If you wake up any time after 6 or 6:30 on a walking day with Marlene, do not, I repeat, DO NOT go back to sleep. Otherwise, you will wake up at 8:30 and have to leap out of bed and into your clothes, drag your not so easy to wake up 3 year old (although she actually did pretty well this morning all things considered) out of bed and into her clothes as well (and she will probably “leak” while you’re trying to change her pull-up causing you to pick her up - bare bottom and all - and run to the bathroom to put her on the potty chair while you get her socks and shoes and throw them at her father because you still have to get your socks and shoes on), because you know your friend will be there any minute (but thankfully she had stopped to talk for a few minutes when she dropped her kids off at school because she must have had a premonition or she knows you really well or both). And neither you nor LG will get breakfast until you come back. Which is not totally bad because it means that you hopefully burned only fat calories. But still.

So yesterday I just sort of recharged all day. Watched a movie or two with LG. Tried to start catching up in computer land (will my inbox ever be empty again?). Rested. Things like that. I’m still not caught up. And I’m still not totally recharged. So, other than a paragraph or two for the purpose of keeping up as much as I can with the Holidailies, I’m going to still be pretty absent from blogland for the next few days. Call it my Winter Break. Tomorrow Surfer Sunday will post as usual, but don’t expect too much other than that. But no worries. I’ll be back.

Two more days of NaBloPoMo. I can totally do this. Yes I can!

So today I went to the grocery store to get all the food and stuff for the party on Saturday. Then I stopped at Hallmark because I realized that I had forgotten to get my child a birthday card. I suck. And also because I had forgotten to get her a Christmas ornament (a traditional birthday gift in our house). And also I needed to get my father a birthday card since he’ll be here on Saturday and his birthday is the 7th. And that saves me a stamp.

And then I came home, dumped off the groceries and headed to Michael’s to get some frosting coloring for the Mickey Mouse cake. Marlene, bless her, had black and dropped it off while I was gone. I just had to get the skin tone. Why does Mickey Mouse have skin tone??? No idea. But he does. Go ahead and look if you don’t believe me.

Now we are cleaning. And cleaning. And cleaning. I. hate. cleaning. Which is why we have so much work to do. Did I mention Mike is home today? He is totally home today and is not going. anywhere. I forbid it! ;)

And throughout all of that, I’m tracking Rochelle’s boyfriend’s flight from Japan to Phoenix because she is at school with no computer and it makes her feel better when I text her updates. What is scary is that I know his itinerary better than she does. I’m not at all sure I’m okay with that…lol!

And, also I’m waiting for my package to arrive from FedEx. More on that later. Or tomorrow. Whenever I get the chance to use it. Because it’s so! cool! Or at least I hope it is.

Anyway, nothing exciting going on in these here parts, but I have to post, so you get this. Lucky you.

Having a child with a December birthday is tough, I’m telling you. For one thing, most of her presents for the year all come in one month. For another, I don’t feel right about doing much decorating for Christmas before her birthday because I don’t want her birthday to be overshadowed. And besides all of that, I have way too many things on my mind in December.

So, my mind is going a million miles an hour with trying to get ready for her birthday party, trying to get ready for Generations, trying to get ready for company, and of course you can’t help but have Christmas thoughts going through your head of everything you need to get done, even if you are putting it off until after the birthday is over.

I’m exhausted and December hasn’t even begun yet.

I spent the day getting all of our income tax information together - or at least the part I’m responsible for. Yes, I know it’s July. We filed an extension and now we can’t put it off anymore. It was not really the way I wanted to spend my day, but there you go.

Other than that, there is not much going on around here. Yesterday was not only the hottest day of the year (118 was the official high, but it reached 120 in some parts of the Valley), it was the hottest day in a DECADE.

It’s almost midnight and it’s still 100 degrees. Ugh. Just ugh. All I can say is thank God for air conditioning.

Next time Mike complains about the clutter in the house, point to the garage and remind him that all 1100 square feet of that clutter belongs to him. And not all of the clutter in the house belongs to me. And that when the garage is uncluttered and clean, so will the house be. The end.

I wear glasses. I have an astigmatism and I am near-sighted. Oddly enough, when I went to get my eyes tested a few months ago, the eye doctor said my eyes had actually improved and that could be a result of pregnancy. The astigmatism had changed and he said that with all the changes in the body during pregnancy it’s not surprising that it could have happened. Hey, if I got a positive change in my body from pregnancy, I’m all for it.

I also wear glasses because I often get ocular migraines from bright lights. I wear my sunglasses outside and when driving during the day and I wear my regular glasses when I’m going to be exposed to really bright lights, like the lights we use for our monthly music gig at church. The anti-glare lenses help keep the bright light from adversely affecting my eyes and causing the ocular migraine.

Sunday we had our monthly church gig and I used my glasses. I usually take them off when I do my solos so they don’t mess up my field of vision when reading my lyrics. So I took them on and off throughout the afternoon. Then we did evening mass a few hours later and I usually do the same thing during mass - take them off for solos or during the sign of peace when I’m hugging people. I remember taking the glasses on and off and leaving them on my music stand at various times throughout the mass.

Then Mike and I went straight to a movie after mass. But when I reached into my purse to get my glasses so I could see the screen more sharply, they were nowhere to be found. I figured I must have left them at church and I’d get them Monday night when we did the 2nd part of our monthly music gig.

Monday night rolled around and as soon as I got there, I started looking for my glasses. I looked everywhere. Ev-er-y-where. No glasses. I went to the church office to check the lost and found. No glasses. I looked in the music folders in the car to see if they’d gotten shoved in with them the night before. I looked in the back of my car to see if they’d fallen out. I looked all over the music area some more. No glasses. Other people looked and still no glasses. So I figured somehow someway I’d lost them and I’d have to get new glasses. At least it wasn’t my prescription sunglasses so I still had those for when I was driving in the bright summer Arizona sun.

This morning Little Girl was doing something so adorable (pointing to her baby doll’s eyes and saying “eye” and then pointing to other body parts as I asked her to) that I had to call Mike on the phone to tell him about it. I dialed the phone and leaned on the kitchen island as I was telling him her latest feat. And just take a wild guess what I saw on the island? Yep. My glasses. How they got there I’m not sure, but there are two possibilities. The first possibility is that I’m losing it and I didn’t actually have them at mass and that I brought them home after the Sunday music gig and left them there (but I really remember having them at mass Sunday night - vividly - and picking them up as I was walking out of the choir area and besides, I didn’t see them on the island at any point before this morning). The second possibility is that they somehow magically transported themselves from church to my house.

I’m not sure if either possibility is good news. The only good news in this situation is that I don’t have to go pay for new glasses. I think my mom is messing with me from the great beyond. Either that, or I’m getting senile. Personally, I vote for my mom messing with me. Yep. That’s what I’m going with. Door number one.

I suck. For some reason unknown to anyone (including myself), I had Mr. Syndromes birthday written down on June 13. But his birthday is not June 13. It’s June 12. Which means I screwed up. Because I meant to put up a post here that said go tell him happy birthday! On his birthday. But I didn’t. Because I suck. *sigh* So, instead you’ll have to tell him happy belated birthday. But do tell him. Because he’s a good guy and I’m lucky to call him my friend. :)

Kohl’s was having a big sale so I decided to go today…

First trip out the door, I had to turn around right after we walked out the door to make sure that I had my car and house keys in my purse. I did.

Second trip out the door, I had to turn around and go back in to check and see if I closed the door to Little Girl’s room so that Melody wouldn’t wreak havoc in there while we were gone. I had.

Third trip out the door, I had her almost in her car seat when I got a whiff of something not so pleasant. Back into the house to change a poopy diaper that would have been a blowout had I left it much longer. I should have checked before we left.

Fourth trip out the door, we actually managed to get in the car and go. Imagine that. I was almost too tired to go by that time, but we did. And got some cool stuff! Yay for shopping!

Ash Wednesday is one of those Catholic holidays where everyone shows up so there have to be a zillion masses that day. Our church schedules 6:30 & 8:30 am, 12:00, 5:00 & 7:00 pm. Mike is responsible for the 8:30 and the 5:00. So he corraled me into doing the 8:30 and Marlene into doing the 5:00 along with whoever else decides to show up (Rochelle for instance…lol).

Now the fun thing about mornings is that since my hubby is a musician, our days do not start until 8 or 9 in the morning. But on those mornings when we have to do mass for some reason, we have to get up at 7. Ish. Last week, Melody woke me up at 7:30 EVERY MORNING without fail. This week it’s been 8 if she even wakes me up at ALL. Today? Went something like this:

Karin wakes up from a very strange and vivid dream.
Karin stretches.
Karin tries to remember what day it is.
Karin thinks we might have church today.
Is today Sunday? Hmm…well no biggie church is at 6.
Oh wait, it’s not Sunday. What day is it?
Oh yeah, Ash Wednesday. Oh okay. Hmm…what time is it?
Karin squints at the clock and then rubs her eyes.
Seven thirty. Okay.
Karin closes her eyes.
Karin’s eyes fly open.
SEVEN THIRTY? OH CRAP.
Karin groans and forces herself to get out of bed.
Karin lets Melody out of her crate and tells her to go wake up Mike.
(Mike is sleeping on the couch so that his snoring doesn’t keep Karin awake and Karin’s hitting him doesn’t keep him awake…it’s best for all concerned…lol!)
Karin goes to the bathroom carrying her laptop because priorities you know.
Karin hears Mike stirring and using the restroom.
Karin gets Little Girl up and feeds her breakfast.
The rest of the story is that a flurry of activity happened between that time and about 8:20 when we finally left for church which is luckily about a quarter of a mile down the street. We walked in at 8:23, handed the baby to a friend, and did mass with NO REHEARSAL. (Usually Mike and I rehearse the night before but he got called on a last-minute gig so we didn’t have a chance.) I hate doing mass with absolutely no rehearsal. Or warmup. Yeah, pretty. But it went okay. I screwed up here and there, but oh well. Nothing major.

We came home, Mike went to work, Little Girl is napping, I’m catching up on the internet and eating my favorite lenten lunch of tuna with mayo on Triscuits. (Try it, it’s yummy!) Tonight we have fish.

And I’m on a sugar sacrifice for 40 days. Will I make it? Stay tuned…

It has been a crazy week around the HeartSongs household. As such, my precious schedule is in ruins and I totally forgot to put up a topic for Flashback Friday this week, so it will (hopefully) return next week along with my normal household schedule. Not that I’m complaining - some cool things happened this week, but let’s just say I’m glad it’s not like this every week.

So, to keep you entertained in the absence of a flashback, here are a few random thoughts for you…

First of all, is this not the cutest puppy picture ever? Seriously!

I doubt I could get her to pose like that again in a million years…lol!

Today I am getting my hair cut and colored for the first time in about 6 months. Yes, yes, I know it’s WAY past time for me to do that, but it’s hard to leave the little one. Yes, yes, I know that I need time for myself, but it’s hard to leave the little one for the time it takes me to drive all the way across town and sit there for two or three hours while I get my hair done and wonder if she’s doing all right. Yes, yes, I know that she will be fine for a few hours, but I’ve been afraid I’ll miss her first steps and then I would feel guilty and sad and horrible and…you get the picture. Anyway, today Mike has his hair appointment first (we go to the same salon because no one else cuts his hair as well as my stylist does) and I will sit and hold Little Girl and then when he’s done, he will take her to the railroad park for the first time (Mike is a BIG railroad buff) while I get mine done. And before he goes, I will remind him five million times not to let her out of his sight for ONE SECOND, even though we all know he knows that but you know, sometimes boys are dumb.

Also, there are two new movies up. One of them is of Little Girl playing the piano for the first time and one of them is Melody growling at the Hallmark lion and then putting herself between it and Little Girl which is just darn cute if you ask me. Even though you didn’t. It’s still cute.

And one more thing. One of my commenters mentioned that the reason Melody is pooping in the music room is to get Mike’s attention because he is gone all day and he is the “master”. Ahem. I hate to differ with you my friend, but her number one person is not Mike. Her number one person is not Little Girl either. Her number one person is none other than me. She follows ME around everywhere I go. She sat in the hall waiting for ME to come back yesterday when Little Girl and I were out walking with Marlene and crew. She crawls into MY lap when we are all sitting on the floor. Probably because I’m the one who is home with her all day. And this is not to say she is not bonded with the other members of the family, because she certainly is. She adores Mike because he is such the dog person and all dogs adore Mike. If you watched that movie clip you saw that she was trying to protect Little Girl from the big bad Valentine lion, so she realizes that Little Girl is vulnerable. But, at the end of the day, if she had a choice, she’d probably come to me over anyone else. So, the reason she poops in the music room now and then is really just an ongoing joke around here and mostly it’s because she’s a PUPPY. And puppies do things like that. She will learn. Okay done defending my dog.

Just LOOK at that hair! Get your hair cut woman! Sheesh! What is the matter with you?

On my new schedule, Thursday is the day that I clean Little Girl’s room each week. So, yesterday I spent the morning in her room working working working. I decided that it was high time that it went from being a “baby’s room” to a “toddler’s room” and became not only toddler-friendly, but toddler-proof. We had never fully baby-proofed her room before because to be honest, she just didn’t spend time in there unless she was sleeping. But at some point in a child’s life, it’s only fair that they are able to use their room for more than sleeping, so that was my goal yesterday. I cleaned and swept and rearranged and now she has a play area and a reading area and a whole lot of space in the rest of the room to crawl around to her little heart’s content (and walk too when she gets that notion). All the clothes tubs are put away up in her closet. She has a new trash can that she (hopefully) won’t be able to get into so easily (although she’s already figured out how to lift the lid up on the diaper pail *sigh*). All the plugs are covered and Mike has promised that he will install a plug high up on the wall for the air filter and the nightlight - in the meantime we’ll just have to live without them. Mike bolted her dressers and book/toyshelf to the wall today. We’ve spent time in there playing with her and she just loves it and I feel safe enough to leave her alone in there for a few minutes here and there. Melody is learning that she is not allowed over the threshold (yet - I know that won’t last forever…lol) and so when we’re in there with Little Girl she will lay in the hall and look at us with those sad puppydog eyes of hers. So at least ONE room in my house is organized and clean. One down, and way too many more to go. But it’s a start.

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Now the question of the week (well actually there are two).

First of all, does anyone know where you can get stickers for the bottom of the bathtub? You know the kind that keep you from slipping? I checked at Target yesterday and all they had were the kind that attach with suction cups. We are looking for the adhesive kind. Any thoughts are appreciated.

And also, since I was sorting through some hand-me-down toddler clothes today, could someone please tell me the difference between 24 mths and 2T? Both Marlene and Theresa think that it might have to do with diaper room (as in the 24 mth clothes have more diaper room) and that certainly makes sense, but does anyone know any other differences? I’m thinking they just do it to make us think we have to buy twice as many clothes…hehehe.

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And finally, thanks so much to all of you for playing Flashback Friday today! I’m still looking for some more topics to try and I’m tossing around the idea of making a Flashback Friday blogroll. Your thoughts on these two things will also be greatly appreciated. :)

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Have a great weekend everybody!!!

P.S. If anyone read this before I proofed it, I apologize for my typos. I hit publish before I proofed. Bad Karin!

I have to tell you this internet. I have to get it off my chest. Here’s the deal - I am not a happy homemaker. I am not good at housekeeping. In fact, I suck at it. Now that is not to say that our house is a disaster of epic proportions because it isn’t. It’s um…just…very lived in! Yeah, that’s the ticket. It’s not like I am horrible at all things Martha Stewart. Not at all. When it comes to entertaining, I can throw a pretty mean party. I can come up with adorable decorations and cute ideas and make everything look lovely. In fact, for Easter one year I made 18 personalized mini-pots filled with little easter treats to use as place markers. And that was when I was still working full-time. I still do crafty things when I’m able - like quilting and cross-stitch and scrapbooking and all of that. Those things I love. But the whole housekeeping thing? Not so much.

One of my resolutions was to get on a daily schedule and stick with it - included in that was a cleaning schedule. But where to start? Where do you start to make a schedule that actually works, that actually gets things done, and that is easy to live with and keep up with when you have a toddler and a puppy in the house? Well, you buy books on cleaning of course! So, I bought two books on cleaning that are actually easy reads and don’t make me feel like a complete and total idiot and promise to get cleaning done FAST and QUICKLIER (I know that’s not a word, but I made it up and I like it so hush) and cut my cleaning time in HALF!

So, today I’m making a list and a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly schedule of cleaning tasks for me and for Mike. And then I’m going to plug all of those tasks into my daily/weekly overall schedule that I will also be making today and we are going to whip this place and ME into shape posthaste!

Honestly, I meant to start all of this right after the new year, but I decided losing our last precious doggy and getting a new puppy allowed me to cut myself some slack. Now, I’m getting SERIOUS! ORGANIZATION!

Oh, and another thing we are going to do around here is make a list of every detail that needs to be done in every room, so that when we have a hour or two here and there we can actually accomplish at least a small project.

So, anyway, that’s my goal for the day. Anything exciting on YOUR plates today?

So today was sort of my day off. As in I got to go run around and do stuff alone. With no baby to drag in and out of the car at every stop. I actually went to EIGHT different places today! And Mike stayed home with the two little ones - one of which learned how to use her doggy door consistently. Does this mean she is housetrained? That remains to be seen, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

So first I went to the grocery store, which sort of stinks on my “day off”, but it has to be done. Then I came home and dropped off the groceries (but I made Mike put them away because it only seemed fair). He wanted me to make a deposit at the bank, so I took the checks and headed that direction first. I pull into the drive-thru, pull up to the carrier thingy, grab the carrier, go to put the deposit in the carrier and realize there is no deposit slip. *sigh* I pull out of the line and over into a parking space and call Mike on the phone. I was slightly irritated with him because I didn’t realize he hadn’t written a deposit slip up for the checks. I did have deposit slips in the car, but I have no idea what the account number is (my credit union account number I have memorized but the checking account? no idea), so Mike has to look it up. I fill in the information and get back in the line grumbling under my breath. I pull into a different lane, make the deposit and drive off on my way to the next stop. Then I happen to glance at the passenger seat out of the corner of my eye and realize that the carrier from the FIRST lane was in is still in my car. So I had to turn around and go back and take the stupid carrier into the bank and tell them I drove off with it accidentally. Sheesh. I blame Mike for that one!

Then off to the other errands which included Babies R Us, Joann’s, Hallmark, Target, Anna’s Linens (where I got new pillows Theresa!) and Michael’s.

Mike held down the fort and I got a lot of stuff done, although I was definitely a little scatterbrained today. Oh well, it happens. :)

It’s been one week without dogs. I do not like it. We are going to the pound (which is not called the pound anymore but I can’t remember the long drawn out name they call it now) and the Humane Society and wherever else we can think off tomorrow until we find our dogs. And I sure hope I’m not disappointed!! Do those of you who have raised puppies with little ones have any advice on good dogs to get or dogs that we should stay away from?

After we get the dogs, we’ll have to have someone come and baby/puppysit while we go get dog supplies. Our dogs were way past the chewing on toys stage so there is NOTHING here to chew on besides Little Girl’s toys and that will not work. Plus we will have to get puppy food. And crates. And a gallon container of Simple Solution. And treats. And a million other things I can’t remember at this moment. And um…I’m supposed to be puppy proofing the house today and um….guess what I’m doing instead? :D

I am taking down the Christmas decorations today. We left them up through Epiphany because we are such good Catholics! *cough* Okay, okay, but it’s a good excuse for not feeling guilty when you just don’t seem to have time before Epiphany rolls around.

Tomorrow I am supposed to start my eating/exercise plan in earnest. (I cut myself some slack last week under the circumstances.) So we’ll see how that goes. Yay.

It’s a small world after all? An old friend of Mike’s and mine is married to a high school friend of Marlene and her husband’s. So we are going to get together at some point and catch up. Between the three couples there are a total of 11 children. Whee!

I did accomplish something - I cleaned most of Little Girl’s room before Mike had to leave and she had to take a nap. And I’ve taken some of the ornaments off the tree and all the Christmas decorations out of the windows. Progress! Yippee!

Does anyone else get all mushy when they are putting away their child’s clothing in their dressers? Because for some reason folding her clothes makes me want to scoop her up and cover her in kisses. Gosh I love that kid. :)