COUPONS, cookies and Christmas exaustion!

Beth here. Oh my goodness folks, Christmas has been wearing me out this week! But, midway through the week, after an encounter with a poor soul at the post office who was somehow more frazzled than me, I decided to pull it together, refocus and find the joy that this whole season is supposed to be about! I'm letting go and relaxing and accepting the fact that everything is NOT going to be perfect, every gift is NOT going to have a bow (not sure they're all going to even get wrapped at this point), and my Christmas tree may not get fresh water every day. Every other's not so bad right? But I WILL enjoy the next few days and laugh as much as I can (even if it's mostly at myself). So here I am, sitting with my feet up, sipping a little white wine knowing full well that the dishes will be there after I've relaxed a little and toasted the Christmas season!

I spent today baking 4 kinds of cookies with my mother-in-law (with lots and lots of coffee breaks in between). We made snickerdoodles for the first time ever - LOVE those!!! They win the "best dough" award for today! We also made some oatmeal cookies (half with rasins for my husband and the other half without for people like me who belive you should never put raisins where the chocolate chips should be), some peanut butter with chocolate kisses - mmmmmmmm, and chocoate cookies with peanut butter filling. I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in dough.

So the other thing I've been working on today is coupons. You may know that I've been doing an experiment to determine wheather coupon clipping is worth the time for me and my family. I've decided for the next couple of months I'm going to whole heartedly embrace all the coupon clipping maddness to see whether it can save us money. I'm about a month in and I have to say, I think I'm a convert. My sister Jennie is the master - one of many moms feeding her family on $40 per week with the help of the Money Saving Mom (http://www.moneysavingmom.com). Jennie is constantly getting piles of free items by combining store specials with coupons and rebates. Will post photos of some of her stashes for you to take a peek at. I was feeling like a bit of a failure at first. Then, it all came together. I organized my coupon stash, made a plan and headed to the store. This week, I'm SO proud to report that I got the following items FREE from Walgreens after using the tips from moneysavingmom.com:

2 jars of Skippy peanut butter
2 bottles of mouthwash
4 cans of Progresso soup
2 boxes of Chocolates

That was just on one (well planned) trip. I've also reduced my grocery bills significantly. Are you making progresse with coupons?? Please let us know your thoughts and tips!

Free Gift from Oprah

On Thursday's Oprah, she announced a FREE downloadable holiday CD for 48 hours only. We LOVE a free download!!!
Please check it out: here to get your free music!

La Bump goes LIVE on Good Morning Texas!

Jill and Beth had the awesome opportunity to spread the word about La Bump on live television this week!

Good Morning Texas' Paige Smith has a daily segment titled "Penny Pinching" and featured La Bump's resale website as a clever way to pinch pennies, go green, and save the world. Okay, maybe not save the world, but decide for yourself. Click here to view the link!

He’s HERE!!!!!

Hi all! Amma here! Holden Jack was born on October 30th at 2:55 p.m. He weighed in at 8 pounds and was 20 inches long, and he is, without a doubt, a perfect baby boy! We have been very busy at Jill’s house since Holden’s arrival. Ava is adjusting to being a big sister quite nicely (she just loves “her baby” so much!) And Claire – an old hat at this whole big sister thing - was quickly back to business as usual. So much to do as a busy 2nd grader!

By now, Jill is a pro at giving birth. She looked great moments after delivery. Beth joked that she took out her to do list, crossed off “give birth” and asked who was ready to make a run to the grocery store? Ha! She is a super woman, that’s for sure!

So we’ve now got 5 in the Marlowe family – a bit of a rarity these days. I grew up with 4 kids in my family and back then it certainly wasn’t unusual for families to have 5 or more children. How things have changed! We recently overheard 7 year old Claire talking with some friends about new babies. One little friend said, “I can’t believe you’re going to have THREE kids in your family!” Another little boy said, “that’s nothing, I heard about a kid once who’s family had FOUR KIDS!!!!” At that point, all the kids were rendered speechless. Stunned at the thought! After hearing this exchange, a very pregnant Jill turned around, shrugged, and said, “well, I guess that means we’re one kid short of a freak show.”

Maternity Resale . . . Kids Resale . . . Thank Goodness for www.LaBump.com

Hi everyone, Beth here. I can’t help but comment on the current state of our economy. As smart mommies we must work together to take care of our families during these times. Women have been making do and taking care of things with few resources for ages so I know we can do it! We really do need to band together as women to get the job done! La Bump is just one way that we can make our dollars go further, reuse kids’ stuff, share, swap and trade maternity clothes. All of these little steps make a huge difference. Here are some tips that the La Bump sisters love for saving money during these tough times:

www.moneysavingmom.com has the BEST coupon saving tips!!! Our favorites are the CVS and Walgreens programs, you MUST get started!

Implement soup and sandwich night at home. One night a week, open a can of Progresso soup and make some yummy sandwiches (we like to melt some cheese on whatever sandwich in the frying pan or the George Foreman grill to make it super gooey) and PRESTO...you have a really inexpensive, not to mention QUICK and EASY TO CLEAN UP, evening meal. It's a nice break during the winter months.

And of course, our favorite tip of all (the original “craigslist for moms) www.LaBump.com. Try an experiment for 1 week or 1 month or even 1 year! Try not to purchase anything new (except consumables like food and toiletries). This is a great way to "reduce, reuse and recycle". Help do your part for the earth and save yourself some money along the way. Remember La Bump for maternity resale, kids resale, no cost consignment, nursing supplies, etc.

La Bump! This is what we're up to right now!

So, we've recently learned about this cool thing to do with our kids. It's called Baby Loves Disco (http://www.babylovesdisco.com) and we don't think there's anything more fun than this concept! Here's the premise (from their own website):

all across the country, baby loves disco is slowly but surely transforming the hippest night clubs into child proof discos as toddlers, pre-schoolers and parents looking for a break from the routine playground circuit let loose for some post naptime, pre-dinner fun. make no mistake, this is not the mickey mouse club, and barney is banned. baby loves disco is an afternoon dance party featuring real music spun and mixed by real djs blending classic disco tunes from the 70s, & 80s guaranteed to get those little booties moving and grooving.

They actually change a REAL night club into something that is family-friendly and safe for our little dancing queens (and kings). La Bump is proud to be a sponsor at 2 upcoming BLD events! We'll be providing face painting and stickers in addition to all the other fun and cool stuff that is always at BLD events. Please join us in:

Houston - November 1, 2008; 2-5PM; Rich's - 2401 San Jacinto St.

Dallas - November 22, 2008; 2-5PM; Purgatory Dallas - 2208 Main St # 10

See the BLD website for ticket information. We understand that it's best to purchase tickets in advance. Hope to see you there!

P.S. The pic was NOT taken at a BLD event. It's of Claire from several years ago at Jennie's wedding...CUTE!

The Hansens LOVE composting!

I just want you all to know that I LOVE composting. We initially started doing it because our trash can had a less-than-pleasant odor taking over our garage. But since then, it has taken on a new meaning for our family. It has become a pretty fun post-dinner event for the kids too! Our CP (as we call it) is about 20 yards from our deck in the back yard – so it’s a bit of a hike compared to the kitchen trash can, but it has been such a fun experience. The girls love to see what has disappeared from the day before and my oldest, Emily loves to take all of the neighborhood kids back there and tell them about how its good to “return the food to the earth.” She sounds like a tiny little scientist.

When we first started the CP, it was mostly just grass, weeds and leaves from our yard, but we quickly started adding watermelon rinds, bad tomatoes from our garden and other ‘outdoor’ trash items. It didn’t take long for us to include all of our “perishable” (or in my words garage-stinkable) food items. Now we take all of our scraps from meals, (apple cores, bones from meat, potato peels, onion skin, high-chair mess, and uneaten food from the kids’ plates) out to the pile. In conjunction with recycling everything that our city will take, this has significantly reduced the amount of trash that we are contributing to our local land fill each week. Now, our family of four typically only puts out 2-3 bags of trash a week which is MUCH less than last year at this time, when our super-stinky trash can lid was un-closable because of the amount of stuff we were throwing away.

Starting out, I did have a couple of gross-out fears with the idea of a compost pile. First I was concerned about an unpleasant odor or neighborhood dogs or squirrels routing around in the mess. To date, this has not happened. Second, I was told I would need to get some ‘bacteria’ (aka dog poop) in order for the CP to function properly – we have (thankfully) also found this to be untrue. BUT, should you have a family four-legged friend, I think this could be an added benefit for all of you dog owners! Third, the ugly post-dinner garbage sitting around on the kitchen counter really grossed me out. So . . . instead of that yucky option, we take the scraps out after every kitchen clean-up. It’s a fun little 3-minte breath of fresh air plus, its cute to watch my little 18-month old bark at the neighbors GIANT blood hound who chases us up and down his fence while we walk. Its great. So there’s my take on composting. I fully understand it’s not for every family but it is an awesome thing for ours. Now . . . if I could only find a way to compost those dirty diapers!

More opportunities to help with Hurricane IKE relief – PLEASE READ!

Please see the attached note about the 600 homeless families that are currently living in a “tent city” in Galveston. 55 of the people living in the shelters are under the age of 12 and 9 are infants. If you can help, please let us know or contact The Children’s Center (contact info is below). We are more than happy to collect items from you and deliver them to the Children’s Center. Of course, you can also send donations directly to the Center. The list of the most needed items is at the bottom of this post. If you would like to contact us directly about coordinating donation delivery, please email us at info@LaBump.com Thank you so much!


Dear Friends,
Hurricane Ike has left Galveston with a tremendous amount of homeless
families due to devastated or severely damaged homes. The Children's
Center, Inc. (TCCI), founded in 1878, is the only social service
agency in Galveston that has a shelter for homeless families. The website is: http://thechildrenscenterinc.org

As some of you may know, there are close to 600 homeless families
living in the Red Cross "tent city" in the area surrounding Alamo
School. Of that number, 55 of them are children ages 12 and under; 9
are infants.

Currently, TCCI is working closely with the Red Cross and the City of
Galveston to place the most vulnerable women, children and families
in the Family Crisis Shelter, and the Respite Care building. Due to
other shelter buildings being damaged, TCCI is only able to take a
select few, approximately 60 people, including children. These
families will be transitioned to the shelters at the end of this week.

Therefore there is a tremendous and immediate need for supplies and
household items in order to make the children and families
comfortable and safe. I have attached a list of PRIORITY needs in the
hopes that you may be able to help The Children's Center help these
most vulnerable families and children in Galveston.

Thank you, in advance, for your time and support.
Eliza

Eliza K. Quigley, LMSW
Vice President of Development & Community Relations
The Children's Center, Inc.
PO Box 2600
Galveston, Texas 77553
409-789-1112
elizaq@comcast.net

Rasins, Jink-a wata, and a Purp!

My little lady is learning how to read. How cute! In turn, she is also learning how to spell (and not spell) and wants to spell everything she sees, hears and talks about. This includes everything that I talk about as well spelling out what all of the neighbors are working on. My least favorite part about the spelling is the stringing along of an endless group of letters and then wondering what she has spelled. Mommy, it has to say something, just READ IT to me!! Yesterday I finally convinced her it was more fun to sound out a word and try to make an actual word than to just hope for a magical one hidden in all of the carefully scribed letters. So, she picked Jink-a. Mommy LOOK! I spelled J-I-N-K-A! You know, I wanta a jinka wata!

Shortly after the correction of drink starts with “d” (sound it out honey . . . dhh rrr iiinn kkk – oh I know you’ve all been there) there came the question of the raisin. “Mommy, sometimes I get hungry at school – can’t I just take one little raisin in my sock?” Gross. My husband suggested a hotdog or maybe a banana in her sock instead and I think she got the picture. So she went off to school and had a wonderful day and learned how to spell the color brown (to the tune of row, row, row your boat).

My dad is here keeping Julia this week (yaaaay Papa!) and was there yesterday to meet Emily at the bus stop. We did the daily after-school mad-dash that we all know and love including dinner, clean-up, quick trip to Target, Sheridan’s (for a free hot fudge sundae) bath-time, stories, crying about bedtime and rocking the baby to sleep for the hundredth time in the same day. It’s a much nicer dash when you have an extra grown-up to help out! We finally got everyone to sleep, I snuck to CVS for some free couponing, (go www.moneysavingmom.com) and Joe finally made it home from work. Whew, another day is done!

At about 2:30 this morning, I hear one of the many nightly calls from my two lovely ladies – this time it’s Emily. “Mooommmmm-eee!” I stumble to her room and she tells me she needs a “jink-a wata and a purp.” Poor kid, I forgot to give her the little purple Benadryl that helps her sleep cough-free through the night. So she gets her purp, gulps down the glass of water and out she goes until morning when we do it all again! I love being a mommy!

TX State Fair!

The Marlowe family headed out to the Texas State Fair last Wednesday afternoon (enjoying the discount admission of 3 soup cans + $1). We had a wonderful time! Started out in the petting barn where the girls could feed and pet all sorts of animals...favs included the tiny baby goats and the donkeys. Then they went through the little farm.

The good stuff...tornado taters, lemonade and Fletchers corny dogs were next! Claire wanted to ride all of the scary rides (in the kiddie section) including the roller coaster, the super high slide, the haunted house, and several other spinning delights. Nana offered to take Ava on the carousel, but Ava insisted it was too scary and sat it out in the stroller. She did manage to take 2 rides with big sister Claire, though. So CUTE!

We finished off with cotton candy, lots of bottled water and a cranky (not to mention sticky) ride home. Next year there will be another little Marlowe (probably walking by then) to enjoy the trip to the fair. A BOY BABY...2 weeks to go!

Hurricane Relief for Newborns

As you know, the La Bump team is committed to providing a non-invasive forum for you to buy sell and trade your maternity, baby and kids’ items. We are committed to providing that forum in a no strings attached way! With that said, we are reaching out to you today to ask for help with something that is very near and dear to our hearts. As you may know, La Bump was started by three sisters. One of us, my sister Beth, lives in Houston and has been dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. She was without power for two weeks but, thank goodness, she and her family are safe and sound. Lots of people in Houston are still very much in need, however. We think the La Bump community can help with one very specific need.

There is a critical need for items for newborns in the Houston community. Many relief efforts do not focus on this need. Please help me gather together supplies for these little ones! Many people are still rebuilding and trying to recover from weeks away from work without pay. We can help! We are willing to collect FORMULA, DIAPERS, and BABY FOOD and bring them to Houston's Local Infant Formula for Emergencies (LIFE) office (check out www.lifehouston.org). Beth lives in the Houston Heights and will be dropping off all that she can collect to that office. Of course, donations of money are also a HUGE help to Life Houston.

We have created a “Hurricane Ike Relief” location on www.LaBump.com where you can get more info about donating. Or, feel free to simply email me (Jill@LaBump.com) or Beth (Beth@Labump.com) to coordinate dropping off your donation. If it's easier, please bring your items directly to the LIFE office closest to you! Either way, please let us know what you plan to do - the La Bump community can make a BIG difference!!!

Putting up fruit

Hi there, Beth here. Jill and I got together a little early this year for our annual holiday gift making weekend. With Jill’s little one on the way we knew we had to get it done early or we wouldn’t have a chance. This is the weekend where we get together and mass produce as many holiday gifts as we possibly can in one 48 hour period. We try to make enough of whatever we’re making so that we’ll have gifts for co-workers, family friends, neighbors etc. etc. (you know how long that list gets!)

In past years we’ve made aprons, table runners and napkins and MILLIONS of cookies! Check out the photo of our cookie stash from last year! By the end of the 48 hours we are usually exhausted, disheveled and a tad sick from eating mass quantities of cookie dough – I just CAN’T STOP!!! Jennie was with us last year thank goodness – she’s been known to put ketchup on my personal cookie dough sampling stash because it’s about the only thing that will stop me. BTW, it’s quite an effective technique in case you’re looking for one.

Because we got together so early this year we had ditch the cookies and focus on something that will keep until the holidays. So we decided to try our hand at canning jam. We had tried making jam once before with less than perfect results BUT we had high hopes for better results this time. After lots of on line research and a trip to the farmers market we were armed with enough plums to feed an army! At the last minute we decided to throw some apple butter into the mix too (the apples are just SO good this time of year!)

The process started with blanching all those plums (taking the skins off so for those of you who haven’t gotten your fill of the Food Network recently). It’s sort of a yucky mess with the plums. Luckily, 7 year old Claire was up for the challenge! She did a fabulous job helping get all those pesky skins off of the plums.

We chopped boiled, thickened, sweetened and stirred ALL weekend!! I think I still have some sugar under my fingernails. At one point, I found a blob of jelly in my hair. It’s not glamorous work, Ladies! But I am very proud to report that at the end of it all we are proud to have “put up” as they say in the canning world, 20 jars of plum jelly and 10 jars of apple butter. YUM!!! The house smelled delightful!!!!

State Fair of Texas 2008 Admission Discounts

The State Fair of TX is going on right now and we're planning to take the kids after school next Wednesday. Why a Wednesday, you ask? Check out these great deals you can receive on your admission price (I got this via email from the PR office of the Fair, so I definitely consider this reliable). Next week you'll be able to read about all the fun, food and swollen feet we had while we were there! HA! Oh, the pics are from our trip the the fair last year...

State Fair of Texas 2008 promotions:

Participating North Texas KROGER stores
Advance purchase General Admission tickets are $12.50. A Season Pass is
$29.95. They may be purchased at the check-out counter or at the service
desk.

Opening Day-Sept. 26--Bring a full 20 oz. Coca-Cola product for donation
to the North Texas Food Bank containers at Fair admission gates and
enter the State Fair for $4 per donation per person.

Dr Pepper $3 Tuesdays--Every Tuesday, bring an empty Dr Pepper can and
enter for $3. Most rides (excluding the Thrillway and the Texas Star)
are 5 coupons.

Kroger "Three for $1" each Wednesday--Admission is $1 for each visitor
bringing 3 cans of food for area food banks.

Coke $4 Thursday--Bring an empty 20 oz. bottle of a Coca-Cola product
and enter the Fair for $4 admission.

Mature Texan Magazine sponsor of Seniors FREE Thursdays--Senior
Citizens 60 years and older get in to the State Fair FREE each Thursday.

FREE Thursday admission with a Cinemark Theater ticket stub.

Any Day--McDonald's offers $3 off General Admission with one of their
State Fair coupons any day of the Fair. The other coupon McDonald's
offers with one general admission ($14.00) at the gates you get a child
in free. Offer may not be combined with any other offer.

Wide awake...

I'm wide awake again during the middle of the night. I spend all day feeling really sleepy and then can't sleep at night. What is that about? I'm thinking about how the baby is breech with only 5 weeks to go. I tried something new today, I went to a chiropractor to see if she could help make some room for the baby to turn around on his own. I do think that it helped, but am pretty sure that the baby is still breech. If this fails, I'll have to go into the hospital and see if the doctor can turn the baby around in order to avoid a c-section. I'm trying to stay positive because I don't think the baby is that big and I do think he can still turn, but I also know that time for that is running short. If anyone has suggestions on what I can do to help, please send them my way!

Enough of that. Claire is back in soccer and her team is (slowly) improving. She's really quick and has nearly endless amounts of energy, so she's in the right sport for sure. Plus, she loves it! Aaron is helping to coach the team this year and I think he really likes doing that too. Ava and I wander around watching during practice and games. Mostly we pick flowers and marvel at the outdoors (tree balls, pine cones, ants, sticks, etc.). We're all ready for the weather to cool down; it's back in the 90's this week and after a long, hot summer, we could use a break. That's all for now...

Heading North . . . Fleeing IKE and Baby Room Remodels

Well we’re preparing to head for drier ground this morning. Houstonians have actually been fairly calm so far. Having grown up (safely inland) in Minnesota I am not quite so calm. I have to say, Houston is now my home but I prefer a blizzard to a Hurricane any day! Many of my fellow Houstonians are “hunkering down” as we like to say here. Not me! I’m headed to Dallas. Here in Houston, the old hands at this play it very cool. They are un-phased and many refuse to admit any concern at all. Texans are just too tough to be bothered by Ike. A good friend of mine is planning a hurricane party – it will no doubt be a fabulous get together. Mention of good last minute party will normally stop my in my tracks and have me touching up my lipstick while making a u-turn in traffic to make it to the festivities. Not this time. Indeed, I’m a scared-y cat. Luckily I was already planning to head to Dallas this weekend because I promised Jill long ago that I would help her paint her baby room. So, I have an excellent excuse and I can flee to the safety of DFW, all the while pretending I would love to be here for the action if only I didn’t have a prior commitment.

So, back to this baby room. After having a pink house for the last seven years - and I do mean VERY PINK (Jill’s little girls are as girly as can be! I don’t think Claire wore a pair of pants – or at least not without protest – until she was 5 or 6) we are preparing for baby number three and, get this . . . IT’S A BOY!!! So, the mission for the weekend – after escaping Ike, that is – is turning a very pink nursery BLUE! How exciting. Jill still thinks this baby might surprise us and come out a girl. If so, Jill has instructed me to throw some pink pillows and blankets into the room before she gets home from the hospital. Her emergency procedure in case of gender mix up has relaxed considerably since baby number 2. Had Ava come out a boy, I was under strict instruction to (very quickly) re-paint the nursery with a cute farm/cowboy motif before the baby was released from the hospital. Thank goodness that didn’t happen! I’m quite sure paint fumes are bad for newborns.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. Hurricane prep is really a crap shoot. What do you buy? How much? If you load up on the big cafeteria sized spaghetti-o’s you’re in good shape right? But how do you get those giant cans open anyway? And the thought of eating spaghetti-o’s at all is just a tad yucky – and much more so when there’s no power (meaning no microwave). One of my friend’s husbands headed to the store to stock up on essentials for the grown ups this morning. She had already stocked up on diapers and formula. He came home with a case of wine and a jumbo sized can of chili. I’m not even going to make a comment on that. I’ll just say, hurricane prep is an interesting time. I’ve seen enough. See you in Dallas!

The List of Things We Thought We'd Never Have to Say...

Oh, Ava, please don't lick the cat.

Honey, don't sprinkle cheese on your baby sisters head.

I told you a hundred times not to tug-o-war with the jump rope.

Honey, don't put your hotdog in the guitar like that.

How many times do I have to tell you Emily, please don't lick another person on the face!

Please don't eat off the bottom of your foot - I'll get you some new lunch meat.

Oh honey, please don't put that stick up into the ceiling fan like that.

Eat what I gave you, not what's in the trash.  Honey, you can't eat trash.

Julia, three and a half eggs is enough for breakfast, you're only one year old (as she cries "mo, mo!" over and over again pointing to her empty bowl).

Please post your own...add a comment!  

P.S.  Check out this cool review of our site:  www.thewiseyoungmommy.blogspot.com

State Fair, Second Grade & Labor Day Weekend

So, Claire and I made our annual trip up to MN for the state fair.  Mom, Kevin, Steve and Dad were there.  It was great!  We ate snacks galore (favorites include fried cheese curds, french fries, snow cone, chocolate milk and lefse), Claire rode rides and spent tons of time in the Miracle of Birth center.  She came home with 3 tiny caterpillars who grew and grew and made a cocoon.  Now we wait for butterflies to emerge.  The whole thing was great and we can't wait until next year!

We got home just in time (with 1 day to spare) for Claire to start 2nd grade.  Aaron and Ava had attended "Meet the Teacher" while we were gone.  She's doing great, has a locker on top this year, art (her fav subject) is on Tuesdays, and best of all, they get a snack in the morning this year!  When her teacher asked her where she was during "Meet the Teacher" Claire told her we were at the MN fair.  Ironically, her teacher is from the same town in MN where I grew up.  It's a small, small world...truly!

After only 5 days of school, we had a long Labor Day weekend.  Scheels and Kuhs joined us out at the lake for a nice, relaxing (minus the occasional kid drama) weekend.  It was good just to be out of town and overall, the kids (all 5 of them) really were good.  We did lots of fishing, swimming, cooking, eating and a little boating, too.

So that's what's up for now.  I'm trying to get Jennie to post this list she's been keeping.  It's a list of things we should never have to say to our kids but end up saying anyway.  Stay tuned...

Good morning!

So at 6:19AM Claire came into our room and said that Lucy (our 11 year old dog who sleeps in Claires room) needed to go out to go to the bathroom.  As Aaron mumbled and slowly started to roll out of bed, I can hear Lucy peeing on the floor.  Aaron cleans it up somewhat with a towel.  I suggest that maybe he should squirt a little cleaner of some sort on the spot to lessen the smell of dog urine in our bedroom.  It's gross, but we move on.

We get Claire and Aaron out the door to school and work.  Ava and I settle into our morning routine.  I shower while Dora babysits from the TV.  Tammy calls.  Then I hear this noise.  I know what it is, but am REALLY afraid to look.  I'm 31 weeks pregnant and the smell of what is to come scares me tremendously.  Lucy has thrown up (heaps of undigested dog food) in 2 spots in the hall outside my bedroom.  I call Aaron and suggest (not in my kindest voice) that he make the dog an appointment to see the vet (she's been acting funny since we went on vacation and she spent 8 days in boarding).  Dogs are gross.

Fast forward 30 minutes or so.  Aaron picks up the dog and as he leaves, the doorbell rings.  It's the housekeeper, that I tried to fire 2 weeks ago, showing up to clean the house.  I call Beth to translate the "...we don't need you to clean our house anymore..." even though this housekeeper DOES speak english but a some point when I asked her to vacuum the steps, she decided to only speak Spanish to me.

So that's over and Beth and I are talking about how the Spanish conversation went and Ava tells me her panties are yucky.  Potty training is also gross.

I do the only thing I can think to do.  I put a diaper on Ava (are you supposed to do that during potty training???) and head out to Target.

Not a great morning, but in the big picture, I have taken a shower, Ava had bath, the dog is not at home anymore, the house is both messy and dusty (but I have started the laundry) and I get to go to Target!  I'll take it over my previous life of sitting in my cubicle.  This is the thought that gets me through these really gross, stinky mornings!

La Bump Has Arrived!!!

Well Ladies, the time is FINALLY here! We have www.LaBump.com off the ground and running! The LaBump sisters are so proud of our site! Please check it out. Here's more info about us and how we got started:

http://www.labump.com/about.php

Please look around the site and visit us here often as well. We are going to use this space as a way to communicate with other mommies and share tips, ideas, and stories.