Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts

Monday, April 20, 2009

New Beginnings

In an attempt to loose a few pounds and build our strength up, me and E decided to join the P90X community.  We bought the videos, the pull up bars, the weights, protein powder and protein bars (for E), resistance bands and yoga mats.  We started the program last week and only made it to day 3 of the program.  E couldn't move and I could barely get out of bed.  So we decided that maybe we needed to work last week and get to a point where we were ready to start EXTREME workout (because I haven't worked out in several months...so I don't think that an EXTREME workout first time out of the hatch is good for me).  


But we started working on our diet.  No crappy soda drinks, cut back on carbs, sugar and fats and focus on more veggies and protein for a few weeks and then add in more fruits and grains.  So this was one of my dinner solutions (Per Ellie Krieger of Food Network), Tilapia and Veggie Packets. (and yes, there is a fish fillet under all of those veggies)


Friday, January 9, 2009

New Years Resolutions

Hmmm...so much change is about to happen I don't even know where to start the resolutions but regardless, I am jumping right in.

1.) Since I gained 36 pounds pounds of baby last year, I would like to loose 40 pounds over all since I will probably gain a few more before all is said and done.

2.) I want to apply the Baby Wise principals to the baby and get her to sleep through the night at an early age.

3.) I want to be able to establish an schedule once the baby comes so that I can be a good mom and a good wife.

4.) I want to be more spiritually healthy.

5.) To continue to budget our money and continue to pay off our debt.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

I know I haven't been around much lately but trust me, there are good reasons.

First, let's start with work. The twelve hours days are catching up with me alot faster than they used to especially when we work through the weekend. Such a drain on my "good attitude" and my extremely pregnant body! All this working makes me sour, fast and that goes double for E who has been working strange hours lately too. All of this schedule shifting has left Maggie INSANE!!!!! She never knows whether we are coming or going and with all of the uncertainty, she has been destroying our house once again.

Let me give a few examples of what we have encountered this week alone:

-She ate a bag of assorted chocolate bars
-SHE UNWRAPPED ALL OF THE PRESENTS THAT WERE WRAPPED UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!! (Ironically, she unwrapped all of them but only ATE all of E's gifts from me)
-She ate and DESTROYED a roll of paper towels
-She ate and broke our heating pad
-She nosed through E's bag and ate a pack of gum
-She has eaten the craziest things outside and then gets sick in the middle of the night, 3 NIGHTS IN A ROW LAST WEEK. (Another reason I am tired, from cleaning dog vomit off of the floor at 3am)

I thought you would enjoy a picture or two of what we came home to the other night...





I am too tired to give any more excuses any picture today so I will leave the rest for tomorrow!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Brushing Maggie's Teeth

E decided Saturday morning that he was would brush Maggie's teeth. Normally we would let the vet or the groomers deal with that but not that day. He is a picture of the struggle. Maggie's wanted to eat the brush and chew on E's fingers...just a little bit...and E wanted to go ahead and get his done.

It wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't sent me to get his own personal toothbrush for the task!! Luckily, he had just gotten back from the dentist and had received a new one.

Friday, October 24, 2008

TGIF!

Boy am I glad we have moved on from this week. E and I have both been sick with a cold. He still has a few more long days of it though. I may have 2 or 3 more easy days left. We have both been severely exhausted due to meetings, work, travel, homework and just life in general, so Friday couldn't come soon enough this week.

But lots of exciting things happened this week:
-I found out that I am helping make Thanksgiving dinner (which I am actually excited about)
-E graduates on Monday night
-I finished a book for the first time in a VERY long time
-We settled on a first name for the baby
-An ER visit
-Having dinner with friends we hardly ever see tonight
-I am hosting a Dave Ramsey book giveaway!!
-I found a Pumpkin Butter recipe (per smitten kitchen) that I completely plan on making this weekend!

I know you are reading this thinking to yourself, "That's not exciting!!" Well, it is for me and I will take what I can get!! So what book did I read? Well, I am so very glad that you asked. I saw E.D. Hill on TV on night promoting her new book. The author is a mom of eight kids...YES...you heard me ...eight!! She is a promenant figure on Fox News trying to raise her family and hold a successful career. But the book is called "I'm not your friend, I'm your parent." I know I don't have kids yet but I thought it would hold my interest long enough to read it and I was completely right. I feel much more prepared for parenting this week than I did last week. And if you want to borrow this book from me, feel free to but I definately want it back. I fully intend on rereading this book several times before my kids leave for college. Good read...HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!


I hope you all have a great weekend!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

BSF


I finally got back into a bible study this week. Of course I will be out of town for the next 2 but at least I have a place to go once I get back. I really felt like I had a much closer relationship with God when I was involved in a Bible Study last year and I really need that again. I have so many worries on my mind that I am ready to completely give away and trust the Lord to take care of. Lack of sleep, epsiotomies, epiderals, raising a child, future moves, working after I have the baby...I feel like they are all just causes to worry about but I am ready to give them up and live knowing that someone else has a better plan for my life than I do.


Erika invited me and Kristi along this week and it was a little different than I thought it would be but at the end of the lesson, I needed to hear everything that teacher had said especially at this point in time in my own life. So it's all uphill from here...at least spiritually.

One Step Closer to Being Debt Free

2 and a half years later, (a year and a half early) we finally paid off our car. Ahhhhh One less payment to worry about! Yes, we will end up buying another car later on but for the next year or so, I will be such a blessing to drive 2 cars that are paid for in full.

So now that we have paid off the car, my student loan is the next bill we are tackling. For those of you that are reading this with a confused look on your face, here's a little bit of background. After me and E got married, we decided that we wanted to live debt free. E had been to a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University event and really wanted our life to reflect what he taught. We really didn't stick to it for the first few years. We still used our credit cards and then bought a car, and boy, have we been paying for those years of anti-discipline!! We finally attended FPU together last year and have worked really hard to pay off everything before the baby comes. While I don't think we will make it in time, we will be SOOOO close.


We want to be able to put money away for our kids college, buy a car without having a car payment, invest heavily for our future and give away as much as possible. We don't feel that we can do that if we still owe student loans, car payments and credit card debt. If you are interested in living debt free, Dave Ramsey has a podcast on iTunes and several books. I highly recommend "The Total Money Makeover."

Monday, September 22, 2008

Everyday Bailey Saturday Morning!

Normally, we have a Saturday morning ritual. (And by "we", I mean "me") E sleeps in. But me? my pregnant alarm is set quite early. I get up, make some coffee (2 pots these days, one decaf and one fully leaded) and then start on a special breakfast. Last Saturday was no exception ...except...Maggie wanted to join in this time. She slept in with E for starters. I got up and made the coffee. I was making a Blueberry Coffee Cake this particular morning. Yum!


Next, we spend the next hour or 2 sitting in front of the tv eating breakfast watching the news or anything we both like that is saved on our DVR. During the morning coffee, we typically don't pay attention to a whole lot else except getting our coffee fix.

Well, Maggie sat on the couch for a while with us and then jumped down very quietly. She snuck into the kitchen and started eating her own piece of coffee cake. E heard a noise, ran into the kitchen and caught her in the act. She was quickly devouring the rest of our breakfast. That Little Sneak!!!
Here she is playing dead which she does really well when she doesn't want to obey!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Hurricane Pro / Con List

Pros:
-Paid days off of work
-R&R for a few days in a cool city
-Spending quality time together
-Lots of rain during the dry season
-Finding the opportunity to finally clean out the fridge and the freezer
-All fresh food in the grocery store once you get home

Cons:
-It's all anyone talks about for the next 2 weeks and sometimes 2-5 years if it was bad enough and they all compare it to the BIG ONE a few years back
-The news talks repeatedly about how well the city did compared to the response to Katrina
-Yes, there's fresh food in the grocery store but try finding it because everyone is buying groceries at the same time
-Playing catch up at work for the days missed
-Sitting in traffic trying to get to a safer location at least 3 times longer than it normally takes you
-All of the laundry that has to be done before you leave because you have to pack
-All of the laundry that has to be done when you get home because you have unpacked
-Watching people roam around the streets while you are sitting in traffic because they want to see what the holdup is all about! (IT'S ABOUT HURRICANE EVACUATION!)
-Loosing satelitte reception because the wind is blowing all of the tree branches in the neighborhood
-Unloading the car
-Coming home to a ghost town where everything is closed
-The dog acting like a crazy pooch cause she's been cooped up in the car and in a hotel room for a few days
-The fact that you can't breathe a sigh of relief because you may have to evacuate again next weekend as another hurricane starts making the trek towards the gulf coast again.



Hmmm...I think I am rethinking my love for natural disasters.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Arguements

So, you are correct, I am involving you in my arguments at home. Maggie, the little darling that she is, LOVES to eat things. I take that back...she really like to chew things apart into tiny little pieces and then suck on the pieces and spit them out. She doesn't actually swallow them. I really truly think that I can't say that enough. I am positive that I have written at least 5 blogs about this...THAT is how crucial this is around our house. We have all lost valuable items. Me? I lost an ipod, all of my shoe heels, 10+ pairs of underwear, couch pillows, the master bedroom carpet, an easter pork loin (she swallowed that one), a new pair of Crocs...I am sure there are WAY more on my list. E list? Well, he lost the original copy of his GRE scores, his work hat, a pair of flip flops, a pair of sandals, a pair of Keens, and a shoe lace. This picture is from last week when she ate all of the stuffing out of her bed.


If you ever get the chance to come to our house, we have a mail slot in the front door. So the mail comes right through the door and onto the floor. Maggie loves to eat that mail like it made from rawhide. It never fails that the afternoons that I come home from work and really have alot to do, those are the afternoons that she provides a nice mess of shredded mail for me all of the living room floor. We tried to use the laundry basket to catch the mail, but if the mailman misses the basket, it's fair game. Now, the basket doesn't even matter. She goes and gets whatever she wants out of that basket to play with during the day. And yesterday made matters worse when she ate a book that I had ordered as a gift for a family member. Grrrrr...And this is what I come home to every afternoon. In this picture she ONLY ate the circular ads that come every week with the specials from the grocery store and a free grocery bag that I won off another blog a month ago, a coupon from Stanley Steamer and a Chase Bank Credit Card solicitation.


As the person who has to clean up this mess, I have asked for a mailbox to be attached to the house on the front porch. I have already bought it and pulled it out of the box and everything. E is in complete disagreement. He wants to train her not to eat the mail by sending fake mail through the slot! I think if we tell her not to eat it she won't, but if we aren't there, it's on!!! The mail never stood a chance! After work, I go to the gym, then come home, walk Maggie, make dinner, clean up dinner and have to pick up the house. Evidently, I need to add "clean up shredded mail" to that list. I thought E would have been convinced that we needed a mailbox when she brought him is very large check from the VA that was the reimbursement for his school. I guess common sense strikes us all at different times.

Monday, June 23, 2008

In Other News...

Beth Bailey has signed on for 4 days of fun and relaxation during the Annual Bailey Vacation.
Beth is our neice of 15 years now. She is on the Flag Team at school and I hear she's really good. I haven't gotten to see her in action yet. 9 days and counting Bethy!!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Gone Camping

So while I was in San Antonio, E was going to take Maggie on a camping trip with our Sunday School class. So the weekend before, we were cleaning out the garage and decided to go ahead and start getting all of the camping supplies together. When I came outside, E had setup the tent to make sure all of the parts were there. After one look at the tent, we decided to campout into the backyard since I wouldn't be able to go the next weekend on the trip. We made homemade ice cream and threw some steaks and veggies on the grill. E started a fire in the firepit and we threw out some folding chairs and sat by the fire for a while.


The funniest part was trying to persuade Maggie that it was OK to come into the the tent. She was so scared. She barked all night at every little noise she heard. The next morning, she was a little disoriented and afraid to get out of the tent because she didn't know we she was. It was so funny!!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Office Party Time

To celebrate the end of the television writer's strike, we threw an office party. No, not an office party...an NBC's "the Office" party. There's a few of us from work that really love that show and since I had to go out of town last weekend for the first episode of 08, we celebrated last night with 2 new episodes. We had office themed food such as Jim's "Big Tuna" Appetizers, and ...

Pam's Fudgey Brownie Cake





Micheal Scott's "Carb up ...for the cure" pasta



Along with many more...Did I forget to mention that it was a costume party? Oh yeah...I went as Kelli Kapoor and E went as Ryan the Temp...(I just tried to wear something highly inappropriate for work, lots of purple eye shadow, and jeweled hair pins.




Our friends Andrea and Taylor came as Angela and Andy Bernard. So funny and so classic.



But no office party would be complete without office olympics and an awards ceremony. First we played the M&M game...how many M&M's can you shove into your mouth...









(I beat E by 10 M&M's...not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing!!)


Then me and Taylor squared off for the finals in the coffee cup races...(I won that one too)






Jason, the office olympics chairman, awarded me and Taylor our medals in the closing ceremonies.




And here is one of the five posters we made for the party...




By the way, if you haven't ever seen the Office... go to Hulu.com and you can watch the last season for free. So Funny!

Monday, March 24, 2008

New Ipod

It all started on a Saturday afternoon. Company was in town and the girls were going shopping while the boys showered for dinner afterwards. E, hopped into the shower for a few minutes and when he returned, Maggie had hopped onto the bed, mouthed open the zipper on my gym bag, pulled down my arm band with my ipod inside, and proceeded to chew on the band/ipod. The good news that my ipod still works. It still plays music but the screen will never work again. The bad news is, this is the ipod I use to gauge the distance I have run in races or when we are training. That was the sole reason I bought that specific ipod.

There are chew marks on the bottom and top left-hand side of the display.




Since Maggie ATE my last ipod, and I refuse to work out without it, (I know I am somewhat spoiled), E told me that I could get a new one, meaning the newest generation. I almost felt bad that he said that because I washed one of his ipods that was left in his pants and didn't let him get a new one. Oh well...by gones right?


My last one was a refurbished one from Apples website. So I started looking to see if they had any cheap ones. Nada, they were all the newest models and about the same price I paid for my broken one. So I started checking ebay...all I wanted was another one that worked. It didn't have to be new but I was seriously striking out. So I decided to bid on a few of the new models to see what kind of price I could get. HELLO!!! I won a new refurbished model on ebay for less than a used old model. It cam in this week and "it's so tiiinnny" (say that in a squeeky voice)

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Somewhat Controlled Chaos

Justin and Ashley came to visit this weekend and they brought their dogs Sophie (German Shepard) and Bella (Bijoun). We had SO MUCH FUN and so did the dogs. Maggie spent all weekend playing with those two. We went to the gym, toured beautiful Port Arthur (HA) and Beaumont and then had dinner and went to a hockey game.

Just a few pics highlighting the fun that was had by all...














Maggie and Sophie playing ball together...It took three days for Sophie to finally want to play with Maggie. She felt the need to guard her family from Maggie instead of play with her. This ticked Maggie severely off. Maggie just sat and barked at her for the longest time until Sophie would finally pay attention to her.





Maggie waiting her turn to play fetch.


All of us after dinner at Johnny Carino's.


Justin played ball with the dogs for a while. Maggie and Sophie loved this.


After they were done playing ball, here are all of the tired puppies.


Me and Ash with the Southeast Texas Wildcatters Mascot!!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Break Time!

Everyday Bailey is taking a small break to settle into a new job and new schedule. Will be back soon!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

OH MY!!!

We tried early church this week. What is early church you might ask? It's where we go to the service at 8:00 instead of 11:00. All of this...just to see if we liked it or not. We came home and immediately started working on the house...again!!! I looked up at the clock and it said 1:00. No wonder I was seeing spots. I completely demolished my fridge looking for something for us to eat. NOTHING!!! I quickly grabbed my grocery list and headed to the store for less than 45 minutes. E was in the garage working hard and Maggie was napping at the front door (her usual spot). We had walked her that morning so I figured that she would continue to nap for a few more hours. Boy was I wrong!!!

I returned home from the store, hands full of heavy grocery bags, and my husband greets me at the door. Being the gentleman that he is, normally, he sees me and heads straight out to the car to get the rest for me. Not today. I put the bags down and he just looks at me, smiling..."Why are you looking at me?" I asked. He says "Do you notice anything different about Maggie?" After giving her three good look-overs, I was baffled and gave up "What's different?" I asked. "Look at her paws" he says. I looked and they were black,...and that's when I noticed the little black footprints leading into the kitchen. "What is that?" I asked. He guides me into the master bedroom, the site of the great pen attack (evidently). Maggie, realizing she was unsupervised, and having eyed that pen all morning waiting for a chance to get her mouth on it, chewed it to pieces leaving the black ink all over the carpet. I saw the damage and didn't know what to say, E was past that point and had already started laughing. We just looked at each other baffled at what we were seeing.


Well, this is what our carpet looks like after three good scrubs with spot cleaner. Sigh!!! Any help??? What gets ink out of carpet??? I plan on continuing to scrub although I am seeing the bleekness of the situation at this point.















My sweet Magpie, upset cause she got in trouble!

Monday, February 25, 2008

My New Favorite Bakery

I have always had a bakery that I call my own. I went to Brewbakers in Huntsville every morning to get my usual, Cranberry bagel with homemade Apple-Walnut cream cheese, and a cup of Hazelnut coffee. Mmmm...I am getting all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. In Key West, we all used to go to Goldman's deli. It was Jewish Bakery that had the most heavenly garlic bagels and tomato sandwiches.


Well, I went shopping last Saturday(I do not enjoy shopping in this town, it is the only descent mall for a couple of miles and so everyone goes there on the the weekend, especially during mardi gras season). E was studying at home and had called and wanted a me to bring him back a snack. I stopped at the Cookie Factory in the mall while I was there but the line was unbelieveable. Across the street from the mall, is a little bakery called Rao's which is now my new favorite!! These are the goodies I got for us last weekend...The original Dobashe Cake and 2 Italian Cannoli's.














What you are seeing is pure, heavenly goodness. That cake, OMG!!! It is four layers of black and white cake with chocolate mouse and custard cream between each layer. I originally bought it for E and I was going to eat the canonoli's but after my first bite of that cake, he learned very quickly that only half of that cake was his.

Trooper...Boy, What a guy!

We have a large fenced in backyard so we typically let Maggie have free reign of the backyard during the weekend knowing full well that she is going to work on the hole she has been digging for some time now. We just block off the rest of the house except for the laundry room and then block some time off to make sure she gets a bath on Sunday night after the romping is all over.

We let her go last weekend and even on President's Day. E was home doing a few things and just let her go and we had decided to bathe her on Monday night instead of Sunday. He thought he heard a noise, so he went to the window so see what it was. And this is what he saw...

















Don't adjust your computer screen...there are REALLY two puppies there!!!

There is a fence that separates our backyard from our next door neighbors backyard. Our neighbors got a new puppy, Trooper, a 3 month old chocolate Lab. Maggie and Trooper found each other's scent on the other side of the fence and decided they needed to play. So with Maggie's help, Trooper was able to dig a hole under the fence that seperates our backyard and come over the play in the backyard with Maggie when ever he wants. E took a few pictures, just because it was too funny!!!
My girl and her new friend playing hard in the backyard.
Trooper is little and got tired of Maggie pushing him around so he jumped into a planter so he could get eye-to-eye with her.
Maggie is giving Tropper tips on digging a "real" hole, using a "paws-on" approach!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Mercury is in Retrograde!









According to the sister of a close friend, there is a reason that I have been having such a hard time lately...(If you believe your horoscope and treat it like your life plan, please don't take this the wrong way...But since I don't believe in it and, well, since it's my blog, I am going to bash it) it's because Mercury is in Retrograde!!!

After telling a friend all of the happenings here on the home front, which include several woes, this is the email reply...

"I simply must let you know that, according to my sister, 'Mercury is in serious retrograde,' and absolutely everyone is having a very tough time right now. This will end in a couple of days, she says, so hang on. "

This explains so much. Right? I loved it and wanted to share it with all of you! Have a good day and don't make any decisions regarding business, travel, marriage, communication, don't buy books, cars, cell phones, etc. until the retro grade is over. :)