Welcome Back

Well, well, well. Look who decided to rejoin the blogging world. Yep, that's right ladies and gentlemen, Kayla's back blogging about our crazy life and how it just keeps getting crazier. 

I left for work at my normal 4:30am this morning before I remembered that I actually work an hour later today. So I came home and poured myself another cup of coffee and decided to do a blog entry.

A lot has changed since my last posting. Emma will be 3 next month. We sold our house and moved into a smaller, much more convenient house closer to my parents, and we've had another baby, a boy named Levi Phillip.

While just glancing at homes for sale in our area online, I found the house that Jake and I rented 5 years ago for sale for $100,000 less than what we had purchased our home for (we call it our "Mummy View" house after the street name). We decided that we should put ours on the market and we may just get the price we wanted for it. Well, we did. We then went to put an offer on the "Essex" house and it was pulled from the market that day. Now what were we going to do? There are a lot of homes for sale in the area we wanted to be in, but not very many nice homes. We needed to be closer to my parents. We were driving 40 minutes before work to meet them 1/2 way so they could babysit Emma. Then another hour + after work to go pick her up everyday. Well, since we rented this house before, I had the owner's address. I sent him a card explaining that we wanted to buy his house, etc. He emailed me saying it was going back on the market the next day. We made a full-price offer and it was accepted before it even hit the market. We lived with my parents for about 6 weeks while we were in between but that was no big deal. We knocked $80,000 of debt off our names and lowered our mortgage payments by about $750 per month. It was one of the best decisions we've ever made.

Since moving, we've (happily) had to scale back and down size some. We've both been reading a lot about contentment in the Bible and have found it. Wow, what a great feeling. Realizing you don't need something and not even wanting it because you know it's silly to spend hard earned money on something meaningless in the grand scheme of things is really liberating and refreshing. Of course, we have our moments where we want to spend, spend, spend and buy something nice (aka pricey), but we just make the decision to save the money and pay cash for it at a later date. We don't deprive ourselves, we just make much better choices.

Recently, my dad found out he has stage 3 pancreatic cancer. He has completed 1 round of chemo and has 2-3 more before he goes in for surgery to remove it. The doctor is confident he can remove the entire tumor. He has lost over 30lbs and clocked in at 142lbs yesterday. He's just skin and bones. He has a very hard time swallowing (chemo attacks the multiplying cells in the body including the digestive system starting in your throat) and has no appetite. We have been praying feverishly.

Not long ago, Emma and I were baking cookies for when Jake got home from work. I was very careful not to let Emma lick the beaters after we added the raw egg. Just before we scooped them out to put on baking sheets I took a bite of the dough and I suddenly realized what I had done. Now, don't get me wrong, I love cookie dough. I remember eating raw dough making cookies with my mom as a kid. It wasn't until relatively recently that there was a big push about not eating the raw egg in the dough and the age old tradition became taboo. I eventually did give Emma a bite (or two) of dough since she had seen me take a bite and, really, it is sort of a tradition. Does that make me a bad mother? Am I to be reported to CPS? I hope not.

Are there any traditions that you know of, or maybe even are part of your family history, that are now taboo or discouraged? I'd love to hear about them.

Is Blogging a Thing of the Past?

Well, it's obviously been a really, REALLY long time since I blogged last which made me wonder: Is blogging as popular as it once was?

I now have a 13 1/2 month old so I understand not having free time to sit down and type up thoughts and ideas. When I'm not a work I'm usually a human jungle gym trying to get the basic, everyday chores done around the house. I'm lucky if I accomplish all of those. We need to downsize (more on that in a later posting). Many of the blogs I've followed in the past don't seem like they're updated as often as they once were. Some blogs have their first posting also as their last.

Blogging used to be all the rage. It seemed as though everyone who was anyone had a blog. Food blogs, cleaning blogs, blogs that covered clothes. Any interest you had there was a blog for it with postings, pictures, tips, trends and techniques. Has Pinterest replaced blogs? I am obsessed with Pinterest. Maybe the text from our blogs has been converted into pictures on Pinterest. The problem with Pinterest is that there is so little text. We don't have to read about how to do things when there are pictures explaining it. I find that sometimes the original intent and/or the little details are often lost.

I love blogging. My original intent was to have a blog as a great way to get information, ideas, pictures and stories out to family and friends (I'd be lying if I said I've never dreamt of my blogs being read by millions). My other blog, The Simplicity Adventure, was to help make me a better person (inspired by the movie Julie & Julia) by downsizing, organizing, cleaning, and going green in our home and lives. I'd love to continue both of these blogs... hopefully with more frequent updates than I do now.

What are your favorite blogs that stay updated? What are your reasoning for blogging or for not blogging?

Emma Fay- 6 Months Already

“The days are long, but the years are short.”
― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

I never realized the true meaning of this quote until Emma was born.

This has been the most amazing 6 months of my life. Emma has already grown so much. She is rolling over from her tummy to her back both directions, she has started eating some solid foods, she has a conversation with us and loves to squeal to show she is happy. She is almost sitting up all by herself- she still needs to learn to balance from side to side. She loves to stand up on our laps and we just barely have to support her and keep her balanced. She loves her puppy dogs Nico and Alfie (he loves to style her hair) and Grandma and Grandpa’s dogs Tootsie and Phoebe. Everyday she does something amazing and I fall in love with her more and more.

Here are a few pictures of Emma Fay.

 

 

 

 

Life According to Emma, Lesson 1

Today Emma made me realize something we all take for granted. Eating. We all do it. Every living thing has to eat or drink in one way or another. Babies get fussy and my even cry and scream when they are hungry. Emma starts off with a little whimper and it grows to a short quiet cry, and if you still don’t feed her fast enough, well, heaven help you.

Babies truly enjoy their meals. They are relaxed and comfortable. I believe that all meals should be something we enjoy on every level.

I love to cook. My best friend Sara loves to cook. My husband loves to cook. I think that preparing a meal should be fun, exciting, entertaining, and an adventure. We try to cook something different each night. I have Jake rate it between 1 and 5 and 3 doesn’t count. I ask how it could be better. We often buy a basket from Bountiful Baskets Food Co-Op. This basket comes with 5 different types of fruit and 5 different types of vegetables. We never know what we are going to get until Saturday mornings. It’s exciting when we get to see what we are adding to our menu that week. I take this as an opportunity to search for new recipes from the multitude of sites out there.

I think that where you ear is important as well. I don’t mean which restaurant you’re going to tonight, I mean where in your house you eat. I hate to admit it but Jake and I eat at our coffee table so we can watch TV more times than not. A goal I have come up with is to eat most meals at our dining room table as a family. I would like to update our table linens and place settings to be a little more on the modern side instead of traditional. I’d like to make our dining room an enjoyable, relaxing place to eat and spend this important family time.

Emma has shown me that I should enjoy myself and put more thought into my meal times. I should take these few hours a day to relax and really enjoy my surroundings and my new family.

A New Beginning



The day before Emma was born

Well, I've decided to blog again. I've actually gotten pregnant, had a baby, and finished my 8 weeks of maternity leave since my last post. Yeah, it's been that long. So, I'm starting over.

Emma Fay

I've been off work for the last 8 weeks, the fastest 8 weeks of my life by the way, following my C-section and the birth of our daughter Emma. She has been such a blessing to Jake and I. I have to admit, I didn't think that being a mom was going to be this amazing. We asked Saremy to be Emma's godparents and we are blessed that they agreed. 

In the last year, Jake and I have been on 2 cruises. One with Saremy to the western Caribbean and one with just the 2 of us to the Mexican Riviera. We found out we were pregnant on December 27th and announced it to our families January 1st at church. 

The last 8 weeks have been a a change for the better. We stay at home and cook healthy meals more often, I've been re energized and motivated about cleaning and organizing my house, and I've been inspired to blog again. Check out my other blog, The Simplicity Adventure, to follow my journey to a more organized and less cluttered life. I started today by going through my closet and dresser and getting rid of a lot of clothes. I have a lot more to do, but that will come with time.

Baby K'Tan

As I'm typing Emma is curled up on my chest and belly in my Baby K'Tan sleeping soundly. I'm thinking she will be able to teach me a lot about what really matters in life. I can't wait to be able to share what I learn. 

Until next time...

Long Time Gone

Well, well, well... Look who it is. Yep, I'm back. I've been out of town a lot lately. But that's no excuse to not blog!

Honestly, not much has gone on around here. My horse Reno is up in the bay area now. My college roommate, Maggie, called me one day and said she had a client that needed a horse to lease and asked if I would be interested in leasing out Reno. After a lot of thought I decided it was a good idea and would be best for everyone. So she drove down and picked him up. He's doing really well up there. This will give him a job, he'll help teach someone a lot of things, and it'll save us a little money. It's really a win-win situtuation.

Last week, Jake got some sort of viral infection and was really sick for a few days. He woke up with a bad headache and was dizzy and had a fever. Took him to the doctor and they said it was just a virus going around. His fever got up to 103.7 but he never felt sick. He's doing much better now, but still has a stomach ache every once in a while. Poor guy. I'm lucky I didn't catch it at all.

Other than that, really nothing exciting around here. I'll be better at posting, I promise.

Give Aways!

My good friend Sara (of the previously noted Saremy) is having a give away on her blog http://saralovescooking.blogspot.com/2010/02/review-giveaway-derby-pie.html She’s giving away some amazing hand lotion perfect for our dry Arizona weather.
I am going to have a give away soon too so be sure to come back and check the blog soon for your chance to win!