finds parking. So far the flight was still delayed and planes were finally taking off at the airport. We checked our luggage and found the gate. After 1,2,3 hours of waiting we were finally told our plane and pilot to get us out of there was arriving and our flight to Utah would take off a little after 1am. Keep in mind the original flight was to leave at 12:20pm.


During this game of musical chairs (we also got sent to 2 more gates) Savannah was a champ and provedto be a great travel companion. Words cannot describe the joy that overcame me when I saw our plane land and pull up to our gate. Passengers de-boarded the plane. We got in line to board. The airline employee came to the front of the gate and announced, "I'm sorry, but your flight has been cancelled."

Yes, after all that, it was decided to cancel the flight. Why? Because the pilot had flown his maximum possible hours and would not be able to fly us to SLC. Why the aviation mathematicians were not able to add up these numbers prior to our lining up eagerly at the gate after a long night of waiting, I will never know.....


So Savvy and I spent the night in the airport (by that point it was to late to go to the hotel that we paid for already to get more than 30 minutes of rest) and got on the earliest flight to SL the next morning. Or, I guess I should say, that same morning. I arrived to Utah on February 14th in a daze. All I could think about was curling up in a dark room and sleeping for 14 hours. Unfortunately I couldn't shut the door and sleep. Kyle had to work and I had the chilluns. Dangit. It is inmoments such as then that I wish I could just turn in my mom keys and take a break. Somehow I managed to keep from falling asleep (crazy glue on the eyelids works great)and I was able to spend the evening with my Valentine in a weary haze. All in the name of spending Valentine's Day together.


The efforts to lift my spirits didn't go unnoticed. At the airport Cade presented me with a little box of chocolates and shouted "Dis is your Balentine!" That was precious. Kyle had a boquet of beautiful roses waiting for me at my parents' home. And Melody planned a great party complete with a pizza making contest and chocolate fountain.

The rest of my time in Utah was kind of a blur as I never really caught up on my sleep. I did get to finish the trip with a fantastic evening at my favorite Provo hot spot--- quite possibly the best way on earth to sooth your nerves....

.....painting pottery amongst great company.

In Come the Troops

Isn't she a doll?!

I took a break from blogging yesterday to give Kyle a chance to put his two cents in on our site. I have kind of taken it over the last few days. Buttttt, he didn't so I decided to hop on!

Today our first set of summer sales troops arrived. They drove straight through, stopping only for Gas and Grub. This is almost a month sooner than usual. BYU-Idaho has a new semester set-up which shortens the Fall and Winter Semesters, allowing for the Summer to be a full one, too. Bottom line: The Pest Control Summer starts sooner. I forgot about this and I don't think I am quite ready to be a widow for the summer just yet..... hmmmph.

Happy Children = Happy Mama

Cade was the happiest, sweetest most fun little guy today, despite puking his guts out this morning.... go figure. Whatever the reason, he seems back to his jolly playful self and I am thrilled. He is learning how to play my favorite childhood game, Hi-Ho Cherry-o. So far his favorite thing to do is to spin the arrow.

Savannah has been a champ, though she, too, has caught the sick bug that has attacked our family. She is smiling lots and sleeping through the night--hooray! She's been cooing and telling "stories" in her native tongue-- so precious. I want to savor these moments with her, she's already getting so big. She is an absolute doll. These are the days I just want to put life on pause.

I need to learn from my children how to be pleasant despite feeling under the weather.

Voice Lessons

The last week I have been pretty much voiceless. I don't know what exactly has ailed me, but I have been unable to speak much higher than a whisper this entire week. In the mean time I have also been struggling with my dear 3 year-old and his antics. He has been in the most defiant of moods these last several weeks. Anything I tell him, he plainly tells me the contrary. Example #1:

We are in the kitchen making pancakes. Cade is standing on a chair so he can oversee the action taking place on the counter.

"Careful of the griddle, Cade. It's hot," I warn him.

He responded matter of factly,"No, it's not hot. It's berry, berry cold."

Example #2:
We were in the airport waiting in line to get our boarding passes.

"Cade, be a good boy and listen to Mommy," Dad says as Cade is swirving in and out of line and under the railings.

"I'm not a boy. I'm a girl!"

That was news to me.

I swear, one day someone went inside his control panel and reprogrammed him. I have had a difficult time remaining patient during this new phase. Patience is difficult to have when you are living on little sleep. I've read and heard that it is helpful to whisper when you are really upset with your children, as that keeps you from losing your cool and raising your voice to them when it's not a life or death situation (ie. STOP!!!! Get out of the road!!!!). I kind of laughed at that thinking Cade just wouldn't take me seriously if I was whispering and he'd just ignore me.

I was wrong.

I haven't been able to discipline him in anything more than a whisper and it is amazing. He listens BETTER when I am talking softly than if I were to use my normal, end-of-the-day, exhausted, hungry, don't cross me again voice. He minds me and he himself has been found whispering throughout the house.

This has been a fine lesson of how much my attitude, tone of voice and body language impacts the spirit of our home.

A Hot Cocoa April....

I love my house. Especially in the winter when our yard is snow covered. Not only does it hide the dead landscaping, it just makes everything beautiful. My favorite thing to do during the winter is to sit in the room (we like to call it our sitting room) upstairs overlooking our big kitchen windows, sip hot cocoa (home made cocoa from the world's greatest neighbor, whom we are just lucky enough to be neighbors with), and watch snow fall; There was nothing like looking through the windows gazing out at the blanket of whiteness as I sipped the chocolatey goodness from my mug. It was in those moments of peace that that I silently thanked Kyle for twisting my arm to buy this tiny house with a giant yard.

Just two weeks ago we began reaping the benefits of the previous green-thumbed homeowners. Without planting a single seed we began to watch our land come to life. Little buds of who knows what began poking through the leaves (nope, we STILL haven't gotten all those up) and everywhere in between. Then daffodils bloomed and plants sprouted everywhere! Sounds silly, but until now I've never really recognized or appreciated the miracle of plant life.

In any case, I was getting excited about Spring. Granted, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. With the snow gone, our yard is exposed -- leaves and all, and that means lots and lots of time needing to be spent in the yard. But the thought of planting and planning what we were going to do with our "problem areas" started to get exciting.

Then today happened. I was getting the kids ready to head out the door for a meeting and as soon as I stepped outside, the chilly air bit me in the face and made me run back inside for cover. On the drive I began to see little snow flurries! I looked down at the handy outdoor temperature guage in the dash-- 30 degrees!! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD -- IT'S APRIL!!!! We're supposed to be basking in the sun's warmth and running around barefoot in pretty, white, flowing dresses across wavy green grass looking for Easter eggs, right????

I suppose I do remember the same thing happening in Utah last year. I kept waiting and WAITING for a decent day to go and organize our storage unit before we had to pack it up for the big move out here. For some reason the month of APril just kept shelling out freezing cold days. It snowed just days before we headed to Chicago and I finally ended up organizing the storage unit in the bitter cold, much to my dismay.

Well shoot, if it's not ready to be spring, then Mama Nature, go all out and snow blankets so I can go upstairs and drink my hot cocoa.

A pretty shot of our front yard this past March. I was so happy we got a another good snow last month because I kept forgetting all winter to take pictures of our yard.
our back yard--also courtesy of K-style selectt photography

Getting there....

The journey to a more organized home (aka a happier wife and mother) continues. First, allow me to give a shout out to Marie Ricks, the woman who continues to simplify my seemingly complicated life now that I am a homeowner. When we first moved into the house I was instantly overwhelmed at everything I needed to keep up in addition to being a mother. I could no longer get my entire home clean during Cade's nap. I was overwhelmed with how to do what when. My sister Melody introduced me to this woman's system of managing a household (everything from a home cleaning schedule to how to be prepared for the next flu or cold). Melody attended her class and has shared with me the secrets. She even made me a stack of index cards that have my "tasks" and they are divided into Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Bi Monthly tasks. For example,

my daily chores are to:
straighten front room
fix/clean up breakfast
start daily laundry (i'll go more into detail on that)
straighten bathrooms
empty trash in all the rooms
tidy bedrooms
empty dishwasher
make beds

My Monday chores are:
Wash Sunday's clothes
Pay bills/paperwork
vaccuum sweep
Balance budget

And chores for the Month of April:
make food storage purchases
inventory food storage
clean out closets
wash front room/kitchen windows
clean light fixtures
clean the vaccuum (yes, it gets dusty and dirty and needs some TLC every once in a while)
clean window sills
Wash rugs

Pre-Savannah and somewhat Post-Savannah, I was doing a pretty decent job at following this great system.
With my laundry this was the system in tact:
MWF- darks and whites
Tues- sheets
Thurs - towels

This laundry schedule kept me from feeling overwhelmed by laundry and it took just a few minutes in the morning because I was just doing a load or two. Hooray! The days of doing all my laundry in one day after putting it off all week were OVER. No matter what, there was always that straggling load or two at the end of the day that either sat in the basket or dryer for days or the clothes that sat in the washer for days) Keeping up with this system actually makes me feel like all the laundry is always done because I don't have 3 baskets waiting for me.

Anyhow, I digress--- so before this long trip to Utah I was on the ball and keeping up with my schedule and keeping up with my daily and weekly tasks. I returned home to somehow find myself in a sea of laundry to be done and a home that was in disarray. Well I finally pinpointed it.

The culprit: My "skinny" bins, spring cleaning fever, and the emotional NEED to finish every room in my house

The "skinny" bins were in storage during my pregnancy and awaiting the return of my non-pregnant body. Just prior to my departure to Utah, I had kyle bring them in from the garage so I could pack some of my "skinny" clothing for the trip. The bins of course remained in the hallway for my return so I could go through the clothing and put them in my closet. So, as soon as I returned, I wanted to do the big switcharoo in my closet. this is not a simple task. First I had to go through the clothes IN my closet, take out what i didn't want in the closet, and put them in their appropriate storage bin. In between taking the maternity clothes down and washing the skinny bin clothes, children needed to be bathed, clothed, fed, changed, put to bed, played with, chastised for poking baby sister in the face, read to...etc etc. So even this seemingly cut and dry task was interrupted for more important tasks and took forever to finish. I am on the last leg of the task and oddly enough probably the easiest but it will take the longest: relabeling them with clear tape and getting them back in the garage. They are currently stacked neatly in the hallway awaiting to be atteneded to.

Spring cleaning fever also hit, slowing the whole unpacking process. I couldn't just put away my clean clothes. I had to go through every drawer in my closet and dresser and clean it out. Then I had to do Kyles and color coordinate his clothes and t-shirts....

Then was the whole---ohmygosh I've got to get these rooms completely decorated and finished before we have to move again --- meltdown.

Trying to accomplish these three HUGE tasks was a disaster and I paid dearly for it. From now on I will stick to Marie's schedule and try to remember to take on my bigger chores when I know I have time (i.e. between 10pm and 7am!). I also have to remember the days when I was in college thinking "Oh, it will be so nice when I all I really have to worry about is keeping up with the household chores and playing with the kids." It really is a good life. I don't stress about the next pay check and I have a terrific husband. These are all self-imposed stresses(still valid, but self-imposed nonetheless) that should take a back seat to enjoying my little ones because they'll grow up before I know it.

PS. The debate for bedroom furniture continues and your comments are still welcome as long as they are in my favor and not Kyle's. :-)