Merry Christmas... a little late!

I can't help but say I'm glad it's all over. After being in the kitchen literally for 3 days baking, mixing, and whatever else, I'm pooped. We're starting to take down the decorations, tree comes down in the morning I think, and Loyd is taking all of the wreaths and lights down outside tomorrow since it shouldn't be too cold. I know Kaitlyn is going to miss our tree being there though, but we can't keep it up forever. I told her Valentine's Day is next and we will have an excuse to make cookies again with lots of sprinkles for Daddy, only this time they will be heart shaped.
I think having a child makes Christmas even better, more magical. Just to see the look on her face when she sees the tree light up, or when she is watching Rudolph for the 5th time that week- she just loves and appreciates it all. That's something she could teach us all to do. To appreciate the little things.

busy week ahead!

What a busy time of year! We just recovered from Kaitlyn's birthday party, now we're on to Christmas, already. How did it come up on us so quickly? There's so much to do, how I will get everything done in time, I do not know, but I always manage somehow. I'll probably start baking Wednesday morning, with the exception of fudge, it will be made probably Tuesday night. I'm making peanut butter kiss cookies, cranberry bread, monkey munch, white chocolate covered pretzels, of course sugar cookies, and no telling what other sweets. I always end up making more than I should. This year I get to have Kaitlyn as my helper with sprinkles and decorating sugar cookies. Hopefully she won't just eat them all.
We still have lots of gifts to wrap, and hope to get that all finished soon. I don't know what Kaitlyn will think when she comes downstairs Christmas morning. AND, I can't wait for my Mom to see her again, since she hasn't seen her since summer right after we got back from Destin. She's so much bigger and doing much more.
Off to work on my grocery list for the week + Christmas Day!

Monday thoughts

What a busy weekend! The party on Saturday went well. I think Kaitlyn had the most fun running around playing with JC. She got way too many gifts from everyone, and can't seem to decide on any one favorite thing, she just goes back and forth playing with them all. She loves the young at art
thing and keeps saying draw circles, while she draws little crooked circles all over it.
Yesterday we went out to Opry Mills to walk around a little, eat at the Rainforest Cafe, and went over to the Opryland Hotel to look at the Christmas decorations. Her favorite thing was the fish at the restaurant, she kept waving, saying Dory, since they had lots of those and Nemos too! I think she had fun.
Now, on to Christmas. With less than two weeks to go, we have to get everything wrapped, while keeping it hidden, and get ready for company!

almost 2

So the big birthday is on Sunday, but we are having a small party on Saturday, then we will do something fun Sunday also. I can't believe my itty bitty baby girl has grown up into this little girl, who is already so smart. She can count to 10 and knows most of the basic colors already. I'm wishing that this year won't go by as fast as the first 2 have, though I know it will. I just have to remember to stop and enjoy it all, especially if she may be our only child.
more to come later............

dreams....

It's funny how your mind works. How some dreams stay with you, and some are forgotten. I had a dream last night, which served as a reminder that my little girl is not a baby anymore. A dream so real, it was as though last night was December 13, 2006. I was at the hospital, calling Loyd to tell him they were going to admit and induce my labor. Nothing was changed in my dream from how it happened, I remember everthing like it happened yesterday.
So bittersweet.

Thankful thoughts...

I meant to write about this last week, but have been so busy and got sidetracked (shocker) In all the rush to get the perfect this or that I think a lot of people forget about what truly matters. I like to stop and think about the things I am truly thankful for. I appreciate so many things and people in my life, but the one thing I am so lucky to have is my little family. My husband who appreciates all I do each day and loves me, my daughter who so easily tests my limits, yet still calls me a princess. They make me smile. Every single day. And I am so lucky to have them, I hope they know this.

Saturday thoughts.....

You often don't realize or even think about how things can be changed in an instant. Anything can happen at any time to change it all. A simple trip to the doctor can cause some to rethink things they have done, or didn't do, should have, or never should have. It's so easy to say I should have done this or that. But the hardest thing ever is to actually do it. I'm not sure why, but it always seems to be that way.

been thinking of ideas for Christmas..

If you're anything like I am, you start your Christmas shopping early, really early. I hate dealing with the crowds, the parking lots, the people who always want to take an hour looking at the one thing I am trying to maneuver my cart over to. I like to just get it over with and have one less thing to think about. Kaitlyn is so easy to buy for, a little too easy if you ask me. She's just so easy to please and likes just about anything you put in front of her, so I better enjoy that while it lasts, since before long she will be saying everything is not cool enough or cute enough or expensive enough.
It's a little hard with her birthday being so close to Christmas, but we just seem to make it work. I still can't believe she is almost 2! It seems like a million years ago we were at the hospital in awe looking at this gorgeous itty bitty baby girl.

*sigh*

Ebay selling limits?

This is the first I've seen this message, but Ebay will not allow me to list anything with the words Baby Gap or Liz Claiborne in the title. It says to wait 30 days before listing those items. What? So I emailed ebay with no response of course, even thought they say the respond to powersellers emails in 24 hours, yeah right. I clicked the live help to ask and they said I could have my accoutn reviewed and possibly have the limit raised. Oh how nice of them to allow me to sell on their website. It's not like I'm one of those people selling a million fake coach bags a week, come on! That just really bothers me.


**Update** lol It seems I am worthy of unlimited selling again, for the moment, according to Ebay. Yipee!

Haven't blogged in a while

We've been busy! It seems with Nissan cutting back their hours, that means Daddy is home more and I get less work done, odd huh? lol So I'm getting into listing my Halloween and Christmas clothes, as well as long sleeves and pants. I have so many jeans to list that I have been buying all summer, I have to get them all in order so I know which pictures go to which jeans. Sales have been pretty consistent, and I'm thankful for that, hopefully they will continue to stay that way. Keeps me busy, that's for sure.
Kaitlyn is 21 months old now, as of yesterday. It's so hard to believe, every day I look at her and can't believe it. What a bittersweet thing to see your baby grow up so fast. We're thinking of changing over her crib to a big girl bed, but we're not going to rush into anything just yet. Ah well I'm off to peek at her while she is still napping...

gloomy day at the park

We finally got a break in the rain and it had cooled off a bit, so we went to the park to swing and go slide or as Kaitlyn calls it- wheeee!

Ebay makes more changes against sellers

http://finance.comcast.net/www/news.html?x=http://www.origin.comcast.akadns.net/data/news/2008/08/20/1038981.xml

It just keeps getting more and more interesting. Too bad Ebay isn't what it used to be when I started selling a couple of years ago.

are Ebay sales down, oh and bows!

A few people I have talked to have mentioned that their Ebay sales have gone down a bit over the last few months. Personally, mine went down in July, and made me lose my Powerseller status, but August is doing great, and at this rate I will be a powerseller again when they do their next review. My only advice is to keep at it, keep listing things. There are lots of buyers, and right now mine seem to be thinking back to school and winter clothes is what they want. I need to get out the Halloween costumes and list them, I've just been so terribly busy that I don't seem to have time for anything other than the usual day to day stuff. It's getting hader and harder to get anything done, since lately it seems Miss Kaitlyn wants to take shorter naps. That leaves me with a limited amount of time to do everything, so most of it spills over into the next day. *sigh* If only I had more arms.
My bowmaking has been busy, I have had order after order, and my website isn't even up yet. It is up but there's nothing there yet...again no time...
As for Kaitlyn, she's quite a little sweetie, giving kisses and hugs all the time. She loves to talk too, wonder where she got that from? I can't believe she will soon be 2!

long time no blog...

I haven't written anything in a while, I guess I've just been so busy, it's hard to make time to sit and blog when you have a million things you need to do. I still have a million things I need to do, but not as urgently I guess.

I've finally purchased my domain name, and signed up with wahmshoppes.com to get started. I'm just waiting to hear back from them on what to do next, which I have heard takes a few days. I'm excited, though a little overwhelmed I guess, since I'm such a planner, I'm already thinking of Kaitlyn's birthday December 14th and Christmas. She's getting so grown up and it's so bittersweet for me. I wanted her here so badly, now what does she do, but go and grow up on me!

And Ebay, wow it's been a busy week on ebay, lots of sales, lots of watchers, and lots of things relisting. It's definately a good time for sales of clothing! I'm thinking of getting Halloween costumes out soon too for listing.

the name says it all, or so they say

So why is it so difficult for me to come up with a name for my website? I thought I had the perfect name, but now I have second thoughts. Maybe I'll just go with what I thought of already. lol
The weekend went by in a whirlwind, as usual. I made a couple of stops getting some things for a bow order I'm working on, and found some neat little Christmas ribbon. Which by the way, I can't believe they already have Christmas stuff out at Michaels! That just tells me I need to get my butt in gear and get website up and running so I can maybe get some Halloween orders in. Though I have a huge overflowing laundry basket full of things I have taken pictures of to list on ebay. aaah
Kaitlyn is becoming quite the little diva- she loves jewelry or anything she can "make " into jewelry, like the roll of masking tape that she thinks is a bracelet. I'm thinking of making her a necklace for part of her birthday gifts, I just need to find something strong or magnets so if she pulls it, it won't break. Aah add it to the to do list. She insists on feeding herself with her fork and if you try to feed her a bite, she says "I do it" in her most serious voice. lol When did she get so big?

interesting site

Visit Wish Upon a Hero

I'm intrigued with this site, what people are wishing for, and what others are giving. I just signed up, and am in the process of granting a few simple wishes, just waiting for their addresses. One was for some baby girls clothes, and Kaitlyn has plenty from last winter, I should be able to make up a nice box full. Another had a wish for hairbows, so of course I can easily fulfill that one. I guess I am amazed at the generosity of some people. I can't think of anything I could possibly wish for, unless someone could make the economy turn around and get gas prices down.

tank ooo & the search for Hello Kitty

"tank ooo" is what I hear now when I give Kaitlyn something, hand her a toy or her sippy. How sweet is that? She's becoming quite the climber and thinks it's so fun to just climb up on the couch and sit there clapping at her own success. Her favorite things right now are anything Little People and Hello Kitty. I remember when I was little, it was a treat to go to the Sanrio store and look at all the goodies they had. We were going to take her to the one Sanrio store I knew of, but it closed recently, so there are none close now. It's kinda sad, I was looking forwad to showing her all the neat stuff they have, the little Japanese candies you can't find anywhere else, all the Hello Kitty everything. *sigh* I guess I can search online for some things, it's just not the same.

My reason for working from home

How do you manage to work from home?

Lots of times I hear people saying they want to be home with their children, but cannot afford to do so. I'm always asked how I do it, how do I save money and stay on a budget.
For me, working is not really an option, sad but true. I'd love to be able to get a job, but with the average cost of childcare for my daughter being $185 a week, it would be foolish of me to get a job only to have to pay that as well as more $$ for gas each week. We decided the smartest thing would be to stay home and work. I won't lie though, it's hard to juggle an 18 month old, meals, cleaning, playing, and work. Some days I feel like I have accomplished nothing. I try to stay on somewhat of a schedule though, so that helps.
As for our budget, I cook most meals- we only eat out maybe once a week, hubby takes his lunch to work every day- I always cook enough to have leftovers for him. I use tons of coupons- and they really do help, some people think they are a waste, but they save us lots each week. I usually spend no more than $65 a week for all groceries, tolietries, cleaning supplies, paper supplies, diapers, wipes, etc. My Murano gets about $25 in gas a week, which is mostly used on the weekend, hubby only uses about $20 a week in gas- luckily we live close to his job.
I would love to hear ideas of what others do to save money. I'm always open to new things, anything to save a buck!

WAHM article

I wanted to share this article from Nina at www.Bizymoms.com :
It's so true, especially with how the economy is right now, and gas prices. There are too many options and resources for those of us who want to work from home, all you have to do is look for them.

Moms and work at home jobs – the perfect fit
From the past, the role of the woman in society has been centered with the household chores. A mother is expected to take the upper hand looking after the children while contributing to the betterment of the family. The rat race in which human beings are involved these days suggests, she cannot only assume the natural duties of the mother such as looking afterher children, but also should contribute financially in order to fuel the two income family model. Failure to do so may tighten up the economy of the family and might mean they have to live with hardships. However, performing this dual role, over-burdened with work, seems to take the spice of the lives of modern day moms.So why not consider the alternative of working at home? May be moms and work at home jobs can make the perfect fit. Let’s examine why.Consider the typical case of a mother who gave birth to a child recently and has to go back to work. As moms we have to face the emotional challenge that goes with such a decision. You may have had a successful career but can you sacrifice the quality time you can spend with your child for that. As a mother your heart is against it. However the figures should also add up at the end of the month. Further if you are over-burdened with loans, you may have no other option. But isn’t there any other way?Then think about another case, a full time stay at home mom with relatively older children. She has ample free-time which she can utilize to earn something to ease the pressure of her spouse. At least this will allow her some degree of independence being not entirely dependent on her husband. Further this may allow her to get rid of the routine chores ofher day and engage in something she likes, sometimes as a pastime such as writing, and still get paid for it. However wouldn’t it add more value and flexibility if she’s enabled to do that at home? On the other hand job security is a thing of past today with thousands of layoffs and downsizing programs being exercised on a daily basis. The statistics will show you, women are the worst hit category. So any income generating activity you can engage at home is highly valued in today’s context. Many people ask this question. May be you also have already thought about it. The question is “can you earn the same amount staying at home?” The answer is two fold. It is yes and no. While we agree on the possibility of getting similar financial rewards, we should also acknowledge the fact that it is not achievable overnight. In other words you’ll not get the same income from the very fist day you start working at home. May be you will get very limited income as you start up. But believe that it’ll gradually increase.We are sure now you have understood why women and work at home jobs makes the perfect fit. BioBizymoms.com has been helping moms work from home for over 10 years. Visit today to enjoy free resources including live chats, interactive message boards, informative articles, and of course, the best home based business ideas on the Internet! Bizymoms also offers complete home business packages that get your business started right away!

baby bunnies & dr appointment

So, we now have a family of 3 baby bunnies in our backyard. Which is fine, although a little bit of a hassle when hubby cuts the grass. I'm not sure why they want to stay back there, if they only knew Kaitlyn, they would run, or hop while they could. She loves animals though, just wants to grab and touch everything, no matter what it is. I guess she took after her Mama on that one. I've always been the same way, and see myself when I catch her playing in the mulch.
I'm a little unmotivated today since we had to change up our schedule a bit to take K to her 18 month appointment. Although I'm not sure why they schedule appointments because I always have to wait at least 45 minutes before being called back to wait in the little room for longer. They said she's doing great, still tall and skinny, and really mature? They mentioned getting a potty for her, but I don't know, it seems to be rushing things a bit. Not that I would be mad to not have to buy diapers anymore, but I guess the thought of my baby growing up that much, wow. But, I actually did get some work done during naptime, as well as 2 loads of laundry. I decided that tomorrow I would do more, and that we would fill up the little baby pool in the backyard to go out there and play, and cool off.

A forgotten place for bargains

I never think to go to Marshalls, I'm not sure why, maybe because it's out of the way. I'm glad I went this week though- I'll be going again maybe this upcoming weekend! They are having great clearance deals right now on winter clothing. I managed to get a sweater for myself for $3, some Little Me sleepers for $1, and Limited Too pants for $3. Oh, and can't forget the item I got to start my Christmas shopping for this year. The only thing is they seem to be so unorganized, but worth digging through the stuff. I guess I need to add Marshalls back to my list of places to hit for bargains.

"you've got it made"

That's what I seem to hear all the time. People, I guess, have this picture in their head of a work at home mom sitting there at their computer with a smiling baby on their lap, but I must say, it's very hard. I applaud Moms who do it with more than one child. Some days it is impossible to get any work done, I consider myself doing good if I get an hour during naptime to get things done. Maybe I'm not organized enough, or it might be easier if K had someone to play with for a few minutes here and there. But, all in all, each day I feel accomplished if I got a few things done, a clean house, and a happy baby.

love the flowers

vacation tidbits

What a nice drive it was, so much shorter than going to Daytona. Kaitlyn did great, she only started to get a little bored when we had about an hour to go, but the Elmo dvd saved us there. At each rest stop, she was so excited to walk everywhere to point out each flower to us.
She loves water, we were at the pool every single day- there was no rain until the night before we were leaving, so we had the most perfect weather for her to have the most fun. When we weren't at the pool she was busy standing at the balcony sliding glass door, keeping an eye on the water, letting us know it was still there.
The beach was okay, I've always heard such great things about Destin's beaches, so I guess when I got there I was a bit disappointed. It seems the created a sand wall to stop the waves from coming up, leaving no place for Kaitlyn or any other toddlers to sit in the sand and have the water come up to them. I'm not sure why they did that, but she was content with her bucket of sand, bucket of water, and shovels. There was also lots of traffic, and not many traffic lights, which made it a pain to get around places when you have to do u-turns and wait forever to be able to go. We did have a fun time at the Gulfarium though. Kaitlyn loved it, clapping and laughing. She was intrigued by the dolphins, just like Mommy. Seeing that brought tears to my eyes.
Now we're back home, somewhat settled in, all unpacked, and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. Kaitlyn has I think 3 molars coming and her gums are swollen, making her miserable. Poor baby, I hope they cut through soon!

aaah vacation...sorta.

So, we leave on Saturday for our long awaited vacation, you know, the one we have saved all year for, since we got back from last year's Daytona trip. It seems to be so much work. Just the packing, don't forget this or that, must have books and Little People in the car, as well as dvds, maybe Bee Movie & Madagascar? Hopefully we will make it there okay, without getting lost. Mapquest is not the most reliable, but since we are going someplace we've never been, we have no choice.

I'm going to make an effort to get some work done next week, I've already uploaded a ton of pics, and am working on measurements and descriptions so I can list without the actual things in my hand. This week I've been spending naptimes getting things together to pack and well, doing nothing. Pretty boring, I'm so used to doing a milliona dn one things in that precious one hour time.

I hope Kaitlyn likes the ocean. Last year she hated it, didn't like the sound, didn't like the sand, nothing about it. So we ended up at the pool most of the time. But she's grown up a lot since then, we are hoping that she will be into it this year- maybe we can use of some of these sand toys and bury Daddy, he would LOVE that!

What to do?

I've been forced to take a break since vacation is getting near, and I cannot have any auctions ending too close to when I will be out of town, since buyers do not read those types of things, and will assume I've stolen their money and kept their *insert item here* So, anyway, it's naptime, and I have nothing do with myself.... I'm just enjoying the silence and the rain hitting the windows outside. nice. Won't last too long though, I can hear Kaitlyn upstairs in her bed moving around, all over the place.
I've decided I will be taking my laptop and working a little while on vacation, at least putting on a few things so that I have items ending by the time I get back home, to keep the money coming, in a way.
I'm not sure what think about this earlier vacation. We usually go the first week of July, but Nissan has moved one week of shutdown to May, so we will see how it works out. I know I need a vacation!! Actually I need a nap. Miss Kaitlyn is waking up now, and will be starving for lunch, of course, so duty calls.

kitty kitty

Ebay ramblings...

So, here lately, I've been drawn to all the cute little skirts to buy, to resell. I love all the colorful patterns- the brighter, the better. It seems there are lots of them to be found at the places I shop, so I have probably 10 or so I need to iron and take pictures of. I've been finding a lot of Ann Taylor and Abercrombie, both good sellers, so I'm happy.
I think my best find lately has been the Wilton 3D pooh cake pan, though it still has until Monday, it's already done well over what I had expected. I'm always learning though, reading and researching, trying to figure out what sells better. I always wonder, what do people buy on Ebay? But really, in my experience, they buy anything you could imagine. So, what do I buy on Ebay? I tend to look for hard to find things, like adjustable waist jeans and shorts for my skinny tall baby, coupons- yes! coupons, and poly mailers for the stuff I sell. I guess I am officially addicted, ah well It could be worse...

collision!

Since when does a coffee table become dangerous? When you have a toddler it is! The lovely table I picked out because I loved the way it looked, the pretty wood color, shape of it, the drawers underneath, now I have started to hate it with a passion. I always worry Kaitlyn will fall and hit her head on the edge of it, but today she managed to fall and her chin hit it. I'm not sure if she bit her tongue or what, but her mouth was bleeding a little, making me worry that much more. Her teeth and mouth all looks okay now though, so hopefully no damage was done. Wobbly toddler mode is scary! Especially when she insists on being independent. She wants to do everything herself! aah my baby girl.......

Free downloads of licensed software

This is a great site, the only thing is I sometimes forget to check it, the free software changes each day! Called Giveaway of the Day:

http://www.bzzagent.com//p/5226041803/kaitlynsmommy1

the wrath of Ralph Lauren!

I've heard of this happening with Ebay, you list what they consider to be too much of a certain brand name or type of item, they put a temporary hold on your account which brings up a lovely message when you try to list. Well, now it has happened to me. *sigh* Here I was on a listing spree, and I didn't think I had listed that many Ralph Lauren things this week, off the top of my head, I can only think of about 4-5? So now I'm waiting for the email that says I'm no longer on lockdown.... Who knew? And just when it's naptime and I'm doing good.
Aaah well.. at least the weekend is near, and it's sunny and nice. Maybe we can go play outside after lunch, I had thought of eating lunch outside, but there's no way my Kaitlyn would eat more than two bites if she had to deal with the distraction of being outside too, which she loves. There would be more food on the grass and deck than anything else, then I would have another thing to clean. Maybe I can snap a picture or two of my tulips, before they are gone.

Just another manic Monday...

So we did our usual Monday routine, although my thrift store shopping was cut a little short since naptime was fast approaching, and Cheerios were running out. I did manage to find a few great items, several new with tags actually. I always wonder though, what do people think, I see them looking, eyeballing my cart of neatly folded, and stacked clothes of all sizes. I wonder if they think I have a buying problem, some sort of addiction? But then, when I see someone there with a ton of stuff I think uh-huh, they are going to sell that stuff. I need to start taking my camera with me, although I don't quite know what people would think if they saw me taking a picture, I do see some hilarious and strange things, I find myself thinking, hey I used to have one of those, was that mine? Another thought is why would someone donate that? You must know, some things are not even worthy of donating, or at least I would think so. If you have removed the arms and legs from your Barbie, as well as cut her hair off, shouldn't that be considered trash? Will someone actually pay money for that? If it says free sample in bold letters across the front, but has a .49 price tag on it, what about that? Don't get me wrong, I love thrift store shopping, and I guess you could say it is my job now, but some things are just odd that you see in there.
I guess I better get downstairs and get lunch going before Miss Kaitlyn wakes up from her nap. More to come later.

added to facebook test...

Just checking to be sure I did the feed right....

Early morning thoughts

Okay, so it's not so early morning, but if you are a Mom, you know that most days you are tired, even after sleeping all night. lol Pinky Dinky Doo is on and my hyper girl has already managed to make the living room look as though a small toy store exploded in here. I'm contemplating breakfast as well as what to do today. We really need to get out and hit a thrift store to see if we can find anything- we didn't do our usual Monday Goodwill trip, since she wasn't feeling well, and I didn't want to put her through that.
She loves looking out the windows- I wish I could know what's going through her little head when she is sitting there, staring out into the yard. To me, there's really nothing to look at out there, just grass, the occasional bird, a tree. What do her bright eyes see that I don't? Must be something there that I'm too busy to notice or appreciate.
On another note, I'd love to hear from other wahms, about what you do, and how you juggle kids and work. It's hard, harder than I though, and the bigger Kaitlyn gets, the harder it is. It was so simple when she would sleep most of the day, now I'm rushing to cram it all into nap time and here and there when I get the chance to get on the laptop, like now, while she's happily eating.
Off to clean up syrup from the highchair!