Scrapbooking

The last time I have worked on Caleb's scrapbook was right before his birthday. I have almost a year's worth of memories that I need to print, organize, cut, decorate and put into a book. In less than 2 months! Ugh! I looked through the pictures that I need to print from the computer and I have about 22 pages (some being full spreads) that need to be completed. I have the majority of the supplies, it is the cost of the pictures and the time it takes to make them- without Caleb's help that is really going to hit me hard! We'll see when his second birthday come if I was able to accomplish this mountain of a task! Wish me luck!

Busy Time!

We have been so busy every weekend trying to get our house in order. After getting our new appliances we took down the gate to the kitchen. Caleb is doing well with his new freedom. We also took down the gate to the stairs. Caleb does a pretty good job on them so we felt comfortable giving him free reign. We just shut the door to the basement so he can't get in there. At least once a day he is downstairs by the door putting on our shoes! It is funny. The house is starting to look pretty put together now. We really need to work on the bedrooms next though.

It is also busy season for me at work. We are trying to get all of our summer programming planned, which means 14 weeks of lessons!! Right now the school I have my program in is planning on adding on to the building over the summer, so we will not be able to be in that building. So this summer instead of being 5 miles away in Slater my program will actually run in Huxley! It will be very nice. We are currently in meetings with the Parks and Rec summer camp to see if we can combine programs or how that will all work. It is a mess! Our program is something completely different than the park and rec's . They also have not ever had a successful summer of programming which will be even more of a challenge to try to combine since they don't know what their plan is! Frustrating!!!! I am very happy though, my supervisors have left a lot of the planning/decision making in my court. Which makes me feel good about my position and my abilities having their trust.

So, I may not blog for awhile. But, hopefully once things settle down a bit I will be back on. (watch me blog more than ever now!! that's how it usually works!) :)

Kitchen complete... for now

We installed the stove today! It is so pretty. Caleb now has free run of the kitchen. We added all the necessary drawer and door latches. Including one on the bottom drawer of the oven. We also put a sliding rack under our sink for our trash can.

Caleb likes to dance in front of he oven window and say hi to the "baby" in the oven. We caught him kissing himself in the oven already. He left a very nice smudge. The kitchen is actually starting to look really nice. Chris and I figured that hopefully next summer we will be able to remodel the rest of the kitchen! I can't wait. The worst part of our layout is that the stove is right next to the fridge. Which I am sure makes the fridge work harder than it needs to. WE also really need a counter on both sides of the stove. Otherwise the layout isn't terrible. We'll see what we come up with in the next year and a half.

Round TWO!

Here we are again in the middle of a screaming fit! Caleb had my large tub of cookie cutters and threw them into the kitchen, so I put them on the counter so he wouldn't break the tub. Ooooh. Bad idea. He ended up screaming for probably close to half an hour because he wanted the tub. Chris tried to distract him, we built block towers, threw balls, nothing!

I came into the bedroom to start this post and there was a block by the computer. I leaned back and threw it into the hall hoping to get Caleb's attention. (He was siting at his usual spot at the end of the counter in the kitchen.) He got up and started walking toward the bedroom! He picked up the block! And chucked it back in the room. (stinker)

I finally was able to distract him with his movie! get that! So he is sitting on my bed watching his movie sobbing intermittently.

At 11:16 I gave in. He watched his video for about 10 minutes, I put him in his high chair (facing he tv) he ate, I slowly moved his high chair away from the viewing area. He finished eating and he went to bed. An hour later than he normally does. I should have just turned it back on right away, we would have been on schedule then! OMG!

Movies

While Chris was in Hawaii I introduced Caleb to some videos I had bought at Wal-Mart in their $1 bin. They are called Curious Buddies and they are made by Nick JR, Baby. Caleb loves them. I have 2 of these videos and he wants to watch them continuously. I have tried other varieties of videos and they are a no go. The reason I am writing this post is for the past 38 minutes Caleb has been screaming because he wants to watch a video, again. The first video just got over, he needs to eat lunch and go to bed, but instead he just wants to scream and cry for a video. AAARGH! Why did I even start showing him those things!

It has gone so long now I am afraid if I give in he will know that if he cries he will get what he wants... I don't know. I am going to attempt putting him in his high chair again! Wish me luck!

(41 minutes and still going!)

New Dishwasher!

Yesterday we spent all day looking for new appliances. We went to Menards and Home Depot first in Ankeny, where they had nothing. I asked the guy at Home Depot if they sold any ovens that locked, without turning on the self cleaner. He said that option does not exist. When I mentioned that I believe it does, he got really "Manly" and asked who told me that, looking at me like I was some stupid woman who doesn't have a clue. So we left and went to Sears. We started to look around when "Steve" asked if he could help us find anything.. he brought us to the stoves, that were in our price range that had some of the features we were looking for. Including- get this, a lockable oven door! yes, that is right, an oven door that locks without the self cleaning turning on! Can you believe it?? Anyway, the stove itself isn't extravagant, just a plain black gas stove, but the bestest part is that along with the lockable oven, the cooktop controls also "lock"! They can still be turned, but the gas and igniter won't work! How flippin' awesome is that??? Which means, no fun little child proof covers to deal with! Anyway, we also told Steve we were looking for an affordable dishwasher. I mentioned that I would love to have the Stainless Steel inside and it has to be black. He brought us over to a dishwasher that was $900! originally, but on sale for $630. We bought it! The oven cost $600 and since we bought 2 appliances we got 15% off of them. Which got us the dishwasher for $400. So, we couldn't have found a better deal for what we got, even if I chose a cheaper dishwasher.

Chris installed the dishwasher last night. It is going to take some time to get used to loading a different dishwasher, but I think I can handle it! We get our stove next weekend. I can't wait to not have to climb over that stupid netting anymore!

Well, it sounds as if I hear trouble waking up in the other room...

Locked Away

The other day Chris was boiling potatoes and the pan overflowed a little. Well, everytime a pan over flows on our stove it's not good. The first time it made the stove tick like it was trying to light a burner for 12 hours! This last time it blew the breaker! So we got it dried, reset the breaker and all was fine... so we thought. A couple nights ago I was trying to turn on one of the back burners that I rarely use and the handle popped, flashed, smoked and scared the pee out of me. It blew the breaker again, so Chris went downstairs to reset it. It instantly popped, flashed and smoked again. Finally Chris came upstairs to look at it and sent me to flip the switch. Well, to make an already long story short Chris had to disconnect the ignitor to that burner so our house wouldnt burn down! Meaning.... I finally get a new stove!!! YAY! That will mean so much for my kitchen! I will get to take down the hideously huge "gate" to my kitchen and I might get a new dishwasher too!!! I can't wait.

On to my Saturday... This morning I actually woke up before Caleb! It was kind of nice to be able to shower, shave, do my hair, and even paint my toenails uninterupted! After the boys were up and ready we ran to Ames to look at stoves. We found one at Lowe's that was pretty nice. Of course Chris vetoed my first choice, a stainless steel dual fuel $1500 stove... whatever... So I had my eye on a Black Fridgidaire for $550. We have come to the realization that stainless steel will probably not work for us. It will be too difficult to match our fridge and black appliances cost less! After going to a couple stores looking at stoves we went to Target and looked at toys for Caleb. He was so cranky at this time since he normally has already eaten and started his nap on a normal day. So as we are trying to check out and finish making some returns he is screaming, wanting to run and driving us close to the edge.

We went home and let Caleb nap for awhile before my parents came. After Caleb slept for about 1-1/2hours we went back into Ames and went to eat at West Towne Pub with my parents. It was pretty good. Finally somewhere different to eat! We went to Sam's Club, where it was a day care reunion for Caleb. A family that attends Caleb's day care and my program was there and the owner of the day care! It was pretty funny.

Well, to explain the title of this post, I am currently locked away in my bedroom, shunned from the living room by the guys (noisily) watching the UFC fights. This normally happens once a month and is sometimes okay, but most of the time a pain. Caleb and I are normally not "wanted" in the living room. So I am trying to fill my time in the bedroom by not cleaning or doing laundry!