Clean Washing Machine

As you all know we moved into an apartment a few months ago. The part I liked about the apartment is that we have a washer and dryer in the apartment and we don't half to load up laundry and take it to the machines or anything like that.  Well I wanted t get things in order for the baby to come and get all the cloth diapers prepped before the little one got here. Well I took a good look at the washing machine and thought......NO way am I putting all my cloth diapers in that dirty machine! Well I took some time and decided to clean it out so I set off to pintrest to see how to clean it.

This is what it started off like. Yuck I know!! The top part that looks like a shadow ring around the top is a very disgusting ring of god knows what around the top. It was that way when we moved in. I can't believe I didn't do this earlier.

You will need :
2 Cups of Bleach
2 Cups of Vinegar
a microfiber cloth

First: Turn your water to the hottest setting. Then turn it to the largest load you can do fill the washer. Stop the cycle and add the bleach. Let it soak for an hour. Drain it and fill it up again. This time add the vinegar and let it set for an hour again. When it has set for an hour then get out your cloth and go to town on scrubbing off the yucky gunk. I did a good job but my arms got tired after a while and my big pregnant belly made it hard for me to clean it too long. Brian stepped in to help thank goodness. ( I also cleaned the drum part in the middle it was pretty yucky as well) After we scrubbed it all out and made it shine like new. I was so proud of what it looked like when I was done.

This is what it looked like after a few hours and some elbow grease!

 

I was not afraid to wash my cloth diapers in this clean washer! It took a few more hours to prep the diapers and I was done for the night!!

 

 

Updated pictures

I have gotten things settled for the most part with the new apartment. Here are the pictures I said that I would put up when we got things up and on the wall.

This is our bedroom. (No that is not a person in the bed it is just my pregnancy pillow)

This is our bathroom and closet ( I love how much room I have)

The kitchen with fall decor.

This is what we use as a pantry (one of the drawbacks to the apartment not enough space in the kitchen)

The look to the living room. I LOVE the fireplace.

Another pic of my fireplace.

 

 

I have not done much with the baby room. Maybe I should get started on that baby is due in 9 weeks! I will post pictures when we get done with the room. I can't wait.

Pumpkin contest

                              Can you guess from this picture what Brian and I are making??

Well if you guessed making a pumpkin sundae for Brian's work pumpkin contest you guessed correct!!!

If you didn't that's OK. Leave in the comments what you thought it was.

Brian came home about a week ago and told me that they were having a pumpkin decorating contest at work and they had a few rules : They Could only spend $10, it could not be carved, and it had to be finished by the 23rd.

After a lot of searching for ideas on Pinterest we thought we would make an ice cream sundae out of pumpkins!!!

Here are a few of the during and final pictures. I think we did a great job!! I hope he wins....If he does then he gets a pizza party for him and some of his coworkers (funny I know)

                                I think it is pretty cute and it even looks good enough to eat!

29 Random acts of Kindness

This year once again for my birthday I wanted to do 29 random acts of kindness (RAOK) one for each year I have been alive. This year was a little different because I got up thinking I was going to all of my RAOK all in one day. This changed for me after I went to the Dr. for my regular OB check up and I got my flu shot and did my glucose test and I started to feel like poo. I spread it out over a few days because I was feeling so yucky. So here is my list and a few pictures of my acts. I really liked doing this every year and will keep it up for as long as I can.

My motto for the weekend was: It's better to give than to receive.

1. Drop off coloring books and colors at the Dr. office waiting room. ( This one was easy because I was already going to the Dr.)

2. Left a bag of goodies on a bench at the mall for some lucky person to find. (It had 3 bath and body works lotions, 2 mud mask, and a $5 dollar bill)

3. Left a few packages of bubbles at the park for kids to find. ( I left them at the apartment park and seen a few of the kids playing with them when they got off the school bus)

4. Sent a few letters to friends the old fashion way.

5. Made encouraging signs and hung them up for people to take what they need.

6. Left money at the soda machine telling them that the next soda is on me.

7. Stick you are beautiful signs in bathrooms all over town.

8. Left encouraging signs on random cars.

9. Left coupons taped to items that way others could save money.

10. Left a few packages of wipes, diapers, lotion, and hand sanitizer at baby changing stations in the target bathroom.

11. Put quarters in gumball and toy machines. ( I loved doing this one because I was never allowed to get that sort of stuff when I was little but now I can make that happen for a few children.)

12. Left a big tip for the waiter when we went for my birthday dinner. ( My dad came up and took me to lunch so he paid for my lunch but I still left a big tip)

13. I left the waitress a special treat ( I left her a Yankee candle that was one of my favorite scents)

14. Pay for another couples meal. ( This is one of my favorites on my list)

15. Left pennies heads up in random places that way when people would stop and pick it up they would have good luck the rest of the day :)

16. Went to the Dollar Tree and left a few dollars in random toys.

17. Passed on all my pregnancy books to a friend who just found out she is newly pregnant. ( I also bought a pregnancy journal for her so she can remember all the sweet memories she is making)

18. Paid for the person in line behind me in the drive thru.

19. I gave my extra Joann's coupon to the lady behind me in line. (She was very happy because she only had 2 items and she used 2 coupons and saved $16)

20. Took carts back to the store. (Don't mind my hair it was super windy that day)

21. Now that I live in a bigger city with a lot more traffic I was a very friendly driver. I let people in font of me, I didn’t get mad when people cut me off, and I waved at a few drivers when we are the stop lights. This always made the other drivers smile.

22. Bought a few lottery tickets and left them with notes telling people to have a nice/luck day.

23. Donated a bunch of food to the food bank.

24. Took out the trash for my husband. (This one was special because I HATE to take out the trash)

25. Was kind to everyone I met today.

26. Bought a candy bar for the check out lady at Target and the lady was so happy she said that she had never had anyone do that for her before!

27. Let someone take my parking spot at the Dr. office and I parked further away.

28. Sent out a gas card and money to a friend who has a sick child and goes to the Dr. a lot. ( I know this will help them out quite a bit)

29. Collected box tops for education for a local school.


Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you. Please post in the comments section if you have done a random act of kindness lately.

October 15th infant loss remembrance day

On October 15, at 7:00 pm in all time zones, families around the United States will light candles in memory all of the precious babies who have been lost during pregnancy or in infancy.  Too many families grieve in silence, sometimes never coming to terms with their loss.

If you or someone you know has suffered a miscarriage, stillbirth or infant loss due to SIDS/SUID, prematurity or other cause, we hope you will join us in this national tribute to create awareness of these tragic infant deaths and provide support to those that are suffering.

 

Help us create a ‘wave’ of light across our nation!

 

 

-I am one in four who has lost a baby before I was able to meet them. Four babies, to be exact.

 

-I am one in four who has experienced the pain, tears, and heartache of wanting a baby so badly, then having them taken from me far too soon.

-I am one in four who has felt the loneliness and isolation that miscarriages often times bring.

-I am one in four who miss my babies everyday, even though I never got a chance to hold them.

-I am one in four who watched my dreams for those babies shatter right before my eyes…And, there was nothing I could do about it.

-I am one in four and I’m ready to break the silence.

One in four women experience pregnancy or infant loss. That is a crazy statistic, yet, it’s still such a taboo subject. People are often times too afraid to talk about their losses, because they are afraid of what others might think or say. So instead, they suffer in silence.
Don’t you think it’s time to educate others about miscarriage, still birth, and infant loss, so that others no longer have to silently grieve? I do.
It’s time to help our friends live with their losses, not get over them, and it’s time to let grieving mothers talk about their losses, without feeling like they are making others feel uncomfortable.
I am the face. I am one in four.
And, I bet a lot of your other friends are, too. 

If you want to find more information click here

New Apartment

We have been in the new place for a week now! I can't believe it. I will post some pictures of move in day and then I will make a post later this week of how the house looks now. I have gotten time to unpack things and get decorations up. I still need Brian to hang up a lot of things but he isn't feeling like doing it after he gets home so I will wait until he isn't on call and has some time to hang up all the things I need hung up.

The Spare bathroom

The Baby's room

Our room

Our bathroom and walk in closet

This is what it looks like when you walk in the door (our small kitchen) oh and I love the Fire place!!

I was a little sad on the 9th because that is the day we closed on our first home. I no longer live in the small little town that I grew up in. I now live in the BIG city. I am still trying to get used to the driving around in the city because I am used to driving in my small town but I am working on it. I hope to be used to it by the time the baby comes in December.

I will be posting a lot more pictures with updated decor soon!

Time to get packing

Well we got our house sold....Well we close on it on October 10th (our 4th wedding anniversary.) The couple who bought it are a lovely young couple and I think they are going to enjoy the place. I am thinking about doing something special for the people moving in and leaving a little treat for them when we leave. Maybe a nice bottle of wine and a little note or something like that.

Because we got our house sold it was time for us to look for a place. Oh the joys of looking for a place to rent for a year or so until we are ready to buy another home. We decided on an apartment today! I am happy with the place and I think it will be a great place for us to bring a baby home to.

I have started packing and let me tell you that is not a fun job. I can't believe how much stuff we have collected in the past 4 years since we have moved in. I have all the stuff packed that we don't use everyday and our house is looking pretty sad. Just a lot of bare walls and lots and lots of boxes and totes.

We get to move into our new apartment on October 5th so I will post some pictures when we get moved!!

Where have I been????

I know I have not posted in a long time. I have had a lot going on and will catch you up on everything.

First off I am 21weeks and 1 day pregnant today!! I did know I was pregnant the last time I posted but I didn't want to come out just yet because we waited until we were 13 weeks to tell anyone! We did IVF and were successful on the first try. I am feeling very lucky for this. We have been through a lot of ups and downs and it is not over for us but at this moment I am lucky and very happy to be pregnant.

Secondly I quit my job. Both Brian and I decided that I didn't need the extra stress. My boss was super understanding to my surprise. He was happy for me and I left on good terms. I have even helped him out when he went on vacation and when he needed an extra hand.

Third Brian got a promotion of sorts. This means we are putting our house on the market and we are moving to Des Moines! I am so excited for this opportunity. Now we just need someone to buy our house in our small little town. This may be a little harder than we expected but I have faith that the right person will come along.

I do plan on keeping up on my blog and now that I am home more I will have more time to post.

Thank You all for sticking around!

National Infertility Awareness Week

National Infertility Awareness Week, sometimes abbreviated as NIAW. The goal of the week is to raise awareness about infertility and help couples with infertility cope with their disease.

The week provides a time for those with infertility to "come out" to their friends and families, if they wish, and encourages the fertility challenged to not feel ashamed. I took part in this last year when I “came out” It was one of the most scary but most powerful thing I could do. I was scarred about what people would think or how they would look at me after I “came out” But to my surprise I had many people support me in this!

Even though our family building journey isn’t resolved. I think it helps so much that people I love and care about are so understanding.

This week I will be posting on my Facebook everyday about NIAW to raise awareness.

Spring time wreath

 

I want to spring up the house a little bit because it is getting nice out. I decided to make a spring wreath to hang on the front door. I made this the day before Easter. I know I'm posting this a little late but it is still cute for spring. (You can even get the peeps on sale now for like 70% off)

 

 

You will need a hoop, ribbon, 2 large packs of peeps, and scissors, and a hot glue gun.

 

Once you have everything its time to get started. You will need to put a small amount of hot glue on the hoop and start wrapping your hoop with the ribbon. Use a drop of glue every so often to keep the ribbon from falling off. (This will take a while so you can do this while watching TV)

 

I ran out of ribbon so I had to use another kind of ribbon to finish up. Once you are done with that you will want to start gluing your peeps on (they work better if they are hard so I let mine dry out a day or two first)

I wanted to jazz up my wreath so I added a flower and a ribbon to hang it up. When you are done you will have something that looks a little like this.

 

When you are done you want to let it sit for a few hours before you hang it up. This will allow it to dry and become stable that way when you hang it up the peeps won't fall off. Don't ask me how I know this just trust me this is what you will want to do.

 

You will also not want to leave it to dry on your parents kitchen table or your dad will come in and think it is a cute way of displaying peeps to snack on. I came back several hours later and half my wreath was gone. Thanks dad! I didn't have any more peeps so I could not redo my wreath but that is ok. It was cute while it lasted.

New Bathroom!

Brian was gone most of last week and I decided that I would re-do the bathroom. That would be a good thing to do right... I have no idea how to use power tools and things like that but I wanted to do a pallet wall on one of the bathroom walls. I did a little research by using pinetrest you know the best place to find ideas and I found this site. So I asked my friend Terri to come help me. I made sure to take some before pictures....This will get ugly I will warn you.

See I told you that this was ugly. I mean who would paint a small bathroom this vomit color of blue.

 

I had a fun time with this project mostly because I was working with a friend. It only took a few days. Things went faster than I expected because it was not that hard to do! I wold suggest this project to anyone. Here are the after pics. I love the way things turned out in this small little bathroom.

I did had to take a pic of me working on the pallet wall. Did I mention that I had fun with this project :)

 

 

Diaper Cake

This is going to be a post of how to make a diaper cake. This is not the same kind of diaper cake you may be thinking of......I made one for my aunt and one for my uncle. This was for their 50th birthday. Because they are so "old" I made a depends diaper cake!

 

First you need to get all your supplies. I got some things that I thought a "old" person would need. Depends(wal-mart brand), Fiber One Bars, Preparation H pads, wet wipes, pill case, laxatives, Pain cream, Fiber chewies, anti-diarrhea medication, denture cream, and purell. You also need 3 big rubber bands, any color ribbon (I chose black) and a cake stand.

 

Once you get all your supplies you are ready to go. You take out your depends and roll them the same way you would a baby diaper cake. They are just bigger and bulkier. Once you do the bigger layer wrap 2 rubber bands around that layer and wrap the ribbon around the rubber bands. Then start on the next layer. Do the same thing only make this layer smaller so it can stack on top. Once you got that done you can add the accessories!  I like to dress things up so this was the fun part for me.

 

 

The top one is for my aunt and the bottom one is for my uncle. I was so excited of how they turned out and was excited for them to get their cake!

 

This is how it went when I gave it to them.....My aunt thought it was funny and the whole family had a good laugh about it. When I gave my uncle his he was not to impressed. I think he was a little embarrassed about it all but he did like it.

 

This is my nephew, my uncle and me. I am surprised that he took a picture with the cake :)

 

When all was said and done he gave me the cake back to use for the next "old" person to have a birthday in the family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!!

Welcome 2013!!! I am so happy to see you because 2012 mostly sucked. I could sit here and type out all the things that sucked about the year but I don't want to get into all of that. I will point out some of the good things!
~ We got a new 2013 Ford Escape
~We got to see two very good friends get married in July
~We got to get away for the weekend and see some of my Internet friends
This is just to name a few. I am so looking forward to the new year and growing closer to my family and friends.

This year I am not going to make my regular new years resolution.(You know loose weight and work out like everyday oh and have a baby....that is still on my list) I am doing it a little different this year. I am wanting to get healthier and I want to learn to say "NO" I mean I know how to say no but I want to practice it in my everyday life by taking time for me and not taking on so much. I also want to try to blog more I know I have said that before but it makes me feel good to blog and this year I am about loving life more. And taking it day buy day.

I hope all of you have a Happy New Year!!