First Day of School!

I had the Mommy moment today. My little boy isn't a little boy anymore. Caden had his first day of preschool today. He attends 2 days a week in the afternoons so Lola and I get some time together. I was so nervous for him. At the preschool's open house, he was shy and didn't want to play with the other kids other than Lola. So I got him dressed for the day this morning, went grocery shopping, and it was time to go. The morning flew by. He seemed excited, but I didn't know if he would understand that I wasn't going to be with him. He doesn't know any other kids so I was worried, but Caden is really social around other kids. He befriends anybody and everybody. Once we got into school, he was shy and didn't want to see or talk to his teachers. Oh no....I was more nervous. He went potty there, which he got scared because I shut the door for privacy, but he freaked out that he couldn't see me. At home, he is used to doors wide open and no privacy at all. He was scared I was leaving. I was more nervous than before. He went right to the playroom and I sneaked away. I didn't hear any crying or screaming or a little boy chasing after me so it was ok. Lola was the one that had the fit. She wanted to stay and play at school. On our way home, she didn't make it. Lola was fast asleep.

When it was time to pick him up, I was scared that something crazy happened or he had an accident. He absolutely loved it. He got a school bag filled with Scholastic book order form (which I love), he told me all about his day. They played, read books, puzzles, made play dough, sang songs, and ate yellow, circle cookies aka Nilla Wafers. He played with friends and loves his teachers. He can't wait to go next time. I am so excited that he is going. Lola slept the entire time and woke up right before we had to pick him up. He couldn't wait to tell Daddy about his day at school so we had to call him at work. My Caden boy is growing up.

Tagged: 3 Simple Words

What is missing from my life? Two little puppies.
Will I find love? Gregory Ray Brusik
Will I become rich? In every way.
Does someone have a crush on me? I know someone.
What is my favorite sexual position? Only Greg knows
Am I good looking? Ridiculously good looking.
What makes me the most happy? Family and friends.
What is my biggest regret? None so far.
How will I die? Whatever happens happens
Do I act my age? Younger and older.
What type of tattoo should I get? Not gonna happen.
What is my spirit animal? A Sea Otter.
Do I like pain? Numbing drugs help.
Is there anyone else like me out there? Somewhere out there.
Do I love to party? If there's food.
Where should I move to? Possibilities are endless.
Am I secretly gay? That's a No.
Will I ever be president? Of something, maybe.
What is fun for me? Pretty much everything.
Will I ever learn to fly? Not a plane.
What is my super power? Tune whining out.
What can I do to move on? Talk it out.

Who do I tag? The Wetzels, Scotts, and Barons.

We Just Need to Accept It...

from Time Magazine

MESSY IS THE NEW NEAT

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007 By Jeremy Caplan

Neatness is Overrated. Let those stacks of paper pile up on your desk. Don't worry about the laundry tossed in the corner. Let the icons clutter up your computer screen. And whatever you do, stop obsessing over your letter-perfect filing system. Bless your mess, says a new group of "mess-iahs" spreading the gospel of healthy disorganization.
"Moderately messy systems outperform extremely orderly systems," says Eric Abrahamson, Columbia University professor of management and co-author of A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder (Little, Brown). Abrahamson, a scholar of organizational behavior who admits to being a bit of a mess, says the costs of maintaining order are often overlooked. He and co-author David Freedman make the case that Americans' obsession with neatness has got us so frazzled about the slightest clutter that we're needlessly draining time, money and emotion from our lives in the hapless pursuit of order. Don't spend two hours a day straightening up at home, the authors say. Devote that time instead to your family or creative endeavors or anything more enjoyable than getting on your knees with a Dustbuster. Making your home germ free may actually be harmful to tots. Decluttering it not only wastes time but also saps a home's sense of character.
Filing away loose office papers can be similarly counterproductive. There's a reason people tend to stack stuff on their desks: such intuitive organization can be effective. Not only are things often hard to find once secluded in a complex filing system, but they're also out of sight and therefore out of mind. Those with messy desks often stumble upon serendipitous connections between disparate documents. Don't believe there's a benefit? According to Abrahamson and Freedman, desk-paper mess helped Nobel-prizewinning scientist Earl Sutherland discover how hormones regulate cells.
Devotees of filing often interrupt their thought flow to stuff papers in folders, while pack rats just toss papers to the side for later. Procrastination like that can actually pay off. "Putting off undertaking almost any form of neatening or organizing will probably have some advantage," write Abrahamson and Freedman, "because it's much more efficient to organize a large set of things at one shot than it is to try to organize them in pieces as they come along."
The message at the heart of A Perfect Mess is not that neatness is by definition bad, but that a moderate amount of messiness isn't a terrible thing. For those obsessed with order, though, Abrahamson and Freedman have several suggestions:
MAKE PEACE WITH YOUR CLUTTER
Organizational gurus may reclaim shelf space by getting clients to trash their high school honors or sentimental icons, but aren't their homes losing a bit of personality and history? There's a reason Rachael Ray is gaining on Martha Stewart, Freedman says. People are naturally a little clumsy and messy, and try as we might to cultivate monastery-like sanctuaries, clutter creeps back. Accept that, and you'll stress less.
DON'T WASTE TIME ORGANIZING YOUR LAPTOP
Search tools can instantaneously locate anything from an e-mail message to a Word document, so why spend hours dragging things from one folder to another?
BE SLOPPIER WITH YOUR SCHEDULE
"If you keep a tight calendar and you're not a dentist or a hair stylist, try being looser and not packing as many things in," says Freedman. A less structured date book makes it easier to adapt to inevitable surprises and affords you freedom to just go with the flow.
FORGET FILING
If you organize your CD library alphabetically by artist, the collection will be randomly assorted with regard to style of music. If you structure it by date, it won't be sorted by artist. Whatever parameters you use for ordering means randomness for some other characteristic.
If your New Year's resolution was to straighten up, you still have time to reconsider. Your time, energy and money might be better spent on something else.

Thoughts...Don't sweat the small stuff. Messy is different from dirty. Don't follow kids all day picking up after them. It's ok being a little unorganized. It is all about MODERATION. What are your thoughts?

Any ideas?

Just posted a poll that is closing on Labor day. Let me know what you think. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions for movies, books, crafts, etc. Hope everyone has a fun weekend! Blog you later~

Happy Happy Days!

It has been a great weekend. It started out with me turning the big 2-5! Oh time flies! A quarter of a century...CRAZY! Well looking at the events of my life, I thought when I turned 25 I would have just gotten married, maybe pregnant. Well I have two kids now and my oldest is about to start school and Lola is already 15 months, walking and talking. It is amazing, but I feel older or I should be older because many people my age, outside of Utah, are either getting married or still playing the field. I wouldn't want to trade. I like how I did it all at a young age. It makes me happy being a young mom and thinking about being a young G-ma. Did I have goals I wanted to reach by the time I turned 25? Possibly. I tend to put my goals in Greg's timeline. Especially when 30 seems like around the corner for him and I will not turn 30 at all.

Let me tell you about my bday because I consider it the best I probably have had. It started on Thursday night when Greg surprised me with a spa night. I had a facial and a massage, which was so relaxing and great. If you know Greg and I at all, we don't do well with surprises. We tend to open our Christmas presents early every year and then wrap them so we have presents on the bottom of the tree. If Greg does surprise me, I have a tendency to return it. I told him to get me whatever and you should be proud of me for not actually having something specific in mind. In the morning, he let me sleep in, made me breakfast, and I got to go get a pedicure and my hair styled. We made arrangements to drop off the kids with Grandma and Grandpa.


Anniversary Time! We celebrated our 5 year anniversary. We made reservations at the Anniversary Inn. We stayed in the Lighthouse Suite. It was a lot of fun and relaxing. We went out to dinner at Flemings at the Gateway and watched a movie. Saturday we went shopping, which we were in line at Old Navy for an HOUR. The jeans were $12 and we all needed some new ones. It was nice to not have the kids with us. We sometimes forget how much fun it is just the two of us is. We need to do this more often. It was a blast and the kids had a blast with the grandparents. 5 years...Who would've thought that after 1 night of making out would lead to this!

Good News or Bad News?

Which do you prefer first? Good news or bad news? That is a common question that comes from Greg and he should know the answer by now because I always say the same thing. I prefer bad news. After the bad news, I hope to be uplifted by the good news and that rarely happens. It seems that usually the bad news outweigh the good, but in the news I have to share, it is a fair trade. Well it depends on the audience, so you be the judge.

Bad news first. The sixth Harry Potter movie has changed its release date. It is moving from November 21, 2008 to July 27, 2009. You can find more details in the article.

Good news. Twilight moved from December 12, 2008 and snatched Harry Potter's November spot.

That's the news folks so what do you think? Are you under Harry Potter's spell or are you bitten by Twilight?

Having Fun and Keeping Busy

Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure.






After my eventful weekend of Breaking Dawn, I didn't know what to do with myself. I wanted to reread it. I needed to keep myself busy so I wouldn't think about it. I continued the whole potty thing with Caden which has gone great and he even wakes up at night to go, which I still put a pull-up on him, just in case. He hates the pull-up because he knows that it is time to go to bed. On Monday, he got enrolled in a preschool that I am super excited about. He keeps bringing it up everyday and I have to keep reminding him that it doesn't start for a few weeks. Tuesday, a friend and I made jam for the first time and it was surprisingly easy. We made apricot-pineapple freezer jam and I am excited to make more because we love freezer jam. I never knew how to make it because I thought it was hard so we would always take some from Greg's mom. Now I know what to do, we don't have to do that anymore. Wednesday, Rachel and I had a date night. We went to dinner at Red Robin, which was really good, and then we watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. We were in the front row and it was such a good chick flick. It made me laugh and teary-eyed. It was really good! I would totally recommend this movie to those that are in the mood for a good chick flick. In addition, it had awesome previews, especially the Twilight and Harry Potter:Half-Blood Prince. This year is a great year for movies. The rest of the week, I went school shopping for the kids. Yes, I said KIDS. It is only natural for me to buy school clothes for both Caden and LOLA. How can I not when girl clothes are so cute? Greg had to work all weekend and I ended the week with bridesmaid dress shopping. I have been staying up late looking online for weddings, on a budget, ideas for my BFF Hannah. It can get difficult when I am here and she is in WA. We communicate through email and IM. It is coming along and I picked a pretty, purple dress. I never realized how expensive weddings can be. Do you have any ideas to keep weddings in a reasonable budget? If you are married, what did you do to keep the costs low? Please help me out so I can pass along the info.

It was an eventful week last week and it is just getting crazier as the summer comes to an end. Oh, I forgot to mention we watch the Olympics every night until 11. We love the Olympics!