Can A House Change Your Life?

Can a new house change your life? I’m about to find out. If you’ve been reading my blog you’ve seen me mention our new house a few times. There really is no comparison between our current house and our soon to be house. This current “house” is really a converted garage which is poorly laid out to say the least. Anyone entering our house walks into our bedroom, which could be awkward. The living room is narrow with not nearly enough room for kids to play in. The kitchen has a solitary counter and one drawer. We have been using the tops of the cabinets to store all the pots and pans that don’t fit into our cabinets. There is hardly any storage and our youngest sleeps in a closet, a large closet, but still a closet. The clutter and lack or storage has been driving me crazy and I’ve given up on trying to clean it since there’s not enough room to put everything away.

Our new house a huge kitchen, 3 bedrooms and a playroom. I’m hoping that having a designated toy room will mean less clutter in the rest of the house. There is more than enough storage space for everything. Our current house is cluttered so I constantly find myself redirecting our youngest away from stuff. The girls will have more room to play and explore now. Oh and we’ll have wireless internet so I don’t have to sit at my desk while surfing the internet. We also have a washer and dryer in our new home which will save me trips to my parents to do all our laundry.

Most importantly, we will now feel more comfortable inviting people over. We’ve wanted to entertain more but didn’t have the space. We can now take the initiative in starting friendships by inviting people over rather than waiting for them to extend an offer to visit them.

There are some things that I’m a little worried about with the new place. Since it’s so much larger I hope it’s not going to take forever to clean. I’m hoping that since we have the same amount of stuff and things can be properly organized it won’t take too much longer to clean. And along with a bigger place comes bigger expenses. This means that finding a job is more urgent. I don’t need a job immediately but soon I will.

So will having a new house help me more organized, social and happier? I’m going to find out and let you know.

My Graduation

I had my official graduation ceremony this morning. I’ve been finished school for almost two months now so it was a little weird to go back to school. The ceremony itself was a little bit anticlimactic and impersonal. I handed a card to the speaker who read off my name and then I walked across stage and shook some hands. 30 seconds later it was over. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting but I knew I had to go just for the pictures. It was really interesting to see who was graduating with what degrees. You could tell who some of the fashion design graduates were by their style. The theatre graduates made the most noise as they crossed the stage. After the ceremony, my dad brought my girls to the campus. I wasn’t going to make them sit through 2 hours or a boring convocation, more importantly I wasn’t going to make my husband try to keep two kids quiet for two hours.

We can’t even get them to sit still for 2 minutes for pictures.

I didn’t look at any of the pictures that were being taken and now I’m so mad at myself for not checking. I knew my flash was turned off and I asked if the person taking the pictures if they were getting good shots. They said they were but once I checked them at home I was so disappointed to see that there were shadows across my eyes in most photos. It was really sunny which isn’t great for photos.

I was feeling pretty good about my dean’s list standing and outstanding achievement designation until they announced the Excellence Award winner. A fellow mother with a GPA over 4.00. I didn’t even know you could do that. She had kids soon after finishing high school and then returned to school when they were a little older. She talked about how she had to find herself first and how it made her really appreciate her education. I tried to do it all at once though. I wasn’t going to let babies stop me from finishing school. I needed to prove that an unplanned pregnancy wasn’t going to ruin my life. So I did it. I’ve spent the last 5 years in school while having 2 babies. I’m glad I did it but I know that I wasn’t able to completely dedicate myself to school or to being a mom. Schoolwork kept me up late and made me a cranky mom sometimes, being a breastfeeding mother made me rush home after every class instead of getting to know fellow students or my teachers. Now I’ve got a piece of parchment in hand and will be trying to figure out what to do with it. I know I’ll go to school again at some point. I love learning, it’s the assignments, papers and exams I could do without. I hope I’ve inspired my girls to go to university one day, they already have the hat.

Tired

I’m about to go to sleep at the early hour of 12am. Normally I’d be up for another hour or two, sometimes even three, but I’m exhausted. Sweet Pea’s birthday party was tonight which was a lot of fun. I took over 100 pictures and will be sure to post some of the best ones soon.

I also finally got around to writing my resume. I applied for one job and it would be amazing if I would get the first job I applied for. I’m not getting my hopes up too high though. So between baking and decorating dozens of cupcakes, shopping for party supplies and looking for a job I’ve been staying up late and skipping naps. At this point my body has had enough and is forcing me to go to sleep. zzzzzzz

Not Me! Monday

This is my first time participating in Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not forget to call my mother and my mother-in-law on Mother’s day. I certainly wouldn’t forget to drop by my mom’s house since we live within walking distance. Even though I made her brunch on Saturday, I wouldn’t consider that an excuse not to do anything on Mother’s Day. I did not send my sister out shopping the day before Mother’s Day for a last minute gift for our mom. I did not run out of time to make a photobook for her, in spite of my best intentions.

And I would never count on my sister-in-law to pick up a gift for my mother-in-law and ask her to just sign the card from us as well. And I most certainly do not still have both mothers’ day cards still sitting on my desk unsigned. I love my mom (and mil) and always go all out on special occasions.

Speaking of my own Mother’s day, I did not consider the fact that my husband cleaned the kitchen and made cookies the best gift ever. I did not make him return the expensive purse he bought me. I did not have trouble justifying spending so much money on just a purse.

I did not exercise this week to a cheesy 90’s DVD. And if I did, I certainly would not be unable to complete a 5 minutes abdominal exercise. Having two children and one c-section is no excuse for not having any abdominal strength at all. I did not feel the burn from doing the aerobics exercise even without any weights. I certainly did not want to pause the DVD to give Princess a snack. I wouldn’t need a break after a short exercise program. And I did not start staring at the screen after 30 minutes and wonder when it was going to end.

I did not lose track of time and almost be late for work because of it. And it wouldn’t have been because I was reading blogs. And speaking of reading, I did not read my first parenting book this week. I have not been trying to figure out the complexities of parenting on my own.

Those are all the things I did not do last week. What are some things you did not do last week?

My 2nd Work-out

I had nothing planned for today and by 1pm the girls and I were getting restless. I decided that for my own sanity we needed to get out of the house. I bundled everyone up and grabbed my cell phone and water bottle and strapped them into the double stroller. I wore running shoes but kept my jeans on since I only planned to do a leisurely walk. This was the first time I’ve gone for a walk with them since last summer. They have gained at least 15 pounds between them since then. Half-way up the first hill, I realized that pushing 50 pounds worth of kids is hard work. My sweater quickly came off.

The weather was perfect for a walk today. It wasn’t raining or too hot outside and there was even a cool breeze. I love the return of summer and being able to exercise outside. It’s something I can do with the kids and it’s free. Even the stroller we were using was free. It’s not the prettiest but it works and when someone you barely know calls you up and asks if you’d like a free double stroller, you take it. It does make it harder to convince your husband that you need a better (and prettier) double stroller when you already have a functioning one. I secretly dream of finding a really inexpensive Phil and Ted’s Stroller or a BOB Duallie Stroller on craigslist though.

I don’t know about your kids, but it’s hard to get my two kids to sit still for an hour so I brought along a snack to bribe them. The BzzAgent Company sent me a huge box of free toddler food to try out and share with others. Princess loved the yogurt nibbles and grudgingly shared them with her little sister. Once the snack was gone they wanted out of the stroller so I had extra motivation to quickly walk home. Thanks to the girls my leisurely walk turned into a great work-out.

So we had a free workout in our free stroller with a free snack. Even half the clothes we were wearing were gifts or hand-me downs too. The best things in life really are free.

What’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten for free (besides your kids)?

My First Work-Out

This week, my wonderful mother informed me that she was home all Thursday morning and I could drop off the girls so I could go out. I love unsolicited offers of free baby-sitting! It took me a second to figure out what to do with this unexpected free time though.

Then I remembered my list of post-school resolutionsand one of my goals was to get healthier. It’s not that I don’t have time to exercise it’s that I don’t have enough time without the kids to exercise. I could take them to the gym but with the cost of childcare it would add up quickly. Plus it’s only at set times and would probably interfere with nap time. But, thanks to my mom I finally got to work out.

As I was getting ready for my big day out, my husband called and needed me to bring him some tools and lunch so I picked him up a fruit smoothie and McDonalds. Since I needed some nourishment for gruelling work out, I bought some for me too. After enjoying a quiet lunch with my husband, I headed to the gym. I haven’t worked out since my youngest was 3 months, which is coincidentally also the time I started the Fall semester. I was surprised I was still able to run for 20 minutes without feeling completely exhausted. All the running after kids I do must help. I did a bit of stretching and some weights. I really wanted to work on my abs too but couldn’t remember any ab exercises besides sit-ups. Good thing I’ve ordered an abs video to help me get a six pack before I go to Mexico in August.

Today I’m feeling a little big sore but nothing major. I hope I have an opportunity to go again soon. Next time though I’ll avoid the pre-workout McDonalds meal so I’ll actually burn calories instead of just cancelling out the calorie intake and calories burned.

I’ve also avoided buying any junk food so we don’t have anything left in the house. Unfortunately, I still have cravings so I find myself snacking on chocolate chip cookies and mini marshmallows. One step at a time I guess.

• What do you do when you have free time?
• When do you find time to work out?

I’m finished school- now what?

I took my last exam this morning. I really wish I had been more prepared for it. I have an unfortunate combination of procrastination and perfectionism that led me to put off studying and then try to spend the entire night before the exam studying. This was also the night that my little angel decided to wake up 5 times when she normally sleeps through the night. That took up a lot of time and I kept falling asleep on the couch. I had my alarm clock on my phone set to keep getting me up but eventually sometime in the middle of the night I fell asleep. I woke up 40 minutes before my exam started and panicked. I quickly fed Sweet Pea and got the girls dressed. My mom picked them up and after quickly reveiwing my notes I headed off to school. There were some things I didn’t know on the exam but for the most part I could write down an answer. I normally am way more prepared but my procrastination caught up with me. You would think that after 5 years of school I would have learned not to procrastinate!

But it’s over now, I might not get my desired A but I should still do ok and will certainly pass which is all that really matters for the degree.

I’m really not sure what I’m going to do now. I don’t want to start working right away. I would like like some time to just be a mom and see what life is like when I’m not completely sleep-deprived. At some point, I hope to find a fabulous, flexible and well-paying part-time career that is located close to me. Since I’ll have 2 kids in daycare, the money has to be worth it for me to work. Luckily, I have the luxury of not needing to find a career immediately thanks to my husband’s full-time job and my current part-time job.

I probably will take more schooling down the road but first I need to get some work experience and figure out my career path.

For years, I’ve been concentrating on taking the classes required to obtain my degree and now I have the chance to explore a wide variety of careers and opportunities. I’m excited for what the future holds for me and my family.

Studying For My Last Exam

Today I am studying today for my last exam ever!! Well of my bachelor’s degree at least, I’m sure I’ll go back to school for something someday. I don’t know how much studying I’m going to get done during the day with the kids running around but I’m going to have to cram tonight and hopefully get a few hours of sleep before the exam.

I’ve been done all my classes for over a week so I’ve been relaxing and now have to force myself back into student mode. I can’t wait for this to be done and then I can concentrate on the rest of my life. I’m excited for what the future holds.

Life After School

This week I had the last class of my undergraduate degree. I still have an exam coming up but I feel done already. It’s such an amazing feeling that after five years with two kids in the last three years I am a graduate. Yet the day after my last class I felt a little lost. Being a student was a large part of my identity. When people asked me what I was up to I rattled off my list, “Well I have two little girls and I’m in school. Oh and I work part-time.” Now people inevitably ask me what I’m going to do now that I have a degree. The problem is that I don’t know. I did not plan on having kids so young and was prepared to spend ten years in school pursuing a graduate degree in psychology. Now my priorities have shifted. I’m not willing to be a crazy stressed-out mama for so long. Although I may have looked like supermom on the outside, I struggled to do it all. I stayed up late every night reading and doing homework. I can’t tell you how many times I fell asleep on the couch while trying to get through a textbook. Being that tired made me a grumpy mom some mornings and I didn’t have time to go on many play-dates or do other fun things with the kids. I was doing so much and feeling like I could not give 100% to anything. My poor husband suffered the most since his needs were not as urgent as a crying baby or a looming project deadline. I already look back on it and wonder how I managed to get it all done. So while I am so glad to be done I’m not sure what I’m going to do now.

My professor said something interesting during that last class. After he finished his PH.D he almost became clinically depressed since had completed his goal and had nothing to work towards. He said the pursuit of goals makes life meaningful not the actual achievement of them. So some goals should be unattainable or just within reach. Better yet, they are goals that you continually have to work at such as being healthy. With that in mind, I need to set some new goals for my life. I want to develop skills that will help me in life and learn things that make me a better person, mom and wife.

My list (in no particular order)
· Eat healthier
· Exercise and get in shape
· Be a better wife
· Learn more about html and blogging
· Learn how to effectively discipline and raise toddlers
· Read books other than textbooks
· Read books more often to my kids
· Potty-train my toddler
· Keep a clean and tidy house (This really is a never-ending goal)

These are goals and now I need to make a plan to achieve these goals. I am writing them down so I can remember and be held accountable. Later, I’ll look back at these goals and see which ones I’ve accomplished.

What are your goals for the future?