Blog Stuff and a Countdown

Blog stuff:
So, I changed the design of the blog recently. Even though I haven't been posting as much I felt like it needed a bit of a face lift. I love the colors in the template I chose. Sort of Fall-ish, but not just leaves, acorns and pumpkins.

I also decided that I needed to change my header photo as it was of us with only Mara Kate without Evelyn....yeah, it was a bit outdated. However, can you believe we have yet to get a good family photo of all 4 of us? I'm hoping to get one to use for a Christmas card and maybe it will double as a new blog header picture as well.

In the mean time, I've added my current favorite picture of the girls. :) But, I'm having difficulty figuring out how to change the size, font and color of the blog title at the top. Any other bloggers out there know how to adjust this? (edit: finally figured this out!)

Also, after seeing it on Nicole's blog, I've added the Feedjit feature to the right side of the blog (near the bottom) which now tells me where (not who you are, just where you are logging in from---the location, i.e. city, state, country) people are visiting the blog from....it has been so interesting to see even over the past 2 days who has been to the blog. So, if you want to tell me who you are, feel free to comment!


On another note:
Kane and I are doing a countdown. We have 31 days to go. It's a count down until Thanksgiving break---which begins November 22. This semester has required many long hours from him, which means the tasks at home require many long solo hours for me. Three days a week he works "late" which means we normally don't see him before 7pm and 1 day a week he works "even later" meaning he's not home until closer to 8pm. Friday is supposed to be his early day, but I've learned not to hold my breathe. It seems something always comes up to delay his home coming.

The bottom line is this: By the end of the week we are both exhausted & have very little energy left for one another or anything else. He works and I take care of the kids and do as many other things I can manage. We try to recharge over the weekend as best as we can and then do it all again the following week. But, on November 22 the grind of this semester will end, his hours will be less and we hope it will relieve some of the overall stress we are both feeling right now. And so we count.

At Home in Rome

Several people had asked for some pictures of our new home in Rome. Now that we are mostly settled I took some time to snap some pictures this afternoon after church.

A family photo on our front porch

Front of house

To see the entire album, click here.

We love visitors, so if you want to come see us in Rome, we'd love to have you!!!

You Know You're A Grown-Up When...

...getting a new iron thrills you and makes your day! ha!

My old iron, the one we registered for when Kane and I were engaged and scanned whatever looked good to us, before we knew to consult Consumer Reports for any and every house-holdy purchase we make has been acting up for the last few months. It's been driving me crazy because it just didn't get hot enough to get some of the toughest wrinkles out and then it started pouring water out of the steam holes at random times. I'd be ironing and I'd pick the iron up to move it and the item I'd be ironing would be drenched from water that was just freely pouring out on everything...very frustrating!!

I recently told Kane I thought we needed to get a new iron and mentioned that I knew a good iron wouldn't be cheap. He checked with Consumer Reports and found out that they recommended Rowenta brand irons pretty much across the board. Yay! I love Consumer Reports---especially when their reccomdations line up with mine (that works in my advantage and gives me added leverage with my husband)!

So, I went to Target and got the Rowenta professional-grade iron. It wasn't cheap, but it was on sale! ($10 off). I had let my ironing pile get a little too high for my taste so I was excited to use my new iron to get everything pressed and put away. I tried it out yesterday and am already in love! It was so easy, worked wonderfully and I ironed a lot of stuff in record time. I am S-O-L-D!

So, that's my review of my new Rowenta iron! Every domesticated person needs one. :)

Rowenta Professional Iron

Back in the Land of the Living

I am pleased to report that after almost a month of battling with our cell phones, we finally have ones that are working properly again! Please welcome us back to the land of the living!

For those of you who don't know:

About a month ago both of our cell phones (which we had had for less than a year) started dropping calls randomly and quite frequently (practically every call we made). After being sent 2 sets of "refurbished" phones that were the same model as our original phones and having the same problem with all of them, we were finally given brand new phones this past Friday. Thankfully we were able to get a completely different model and brand than our original ones.

We are still unsure of what was causing our problems, but we think it might have something to do with the old batteries. For some reason (warranty?) we had to keep our original batteries with each set of refurbished phones we tried. It's odd that 6 different phones (3 for me and 3 for Kane) that we tried would all have the same problem. The only thing that was consistent in each one was the original batteries. Very strange problem!

When they finally sent us new phones we (thankfully) got new batteries as well. We haven't had any problems the past 2 days with the new phones, which is just wonderful after a month of fighting with them every day.

I also want to say that AT&T was very apologetic and did their best, while staying within their policies, to help us through that crazy time. They even credited our account for the days we didn't have full service, which we were pleased about.

By the time this was finally resolved my patience was totally gone and it feels so nice to know that if I call someone I won't "hang up on them" 5+ times while we are talking. I felt so bad for those I tried to call too. I know it wasn't fun on their end either. So, a big thanks to all our family and friends for your patience with us and our silly phones.

So, this is our new phone.

In fact it is a much nicer phone than our other ones and I think I will
like it a lot! Actually, my brother-in-law who works for AT&T said he is
jealous of our phones as it is his favorite model they sell at the moment.
Yay!

Hangeth Thou In There O Baby!

Warning: Venting below



Phone Mishap and Other Happenings

I have been very frustrated the past couple of weeks, because of my phone (and Kane's). Kane and I do not have a land line and for 4+ years that has never been a problem when it comes to people communicating with us. We each have a cell phone and we try very hard to keep it on and charged at all times so people can get in touch with us if they need to, or so we can be in touch with others when we need/want to.

Well, about 2 weeks ago our phones started dropping calls---ALL THE TIME! Sometimes I would call someone and I we would talk for 3 seconds and the call would end. Other times it would end before it even rang or the person picked up. Sometimes I'd think everything was fine and talk for a good length of time and then it would just hang up. Again, VERY FRUSTRATING! I've had to call people back 3 or 4 times just to get out what I called to say. I've put other phone calls off because I just wasn't in the mood to deal with my stupid phone at that moment.

So, we went to the AT&T store. Several people had told me that their phones had done the same thing and they went in and got an "update" then it was fine. Yeah, I wish it were that simple. We went in and got new sim cards. Still happened. So, they sent us to a "device service center". They told us they replaced our sim cards and that should take care of it. I told them our sim cards had been replaced just 3 days before and it didn't fix the problem. So, the device center ended up giving us both new phones...great! We thought we'd be good to go, but it didn't fix the problem.

We have been on the phone with the "service line" (by using a land line at GA Tech) several times now and they have said they would send a technician to look at the towers in our area. Also, the service man manually switched our phones to a different tower to see if it would make a difference. NOPE! At this point, we really don't know what they can do to fix our problem. The weird thing is that it is happening to both of our phones, but no one else in our "area". Kane's phone will die at work and another guy in his lab (who also has AT&T) has had zero problems. Very, very strange!

Anyway, that's what has been going on with our phones. They are still not fixed! We are supposed to be waiting a few days before we call back to see if the problem stops happening after their technician works on the tower problem.

So, if you need to call us----please call with great patience as we will probably hang up on you at least 3 or 4 times during our conversation. Or email us! We'll let everyone know when the issue has been resolved.

Oh and a few other things that have been giving us problems: our DVD player broke last week. Our rice cooker died 2 nights ago. Our dryer has been giving us issues and is still not the most efficient appliance we have. Kane's glasses broke and had to be repaired. Oh and my favorite pair of lounge/work out pants literally have holes in them and need to be replaced. It does seem that sometimes all these things fall on you at once. Crazy times. We are hanging in there, though!

Just wanted to update everyone on what's been goin' on!

Feeling Green

¹green : Pronunciation:\ˈgrēn\ Function: adjective

Definition:

-tending to preserve environmental quality
(as by being recyclable,biodegradable, or nonpolluting)

- environmentally sound or beneficial.

Even though I am still getting over my cold the "green" I'm feeling isn't due to being sickly. Rather, I am feeling green in the sense that I made something useful entirely out of stuff I already had on hand. I was "environmentally friendly" in my creativity. :)

I don't know if this is true of all toddlers, but mine seems to have a bit of a hoarding streak in her. She doesn't want me to throw anything away that she has made, collected, found or received from anyone or anywhere. So, for awhile now there has been a growing pile on top of her bookcase of various papers, color sheets, rocks, stickers and crafts she's made in various locations. She even still has all the things she made at VBS back in the summer because every time I try to weed through anything she wants to keep it ALL!

Well, if you know me, you know she doesn't get this tendency from me (she does however come by the pile method honestly as her father does the exact same thing). I on the other hand, tend to constantly organize and reorganize things to the point of obsession (at least this is what my husband would probably say).

I decided I needed to come up with a way for Mara Kate to keep her precious items while at the same time not drive myself crazy by having to look at piles of what looks like trash (in my opinion) in her room.

So, I dug out all of my old scrap fabric from sewing projects finished years ago and actually put those scraps to great use!!!

This is what I came up with:

I made 6 pocket files like this one to use as sort of an organization system.

Here are some fabric scraps that I made into "label holders" on the front of each pocket.

Then I pinned the pockets together, overlapping slightly.

The finished project!
I sewed all six pockets together, making 2 tabs at the top of
the top pocket and made two button holes in each tab for hanging.

I'm not sure if you can read all the labels, but the bottom one is labeled "Rock Collection". Mara Kate LOVES rocks and likes to pick them up wherever we go. I think there are several in our car that haven't made it inside and several sitting around her room. Anyway, now she has a special pocket just for her rocks and maybe now I will stop secretly throwing them away when she isn't looking! ha! :)

My Helper, As Usual

Mara Kate loves to help me with normal household tasks using her own toddler sized items. She has her own broom and dustpan, she likes to dust my walls with a rag whenever I dust, she pulls clean clothes out of the dryer for me to fold and she always has her apron on when I'm cooking in the kitchen. I actually love this about her! I love that she is content to work right along side me trying her best to do whatever it is that I am doing. Because she is eager like this I can get a lot done and we get to have "girl time" along the way.

She recently acquired her very own iron and ironing board and today she got to use it while I did some ironing of my own. She actually got upset with me when she noticed I was ironing Kane's shirt after she had already ironed it! Smart girl!

It will be nice when she is actually able to help me with these kinds of household chores, but I'm guessing by the time that happens she won't be nearly as interested.

My Mop: A Household Product Review

Disclaimer: I'm starting this post by saying, this entire post may be extremely boring to most. It will be about simplifying the process of keeping a household and about how my new mop helps me in that process. It will also include some information about how romantic and sweet my husband is. So, if any of these things interest you then read on and if not...just stop now. :)


I've been in the market recently for a new mop and so my sister Tara recently told me about hers. She said that she bought it a year and a half ago when she was moving into a new place and she still loves it. One of the things she loves about it is that it has a removable, washable mop head that you can throw in your washing machine after every use and it comes out perfectly clean and as good as new for the next time your floors need cleaned. This feature was very appealing to me as the last mop I had did NOT have a removable head and I felt like every time I mopped the mop head got dirtier and dirtier and sometimes left my floor less clean, rather than more. I also found out that this mop actually is more than just a mop. It is a complete mopping system. Very cool. It comes in a box with a bucket and an attachable wringer that snaps into the bucket as well. Just what I'm looking for.

So, I asked what kind of mop it was and where she got it. Walmart. Of course, I go to Wal-mart at least once a week, sometimes more. I'd just pick it up the next time I go. I'm heading down the cleaning isle and realize my Wal-mart doesn't have the mop system I want in stock. Great, well, I'm convinced this is the mop I want, so I'll just have to find it somewhere else.

I get home and look up the mop online. Maybe I can order it off the internet. Nope, The only place that sells it online has the price listed in Euros. There's got to be a better way than having a mop shipped to me from Europe. I go to the website who actually makes this mop. Vileda. Which in turn takes me to O-Cedar. Two cleaning product brands. Ok, maybe I can find out what other stores carry this brand. I see a link that says, "Where to buy our products". I click and I see a list of at least 20 stores---Target, Publix, Walgreeens, Ace Hardware. All of these places I have nearby so I decide I'll check in the next time I'm out and see if any of these places have the particular system I am wanting. Two weeks of checking these places and nada. No one has my mop. I had my other sister check her Wal-mart on her next grocery run. Out of stock there as well.

I finally call the company. They tell me that the particular system I'm interested in, the Ultra Max All-In-One Mopping System is only sold at Wal-Mart. Great, all those wasted trips to check the other places who carry their brand. The customer service representative tells me that I am able to order the system directly from the company but that it would be more expensive, plus the cost of shipping. I decide to try one more Wal-mart. I'm heading to Knoxville in a week so I'll check the Wal-Mart there while I'm in town. Maybe I'll get lucky. The Knoxville Wal-Mart had an impressive selection of mops and brooms and had several of the Vileda brand mops, but not the one I was wanting. I tell myself, "when I get back home I'll just call the company again and just order it from them, pay the extra $5 cost and wait for it to arrive". I call. Now they tell me the system I want is on back order until the end of July. Eight weeks from now. I'll just have to be patient and continue mopping my kitchen floor with a rag for a little while longer. I mark my calendar at the end of July, "Order Mop". Ugh.

This past Saturday Kane went grocery shopping for me. He took Mara Kate and I stayed home to do a little cleaning and a little reading. It was nice to have a few minutes in a quiet house. Kane gets home and as he is bringing in the groceries he looks at Mara Kate and says, "Mara Kate tell Mommy what we got her". She looks up at me and says, "A mop, Mommy". A mop?! I look at him with questioning eyes. He says, "look out in the hall". I look and there is a box...with a mop, a bucket and an insertable wringer. It's the mop I've been looking for for over a month now. I'm thrilled!

I asked Kane how and he said he looked at the mops while he was shopping and spotted the boxes. He said he practically dove to grab one. He joked that he felt like he had to dodge sniper fire in order to secure one for me. He also confessed that he felt giddy the rest of the shopping trip knowing he was making my day by buying me a mop. A mop of all things to make my day. I know silly :)

He felt like my hero that day--and he was. He was also a very sweet and romantic husband to even think to go down that isle, just to check while buying groceries. I love my husband very much and yes, I love my new mop too. :)

The Vileda Ultra Max All-in-One Mopping System