Who Wants Free Stuff????

You can never get enough of what you do not need.

I don’t need a lot of things.

I have no interest in doing a yard sale by myself with a baby. I don’t want to deal with early birds, making change and haggling over $2 items. Listed below are the things I am giving away. All you have to do is come pick it up (call me first so I know you’re coming or email me to set up a time). I will delete items as they are claimed. First come, first served.

Picnic Basket – Brand New


Ceramic Angles


Norman Rockwell Christmas Plate Set 4 plates– Brand New


Misc. Christmas Bead Garlands


Peter Rabbit Crib Mobile, Wall Hangings & insulated bottle holder - Brand New



Fall themed Gift Bags




Ceramic Fall leaves – can be used as candle plate or hang on the wall


Silver & white candle plate


8 bubble glass votive candle holders


Lenox votive candle holders – brand new


Large lot of lace


Yarn – maroon, dark teal, off-white, black, pink & blue




Snowflake Photo Frames

Get the Baby Gates Warmed Up!

I was hoping Everett would give me at least 2 more weeks to pack and move before he started crawling. Things are getting close - I don't know if he'll wait that long. Last night I was working on packing up the craft room. Ev was sitting on the floor next to some boxes and he seemed to be interested in the colorful fabric scraps on top of the boxes. Next thing you know, this is what I see: Yup, he pulled himself up on the box and got what he wanted.
Oh boy.
It was getting close to bedtime so I hurried and lowered his crib mattress. No sense in having him fall on his head after he just learned a new trick. Up on his knees and pulling himself up on boxes...crawling is around the corner.

How do you know when it's time to give your son a haircut? When you take a picture of him and he looks like he stuck his finger in a light socket. Time for a trim...

Goodbye Old Friend

Thursday I gave her some extra attention. Extra dusting, extra playing, extra buffing to any hand smudges. One last photo with Ev. Friday the piano movers came and within 20 minutes, she was gone.

*~ Sigh ~*

All that’s left is an empty room with a piano footprint. At least she’s going to a good home where I’m confident she’ll be taken care of. The piano was a wedding gift from my Mom and Ron. I came home from work one day and there it was in our living room with a giant gold bow on top. What a sweet surprise. At first, Aaron wasn’t too excited about having a piano take up a large chunk of our living room, but in the end it grew on him and he was the first to insist on never selling it. It’s just the first of many possessions I have to part with for a while. If all goes well, a year from now I’ll be putting her right back where she belongs. With us at home.

Welcome to Motherhood, Dear

Monday night, Aaron graciously offered to take care of Everett if he woke up in the middle of the night. Since Everett's been born, I have always been the one to handle any middle-of-the-night activity. Now that I'm working, I am more than happy to share the responsibility.

At 4:30 am Ev started crying so Aaron jumped into action. He made Everett's bottle, changed his pants and tried to swaddle him. This is where things went horribly wrong. Our house was 75 degrees when I put Everett to bed. Usually I swaddle him and give him a bottle and he's out for the count. Since it was so hot I just had a thin newborn receiving blanket over him. Poor Aaron was trying to swaddle an 8 month old in a newborn size blanket and his arms kept coming out and he would wake up.

Finally on the third try Aaron had had it. He put Everett to bed crying, threw the blanket on him and slammed the door. (so much for me getting extra sleep!) Thankfully, after a few seconds, Everett fell back asleep. Aaron came back to bed upset and frustrated. He was trying so hard.

Aaron: "Do you think velcro would help keep his arms down?"
Me: "I'm sure someone, somewhere has made a blanket with velcro on it."
Aaron: "No, I'm serious - I've got some velcro straps in the garage, do you think that would work?"
Me: "No, you can't velcro our son's arms down. Go back to sleep."

Later that day, Aaron called me and apologized for losing his mind for a while.
Welcome to my world.

Day of Dread

I started back to work this week. I was up at 5am feeding Everett and putting him back to sleep. I squeezed into something “office appropriate” and even curled my hair. I tried putting on makeup, but that’s when I lost it and the tears just came. Forget the makeup. It won’t stay on anyway. Aaron was up with me and was doing everything he could think of to help me. He’s such a sweetheart. He told me how nice I looked, even though I know I looked and felt awful. He knows how hard this is for me. I got my little angel out of bed and just held him while he woke up. On came the tears again. I changed him and fed him, and off to Grandma’s house we went.

Our families have been so wonderful through this mess. The combined shout was, “Don’t send him to a babysitter, we’ll watch him!” What a relief. I hate to be away from him, but at least he’s with grandparents all day that will love him. His current nickname is “Hot Potato”. Grandma Carol in the morning, Grandma & Grandpa Scharping in the early afternoon, and Grandma Nettie in the late afternoon. All are within a 2 minute drive or walk from each other, and just a 10 minute drive from my work. It’s the best outcome for a crummy situation.

Being at work seems so empty and unimportant.

Instead of seeing this sweet face:

I have to look at this:Instead of playing and teaching, I’m typing and filing.Instead of making funny noises and faces to get my little one to giggle, I’m making phone calls.There’s no comparison. It’s hard to focus on why I am here.

One day down, 364 to go…

You Know It's Spring In Eastvale When...

...I've already swatted 5 flies and there are 3 more on the ceiling laughing at me because I can't reach them. They seem to be attracted to my house like it was built on a pile of poo. Hmmm...I guess since our house was built on what was dairy land it IS built on a pile of poo. My mistake.

So, How's Your Food Storage?

Not what it should be? Depending on the grocery store to be open? Perhaps THIS will light a fire under your butt. Or maybe THIS report. Some highlights include:

* Due to the financial crisis farmers can’t get loans to grow food
* In the U.S. 7 million fewer acres of crops were planted this year
* China’s crops failed by 40% due to drought
* Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina are also 40% less in yields from last year
* California is the #1 food & agriculture producer for the U.S.
* California is in a huge drought
* Our natural gas lines run over the San Andreas fault several times including the Cajon Pass
* 60% of SoCal water is imported
* 3 major water importing pipelines for SoCal run across the San Andreas fault

Hmmm...is it any wonder we’ve been asked to get a food & water storage? Is it any wonder we’ve been asked to learn to grow a garden? Someday, the food you grow will be the food you eat. We are one earthquake away from chaos. I believe it won’t be the earthquake that will be so devastating, it will be the aftermath. No water, no food, no fuel. If the freeways are damaged, no one can get in and no one can get out. If no food can get out of California, what will that do to the rest of the country? Sounds like the perfect storm, indeed. Things are going to get really ugly really fast. Take care of your families. Get to work!

Happy Easter!

Aaron FINALLY took a day off! We had an amazing day together. What's even better is that we get to spend tomorrow together too. Our family hopes your family has a wonderful Easter!

Wasted Space

Yesterday I worked on gutting out our closet. What did I find? Four boxes of "skinny clothes" and nineteen pairs of workout pants that don't fit.

Nineteen.

NOTE TO SELF: You can buy all the workout clothes you want, they're still not going to take YOU on a walk.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Aaaah...I needed today. I always love Conference weekend, but I really needed today.

I hadn't left the house since Wednesday because of a sick baby and working on packing up the house. Everett has been up coughing, so the last three days I've only gotten a hand full of hours sleep. Aaron hasn't been home much - Tuesday he worked 2 days in a row without coming home or sleeping. Friday he didn't get home until 4am, I guess that would make it Saturday...The last week has seemed to melt into one never ending day.

Sunday morning, Ev and I made it to my mom's house and were greeted with the usual fantastic breakfast spread. Mmmmm...comfort food and a giant cup of hot chocolate to drown my sorrows in.

The Conference talks were just what I needed to shake me out of my pity party. I regularly need a swift kick in the pants to get me back on track. I needed to take a step back and take an eternal look at things. Our situation completely sucks right now, but I'll take my situation over the circumstances of the people in President Monson's talk. This is just a small period of time and it will pass. I am getting focused and am ready to put my head down and get to work. During the break between Conference sessions, we headed back into mom's garden. It couldn't have been a more perfect day. Ev and I watched my mom feed the chickens and collect eggs. Her broccoli is ready to harvest and her flowers are in full bloom. My sis, Melonnie came up with the great idea to make some lemonade. We picked some lemons from my mom's tree, squeezed the lemons and Melonnie made the perfect pitcher of lemonade. Yum! So I'm feeling better and I know things will be ok. I needed some words of counsel and my family today, and I got just that. This week will be better.

It's Official

We’re moving. The boxes are stacked and ready to be filled. The donation and trash piles have been started. I have less than a month to pack. I haven’t smiled much in the last couple days.I find that I keep explaining our situation even when it is not necessary. I can’t help it. I just don’t want people to think we got to this point because we were irresponsible. We planned everything so carefully. We bought a home with a responsible loan we could afford on Aaron’s income. We had no credit debt. All home improvements were paid with cash. In the five years we have been married we’ve only gone on 2 vacations. We worked very hard. We waited to have a family to be sure we could afford it.


All was right until I was about 2 months pregnant. The bottom fell out of the boating industry and the stable job Aaron had for 10 years was now questionable. He saw the writing on the wall and got his ducks in order to start his own business. He was hoping to continue working in the boating industry while learning his new trade, but when Everett was 2 months old Aaron lost his job. It’s hard to keep a job selling boats when there’s no one to sell boats to. For the last five months we’ve been hanging by a string trying to keep the business going and keep our household going. We’re finally at the breaking point and can’t hold on anymore. We can’t sell our house so we’re going to try to rent it out. Aaron’s parents have been gracious enough to let us live with them for a while. Aaron is going to keep plugging away at building his business - which is going great, but it’s just not enough fast enough. As for me, I have to go back to work full time at my old job to cover the bills and get us financially back to where we were before this whole disaster started.


I am an absolute mess. I’ve been bawling on and off much of the last two days. I’m not worried about the move. I could care less about the house. I’m worried about my baby boy. My son will not be with me during much of the day. In less than two weeks I have to find a babysitter. Someone who will be a complete stranger to him. I keep holding him close and apologizing over and over for failing him. I never wanted this for him.


Every mom has her own set of standards and measures of what being a successful mother means to her. At the top of my list was never to have my child in daycare. For me, it is just unimaginable. I’m the mom. It’s my job and my responsibility to be there for my kid every step of the way. How am I going to do that when I’m at work? I can’t. I can’t be the best mom I can be because I won’t be there.

I’m looking at about 9 months to a year of working before I can quit. In that time, most likely I’ll miss the first time he crawls, takes his first steps and says his first words. I’ll get to hear about it over the phone, or maybe in a blurb of a conversation while the "substitute mother" and I are going over next weeks’ schedule. It feels like my heart has been ripped out. I’m so sad. I can’t believe this is happening. For me, it’s a nightmare.

Aaron says I need to change my attitude about going back to work. He’s wondering if I found a rewarding, challenging and fun career with the right benefits that perhaps I wouldn’t be so disgruntled and would maybe enjoy going back to work. Sorry to dash your hopes darling, but even if I got paid to vacation in Hawaii I would still be miserable and wouldn’t want the job if it meant my son had to go to daycare. For me, the rewarding, challenging, fun career with the right benefits is being a mom. I’m not a career girl. Never wanted to be. I like the title wife and mother.

Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful that we have the opportunity to dig ourselves out of this financial hole. I am grateful that I have a job available when so many don’t. I’ve been asking for the right answer but I just don’t know. I’m no spiritual giant, a lot of times when the answer is in front of me, I just don't get it. I hope I’m not like the guy who perished in a flood and when he reached heaven he asked God why his live wasn’t spared, and God answered, "Well, I sent a fire engine, boat and helicopter - what more did you want?" I don’t want to reject the help that is in front of me, I just wish Everett didn’t have to be the one to pay the price. He didn’t do anything to deserve this. I can’t explain to him or help him understand. All he will know is that mom isn’t there.

Oh, Everett I’m so sorry. I hope this will all be over soon.