My Week as a Stay at Home Mom---Day 3

Okay, so I am not quite sure where yesterday ended and today began because it was 12:30 am when Avery was crying from her crib and I can honestly say I had just fallen asleep less than an hour before, for some reason I laid in bed last night watching TV and couldn't get to sleep even though I was tired.  But I got up and gave Avery a bottle and held her for a little bit and put her back down to sleep.  I got back in my bed and went right back to sleep, thank goodness!

6:45 am I hear Avery talking on the monitor.  Rich gets up and makes a bottle and I get Avery up and dressed.  Avery also had a leaky diaper so Rich changed her sheets as she ate.  Jolie was also up at this point so she got in our bed and watched a little TV.  Rich took a shower.  Once Avery was done I got Jolie and myself dressed and we headed downstairs for breakfast.

7:15 am I feed Jolie breakfast, Rich makes coffee, and we pack lunches.  Rich leaves for work and I finish getting Jolie ready for school.

8:20 am I load the kids in the car to take Jolie to school, we talk to my parents on the way, nothing too exciting.

9:00 am On the way home from the school Avery and I stop at the Hess Gas Station to grab a newspaper as the meat market sale ad is in there today, we get that.  There is a Thursday coupon for boneless skinless chicken breast, it is on sale with the coupon in the paper tomorrow for $1.59/lb. when you buy 10lbs. or more, so I decide that is worth waiting til tomorrow for.  We get home and play, Avery is slightly cranky, maybe because she was up in the middle of the night, just a guess!

10:20 am I feed Avery a mini bottle, she only eats half but looks super tired so I put her down for a nap.  While she sleeps I make a grocery list and get the coupons together, I opted not to do that last night, oops!  So I get all that info together.  There were some great BOGO's and I had some real good coupons, it made me excited, I have to admit!

11:45 am Avery wakes up and we head out to the store, she is happy and good in the store, everyone talks to her, she loved it!  I ended up saving just over $50 in coupons and sales, only spent $48 out of pocket, I am getting so good at this and I love it!

12:45 pm We arrive home and I get the cold stuff put away and then get lunch ready for Avery and myself, since I didn't eat during her nap we ate together today.  Avery finished off another baby food jar, yes!!!  My collection is growing!!

1:45 pm Lunch is done, dishes are in the sink and the highchair and table are wiped down.  Avery plays in her step and play while I take a few orders for work and start typing this post.  I feel totally behind today and realize that is actually going to rain today so I scratch the idea of going to Ikea for today, I think I will go on Friday and take Jolie and leave Avery with Rich since we are all home on Friday as it is a school holiday.

2:00 pm I feed Avery a bottle, she really didn't finish it either, not sure what that is about as most the time she sucks them dry.  She is eating more food now though so that could be it.

2:30 pm Avery is just a fussy mess, I put her down for her nap.  She made a few noises that I heard on the monitor but she slept well.  I spend a couple of minutes just sitting on the couch and enjoy the quite.  I then get up and put the dry good groceries away and load/unload the dishwasher.  I start thinking about dinner for the night, we are having yellow rice and chicken, I am making fresh steamed brocolli, and cuban bread and butter, obviously I went to the store today because I wouldn't always have that much fresh stuff in my house.  Although I have to say I have become a fan of some of these frozen veggies.  I even bought 4 bags today on BOGO plus I had a $1.00 off two bag coupon.  With the rising cost of "healthy" foods (fruits, veggies, and meats) I have had to get creative with coupons and sales.  I have started using a local meat market that runs great specials for all of our meats as I refuse to pay the price of Publix meats, I mean their boneless, skinless chicken is about $4 a pound, that just doesn't work for me and obviously I do a few nights for less as well but I still pull a weekly average of about $5-6 a day for dinner and then lunch is actually a little more because of the convience foods that are factored in.  However, I am getting better as I have started buying whatever deli meat is on sale at the meat market for $3.99/lb. so that is also helping!  Anyways, enough of my grocery philosiphies and ways.  I also decided at the end of Avery's nap time to make Rich a little treat so I made some witches hats, they are by far Rich's favorite fall treat so he was thrilled when he got home.

4:00 pm Avery woke up from her nap and was super cute in the monitor just talking away.  I went upstairs and got her and we came downstairs for her snack.  We played a little bit and she hung out in her step and play as I finished up some orders for work.  Then she finished her bottle from earlier.

5:15 pm Rich and Jolie arrived home, we all just hung out.  Rich had a big lunch at work with a friend so he wasn't up for a big dinner so him and I kind of skipped dinner, which was fine with me, I wasn't that hungry either.

6:00 pm Rich and I fed the kids dinner and sat with them at the dining room table.

7:00 pm Rich gave Jolie a bath and I watched Avery in her room while she played.  After Jolie's bath she came in and played a little too.

8:00 pm I put Avery to bed and Rich put Jolie to bed.

It is currently a little after nine and Rich is laying on one couch and I am on the other typing this post and thinking about how I am ready to go to bed and relax.  I didn't get as much done today as I had hoped but it is what it is I guess, today kind of felt like a vacation day in it's own little way.  I didn't do as much for work so that was nice.  I do still have a ton of stuff I wanted to get accomplished but watching a baby and getting heavy duty cleaning done is next to impossible.  So over the weekend I am going to try to get a little bit done while Rich helps with the kids, we shall see if that works out for me!!  But I am tired today and the weather tonight is awesome so I am ready to go lay in my bed with the bedroom windows up and go to sleep to the quiet night breezes, now that sounds a little like a vacation!!  Well strike the vacation thing, Jolie just came downstairs crying about the fact that her TV turned off, we set the sleep timer to it and most nights she is fast asleep before it cuts out, tonight is not one of those nights and Rich is off to get her back down and I am off to assist in that, good night!

My Week as a Stay at Home Mom-----Day 2

So last night went well, except a mess up in our take out but Avery went down to bed with ease and Rich and I got caught up on Jersey Shore from last week so that was fun, I often wondered how I lived without DVR, it is an amazing invention!

On to today....

5:30 am I was still sound asleep in bed but apparently Jolie was up and wondered downstairs to find Rich asleep on the couch where he had fallen asleep watching Monday Night Football. So she woke him up and they cuddled on the couch for a little while.

7:00 am Rich came upstairs and got in the shower. I got up and threw on a t-shirt and yoga pants, it is a comfy day as it is suppose to rain all day. I got Jolie dressed while Rich was in the shower and then Avery woke up so I got her up, diaper changed, and bottle fed. I decided to give Avery a PJ day so I just left her in the pj's she was wearing.

7:35 am We all came downstairs for breakfast, Jolie ate her cereal and Avery played in the pack and play, she doesn't like being in it except in the morning, so I use it while it works! Rich and I packed lunches, his and Jolie's. Rich made coffee....awesome because a cup was a must this morning!

8:15 am I loaded the kids up to take Jolie to school, we talked to my parents on the way and Jolie started crying when she realized Mimi and Poppy had gone to the Mountains without her. It was kind of sad and I felt real bad for my Mom but Jolie cheered up when we told her she would go with them in the summer.

8:45 Avery and I came back home and just played in the living room, she was busy!

10:15 am Avery got a mini bottle and went down for her morning nap. She played hard this morning so she was out pretty quick. I got a few minutes on the couch to just relax, loved that! Then I typed the first part of this post on the I-Pad. I sent a few words with friends to my Mom and Grandma. Now I am going to figure out what's for dinner and defrost that and then I am going to heat up some soup from the freezer for lunch. I also had my weekly update call with the house director at the sorority house, this afternoon I am hoping to get some other things done for the sorority as well.

11:45 am Avery wakes up from her nap, good thing I had already ate my lunch, thank goodness for quick and easy things from the freezer.  My freezer is getting a little light on food so I think it means I have to grocery shop and cook on Thursday or Friday.  Anyways, I go upstairs and get Avery, change her diaper and look around her room and realize it is a mess, the girls have been playing in there a lot lately so it needs to be cleaned, I make a mental note of that and think that it might be a good afternoon project.

12:00 pm I put Avery in the highchair to eat lunch, she eats all her baby food jar, I am currently collecting the glass baby food jars for a project for her first birthday party so I get very happy when we have empties.  I currently have 13 and I need 57, so she needs to get to eating!! ha ha  Then she eats her little puffs, she is getting so good at feeding herself those, it is amazing how fast she has grown.

12:30 pm I put Avery on the floor to play, she crawls around I surf the net for a new shelve for my dining room, I measure the space and think of my needs and send a couple of links to Rich for his opinion.  Rich tells me he doesn't care (I do love that he lets me decorate and undecorate however I want and he also appreciates the fact that I try to do so at a minimal cost) so I find the one I want at Ikea, check the inventory for the Tampa store and bingo they have it, and it fits my budget!!  Love it when the stars align like that!  I get super excited and think of packing Avery up and going over to get it.  Rich texts me and says it is supposed to rain all afternoon why would I want to do this.  I agree but it hasn't rained a drop yet, even though it was supposed to start last night, then no later than noon and so on but I decide I will do this tomorrow.  So then I debate what today's project is going to be.  While I debate my next project I clean out a catch all basket that is in the kitchen.  I then decide it was time to clean Avery's room.

1:15 pm Avery and I head to her room for cleaning, well I cleaned she played on the floor with all her toys.  I moved some stuff around, put some small clothes away for my friend Sarah's kids, and pull out some more clothes that are Avery's size and good for fall.  I dusted and moved some things around.  Then before I put all the toys on the floor away Avery and I played and giggled and just had some great Mommy/Baby time.

2:30 pm We came downstairs I threw away the garbage from our cleaning and put away a few things I had brought downstairs while Avery spent about 10 minutes in the pack and play.  I made her little bottle and she ate it all, quickly!!  She is a little piglet!! :)

2:45 pm Avery went to her crib for her afternoon nap, she went right down, we played pretty hard!  I wrote more of this blog post, I am using every minute I have.  I did a little research on some items I need for little projects for Avery's first birthday party, that will be a post for another day.  I promised Rich I would have at least one day of my vacation where I didn't spend any money so I stop myself from ordering them and figure I will do it tomorrow since I am going to Ikea tomorrow anyways, so today is No Spending Tuesday in The Perillo House.

3:30 pm I get busy with work, I have orders to put in and some phone calls to take, I hear her on the monitor playing but she isn't crying so I leave her a little longer.  She goes back to sleep for a few more minutes.

4:00 pm Avery is for sure awake now.  I go upstairs to her room and we play up there for a few minutes, I took the I-Pad to play words with friends while I watched her crawl around.  I then decide since I cleaned Avery's Room I should also clean Jolie's Room.  So Avery and I head in there and get it done!

5:15 pm Rich and Jolie arrive home as Avery and I finish cleaning Jolie's room, I didn't get to the girl's bathroom but I had already sprayed the cleaner so I know I have to get it done before Avery's bath tonight.  We all go downstairs and play for a little bit.

6:00 pm I start making dinner, just a simple chicken and veggie pasta that I make fairly regularly.  We eat, which with Jolie is forever an adventure.  Avery eats well, I have another baby food jar for my collection, Jolie doesn't do as well and looses her TV privilege for the evening.

7:00 pm Rich watches the girls so I can get back upstairs and clean the girl's bathroom.  I play with the girl's for a few minutes while Rich takes the laundry out and hangs up a few things to dry.

7:30 pm Rich gives Avery a bath and Jolie and I put the kid's toys away in Avery's room.

7:50 pm I give Avery her night bottle, she goes to bed quickly, totally unlike Avery but it happens.  I know deep down that it won't last but I keep going.

8:10 pm I get in the shower for the first time this week, its awful isn't it, that is the one thing that I feel like is very difficult this week, there doesn't seem to be time for me, not even for a shower, because pretty much I only have time to do it when Rich is home, that limits things quite a bit.

8:30 pm I sit down to update this blog.  I think of the 700 things I still feel like need to be done tonight but at this point I start prioritizing as I am tired.  I decide once done with this I am going to the dishes and clean the kitchen and then I am going to consult the store ads and my coupons and make a quick grocery list to get us through the rest of this week.  I didn't grocery shop this weekend, I did a big shop the week before, the sales were just awesome!  So I am just going to do a small trip and get just the things we need until the weekend.  I also need to inventory the meats in the freezer as the local meat market will have a new ad coming out tomorrow, this way I will know what I have and what sales I want to take advantage of.

So with that note it is 8:45 pm and I still have dishes, cleaning, and grocery list making to do.  In conclusion, it was another good day at home with Avery, she is so cute.  I think I will take a few pictures tomorrow to share but until then I have a lot to do, will be back tomorrow to continue my week long post series.  I will also say I did not get as much done today as I wanted to but I had a good time with my sweet baby girl!  On a side note, it never did rain today....so I stayed in for nothing!  The weatherman got it all wrong!

My Week as a Stay at Home Mom---Day 1

So I know, I know I have been so absent from blogging, I have just been so busy in life so I have been so bad at keeping up with the blog. I promise to update with at least pictures over the next week. But moving on to my week as a SAHM, Jolie goes to preschool everyday, however, Avery is not in school yet, she stays with my Mom four days a week and one day a week with my MIL. Well my parents were itching to get up to their house in North Carolina for the changing of the leaves, so since I had a week's vacation left, I told Mom and Dad to head out of town and I would stay with Avery, so here we are with my week as a SAHM. So far so good....I have grand plans for this week so I am hoping to get a lot done, we'll see if that actually happens but I have the best of intentions.

7:00 am Rich is up and tells me I better do the same, for some miraculous reason both kids are still asleep, love it!

7:20 am I actually roll out of bed, put on jeans and a t-shirt, put my hair in a ponytail, kids are still asleep, love it!

7:30 am Rich and I go in Jolie's room as she is stirring, I get her up and dressed, we head downstairs for breakfast. She has cereal and Rich makes her lunch and his.

7:45 am Avery wakes up and we hear giggling on baby monitor and little squeals, so cute!!!  I go in and get her dressed and feed her, her morning bottle. Avery wakes up in a good mood and is smiling. We head downstairs. I put on minimal makeup and help Jolie finish breakfast and then do her hair and get her shoes and socks on.

8:15 am We load in the car to take Jolie to school.

8:35 am Jolie is dropped off and Avery and I head for the Dollar Store and Walmart. We pick up a few random items at each place and head home.  Avery plays while I do a little work, send e-mails and make phone calls.

10:30 am Avery gets a small bottle and then heads down for a nap. I did get a second to pour myself an iced coffee, which was delicious thanks to my wonderful husband making coffee this morning. She wakes several times crying, she didn't finish the bottle so I head upstairs to finish giving said bottle. While she is sleeping I make a quick lunch for myself. As I cook and eat, I hear her playing in her crib but at least she some what rested.

12:30 pm I feed Avery her lunch of baby food jar, a little squash and some fruit. She also ate some veggie wagon wheels and yogurt puffs.

1:00 pm I put Avery in the living room to play while I get some cleaning done downstairs. That happens somewhat but not entirely, I got less done than I would on my own but I did get some things accomplished and of course got some time with a super cute little girl! I got all the girl's toys cleaned up and cleared out a little bit.  I also got some dusting done.  I plan on having Rich get out my box of fall decor tomorrow and getting that put up as well as get a little closet cleaning done, hopefully my sweetie allows that!

3:00 pm I feed Avery a mini bottle and put her down for her afternoon nap.  She was in her bed talking for the better part of the first 15 minutes or so.  While she was napping Mommy took a break and wrote the beginning of this post.  I also was able to get some orders punched in for work since I am on a working vacation.  I caught a few minutes of raunchy daytime TV, I have to admit Judge Mathis is my guilty pleasure and then swept the downstairs floor.  I did a bunch of work while Avery napped, so that was good.

4:30 pm Avery wakes up from nap we play, I do a little more cleaning.

5:15 pm Jolie and Rich came home, the kids played and I ordered take out.  It was a long day so I opted for no cooking, so now it is almost time to eat and Rich accidently posted this post that I had up waiting for my day to be over so we will call it a day now and say it went well as a stay at home Mom, at least for today!

See you tomorrow!!!

Where were you?

Where were you on that fateful day 10 years ago? I think we all remember and always will remember where we were when we heard about the attacks on our nation. This is the day that changed our nation and most especially our generation, it is the day that changed the way we live our lives and the day we declared war on hateful people. This is the day we lost thousands in three sites but the day that began a war where we lost nearly 8,000 of our friends in a far away land. I am grateful and thankful for what the last 10 years has brought to my life and I am beyond appreciative to the men and women who have given so freely of their lives to protect mine!

I will never forget!

Thankful for a weekend.....

So this week I have to say I am so thankful for the weekend. It has just been so busy, we had the AC issue Sunday into Monday, Rich went back to work, I had crazy happenings at work, and it was just so overall busy! Then this next week Jolie starts VPK on Tuesday and I am sure it will be very busy as Rich starts actually teaching and my job is busy right now.

In order to recover from last week and prepare for next week I am just so glad to have today and tomorrow to relax and hang out with my family. Today, Rich is playing golf this morning and I am playing with the girls. Right now as I type Avery is playing in her step and play piano and Jolie is making a picture out of stamps. They are both quiet and happy which is awesome as I just feel like I need 5 minutes of sitting and having peace. This afternoon after Rich gets home we are taking the girls swimming in the pool, so that too will be fun. Then Rich and I are going to do takeout for dinner and we will probably watch Jersey Shore on DVR after the girls go to bed. I am going to start picking up the house in a little bit this morning but I will do the bulk of the heavy cleaning tomorrow along with a grocery store run tomorrow. Then Rich is going to grill out some ribs for dinner, yum! Then it is prepare clothes and stuff for the week and that will be the end of our weekend.

I was thinking about it the other day....I really want to know who decided that the work week should be 5 days and the weekend only 2 days? I think it should be 4 days for working and 3 days for playing, that would make things so much more equal and balanced. Every time I get a 3 day weekend it makes me feel so much better, rested and more productive because then it is easy to have a nothing/rest day and you still have 2 other days to get things done like cooking and cleaning. It is just a thought but I think everyone would be happier and more productive!

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!

Is that the flux capacitor????

So, this morning I called the AC repair person....they came around noon. The guy was real nice and got straight to work, trying to find the problem. It wasn't long before he informed me that the same capacitor we had replaced 4 years ago had again gone bad, and of course this little tiny part ain't cheap, that is always the luck around here it seems. So after less than an hour of the guy working and nearly $500 later the AC is fixed and I have to say it feels nice and cool as I sit and type. However, this morning and well all night last night it was a blazin' hot in this house, it was all I could do this morning to pack up myself and Avery and get out of here to go to my Mom's house to get ready for work. I have to say I was blasting the AC in the car all the way over to my Mom's.

I had to laugh about the whole capacitor thing because every time I even hear that word (which isn't often) I think of Back to the Future and the flying/time machine better known as a delorian...those movies really were some of the very best of the 80's. I mean who doesn't know those movies? I know I get a little excited when I see the three part seris come on TV on a random weekend.

Hot!!!!

So as most of you probably know it has been ungodly hot this summer, all over the country but especially here in Florida. It has been well into the 90's for days, weeks, probably several months. I have been thankful for AC all summer! Well, I spent the afternoon/early evening at my parents with the girls, Jolie and Avery had baths over there we ate dinner, etc. Rich was at a funeral for a friend/co-worker that passed away earlier this summer. I got home right at 8 and went straight upstairs to get Avery settled in to bed, Rich walked in as I was putting Avery down. I came out of Avery's room thinking to myself it is hot in here, I went over to the AC control, it was off, I turn it on, lower the temp and come downstairs to ask Rich when and why he turned the AC off. Rich informs me he just turned it off because it was set on 75 yet it was reading 80. We go back upstairs, mess with it, go outside and listen and realize the compressor isn't running, just the fan. We instantly realize, this is a problem. I of course call Dad, he loads up tools and the wet/dry vac and heads right over. He hooks the wet/dry vac to the little pole thing outside and sucks out a bunch of water, I think great it's fixed. Well, I was wrong....the compressor doesn't turn on. So needless to say on a Sunday night at 9 pm, there aren't many people ready to come over and fix it. So we load little Jolie up in the car and Rich takes her to my parent's house for the night and also picks up 2 extra fans, at this point we already have all the ceiling fans in the house on and our only fan in Avery's room, that sweet baby is sleeping through all of this. So as it stands now we have a call into the AC guy, we have fans running and Rich and I are watching Jersey Shore on DVR in the heat, well honestly with the fans it isn't that bad. Will update tomorrow. Mow I just have my fingers crossed that this doesn't cost a fortune to fix!