We're almost there!

Thanks for everyone's suggestions on boxes! I'm going to drive around in a few and check out those places, hopefully find a few more decent sized boxes. :)

We got a lot more packed up yesterday and last night. I packed up all of Charlotte's room before Phil got home (at least I did something productive), and then we worked for a while after she went to bed. Our apartment is starting to look like we're actually moving! Boxes stacked in every room and nothing on/around the furniture. Yay! The only real things we have left are the kitchen, coat closet, and toys, and of course a few suitcases of our stuff. I've even packed the bathrooms :). Phil should get off by around noon today too, granted he has to drive back and such, it'll be nice to have some help, before 10PM!

We pick the U-haul up tomorrow at 8:30 AM, I'm glad we get it in the morning, I was afraid they wouldn't give it to us until that night, which would throw our entire plan off. So we get to load up tomorrow and head out Friday. Its hard to believe we're only staying two more nights here... we haven't even been here a year! (Not that I'm complaining).

Lets just hope our trip doesn't take a little detour...


I can't wait to be on that u-haul on our way down to Florida because by then, we will be past the halfway point!!

I should be packing, but I'm not. Instead, I'm people watching outside, finding new blogs, being lazy, etc. Though I did go to the bank and Wal-mart today. Plus, we're almost out of boxes. I figured I'd go to the recycling center and grab some, but they only have an "in," no "outs," aka, really small slats to put the boxes out, which means I can't really go dumpster diving. Not like I would have been able to with Charlotte anyways. Any ideas where to get boxes? Now-a-days it seems that everyone crushes their boxes, so there's not really much point going to a grocery store or something. So, this could prove interesting.

They were supposed to quit up in Clarksville for the week once it started raining, well it poured this morning, and they decided to wait a few hours instead. They were about to call it, then someone decided to start working, they've been working for the rest of the day. I hope it starts again soon, so Phil can have tomorrow off. We're supposed to pick up the U-haul on Thursday. I don't know when I'm going to finish packing everything. It'd be really nice to have some help, aka Phil. Oh well, I'll be VERY happy when we get this stuff on the truck and on our way down.

Florida 2009 pictures

Playing at the airport, waiting for the flight.

The view from the sky... if you look carefully you can see the coastline.

Big girl sitting all by herself on the plane... for the moment. She was squirmy!

Unpacking once we got to the hotel. She really loves to take things out!

Mommy and baby at the beach!

Playing with Daddy at the beach!

More playing, she's about ready to take off any day now!

Long overdue Easter-ish Pictures

Hanging out before bed.

Enjoying the teething toy of choice, a dog bone... I do take them away from her.

Her first-ever Easter Bunny!

First ever Easter Egg Hunt, she got 2 eggs all by herself!

Spaghetti at TGI Friday's.

Chowing down on the dog food. Thankfully, she doesn't like it!

Anyone know?

I'm using site meter to track my clicks, and I have a question... At least half of my clicks are from people searching "lasagna" on google! Can I get rid of this? I just want to know who is actually coming to read, not find a picture of "lasagna" on google. I don't really want to get stop the "searchable" setting though.

Its getting really frustrating!

Florida!!

We had a great time in Florida the past few days. We got back late yesterday afternoon. During our visit, Phil met the people at the Tampa office and kind of interviewed. We also did our apartment hunting and it went much quicker than I had imagined! We even had a day to go to the beach. We went south to Bradenton and spend a couple hours on the beach. Charlotte loved it too!

It looks like we are going to be moving this next weekend, May 1st and 2nd-ish. So, I have a lot of packing to do this next week. Thankfully, Michele is going to come up to visit and help!! Phil's office has released him for that date and Tampa is expecting him! Thankfully everything is getting worked out!!

We're going to move from a 3 bedroom to a 2 bedroom apartment, but its only 65 less sq. ft. than we have right now oh and a HUGE kitchen!! No more galley kitchen for me :).

More later, I've got stuff to do!

Florida... here we come!

Well, I'm off to bed for a compromised (yes, Phil wanted less) 5 1/2 hours of sleep... it was a long night of a cranky baby, packing, giving Phil a haircut, etc.

I'll probably be giving quick updates here and there as the trip progresses. We should have internet and are bringing the computer.

Wish us luck!

Running with Scissors

I just read a really good, interesting book. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. I highly recommend it, but it'll make you think. Since its 1:20 AM and I just finished, I'm going to forgo my own summary and just write whats on the sleeve of the book.

"Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules; there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock-therapy machine under the stairs....

Running with Scissors is at turns foul and harrowing, compelling and maniacally funny. But above all, it chronicles an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances."

I read its also been made into a movie. I guess thats the next one to add to the top of the Netflix list!

I think I'm going to start Twilight tomorrow and *hopefully* finish it before its due, as I'm sure I won't be able to renew it with all the holds. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to find out what all the fuss is about.

Earth Day 2009

Its almost Earth Day! Tomorrow Nashville has Earth Day festivities at Centennial Park. It looks like its going to be a great time and I'm excited! I can't wait to go and visit the different booths and learn about stuff :). If you're bored, check out what is going on in your city and enjoy a nice day outside!! Don't forget that Earth Day is April 22, 2009.

Recession Shopping: 10 Things to Buy Right Now

CNN and TIME magazine put out an article explaining the 10 things to buy right now. The article can be found here.

1. Fancy Threads (Formals, Cashmere, etc.)
2. Computer Memory
3. Digital Cameras
4. Stuff for your house (b/c going out of business sales, and craigslist)
5. Lobster
6. New Cars
7. Travel
8. Country Club Membership
9. Housing
10. Stocks

Of course, I have to agree with some of these... Stocks, Housing, Travel, New Cars... but some, I don't think have anything to do with the recession. In fact, I think they would have dropped MORE had we not been in this recession. For example, Computer Memory and Digital Cameras. Technology advances and such a quick rate, something down 50% from 2 years ago, is normal, even if its not a recession.

As technology gets older, it gets cheaper. It gets easier to make and there is less demand, as people either already have the item or people want the new item.

Personally, I think that the prices would have dropped even further on any particular computer memory chip. Had we not been in a recession, the demand for computer memory would be much higher than it is now because people would be looking to spend money. So, there would be more money to research and make higher "level" memory chips, therefore, making the older ones cheaper, because there would have been bigger and better things than there is right now... due to the fact that the demand is lower and there is less money to spend on research, etc.

Just my 10 cents for the day.

I love this idea ! Esp. if we move to the gulf coast... :).

Sorry I haven't been posting much, I've been super busy! I'll try to write something in the next few days!

Another day of tornados!

The weirdest thing happened today, there were tornadoes in a suburb or Nashville, and I didn't even know. If you know me at all, you'd know that I love severe weather. And when its happening, the TV's on, the radio is on, the police scanner is on, the door is open, and I'm outside watching it all.

We wake up this morning at like 11 (yes, Charlotte slept in late, and we still had to wake her up!), and we have an appointment to get our pictures done at 12:30. Which means, find everyones clothes, shower, get the baby ready and fed, and do my hair (and I got my haircut yesterday, so I haven't even had a chance to practice). So, while the storms were coming and there were tornadoes heading our direction, I'm running around like a chicken with no head, trying to do everything. We get to the studio right at 12:30 (have to wait 15 minutes of course), and hear, tornado warning!! To say the least, I was confused... and felt pretty stupid, walking in there, like... what the heck is going on?

To make matters worse, I didn't even know there was damage, etc. until about 4, when I turned on the TV and checked out CNN.com.

Of course, all this follows the storms last week, where there were tornadoes 5 miles down the highway... while I was trying to drive home! Who would have guessed TN would have had so many tornadoes!

Charlotte update!

Charlotte had her 9 month check up today and it went really well! She weighs 20 pounds 12 ounces (81st percentile) and was 27 and 1/4 inches (39th percentile). Apparently she's short and fat, but she really doesn't look like it!! I asked the doctor about it and she said that they don't worry about the height in the first year because unless they cooperate, you could measure them a million times and it would all come out differently. Her head circumference was 18 inches, 91st percentile. She's always had a big head (but then Phil and I do too!) No shots this time too, just a TB test... beats me.

Yesterday, she discovered that there were goodies in the kitchen cabinets! At first, she was only opening and closing them, and after about 10 minutes of that, she discovered the pans, so she had fun cleaning while I was cooking. Hopefully now she can be a happy baby when I'm cooking!!

She's getting really good at crawling too. I think she's finally figuring out that it takes less energy to crawl in a normal crawling position, than the army crawl. And she's going from sitting to standing a lot now. Before, she had pulled up a few times, but now she does it intentionally. And she's definitely getting into more stuff, like the dogs water and the electronics below the TV. I think its time to invest in some more child proofing stuff!! There have been lots of changes in the past week or so!

I don't have any new pictures, but I'll take some in the next couple days and put them up!

Yummy!

Tonight Charlotte and I went over to Brandyn's and she cooked us some tasty food!! We had crackers with cheese ball, a tasty salad, lasagna, bread, and homemade cheesecake! It was so nice to have a home cooked meal that I didn't cook!! Phil got home late but got to eat the leftovers :).

Tomorrow we get the treat again, when we go over to another friends house for dinner!! We're assuming the men will get off early because it is supposed to rain, so we're going to go over and play, then eat dinner with them (and hopefully the guys too!) I'm making some revel bars to bring over too, which I'm leaving over there, we don't need anymore of them!!

I finally did a little research about leaving our apartment, since we're way past the 60 day notice mark, and come to find out our lease is up April 20th! They told me April 30th like a couple of weeks ago, what the heck?!? Then, when the lady was looking further at our lease, we never officially signed it, I kinda wish I had just refused to sign it, that would have been interesting! On top of that, the lease said that we signed a 14 month lease... (we were never informed), but the official move out date on the paperwork was April 20th, 11 months after we move in. They really screwed it up! Now, the earliest we can get out is going to be May 20th, but that will probably work better. We'll have some overlap here and plenty of time to get out, and for Phil to finish up here.

Phil had yesterday off too. He went up there in the morning, and they canceled for the morning because it was too muddy, then canceled for the rest of the day, so Charlotte and I had him from 9:30 am on!! It was very much needed, I felt like I was about to go crazy! We had such a great day. We cleaned out some stuff, threw away 2 1/2 garbage bags of stuff!! And packed up most of our books and the stuff in the desk. We're going to sell my desk, so if anyone wants to buy it, let me know. But, there won't be room for it wherever we move. And if we need one, we'll need a little tiny laptop desk.

Today, I went out with a friend, and we got Charlotte and her son's feet measured, got some lunch out, walked around the mall and Target, it was great! It made it feel like a weekend. When Phil works on these weekends, it feels like its just another weekday.

Katie comes in like a week and a half too! I'm so excited to see her!!! Then Mom and Dad come for Natalie's recital, then we're off to Florida! I hope this goes quick!

Another update!

They changed our dates to visit Tampa, yay!! We're now going down April 21st to 23rd. I'm hoping all goes well, and he officially gets offered the job! They put the job back up on their website, dang! And took down another one.

I can't wait to get down there and look around! Neither of us have ever been to Tampa, though we've been to other places in Florida, and loved it. On top of just Florida, the job sounds great too :).

We've been discussing how to finagle (sp?) this moving thing. Since our lease is up April 30th, and Phil can't go down until the end of this job he's on (his boss told him to start thinking of when he's going to have everything wrapped up so he can tell Florida when he gets down there), we're thinking maybe I'll move down there and unpack and all, and he'll stay up here in a hotel for a week (maybe two) then come down. It would suck, but it might be the cheapest option. Hmmm.

Whole Foods/Going Organic

The last grocery trip I made, I bought about 75% of our food organic (a few things all natural). I was so proud of myself!! It did cost a little more, but its well worth it. This month I added another $100 to our grocery budget. So we're going from $300 to $400/month. I'm slowly working on replacing all of our "staples" with organic ones. So far, I've got the ketchup, soy sauce, and cooking spray replaced. I'm waiting for our oils to run out before I splurge on some more. I also bought some organic flour and brown sugar for our bread. We're even switching Charlotte's cereal (and formula... to mix cereal) over and its not that much more!! And since Char loves finger foods and I make whatever other "baby food" she eats, that doesn't cost us a lot either!

Unfortunately we don't have a Whole Foods store nearby (closest one is like 1/2 hour + away), but Kroger does pretty good. Their brand Private Selection is mostly organic, and they have a decent produce selection, considering. I also know that Publix has organic chicken, so I need to catch that on a sale and stock up. Plus, a lot of their store brand is organic, but they're a little more expensive.

It looks like the closest Whole Foods is 25 minutes from where we'd be if we moved to Tampa, and no Trader Joe's even in Florida!! But there is Publix and even a Publix GreenWise store :)

Tampa Update

Tampa booked plane tickets for all of us to go visit and for Phil to have his official interview when Katie is coming, so they're hopefully going to reschedule! Otherwise, Phil is just going. I wish they had asked before they bought the plane tickets!! And a few days ago, I noticed they posted the job Phil is applying for online, but since they have taken it off, yay!!

I've been doing some research online and have apartments narrowed down to 5 or 6 that we are going to look at while we are there. They all accept our pets and have rent that we can afford for a 2 bedroom, 1 or 2 bath. There's no way we could even afford a 3 bedroom right now, and unfortunately a lot of those 2 beds are under 1000 sq. feet. We'll just have to scale down! A lot of them do have a built in computer center which would definitely help too. But, we want quality over quantity right now, I think it'll be nicer in the long run. Looking at the floorplans, they have the same size bedrooms, and a slightly larger living room and either one or two bathrooms. Some just have a closet laundry room, others a real laundry room like we have here. Oh and they also have smaller dining rooms! I hope we can keep our table, otherwise we'll have to find a cheap circular one! But, I'm not going to get ahead of myself. We need to be guaranteed the position and find an apartment first. Then I can try to figure it all out.

A few minutes ago I talked to Phil and they shut down for the day, yay! It was about 2 p.m. but I'm still betting he wont' be home until 6. He has to wait around for some samples, drive back, stop by the office (there will be people there), and I bet they get distracted, then finally comes home. He doesn't think it'll be that late, but we'll see!!! I shoulda bet something good!!

We're probably moving!!

Last Friday (a week ago from today), Phil received an email saying that they were looking for a geotechnical staff professional in the Tampa office (for his company). So, he jumped on the opportunity and put his resume in. Turns out, he was the only one too, and they want him down there, asap!

Since neither of us has ever been down there, they're going to fly us (and Charlotte) down there so he can meet everyone (make sure they all get along, because there was no interview etc.), and so that we can look around and make sure that we like it, before we move there. I'm not too concerned, I know we'll like it, we have each liked all the places in Florida we have been. Today they were thinking next Monday (6th) till Wednesday we would go down there.

So, we don't know exactly when we'll move because Phil is on this crazy job, but when he first spoke to them, they were hoping he could be there by April 1!! So, it won't be that soon, as Phil's office wants him up here to finish this project, but we're hoping it will be sooner rather than later. Plus, our lease is up April 30, and we COULD probably extend it (and pay more), but we'd rather just leave!!

I'm super excited (and so is Phil). Our goal has always been to live on the coast in Florida, and well, we won't have a place on the coast, but we'll be in Florida, and be a quick drive away from the beach, yay!!

Life's been crazy!

Ok, so I know its been a long time, but I've been busy, really I have!!!

Oh and there's so much to say. I went to visit the in-laws from Thursday to Tuesday, it was good, but I didn't realize how much I missed Phil even though I don't get to see him. So, I was glad to be back home, and of course that helped Charlotte sleep better too. She doesn't sleep well other places. We did some work on the reception and just hung out. It was nice to have other people to watch Charlotte too, but I never felt like I could let go... like when Phil gets home, I know I can go do something and not have to worry about her.

Charlotte learned how to get from laying to sitting!! I knew she had done it before, but she didn't want us to know that she could or something. Because, if she knew I was there, she wouldn't do it, but if she didn't know I could see her (like I was in the kitchen), she had no problems. Go figure. But, now she does it all the time, so yay! One more thing that she can do and now won't be so frustrated. She's also spending a lot of time in the real crawling position, but not going anywhere, though she's getting much faster at the army crawl thing.

Phil got off work Wed afternoon and has off until Monday morning, yay!! I'm so ready for him to finish this job!! Its getting crappier and crappier, he worked 94 hours last week!!! But, only about 45-50 this week, so at least that's good!!

So, we've been busy. Storytime was Thursday morning at the library and Phil came to that. Then, I went to the zoo with a mom's group and Phil went by work for a couple hours. And we went grocery shopping together that day. Oh and MIZZOU played, GO TIGERS!!! They won, it was a fun game to watch :). Can't wait to watch the next one. I think its tomorrow??? Oh and we made some yummy dessert! And today we cleaned up the apartment some and then had a friend over for dinner. I made homemade pizza and a salad! Unfortunately, the past few days I've been sick. I took some Nyquil last night, after not being able to sleep the night before that, and I'm planning on taking some again tonight. I've also been on dayquil on and off. I hate colds!

Oh and some more exciting news, but I'll write a different post it here.