Smotherhood Part II

For starters, a few pics...
Our home teachers came over for the first time, and Kalia, not usually this forward, snuggled right up to Nathaniel and held hands (he was reading her stories while we all chatted.) We got a kick out of it.

My girls LOVE to play with a twin mattress on the stairs. We either make a "slide" or a "cave." It's an ugly old thing, probably too uncomfortable for anyone to sleep on, but I'm glad they are getting some entertainment out of it. This is Annie perched on top of their cave before bed time.


All right, so here's an update on my emotional state. No news on what's going on with our house. It is KILLING me to not know how soon I need to start packing, or to know where we're going to go, but I am trying really hard not to worry about the unknowns. We'll figure it out soon enough. We're considering some major changes.

As for smotherhood...it's kinda funny....after all that venting and complaining, things really did change around here, for the better. It actually did some good! It was the suggestions and comments by many of you, that helped me implement some new things. Really, nobody likes a complainer, so I will try to do less of it, but somehow it produced some good things. And also, it seems like just when I couldn't handle any more smothering...the burden eased up. I think that is just a tender mercy from the Lord. Here's some things that are different around here.

1. Kalia and Annaliese are still playing together really well. (SCREAM OF JOY! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!) Annaliese screams in frustration a LOT (loud, shrieking kinds of screams), but they will now play together for up to an hour. They still make big, huge messes, but usually, it's worth it to me. One day they locked themselves in Kalia's room and played happily for at least a half hour. I was not about to disturb their party, they weren't even fighting! Little did I know that they had a box of Fruity Pebbles somehow, and Annie took off her poopy diaper and left in on the floor. 2 points for you if you can spot it. When I finally went in, the ENTIRE floor was covered in these rainbow pebbles, and every step you took, you heard CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH. This was the cleanest corner of the room, but here's a guilty-faced Annie and a gross diaper on the floor.

2. Kalia also has a new friend, 3 houses down. She's 5 years old, and is not yet in kindergarten.Despite the age difference, they get along great. Kalia is pretty mature for her age, and always gets along best with kids that are older than her. I almost feel like I have a free baby-sitter, since the 5 year old (she's 6 in September)is a bit motherly/bossy. And she has an older sister (she's 7) who likes to watch/mother Annaliese after she gets home from school. I'm sad this new friendship can't last as we are both moving; It's just a win-win for me, to send her out the door, so excited to play with her friend.

3. I have started working out. After about 4 years of not exercising, it's been hard to get back into it, but thank heavens I discovered Jillian Michaels DVD workouts. 30-Day Shred is a tough, intense, 20-minute workout (technically there's 3 progressively harder workouts to choose from.) She also has a 50-minute one called No More Trouble Zones that I used as my very first "getting back into exercise" workout, and it KICKED MY TRASH (as in, so sore I could barely walk for a week), but I LOVED the way she pushes you through the workout. She really challenges you to remember your REASONS for working out in the first place, so you can make it through the workouts. A friend of mine is doing a 21-day challenge (to make some new good habits) so after taking a week off to recover from that video, I have been working out every day for a week, except Sundays. Today I did No More Trouble Zones again, and I couldn't believe the difference in my endurance. I feel really good, and I can already see some definition starting to show up on my arms and stomach. Amazing. The only thing is, I have to workout while the girls are asleep. One day I tried to do my 20-minute workout while K & A were both awake, and I kid you not, every 60-90 seconds they were asking me to get them juice/a snack/a toy/etc etc. It was frustrating to have to keep stopping. I remembered why I haven't done this for 4 years. So now...only when they are asleep.

4. Speaking of sleep, I previously stated that I could not get Kalia to nap. I concocted a new plan and it has been working beautifully. I made Annie switch down to 1 nap, instead of 2, and then I've taken advantage of our warm/almost-hot weather here, and I take the girls swimming every day. I taught Annie how to use Kalia's old Duck Float (Called a Puddlejumper- I LOVE these things!) and now I don't have to hold her in the water. They both just swim all over the pool while I sit on a lounge chair, and they TOTALLY wear themselves out. I bring them home, put them down for a nap, and they zonk right out and I have 2-3 hours all to myself. It's been AMAZING, and just what I needed. (Will upload a video later today of the swimmers.)


5. I didn't end up reading the book called Smotherhood. Once I got into it, I saw that it was more about moms who have full-time jobs on TOP of being a mother at home. That sounds so incredibly tough. It was still a good book, but I was looking for something a little more specific to the challenges of staying home all day. Another friend let me borrow a FABULOUS book called "The Ultimate Career" by Daryl Hoole- it's an LDS book full of scriptures and quotes from General authorities, and is one of the best books I've ever read about motherhood. And, it has an incredible chapter on depression which I thought was really interesting, and even applicable to some things I've been going through as I've started to feel other emotions, like worry, fear...etc.

5. I've been trying to expand Annie's diet. She's still on her special formula. We tried Goat's Milk again, and it was a major failure. Soy gave her eczema. So that means no dairy at all, no eggs, no corn, no wheat, no soy. She loves all-fruit smoothies. I've also been doing some gluten-free baking (with milk and egg substitutes) and she got to enjoy a homemade chocolate chip cookie for the first time EVER! As you can see, she thoroughly enjoyed it. Her poor left eye still had some swelling- she had two different black-eyes in 3 weeks. Same eye though.
6. I read an incredible book, it's called The Help by Kathryn Stockett and I absolutely LOVED it. I had to wait months on a wait list at the library, but it was touching, thought-provoking, and sometimes had me laughing outloud. Thanks to Holly for suggesting it to me.

Here's the swimming video. I love how Kalia's friend lets a huge burp rip. Funny.
Sorry friends...it isn't loading right- I put it up on facebook, you can see it there if you want.

Don't Panic...that's what I'm telling myself

But really...I'm freaking out.
The house we're renting finally went to the foreclosure auction last Wednesday.
The bank took it back. Today, a representative stopped by to get our contact info.
They are going to make us a "Cash for Keys" offer.
We are going to negotiate for as much $ as we can get. Possibly in the thousands.
(For real! We are so grateful the bank took it back, instead of an investor buying it.)
But now this means we might have to move in 30 days.
Samuel has been working 6 days a week, showing houses all over the valley. He has people putting in offers on houses, but they are FLYING off the market so fast, and so far, no sells.
We have...ahem. no. money.
So I don't know if we should sign a new lease somewhere,
or impose on others and move in with them. (dread this thought...)
We're praying hard to know what to do.
If the cash for keys offer isn't good enough, we'll just stay in the house for 90 days
(rent-free, I believe). But the bank is going to try to get us out quick, and they'll try to make it worth out while.

I'm so sad to leave this beautiful house, and the pool that we've been visiting every day (and had plans to visit all summer.) I just don't know what we'll do, and BOO...now we have to pack up and go somewhere else.

Just trying not to freak out. But it's not working.

A little extra money never hurt...

Today I thought I'd share with you a few online gems that I use to bring in a little extra money. Sometimes a girl just needs to buy herself something, (or order it online and anxiously await the doorbell ringing) and not feel guilty about taking away money from the budget. This is what I've been doing to make that happen around here. I'm just going to throw all at you at once.

1. Opinion Outpost:
This is a survey site. They e-mail me about 4 per day, and they tell you how many points they are worth, and how long they take. If I don't think it sounds like a "good deal", I don't even bother. You have to do a short pre-screening survey first to see if you qualify into the demographic that they are looking for. Then you cash in your points- a 70-point survey is worth $7.00. There are short surveys, and long ones, 10 point surveys, up to 100. You can cash your points in for amazon.com giftcards and other things like that.
Opinion Outpost HERE (their website is down today, Wednesday, so check them out tomorrow.)


2. Swagbucks
If you haven't heard of Swagbucks, it's kind of a fun concept. They are a search engine, like google, (powered by google and ask.com in fact) that gives you "Swagbucks" (kind of like virtual dollars) when you do your searches with them. It's usually a surprise gift- you never know how many you'll get, or how often, but I was earning about 20 swagbucks per day, just by searching once or twice. I am HUGE into "googling" things, and so I try to search in Swagbucks first. Sometimes I win a few bucks without finding my answer, which is fine with me. The results aren't quite as refined as google, so then I search somewhere else if I need a specific answer. The BEST part about Swagbucks is that the rewards are FAST! You only need 450 swagbucks to earn a $5 giftcard to Amazon.com (they e-mail you a code.) If you only do one search a day, you can usually earn one giftcard to Amazon every month. If you search more, you could earn 2 or 3! Who doesn't love Amazon? This is one of the best ways to get free stuff. Go sign up here and start searching! You get 30 Swagbucks FREE, just for signing up! And there are about 5 other ways to earn swagbucks besides doing searches; they give out codes on their blog, on facebook, on these little treasure hunts... check it out!
Swagbucks HERE

3. ERG Survey
This is another survey site, but they are more on the "educational" end of things- in other words, it's often universities and groups doing studies and research, and they pay this company to get their surveys out to people. I like this one because it tells you how likely you are too qualify for a survey, before you even do the pre-screening. You have to earn $25.00 before you can cash out with a gift card, but there are lots to choose from, or you can donate your earnings to the Red Cross or other organizations. You get $5.00 in your account just for signing up.
ERG Survey HERE

4. Pinecone Research
This one is also one of my favorites. It's kind of hard to get accepted to do this, you have to wait until they have openings, which are limited. Right now I have an e-mail saying I can refer 3-5 people, so if you want to do this one, let me know ASAP! This is another survey site, but you ALWAYS qualify for the survey that they send you. They usually take around 15 minutes, and they pay you immediately by a check in the mail, or into a paypal account. You get $3.00 for every survey you take. My other favorite part is that you are usually answering questions about a product that is being developed. They will often send it to you in the mail and have you try it, and then they'll ask you to do another survey (and pay you another $3.00). You're sworn to secrecy about the things they are working on, but I have tried out some pretty awesome things! You can visit their website HERE and please leave a comment if you want a referral, I will e-mail it to you.

5. Ebates
This website is a shopping website of most of the major online stores, such as Old Navy, Macy's, Dell, etc. Their list of websites is HUGE. If you are ever going to order something off the internet, do it through Ebates. You just sign up, and then click on the website through the link on Ebates- it will tell you how much you will earn. I did most of my Christmas shopping online, and during the Christmas season they double their rewards. So I got 5% back from one store, 8% back at another, 2% back, etc. Every few months they will mail you a check with your money back. And just so you know how it can add up, my Christmas-shopping check came in February for $68! You can sign up HERE

6. Leapforce
All of the other options do not require any commitment- you can sign up and do them if or when you have a minute. Leapforce, on the other hand, is an actual work-from-home job. It is awesome. You can work at any time of the day or night, and you bill by the minute, so if you can only work 5 minutes out of every hour, that's fine. They want you to work at least 10 hours a week, but so far I have only managed about 5 per week. We'll see if I get re-hired next month. Contracts are renewed every 6 months, if they think you're doing a good job. I am called a Search Engine Evaluator. Once I sign in, there are all these little projects, from looking at things like results of video searches, book searches, map searches, or just regular keyword searches. Then you tell them how helpful their results are to certain searches. They are actual searches that people are putting into Google and Yahoo, so sometimes they are misspelled or make NO sense. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's tricky. You have to pass an open-book 8-hour test to show them that you basically know what you're doing. (You have a week to do it.) They pay me monthly, with a check in the mail. So technically I work for Google. WARNING: THERE ARE MAJOR SCAMS OUT THERE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR GOOGLE, AND MAKE $5000 A WEEK. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR ANY "WORK AT HOME" JOB THAT MAKES YOU PAY A FEW DOLLARS FOR SHIPPING AND HANDLING FOR THEIR KIT. THOSE ARE NOT LEGITIMATE, AND THEY JUST WANT YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER! Okay, having said that, if this sounds like something you'd like to do, you can apply and take their 2-part test. It's not the easiest job to get, but it's really nice to have. And technically I'm not supposed to disclose this, but they pay over $13 an hour.
Leapforce HERE

St. Patty's Day, April Fools, Easter

Well, thank you guys for the amazing comments about what to do to bring some order to my crazy life. We're making some changes around here, and things are getting a whole lot better! I am feeling really happy and grateful for your wonderful suggestions. Both girls are sleeping right now. Hallelujah! More on those changes later- first a few things that I don't want to forget:

Kalia's hair is really getting long. It's kind of a nightmare to comb through, but when it's wet and straight, it's all the way down her back.
She has a beautiful Easter dress this year, thanks to her friends in Utah. You know who you are! Thanks for the perfectly beautiful dress!
On St. Patrick's Day, I put Annaliese in her Lucky Charms shirt, with green bows to match. That was the extent of our celebration, but we'll do more when they're older. I took Annie outside to take a picture, and 2 minutes later, they discovered a huge puddle. That was the end of the cuteness, but the pictures and videos I caught were precious.












And if you want to see another video I caught that is quite funny, click here
And Happy April Fools Day everyone. I'm not doing any pranks like I did last year , but I'm just reminding you so that sure nobody makes a fool of you!