We are sick with yucky colds. Just when the chilly winds of fall finally come our way, they bring germs and stuffy noses and coughs and yucky feelings with them.

Em and I are grouchy.

She still manages to look cute.

I have a rudolf the red-nosed reindeer nose.

(not sure who this is by, but my friend Christa sent it to me when i was talking to her about how my life feels out of control lately...)

This weekend seems like it flew by.

Emerson has been a bit of a handful lately (like she's ever not been??!!). The kid struggles with calming down and taking naps. I've resorted to laying down with her so she will stay calm and sleep. The weird thing is, she sleeps great at nights. Maybe that's why she struggles so much with sleeping during the day. If she weren't so fussy during the day, it wouldn't bother me. But it's CLEAR that she's tired.

Shaun gave me a little break on Saturday, though, which was so nice. He took Em out for a while and gave me a chance to catch up on the housework. I really want to get this house ship-shape and running. I really want to be able to just keep up maintenance on cleaning, and not have to do a huge overhaul every week or so.

Speaking of, I'm actually supposed to be picking up the bedroom at the moment- and I'm allowing myself to be sidetracked. Best get my buns back in gear.

I had my first official OB appointment yesterday. Did the whole weigh in thing (can I just say, I want to be a lot more careful about my eating habits this time around? Don't really want to gain 50 lbs. again.), got a fun packet o' info, watched a video, did bloodwork... and got to hear the little one's heartbeat.

I just love hearing that... it's so cool to hear that little heartbeat and know that a person is in there.

I'm definitely getting excited about this whole thing now.


*****

Emerson and other things have been keeping me so busy. I'm feeling very discontent with life, in some ways. Just wishing for a normal routine, a normal day. I'm having to learn to accept that a "normal day" for us might not mean a regular schedule or me getting to accomplish all that I wanted to. It's hard to let go of that concept, though.

I really just have a desire to control things.

Speaking of, I have on and off done Flylady, but often get frustrated with it because of all the dang useless emails. I mean, dude. I have enough things in my inbox to keep me busy besides having to wade through meaningless & sappy testimonials. (Sorry for those of you who enjoy them. I personally am just annoyed by them.)

So.... in some tiny attempt to get my house at least into a semblance of order, I'm thinking of checking out the "Sidetracked Home Executives" book from the library. I requested a copy today, as a matter of fact. It's the system that Flylady began with, but has a few differences, which I hope will work for me.

I just need some sort of system to keep this house in running order.

*****

I got to visit with my sweet friend Michelle yesterday. She and her two cutie kids watched Em for me while I was at the doctor's appt. Her house is just calming to me. I feel like I'm at HOME when I'm there.

I miss the days when we literally lived next door to each other and had a stone path between our porches.

She had a fun packet of little prizes for me, including a scarf she crocheted for Emerson. HOW CUTE CAN THAT BE??!!

I will definitely be taking pics of her in it later today and post them.

And finally- we will be getting some cooler weather this weekend, so maybe Em will even have the need to wear it!

*****

Alright, peeps. That's enough rambling, eh?

Ciao.

Blogger's guilt.

Yes, it has taken its death grip and wound its crippling hand around me.

I have been feeling lethargic mentally, and thus, have had nothing to say.

But I'm trying to pull myself out of this creative slump and jumpstart my brain.



I have decided to enter the CK Hall of Fame this year, in an attempt to accomplish several things:

-Challenge myself to actually scrapbook
-Push myself in new creative directions
-Begin the long climb up the slope of being published/joining a design team

We'll see how it goes. I'm trying to be optimistic about it, which goes against my nature.

I've even organized myself with a notebook, and am sketching ideas, writing down inspirations, etc.

The due date for the entry is Feb. 9th, so hopefully I'll have scraped (scrapped?) together my 10 layouts. Heh.



I've also been thinking about Christmas. Specifically, what the heck am I going to get everyone??!!!

My husband is the hardest to shop for. He honestly just does not want a whole lot. And the things he does want are big ticket items... like a new bike. A $2000 bike. Yeah, that's not going to be under the tree this year, honey.

The other conundrum I have with gift giving this year is that we have set ourselves a pretty tight budget, so that we can save up a down payment for a house.

So I'm going to have to get creative with gift giving this year.



I'll keep you posted on if I have any amazing ideas.