Mid-September Update

Things are crazier than ever around here! Here's what we have going on over the next week or so...

• Friday, Sept 16 - My last day of work
• Saturday, Sept 17 - Maternity photo shoot
• Monday, Sept 19 - Painting begins at the new house
• Tuesday, Sept 20 - Last day to get EVERYTHING packed and ready for the move
• Wednesday, Sept 21 - My 30th birthday; Moving day (movers to load the truck and start the drive); Carpet to be installed in new house
• Friday, Sept 23 - Arrive in Oregon (hopefully) with the kitties
• Saturday, Sept 24 - Have truck unloaded and start moving in
• Wednesday, Sept 28 - Our anniversary! (3rd)

Wish us luck! As soon as I actually get to the new house, I'll post tons of photos (before, in progress, and eventually after).  I can't wait to start the nursery! And in early October we will have 3D ultrasound pics of Baby!

Baby & Moving Updates

I think everyone knows now that in addition to having a baby girl in December we are also in the process of moving from Colorado to Oregon. We like to make things as crazy as possible! 

Greg is already up there, staying with his parents for now, and working. Meanwhile, I'm still here in Colorado working and prepping for the big road trip out west (1,300 miles, in case you are wondering). So, I haven't had lots of free time to update the blog with baby progress and packing photos....but I will, don't give up! And, once we get to Oregon, I'm not going back to work, so I'll be able to add more house photos, nursery updates, and delivery countdown freakouts than you even wanted to see. 

Check back often. There is certainly a lot to keep up with these days and words of support are always welcome!

We're having a baby!

That's right, there will be a new addition to our house this winter. We are expecting our first baby in early December! Things have been a little crazy around here since we found out. There has been a lot of cleaning, organizing, and trying to make room for the baby. Babies may be small, but from what I've seen so far, they require a lot of stuff! We're making pretty good progress so far. The next big step will be painting the nursery (aka, the used-to-be-office). We're waiting until we find out boy or girl to pick the paint color. It's getting close: July 21st is the big reveal day! We can't wait! 

We've been really slow about telling people, but hopefully this blog will help us stay better connected with baby related news to all of our friends and family. Check back often to keep up with the growing Jones family!

Ten on Tuesday: March Madness

I missed the last two Ten on Tuesdays, but today I'm back with March Madness. No, not my basketball bracket (although I am tied for the lead in my office competition!). Just the ordinary madness that has been this March. 

10. I've had a sick kitty. Dakota (aka Dark Knight or Baby Panther) had a minor urinary tract infection. Not fun. 

09. Giving pink cherry flavored medicine to a giant boy cat is not easy. 

08. I've also had a grumpy kitty. Paige is now shunning Dakota (just like he did to her) since he returned from the vet. 

07. The vet says Dakota has gingivitis and needs his teethed cleaned. Awesome. $358 of awesome, actually.

06. Every Tuesday in March is $2 burritos at my favorite Mexican food restaurant near work. Yay! And pass the Tums, please. 

05. I leave for Boston in just over two weeks! Very excited! (I still have a lot to plan and figure out between now and then.)

04. I've had several different skin issues lately. Yuck, I know. I'm trying to get into a dermatologist this week. 

03. I finally got a new cell phone! The Sprint Samsung Epic. It is quite fancy...or so I hear anyway. I don't actually know how to do much with it yet. 

02. I watched the series finale of Big Love on Sunday. I have a weird fascination with polygamy. It was a little slow for the first half, but I thought they did a good job of wrapping things up and leaving us an acceptable ending. I'll miss those crazy Henricksons. 

01. We are still playing the house hunting/buying game. It is fun and exciting and stressful all at the same time! Hopefully I will have a real update soon!

Ten on Tuesday: About Me

It is already Tuesday again... I haven't done an update post about my new bill pay system (which is working quite well) and I don't have any fun ideas for a top ten list today. Oops. Oh well, I don't want to break my Ten on Tuesday tradition, so this week will have to be ten things about me. Warning, I'm a weird one! Here we go...

10. I am a super picky eater. As you might have noticed with my Sonic grilled cheese reference, I tend to eat like a six year old. I love cheeseburgers (plain & dry), chicken strips, pizza and spaghetti. I hate lettuce, mustard, bananas, pecans and anything that is cold and crunchy. Weird textures totally gross me out. 

09. I cut my fingernails every couple of days. I hate for them to be even a little bit long. But I never chew or bite them. That grosses me out too. 

08. I have never had a cavity. Other than braces when I was a teenager, I haven't had anything done to my teeth other than cleaning....which probably explains why I love going to the dentist. 

But don't be too jealous:

07. I have terrible eye sight. Seriously, it is awful. I asked the eye doctor once what my number was. You know, 20/20, 20/15 whatever. She said they didn't have a number for me. Gee, thanks, that makes me feel good. Luckily, I have been wearing the same contacts (same brand, not Rx) for over 15 years. 

06. I am really good at Pictionary. 

05. My black cat, Dakota, is left handed. 

04. I don't like birds as pets. I would love to have a guinea pig however! 

03. I didn't learn how to swallow a pill until I was an adult. Pathetic, I know. I tried and tried but they would always get stuck on my tongue and make me gag. 

02. I hate for my Jeep to be dirty. I get her washed all the time. I just think she looks happier when she is all clean and shiny. I call her Jeepie. 

01. I love shopping. It may be my greatest talent. I can always find amazing deals. But, in my attempt to be more responsible and spend less money I haven't been shopping since early January. It is the best expression of self control I've ever exhibited. Well, until I turned "no shopping" into house hunting and then got Greg hooked. Big oops. Now we both want to move to a new house. Uh oh...

Ten on Tuesday: 80s Cartoons

So, this post (or one over the weekend) was supposed to be an update of the progress I've made on my Ten Things to Try list. Yeah, that didn't happen. I spent my long weekend house shopping instead. Naughty, naughty me. 

Which bring us to this totally random Ten on Tuesday topic - my favorite cartoons from when I was a kid! They weren't all actually made in the 80s but they were on tv then. Ready for a trip down animated memory lane?

10. Alvin and the Chipmunks

Image found here.

09. Muppet Babies

Image found here.

08. Inspector Gadget

Image from wikipedia.

07. Ducktails

Image from wikipedia.

06. The Smurfs

Image from here.

05. The Flintstones

Image from here.

04. The Jetsons

Image from here.

03. Looney Tunes

Image from here.

02. Garfield & Friends

Image from here.

01.  Adventures of Little Koala

Image from here.

This one was really hard to find! I could remember the show but I couldn't remember the name. Does anyone else remember this? It came on Nickelodeon. Roo Bear and his sister Laura were the main characters. They lived in a tree with their family. It was so cute. I loved it!

I hope you enjoyed this little walk down cartoon memory lane. It brightened my day just thinking about all these fun old shows! Does anyone else miss the old style animation? What were your favorite cartoons as a kid?

Ten on Tuesday: Things to Try

Ten things I want to try on Tuesday. Well, not necessarily on Tuesday, but in next few weeks anyway!

10. Making Videos

I love the house tour, vacation, baby, and general life videos I see on other blogs. It is so fun to get a glimpse into people's lives (and be reminded that they are real people). And since we have a flip at  home, I want to get in on the action! I think a quick tour of our house would be fun. And it could be neat to have later if we move or make additional changes. 

 I've noticed that most videos are saved to YouTube or vimeo, but I don't know the difference or benefits to either. I'm guessing maybe size limits are an issue. Thoughts? Reasons to use one over the other? Are they both free to upload to?  

09. A Mac Workshop

I have a fabulous iMac at home. But at work I have a regular PC (that I know how to use much better and easier). I know the mac store offers free workshops so I think that could be a quick and easy way for me to finally get more efficient with my home computer. I would love to hear about your experience if anyone has tried one of the workshops! 

08. Budgeting

I've been thinking about this one for a long time, but have no idea how to get started. It can't be that hard, so instead of over thinking it and trying to find a pretty template online to use, I'm just going to get started and see what happens. I really hate dealing with money and bills and obviously budgets (since I've never used one!) but I'm a grown up and it has to be done. I'll report back how it goes...

image found here

07. Snowball Debt Reducer Concept

Like most people (tell me I'm not the only one) I have a few credit cards that I need to pay off. As you learned in #08, budgeting and precise money management aren't really strong skills for this girl. Nevertheless, I googled around and found a snowball concept for paying off credit cards. The idea is we needy humans need to see progress to feel good about ourselves (yes, please, progress is always appreciated!). So, prioritize what you need to pay off, either by highest interest rate first or by lowest balance first, and make as big of a payment as possible on that #1 card and only minimal payments on everything else, until the #1 card and totally paid off and then you move on to #2, etc. (This is of course my own summary of what I have read online, google it to learn from the experts.) I'm planning to utilize this method from this month forward. 

06. Meal Planning

What do you want for dinner? I don't know, what do you want? We have this conversation all too often at our house. Or we decide on something and then realize we don't have a necessary ingredient. It is annoying and totally unnecessary. I want to start meal planning on Saturday or Sunday for the following work week. We can take a look in the pantry, see what all we need, get the grocery shopping done on the weekend, and have a plan for dinner all week. Sounds super easy. We'll see how it works out! 

05. Three Posts per Week

I want to try to have three posts per week. I really love the Ten on Tuesday prompt because it gives me a specific direction (thanks Kim!). I also love the challenges over at a bowl full of lemons, but I never get the tasks completed in the timeframe given. I need to be quicker! The good news is, at least I haven't totally abandoned the blog this time, one post per week is better than before. But I can do better. Hopefully...

04. Photoshop

I want to learn photoshop. I have it at work but I don't know how to use it. I don't understand the layers. But I know it is amazing and everyone uses it for awesome creations. I'm sure there is a class or a series of you tube videos with tutorials. 

03. Photography
I also want to learn to be a better photographer. Both with the regular little camera we have now and also with a fancy DSLR camera someday. I think a lot of it is practice. I need to take more photos!

02. Flickr

Speaking of photos, I want to find the best online site to store and share them. I use Picasa right now, but I'm not really happy with the way they are organized and with the upload process. Flickr seems to be very popular, so I'm going to try that. Any other suggestions?

01. eBAY

Finally, I really want to try/learn/figure out ebay. Specifically, I want to try to sell on ebay. I have no idea about the shipping. How do you know how much shipping will cost? It all seems very intimidating. Will anyone want to buy my stuff? I think so, but I have to try to find out. I have left over purses from my purse recycle, clothes that are several sizes too small, shoes that hurt my feet and stuff that I'm just tired of that I want to get rid of. But it is all good stuff (aka expensive stuff). We donate tons of clothes every year, but there are always those things that I feel like I paid too much for to just give away. Again, it can't be that hard. Millions of people all over the world have manged to make ebay work for them, I just need to try it! ...although any words of wisdom would be appreciated...

What have you been wanting to try? What are we waiting for? Let's give it a try!