How come it is always so expensive?

So I have a few things on my wish list, and of course, they are not cheap! I am not a diamonds and jewelry kind of person. I prefer things that have a good use, can make my life easier etc.......
I think the best gift Kevin ever gave me (I am not counting kids and him marrying me and such, as that is obviously the greatest!) was 1/2 a Tivo! Yeah, 1/2 of one:) He had to keep the other half (that of course is all hooked up with my half) for football season:) And at first I thought it was the lamest gift ever! Come on, a Tivo - electronics? What can that do for me? I tell you - SO much!! it Cuts the time Kevin spends watching football in half, I never miss a TV show, I can pause or rewind my show when the kids are loud (not that I watch anything but their shows when they are awake) and I can pick which shows the kids get to watch! How awesome is that!?! It took about a week after it was hooked up before I realized what a genius I married!

He also gave me a beautiful ring for our 5th anniversary, and I love it! Kevin is a practical kind of guy, so those two gifts were not what I would have expected at all. Ok, I will give him the practicality of the Tivo, but since it is not a necessity it really surprised me! ...:)

Now, I think that living with Kevin is what has made me a practical person rather than a stuff just because person. My wishlist now contains a Moby or a Sleep Wrap (for carrying baby in - they are awesome! You can even nurse while on the go!), a bike trailer for when we all go biking, iPod touch (ok, so this is a just because item - I am totally in love with the item though, just not the cost), and a double stroller (kind of a must with two little ones). And I would even be happy getting them all used! But, how come they all have to be so expensive? Why can't I want something under $20?
The price for a Moby like this one or Sleepy wrap is around $40 for the cheaper models and I do have a carrier, just not a Moby or Sleep Wrap. So, not really needed even though it would be practical.
A bike trailer is closer to $200 for the one that turns into a stroller too, so way too expensive to really be needed even though having one would mean we could all go on a bike ride together. A double stroller also $200ish and an iPod touch......WAY too much!
Funniest thing is that Kevin and I were talking just this weekend about how expensive women are, and he is so right! And by having this wish list, I am proving him right too.....Thank goodness I can still delete this post:)

Thankfully I have a hubby who has good money sense and works hard for his family, even if that means I end up with items on my wish list that I most likely won't ever get (except for the double stroller - I know I will get that:) ) Love you Kevin, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being practical and rational and keeping me in place:) Things are just that - things - and family, house and food is so much more important! Kevin, thanks for decluttering my life (and our house) and for still allowing me to have some of the stuff you would consider junk :)

Now off to declutter the guest bedroom to make it ready for guests this Easter weekend:)

Listed today and showing tomorrow!

We got a call late tonight (9:30PM) from a realtor who has a couple who wants to tour our home tomorrow morning! I know the chances of a sale so fast is very slim, but it makes me excited to know that all the work this past week will be shown to at least one potential buyer.
Cross your fingers!!

Our house is listed!!

All that hard work and late nights have come to and end.....at least in a way. We still have a few things to do around the house, items to move to storage from the garage etc, but our house is now officially on the market! The sign will be put up later today, but we're in the MLS, have the realtor visit sign in sheet and such all in the house! We could get people calling at any time to set up a time to look at the house. Exciting and scary all at once! My biggest worry is forgetting to tidy something up before we head out of the house, and then come home and see that someone stopped by to check the house out. I have made a to-do-before-we-leave-the-house list though, so hopefully that will remedy some of that fear:) Pictures will be posted later when I re-charge my camera.

Today I only have 24 days left until my due date, so it feels good to have the house on the market. The stuff that is left to do, I know Kevin can handle if for some reason baby decided to come way early. Saying that probably made it for sure I will go over though:) I have a few things to get ready before baby, but again, Kevin can take care of that while I am in the hospital too. As long as I remember to bring the camera:)

Now that we have the big projects in the house taken care of, I can focus a bit more on getting baby clothes cleaned and packing my hospital bag. I have learned though, that packing it too early only makes me re-pack it 50 times before the actual time:)

Today Spring Break began for the older two kids and I actually took the week off from work too, so I can hang out with them. I tried telling myself I needed the time to rest and relax (which I do!) since I end up dizzy and exhausted all the time, but I know with extra time at home I will try to get more work done. Oh well.....I am glad I get to spend more time with them, even if it is bonding while we are matching socks from the laundry pile:)

For Easter we're staying in town, and hopefully some friends and family will come over. If not, we'll just be having a nice and quiet Easter with just the 5 of us. I already know what Madeline will be getting in her Easter Basket - crayons and coloring paper! She loves to draw! Not sure what the older two will get as they informed me there is no Easter Bunny, no Santa, and no Tooth Fairy! I am guessing they are still interested in getting candy though!

After Easter my mom and dad will come visit for a bit, hopefully baby will be here by then, or at least arrive while they are here:) We're very excited to see them again!

Ok, enough slacking here. Better get back to the laundry folding! I made a to-do-list for the first day of Spring break, and you'd never believe it, but I am actually almost done with it! I guess that means I have to come up with something else for tomorrow:) I work all weekend at church, not quite what I was hoping to do since I worked last weekend and the weekend before and will work Easter weekend too, but what can you do? At least that means more moola ;)

Getting there

Over the past few weeks we've worked hard on the house. That is, Kevin has worked while I have supervised:) We have moved loads of stuff out of the house either to Savers or the storage unit we rented. We have painted the kitchen, girls' bedroom and trim, Michael's room, rejuvenated the wood floor in the living room and hallway. And yet, so much remains to be done! It drives me nuts that I can only do so much before I am in pain and have to sit out the rest of the evening. Spending more than a few hours on my feet at a time brings my hernia out (and according to people it is the size of baby's head!).
We're hoping to list our house this coming week, so we need to touch up on all walls upstairs (kids have already done a number on them!), finish painting the trim in Michael's room, painting the bathroom cabinets and trim, paint the basement walls, all the while cleaning and keeping the every day chores going. Oh, we have to paint our bedroom and trim too....Man! Poor Kevin!
I am so excited to get over with the prepping the house though, and step over into the "house is listed" phase.
With each day that passes Kevin's list grows bigger as mine shrinks. We have only 30 days left before due date, so in reality anything can happen as soon as Easter is over. I just hope and pray we have all the things done then so that I won't leave Kevin with the biggest to do list ever, or stress about it while in the hospital!
Most likely I won't be much help after baby comes either due to surgeries that are very likely to happen while I am still in the hospital after giving birth. Only time will tell though.
Anyways, that was a good rant. Now back to working the church phone list for volunteers for this weekend! Do you think anyone would notice if I disappeared from the face of the earth for a week or two?

Update - kinda late:)

Last time I posted I was prepping for Madeline's first night without her pacifier. It was a rough night, crying off and on, but we did it! By day 3 she had no issues whatsoever! Yay! The biggest problem from then on was to make sure we found all the stray pacifiers around the house that she seemed to be able to find by smell:)

Other than that we've been painting, packing away stuff, finding stuff to donate, laundry (never ending you know), watching the Olympics and so many other things:)
So far, as far as painting goes, we have finished the living room and the girls' bedroom. We still have to do the baseboards and fix up the floor in both of those rooms, and get the curtain rods back up. Those are all things we're waiting to do until we have the whole upstairs painted though. Then we'll do the wood floor, and then finish painting the baseboards.

After that we'll go onto the basement where we'll paint some more, but thankfully do not have to worry about hardwood floor there:)

We're slowly but surely getting rid of junk and furniture we know we're not going to move with us wherever we move to. The one item I want to part with the most is our couch!! Unfortunately, we do need SOMETHING to sit on upstairs, so it stays:(
I am hoping to get most of this stuff done in the next couple of week - that includes packing away everything we do not need right now (to put in storage or at least pack away in the basement), so that my last month of being pregnant can be a bit easier and relaxed:) We'll see. I am still waiting for that extreme need to get things done to overcome me - nesting I believe they call it:) I think it might have skipped me over this time around since it was not so long ago since last time I was nesting:)

The kids are enjoying the winter, and do not seem to have the cabin fever I have. I hope to be able to buy a bike trailer soon after the snow leaves, so that I can start taking Madeline (and baby if the snow stays that long!) with me on bike rides when the weather warms up.

Michael is enjoying school, reads lots still and has been snow boarding a bit this winter. Victoria enjoys spending time with her friends the most, and Madeline is a ham who loves to watch the kids play outside through the window:) She is growing so fast, and is so much fun. She signs for milk, eat (we made that sign up since I had NO idea what it was), more, and says something that resembles book and milk:) She loves her Daddy and will call his name (and wake him up in the early morning when we're done nursing) just to give him a hug. She has yet to say mommy to me, but I know it will come. I bet she just knows I want to hear it so she is holding off:)
She LOVES babies! I hope that is a good sign and that it will stay that way after she gets one of her own in her house:)
She is not yet walking, but I think that if she put her mind to it, she would. She lets go of whatever she is supporting herself with every now and then, and has great balance, but has not tried taking any steps without holding on yet.
Michael and Victoria are such great help around the house and with their sister. They clearly love her and are willing to put up with her doing pretty much anything:)

Oki, enough for now. Have to get back to catch up on my every day cleaning that has been neglected while I worked on the girls' room:)

Bye Bye Paci!

Tonight is the night when paci (hopefully) leaves for good.


Madeline never really got too hooked on the pacifier (she just used me as one instead), and with baby coming in less than three months, we decided now is the time to get rid of it. We figured the earlier we deal with it, the better. So cross your fingers it will be that easy! Both Michael and Victoria were ok with getting rid of theirs the first night........Madeline cried for a bit, but it could have been because she just did not want to go to bed in the first place:)
Now, it is all quiet (knock on wood!) and hopefully she will not be looking for paci as she wakes up during the night.....
I will report back tomorrow if we were successful or not:)
She has been going most days without the paci since we were in Norway, and we kept it that way (for the most part) and only let her have it at nap and bedtime.....
Anyways, off to bed soon just in case someone is not happy during the night and I have to spent much of the night awake listening to her.

Hope you all had a wonderful (and football free) weekend:)

Countdown!

Time until Tuesday, April 20, 2010 (Minneapolis time)
86 days
2078 hours

YIKES!!!!
We have less than 90 days until estimated arrival of baby Lucier!

At this time with Madeline I was way on top of things, and at the point of scrubbing my walls down. Can you say nesting? This time, sleep is still the only thing on my mind (at least in the forefront of my mind) and probably the only thing I am lacking as well. Between baby scaring me with lack of movement (to the point where I almost called Kevin home from guys night at 2am!), Madeline's cold that she has had since right before we left Norway, her ear infections, teeth coming through, ligament pain and my ever painful back - sleep just has not been very easy the last couple of weeks.
I know most of there ailments will go away soon, and I will be able to catch up, but man, right now, sleeping in for an hour sounds like something I'd be willing to pay a fortune for!

Oh well, even as tired as I feel now, it will all be worth it in the end, even though I know it means another year at least with lack of sleep due to baby, and a few more just worrying about the kids. I am so blessed to have 3 healthy kiddos and another one on the way!

So, time to leave my pity party and get on with my work - might as well take advantage of these early weekend mornings:)