Oliver in his sandbox

We've had this sandbox for awhile, but just now got sand and got it set up. Which I'm happy about, since it would've been a pain to move and i didnt trust that the apt ragamuffin kids wouldnt have stolen his toys or destroyed it...anyway, oliver loves it!  he wouldnt smile at me, but he really was having fun :)

(and yes, he is wearing a disposable dipe, boo...lol..i have one box left and then never buying them again!)

"No, Mama, i will NOT smile!" :-p

Doing Well

We finally have our internet at home, but I just haven't spent much time online.  I absolutely love our new home.  Sometimes I find that I'm not sure what to call it.  Its not an apt, and I don't think of it as a "condo" like the landlord does.  Its a duplex, but I just call it a house.  Its set up exactly like a house, and from the inside, you cant tell you have someone on one side of you.  When you look outside, its just our backyard.  Looking out the front, we dont even have anyone across the street from us.  Its wonderful.  Especially after living in a rowdy apt complex where I didnt even want to open my windows because I felt like people could hear our conversations.  seriously, it was that bad.  I would be in the kitchen and kids would literally come up and play on our back patio.  It always blew me away that they would do that, but it was true.

So more to come soon.  We're still moving some things.  We get our washer and dryer tomorrow.  YIPPEE!!!!!!  We havent had our own washer and dryer for 2 1/2 years.  And for the year before that we had an itty-bitty stackable washer and dryer.  So this will be heaven.  Just like the dishwasher has been!   I told Jay I dont even want to go back and get anything else from the apt because things dont feel crowded here and its wonderful.  I just want to get our pictures and leave all the other stuff, lol.  Thankfully we have some storage room in the garage so not everything has to end up inside.  I'm getting rid of stuff like crazy too! I'm one to throw out just about anything...literally.  Jay and I were trying to figure out what to do with our chaise chair and I told him we should just get rid of it, lol.

Oliver had his 2nd birthday last week (Aug 26) and it was so fun to be in our new place.  He got really spoiled and has a billion new toys, but thats ok.  He is such a blessing to us, and we thank God everyday for him!

Pictures to come soon...

ahhh

...I love our new place. :)

we dont have internet hooked up yet, so I'll be posting more sporadically.  Last night we moved all our kitchen stuff (almost), our bed, Oliver's bed, our couch, bathroom stuff, and a ton of toys.  We are very blessed to have some great friends who helped us.  I absolutely love where we are right now.  Last night, me, Oliver, Jay, Jem, Kirsten, Jeremy, Russ, and Margie could all be in our living room comfortably.  Before, it would have been a tight fit with me, Jay, Oliver, and any other 2 people!  LOL  I was able to get our whole kitchen unpacked last night before I went to bed.  This place already feels more like home than our apt did.  Less than a week til we get our washer and dryer.  WOOHOO!!!!  We also have a dishwasher finally! yaaaaay!!

I love the extra storage space that was added onto the garage.  There were a few things for our kitchen that I wanted to keep but didnt really have room for.  So out in the garage they went.  No biggie.  That was awesome.  We still have so much stuff to bring over, though.  I wish we didnt have to bring anything else over, because right now things dont feel cramped at all.  I dont want them to get that way either!  I have already gotten rid of a lot of stuff that we simply didnt use.  Also, our friends are having a yard sale in september so I will sell some of it.  For the most part, though, I just want it gone.  I refuse to have my home so cramped and uncomfortable again.  There really wasnt a lot we could do about it in the other place.  There just wasnt room for anything.  But here we have room, so I'm going to use it to organize and keep things clean and in place.  I know things will get out of order, but I can handle that if there is a place for it all to go back to.  I also dont want to fill up the extra bedroom with a bunch of crap.  One day hopefully we'll be able to add to our family, and I dont want to be finding places to put all kinds of junk when we have to clean out that room for a future baby.  We'll see how it all goes...I'm just very happy to be here. :)

1 Year

Its been one year since our friend Landon died.  :(  I cant believe its been that long, and yet at the same time I feel like it was yesterday that I got a text from Megan, his sister and my roommate from college, that said, "Stay by your phone, i need to call you. its important."  I couldnt possibly imagine what was going on, but that was the last thing I expected to hear.  Tonight we went up to Megan's parents' house and we all released balloons that had letter inside that we wrote to Landon.  It was beautiful.  Oliver was a little monster and screamed during the prayer, but oh well.  It was awful seeing Ron and Janet (Megan and Landon's parents) as the balloons flew off.  It reminded me of seeing them as they walked out of Landon's funeral and nearly collapsed from the grief.  Landon, we love you and miss you more than you'll ever realize.

On a much happier note, we got the keys to our new home today. :) :) :)  We moved a couple loads of stuff, including most of our kitchen stuff and the drawers from Olivers dresser and a lot of my clothes.  Tomorrow we will have a couple trucks to move the big stuff and hope to stay there tomorrow night.  We have until Sept. 15 to get out of this place so we dont have to do it too quickly which is great since Olivers birthday is this week and his party is on Saturday.  Jay has the day off Thursday and Friday which will be great since I will have a LOT of decorating/baking to do.  plus I have my first order for chocolate chip cookies for Thursday, so it'll be a busy week all around.

I do wonder a lot how in the wide world did we get so much stuff?! probably because I secretly wish I was a minimalist, but Im just not...lol

Packing.

I am so excited to be packing-because it means we are getting OUT of here.  But, I hate it at the same time!  where to put these boxes as I pack?  Its not like we had any room to spare in the first place.  Someone said to put the boxes where the stuff you're packing was.  Great, except I cant fit boxes in my cabinets! 

We get the keys tomorrow.  Not sure what time though...and we have to be at our friend's house around 6, and they live about an hour away.  maybe less.  Our good friend died last year as a result of a tragic shooting, and his sister (one of my good friends -she introduced me and Jay) and her parents are having a "Letters to Heaven" balloon release as a memorial. Its going to be really sad -  but good at the same time.  I cant believe its been a year already.  Landon, know that we love you and miss you so much.  There are times I still dont believe you could possibly be gone.

So depending on what time we get the keys, we hope to move at least a couple car loads of stuff.  Then after Jay gets off work on Monday we are going to have some friends help us move some of the big stuff.  Some of the bigger stuff we'll leave here for the time being (like the bookcases, and possibly Oliver's crib since he's sleeping in his toddler bed) and get them as we can.  We have to wait 30 days to get out of this lease, so we have time.  We want to be able to start staying there as soon as possible, so hopefully we can do that after moving some stuff on Monday.  Oliver's birthday is on Thursday, so it really is a whirlwind right now.  We are so, so happy to be getting out of here though.  I cant even describe it!

Tonight we are going to go look at washer and dryers...YAY!!!  Ok, I'm not excited about spending that much money, but its been nearly 2 1/2 years since I have had my own washer and dryer.  We have had to cart all of our laundry across the parking lot to the laundry place here at the apt or do it at my in-laws. (Which we are so thankful for! They have been so sweet about letting us come and go and use their washer and dryer.  I owe my MIL big time after taking over her laundry room for the past 2.5 years.)  We are also going to go look for some bathroom stuff, since we will have an extra bathroom.  Plus, the stuff we have in our bathroom now is old and yucky.  Something very exciting (to me!) is that since there are 2 full baths upstairs, Jay is going to use the one in the hallway (which is also going to be Oliver's) that way he doesnt wake us up in the morning.  So...I get my own bathroom! YAY!!!  I'm sure it will be infiltrated to some extent with Olivers things (as is our entire home!) but thats totally ok.  I'm just excited to have some space.  A lot of the homes we looked at only had 1 or 1.5 baths, and we wouldve made it work fine (we have 1.5 here- but I hate the downstairs one so I rarely use it.) but I'm pretty excited to have 2 1/2 baths at our new place!

I know that as we have more children and acquire more things, our new home will eventually feel small to us. But for right now, I am loving the feeling of moving into somplace bigger.  My number one goal in this new place is to keep it ORGANIZED.  We have zero organization here and it drives me NUTS.  I hate it.  I think thats one reason I'm always stressed-I cant find anything.  So even if things get messy, I want to be able to get it organized. Things may not always be in their place - but as long as they have a place to be in, I'll accept that.

...off to pack some more...

We. Are...

....MOVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am over the moon excited.  I have so much to say, but I'm exhausted.  I havent slept much the past few nights, so I'm going to read a little and head to bed.  Praise the Lord!  We have a new home!  This was the best birthday present I could have asked for!!!!!!

No Word yet

So no word yet on the house.  ::sigh::  Today was Jays birthday and I feel badly but I know I was so pre-occupied.  I'm trying SO VERY HARD to cast all my anxieties upon the Lord.  The anxious feelings I have are not of God, so I must take them captive and cast them out.  I just want to know so badly.  If its not it, just let us know, please...so we can move on and keep looking.  Although thats what we've been trying to do and there's been NOTHING.  ::sigh::

I'm exhausted.  Going to bed now.

Yum!

Oliver's favorite thing lately...

...cereal!

Hmmm?

So today the landlord of the place we are hoping to get (if its God's will) called and checked to make sure we're still interested.  Actually, he called Russ (my FIL) and asked to have Jay call him, but Russ just gave him Jay's number.  Strange, since our number is on the app, but whatever.  Jay said of course we are still interested, and the guy said he would be making a decision either tomorrow or Wednesday.

UGHHHHHHH

I pray that it is God's will for us to have this place.  At first I was totally fine with us not getting it, but its been a week and a half now, and it keeps dragging on.  I have had time to envision us there, and really hope that this is the place God intends for us.  I wish we had just found out quickly either way.  Would God let this thing drag out just to pull it out from under us?  Possibly.  Its been strange, though, that unless something was posted today, absolutely nothing has been posted in the paper for rentals that we are even remotely interested in.  Before, there were always ones that we could at least call about.  Since that Thursday, nothing.  And we had decided that we would keep looking so that if this place wasnt for us we wouldnt have wasted a week or more of our time.  But we havent been able to do that. 

But I will continue to pray for God's will to be done.  I'm not sure that we followed God's will by moving to this apt.  It never felt like home, it was never really what we wanted.  But we felt like we had to.  But for whatever reason, God has placed us here for the past two and a half years.  We've been here for a reason, no matter how much I have hated it.  I just pray that our time is up here...really, really pray hard for that.

So thats that.  Maybe my next post will be saying we're leaving this craphole and have a new home!!!

Why cant I sleep?

Because...

1. My mind will not shut off with all the things I keep thinking I need to do this weekend. (Find the missing diaper cover, wash laundry, clean bathrooms, put away clothes...)

2. I am trying so hard not to worry about where we will end up living.  I'm beyond ready to get out of this apt, and I'm desperately trying not to worry about it, but its hard.  Everytime a worry comes into my mind I try to capture it and give it to God.  He knows exactly where our next home is going to be.  I pray His will is done with this home we are looking at.  I just feel like I cant take living in this craphole another day.

Friday Giveaway at the Cloth Diaper Whisperer

well, here's my weekly blog about the giveaway over at the Cloth Diaper Whisperer.  This week its for 2 GroVia AIO Diapers and some wipes.  I'd love these because we already have a set of GroBaby diapers and while I like them, they seem to run a bit small.  I've seen a comparison video of the way the company changed their name and their diapers from GroBaby to GroVia and i think the new version would work much better.  Plus, I'm ready to use cloth wipes more often.  We still have a TON of disposable wipes, but Im finding them to be a big pain in the butt now that we dont have a diaper to throw them away with! Itd be much easier to have a cloth wipe to just throw in the laundry with the diapers.

So here's hoping I may win this giveaway!  I'm amazed at the number of giveaways within the cloth diaper community.  Surely I have to win something someday! (right?) :)

Still a Chance

So we still hadnt heard anything about the condo/duplex/whatever you wanna call it so Jay called and asked today.  To be honest, I totally expected him to say it had been rented.  However, he said it hasnt been, he is waiting for a couple more apps to come back, so it would be Monday or Tuesday of next week.  The more I think about the place the more I really hope we get it.  Its so frustrating to me that we even have to think like this...I feel like its such a big deal for a rental.  But it is what it is.  Although there is practically no back yard and its a 2 story when we originally wanted 1 story, there are so many other things about it that I really liked.  But whatever God's will is I pray it is done.  I pray that we dont get it if its going to be a lot of hassle.  (Did I mention that our upstairs toilet is not working properly?  yeah.  we have to fill the tank up to get it to flush; it wont fill on its own.  LOVELY.)  I pray that we do get it if its going to be a good move for us, one that gets us through these next few years while we get completely out of debt, save for a down payment, and buy our own home. 

So I really expected this door to shut on us, like everything else has done so far, but it looks like maybe it'll stil happen.  And thats all I can hope for right now.  I really must believe that it'll work out exactly like its meant to.  I must cast all my anxieties upon the Lord, just as he asks us to do. 

Some Fluffy Pictures

Oliver with a "fluffy" (a.k.a. cloth diaper-ed) butt!  Keep in mind, the child rarely stands still, finds trashing our living room to be his main goal in life, and rarely matches in clothes and/or diapers before noon. :-D

With that in mind :)

on the run in a monkey print Serenity baby cover

"Now just wait 1 minute, Mom."

yellow fluff. FuzziBunz OS

More to come!

Another Giveaway!

Ok, its time to blog about another giveaway!

Blogging about the giveaway gives me another entry, so here we go.

The Cloth Diaper Whisperer does a weekly giveaway called "Fluff Friday."  These are great giveaways! This week the giveaway is the Flip diaper syste.  These are hybrid diapers-similar to my GroBaby diapers.  I just convinced one of my best friends to switch to cloth (Yay!) and she uses the Flip diapers.  she loves them! While I enjoy trying a lot of different kinds of diapers, she says she loves the Flip so much she doesnt even want to try other ones. 

So here's hoping maybe I'll win some of these to try!

Another day, another house.

So we went and looked at another place tonight.  This one is in Roanoke, less than 10 minutes from Huntington, and closer to Fort Wayne.  The landlord called it a "condo."  You could call it a duplex.  I almost wish I had taken a picture of it though, because when I think of duplex this isnt what I think of.  Its much nicer.

This looking for a place to live thing is so emotionally draining for me.  I don't remember it ever being like this when I looked for places to live before.  Now, its like as soon as we see a place advertised we try to call, get in to see it and make a decision.  The two times that we have liked a place enough to say so to the landlord (today and about a month ago) its like we are going up against others in a competition.  When we were getting ready to leave we saw a family from our church that was also looking at it.  That was...awkward.  She said something about this place being big for our family.  Its not that big, and we hope to add to our family soon so it definitely wont be too big.  But I know she and her family have also been looking for someplace to live, so if they really like this place too, then I pray God's will be done and if His will is to let them live there, by all means I want them to.

The place had a decent size front yard, but no real backyard.  That was the biggest downside to this place, so if it doesnt work out, I hope to not be too upset.  When you walked in the front door there was a closet and then to your left were two steps, a landing, and then the stairs to go upstairs.  Not too excited about it being 2 story, I always feel like here we're living in half of our home at a time, but other than that, I liked everything else ok.  The living room was a decent size.  It felt much more open than this place does.  The dining room and kitchen were attached and that was a nice size.  There was a lot of cabinet space which was AWESOME.  I really did like the kitchen a lot.  Off of the living room was a half bath/laundry room that was also a great size. I was impressed with that.  It also has a 1 car garage attached with some additional storage space in there as well.  Going upstairs...at the top of the stairs was a full size bath.  Everything in there seemed newer and nice.  There was a little linen cabinet thing outside of the bathroom.  The first door on the right was a bedroom which was a nice size.  Second door on the right was another bedroom which was nice sized. (I just realized I am saying "nice size" a lot.  I dont know how to describe it! I dont have measurements other than the whole place was about 1400 sq ft.  Not that big, but bigger than this place which is under 1000.)  Both rooms had decent closets to them.  At the end of the hallway on the left was the master bedroom which was pretty big.  It had a full size bath attached to it which would be awesome.  I hate having to get up and go out the door to pee during the night.  I know that probably sounds dumb, but its true. It has central air (not common, we are finding out, in this area) and new windows that have the blinds inside them.  Lawn care and snow removal would be their responsibility, not ours.

Overall, it just felt more "homey" than this place, but that doesnt take much!!  I try sooooooooo hard to have the "if it doesnt work out it wasnt God's will" attitude but I struggle with that a lot.  I wish we hadnt looked at the house we did about a month ago that seemed so perfect for us and then we never even got a call back on it.  I compare everything to that place.  It was amazing.  But for whatever reason God didnt want us to have it, and we have to be ok with that.

But I'm struggling tonight.  there just arent many places around here to rent that arent a.) dumps or b.) old and expensive in utilities.  I cant keep count of how many we have driven by after calling and just by looking at them we know we wouldnt want to live there.  We've had so many doors closed on us, and we've closed a couple ourselves because we knew we wouldnt be happy.  For whatever reason, God hasnt opened the door for us yet that we are supposed to go through.  Maybe he will soon.  Maybe He did today, and we'll find out soon.

I cant hold my breath about this, because last time all I literally obsessed over that house and when Jay called to ask if it had been rented, I was crushed when they said yes.  Totally broken.  So we will keep looking every day.  And if its meant to be, we'll take it.  We'd be dumb not to.  If we dont ever hear back, hopefully the place we end up with will have a backyard.

Did you know...?

...that they estimate it takes about 500 years for one disposable diaper to decompose???

I didnt!  That is insane!  Each year approximately 18 billion diapers enter landfills.  Now, I'll admit I'm not a big environmentalist.  Maybe I should be, but overall its just not a big passion of mine.

But that is mind-boggling to me.  What the heck is in those diapers, anyway?  And do I really want whatever chemicals are in them to be next to my baby's skin?

No.

We have about 2 boxes of disposables left, and the frugal person in me cant justify throwing them away.  Plus, we are still building our stash of cloth so I need them.  But I am starting to really hate using them.  My goal is that whenever we have our next baby, he or she will be in cloth from the beginning.  I know newborns go through a ton of diapers and it can be messy, but I just do not want my babies to be in disposables.  Plain and simple.  We don't have others watch Oliver very often, and I'm sure it'll be the same way with future children.  I'll get velcro cloth dipes so other caregivers can do the cloth without having to remember which snap fits.  I used to want to keep a stash of disposables on hand for others to use, but I'm getting over that.  If they can't use a cloth diaper with velcro, and stick the wet/soiled diaper in a wetbag for me to deal with later, I guess they won't be watching our baby!  Does that sound harsh?  I dont think so.  All we're saying is we're using cloth, which until recently (if you look at the big frame of time) was much more common than disposables!  My mom used cloth on me, and boy, have they changed since then!

I'm trying to get pics of Oliver in each of the different kinds of cloth diapers we have.  I'm not having much luck, because he does not stand still for me! lol! 

I wish I knew how to sew.  I'd love to make my own diapers, but really...I dont know about that!

Cloth Diaper Giveaways

One thing I never expected when we started using cloth was the amount of giveaways out there. Its crazy! I haven't won one (yet!) but I keep hoping and praying that maybe someday I will.

So far, we have tried 4 kinds of cloth diapers. The first were Rumparooz (I posted pics of Oliver in his yellow RaR, I think.) one size with snaps. I like those a lot. They are a bit bulky, but they have proven to be good for overnight or for long car trips. We use FuzziBunz, which I also like. we use the one-size with hip snaps.Not as bulky, but they fit him well. They size a little diferently as well-instead of the usual snaps to adjust the rise they have adjustable elastic in legs. I've heard some people have a hard time finding the right fit, but thankfully we found it right away and I like these.
Both the Rumparooz and FuzziBunz are called pocket diapers, and I like those a lot. They are a cover that have inserts that fit in a "pocket" in the back. You take the inserts out when you wash them and it makes drying time pretty quick. Then you stuff them once everything is dry and they are ready to go when its time for diaper change. Super easy! Whoever said cloth diapering was hard?!

We also have some Gro-Baby diapers. (I think they have recently changed their name to GroVia.) Those have "shells" (I call them covers) and then the soaker pads snap inside. When the soaker pad is wet or soiled, you can just change that if the cover isn't also wet or soiled. I've found that these run a bit small, so I don't know that Oliver will be able to wear them that much longer. I think I'd like them a lot better for a smaller baby, because I like them now-they just wont last long for us.
The last kind of diapers we use are prefolds and covers. The covers are *adorable*!!!! My friend Serena makes them over at The Serene Dream Shop. I did the custom fabric send in. Even if her website says sold out, contact her and she will work with you. I bought several types of fabric and sent them to her-Toy Story, two Mickey Mouse, popsicles, and blue and brown stripes. I also got a yellow monkey print cover. Prefolds are the "hardest" way of cloth diapering, which I find funny because its not hard at all! Prefolds are the kind of cloth diaper I first pictured when I thought of them-the kind my mom used to use with pins.  Now, though, with the covers, all you have to do is fold them in thirds and lay them in the cover.  Again, if they are wet/soiled and the cover isnt, just change the prefold and re-use the cover.  Easy peasy!  I have to admit- I did buy the wrong size of prefold so right now when we use them they are VERY bulky, but I hope to be able to buy some of the better fitting prefolds soon.

I have gotten each of my type of diapers from different sources, but by far my favorite retailer is Fluff Envy.  Justine is the owner and is such a sweet and helpful person.  From the beginning she has done anything to help me.  I first contacted her based on a referral from another cd'ing mama friend, and I really had no idea anything about cloth dipes.  Justine asked me information about my needs and preferences for diapers and helped me narrow down my choices.  She gave me honest reviews of diapers she thought I might like.  Since I got my diapers (I ordered my RaR from her) I've asked her even more questions and she always answers right away and never makes me feel like I am bugging her.  Last week one of my best friends ordered her first cloth diapers from Justine, and I was thrilled!  Plus, with her new referral program I earned a credit from the purchase of my friend's diapers! whoot!

I love cloth diapers so much more than I ever thought.  They are easy and FUN, which I never thought I'd say about diapers! Its fun to pick out what color and print Oliver is going to wear next.  Although I will slowly add some to our stash, I have enough to pretty much cloth diaper full-time.  When I first ordered my rumparooz, I was only wanting to cd part-time.  We made it the entire month of July without buying any disposables.  Thats about $50 in savings! yay!

Ok, so back to giveaways. Fluff Envy is doing a giveaway of AppleCheeks diapers on her blog.  She does a giveaway each month, and I didnt win last month.  Thats ok, because I'd *LOVE* to win the applecheeks diaper.  I've heard great things about apple cheeks, but they are a bit more expensive so I haven't had the chance to get any yet.  Blogging about the giveaway gives me another chance to enter, so here we go!

I'll continue to post about cloth diapers, Im sure, as this has become a part of our everyday life.  I have to admit-I'm a cloth diaper addict :)