So, Drake emailed the owner of the house that we were hoping to rent and we just heard back that he has already rented the home out to someone else. So, I guess there you have it. That one is out. Hopefully we can still get the condo right next door. Honestly, financially, this is a much smarter move. Also, with plans the way they currently are, we'll only be here for another year, so I can handle a year with the same amount of space we currently have. We were planning on it anyways before we found out we had to move out of this place. :)

So, I went reading back through my blog and realized that lately I've been extrememly boring. Sorry about that. Sadly, I have nothing witty to say...even now. I used to post and laugh while I posted. (Yes, I'm one of those irritating ones that laugh at their own jokes) Now, I post and find myself bored while posting. I can only imagine what you, the readers are thinking. Yeah, so...sorry about that.

I'm trying to think of a funny story about something that happened lately, but so far I'm coming up blank. Well, Emma did just come downstairs and tell me that Caitlin is stuck in the hamper. I wonder how she got there. I wonder if it's her feet or her head stuck in it. I should probably go find out, but I really don't want to. I suppose she'll get out eventually and realize that sticking herself in the hamper wasn't a good idea. How do you get stuck in a hamper anyways? Leave it to Caitlin. Emma's laughing at her.

Caitlin just came downstairs and told me what happened. She sat down on the hamper and got her rear end stuck in it. No wonder Emma was laughing. I laughed at her as well. Is it wrong to laugh at your child's plight? If so, I'm a bad mommy :(

We spoke with one of our neighbors today and he said that the owner of the condo that we looked at told him that we were moving into their condo, so I guess that means we got the place! Funny...we never even put in an application. lol We're still waiting to hear back about a house that we applied for earlier this week. If that's a no go, it looks like we'll be moving pretty much right next door. How convenient is that? Awesome!

I meant to post the picture I took of my Sare Bear the other day. It was her first time in pigtails! Sorry about the crappy quality...I took it with my cell phone.

A good friend of mine is coming to visit on Saturday! Wooohooooo! I'm totally stoked! The kids are beyond thrilled to see him again. I'm hoping it will motivate them to clean their room. lol

Packing is going...slowly. I've packed a grand total of four boxes. Yeah, I'm on a roll!!!! My goal for today is to get the bookshelves in the living room emptied. There are boxes in the garage that I haven't touched since we moved here, two years ago. I'm tempted to throw them away, sight unseen, but Drake won't let me. He's such a packrat. He HAS decided that I can pack away the stuff I think should be thrown away in boxes by themselves so if he decides he's okay with throwing them away later, we can just toss the whole box instead of having to go through it. It's a start. Personally, I just want to toss everything. I'm not fond of clutter and keeping things. Drake's not fond of clutter, but he's fond of saving every.little.thing. It drives me nuts.

I can't believe how many freaking toys we have. There are at LEAST four HUGE boxes of toys in our garage that our kids haven't seen since before we moved last time. Some they haven't seen since we moved from Santa Cruz...THREE years ago! I'm tempted to just go drop them all off at Good Will or freecycle them all. The kids would throw a fit though, so I guess I need to go through and only get rid of the ones the kids are willing to get rid of. I also have a TON of clothing I need to go through and get rid of. I can't believe how much stuff we have that we never use!

I think this move will be good for us. It will give me a chance to purge our lives of the stuff we don't need. I didn't get to do that the last time we moved because Drake was in Hawaii and would have FREAKED if I threw anything away without asking him and because I had almost no time to pack everything up and move it. This time, I think I have some time.

So, say you needed $2,000 and need it in the next month or two. What would you do?

The fabric is slow to sell. I knew it would be. I've made a grand total of like 30 bucks. Woohooo, I'm rolling in it now! Only $1970 to go!!!

So anyways, I have no desirable skills. I have nothing of much value to sell. Should I become a prostitute? Hey...desirable skills AND something to sell...I'm the whole package!

Anyways, I'm at a complete loss.

So, if you needed a quick $2,000 what would you do?

I'm actually thinking of selling my piano. It makes me more sad than the fabric did though. The piano is definitely worth more to me than I could make off of it, but I suppose those are the sacrifices you have to make for your family. Piano's can be replaced.

I sorted through my fabric and notions, measured it, tagged it and put a price on it. I'm so pathetic that I even cried while I was doing it. Yeah, I'm a loser, I know.

So anyways, if you're in the market for some cloth diaper making supplies, girly print cotton knits, satin, fleece, etc. you can buy some from me!!!

Buy my stuff

It is with heavy heart that I announce the impending death of my fabric stash. :( If you've read this blog from the beginning, you know the obsession I have with fabric. I can spend hours in the fabric store just petting the fabric and dreaming up what I can make with it. I can't seem to leave the fabric store without spending at least $75...usually closer to $100. It's an obsession and I have come to not only accept it, but embrace it.

Sadly though, our landlady called last night and informed us that her son is moving to San Diego and needs a place to live, so she's selling him our condo. That means that we need to be out by the last week of May. That means it's a mad rush to find a new place to live, and uproot our family once again. This time with one more person in tow. We're really hoping to stay around here, but may sacrifice the close proximity to work for a cheaper rent, or a little more space. I really don't know.

So anyways, what does that have to do with my fabric stash, you may ask? Well, you see...moving costs money. We live paycheck to paycheck as it is. Somehow we are going to need to pull a $1500 deposit and $300 for a moving truck out of our...ummm...yeah. So, I've been searching my house for unneeded things that I can sell to make some quick money. Sadly, the thing that is worth the most is my fabric stash. It's pathetic that it makes me so sad to sell all of this stuff. I mean, it's just fabric. But, still, I'm very sad to do it. I had big plans (although little time) for that stash. Each different fabric was reserved for different projects. Everytime I open my fabric trunk, I see dresses, curtains, slings, pouches, diapers, etc. Soon though, I'll see nothing. :(

Maybe I'll just sell one of my kids instead. I can spare a couple ;)

So, I've been seriously neglecting this blog lately. Why? Because I've been so doggone busy updating my weight loss site. It's almost done :D No, you don't get a link because I have pictures of my fat self up and they're ugly.

I've also been working on a weight loss challenge for my losers at Friends and Families. Look at how nice I am...I gave you a link to that one! Our current challenge is the "Spring into Summer" challenge that goes from today (the first day of spring) until the first day of summer. (Bet you never would have guessed that one! ;) ) My goal for the challenge is to lose 20 pounds. There are mini goal challenges througout the challenge. The first is an exercise challenge. We're supposed to choose an exercise goal and stick to it for 21 days. (Afterall, it takes 21 days to make a habit, right?) My goal is to walk at least 5 miles a week on the treadmill. I did one today, so I'm off to a good start. Only four more miles by next Monday :)

I haven't decided what the next challenges will be or when they will start. I'm too busy working on a new website for my F&F losers so we can keep track of everything for our challenge. Granted, I haven't even started the website, but really, the thinking has been taking up all my time. It's hard to have all of this information in my head :( LOL That reminds me...did you ever see the episode of Married With Children (my parents used to forbid that show, but I snuck it in every once in a while) where the sister had to study for a test and Bud was trying to help her. The problem was, she could only process so much information, so in order for her to know the stuff for the test, she lost some of the other information in her head. Then, the doorbell rings and she says, "Hello?" like she's on the telephone...or some equally dingbatted thing to say, I'm not exactly clear on what it was. Anyways, that was funny.

So, I've been thinking a lot about friends lately. Or rather, my lack thereof. I'm not sure what it is that keeps me from making friends. I mean, I know that I'm afraid to put myself out there because I'm afraid of a repeat of past bad experiences, but even when people try to befriend me, I find myself keeping to myself and doing things that will probably lead to those people deciding that being my friend isn't worth the time and effort. I don't know why I act the way I do. I know that I'm anti social, but I also know that I don't want to be. I know I need to put forth more of an effort to get to know people and I know that friendship is a two way street, of which I need to participate. However, I find myself, while willing to put for the effort, not doing so. I feel sorry for myself because I have no friends, yet I push people away. Maybe I'm just overanalyzing myself. I tend to do that. Maybe there is no deep rooted reason that I'm so incredibly anti social. Maybe that's just who I am.

I never used to be that way though. I used to love going out. In fact, I still do. So, I really have no idea why I don't do it. I have people that I can call up and ask to go out with me, yet I don't do it. (Well, I do call one person, but he never calls me back...ahem...you know who you are! ;) ) I really should just bite the bullet and do it. There really is no reason not to.

I've started a "family journal" with my girls. Each night I write a page solely to each of them. They read it the next morning, then write in the journal when they get home from school. I'm hoping this will open the lines of communication between my girls and me. I try to write about the things that I see as their strengths and encourage them to keep doing what they are doing in regards to that, as well as their weaknesses and encourage them to try to better themselves in those areas. Every few days I give them a challenge of sorts. For instance, I saw that Caitlin is really limiting her friendship to a few select people (one of which I'm not fond of at all) so I challenged her to find someone she doesn't normally talk to and to talk to them and compliment them on something. Emma had a new student in her class who speaks very little English. I challenged her to ask him to teach her how to say hello in Korean so she could say hello to him each day and try to make him feel a bit more comfortable in a new environment.

It is my hope that as the girls get older that they will feel comfortable writing to me about their problems if they don't feel comfortable speaking to me about them. I know that when I was younger, I could write and write and write about my issues, but I just couldn't talk about them. When I had a problem with someone, I would write them a letter because it was easier to sort out my feelings on paper than it was to express them verbally...especially when it was something I was uncomfortable talking about. So, I figured I'd get them started writing to me daily while they're young, so when they're older they will be comfortable doing it.

I got a cross country skiing machine and a treadmill this past week! I'm totally stoked about that! I got them both off of freecycle, so they didn't cost me a penny, which was even better! I'm not fond of the treadmill (they tend to hurt my knee) but I'm absolutely thrilled with the cross country skiing machine! I try to do about an hour on it each day. I don't usually get that long in because finding an uninterrupted hour in my day is nearly impossible, but I do get quite a few ten minute sessions in througout the day. It's actually a lot of fun. I listen to Emma's iPod while I do it, which tends to make it go by fairly quickly. The girls have really taken a liking to both machines though and spend about thirty minutes on them before school each morning. Studies have shown that children who exercise before school do better in school and have an easier time concentrating than those who don't, so I'm glad I've been able to find something they enjoy doing. Goodness knows walking to school was no fun for them!

Cole is going to start tae kwan do next month! He's so totally geeked about it! I spoke with Matt (the instructor) about Cole starting and he said that he would take Cole on a trial basis because he's four and he usually doesn't start taking kids until they are five. If he feels that Cole is interested enough, can follow instructions and pay attention, he'll let him continue. Cole has said that he will listen and do everything Matt tells him to do, so we'll see how it goes. If he can't do tae kwon do, he wants to learn to ice skate. He used to want to play hockey, but then decided he didn't want to do that quite yet because he saw some kids playing hockey and one of them fell, so it kinda scared him off of it. I didn't want to tell him that he was going to fall a lot learning how to ice skate. lol I think once he learns how to ice skate, he'll want to play hockey again. He seemed really into it until he got scared about falling. The girls also want to learn how to ice skate, so we may just sign them all up.

Emma's iPod nano came in the mail today. It was a birthday gift from her grandma, Drake, and myself. She's absolutely BEYOND thrilled. I downloaded a bunch of songs for her and put them on her iPod so she could listen to it when she got home from school. (The iPod came via FedEx this morning) It is so cute to see her walking around the house, singing at the top of her lungs. Caitlin is horribly jealous and has been in a bad mood ever since they got home though, which sucks. Oh well, she's going to have to learn to deal with it eventually.

I meant to post this yesterday, but got so busy that I didn't get a chance to.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMAPHANT!!!!

Yes, that's right, my sweet little girl is SIX years old! I can't believe how big she's getting. It seems like just yesterday that the midwife placed this sweet little baby in my arms. Now, she's in Kindergarten, reading, writing, doing math, learning to ride a bike, learning to swim...gosh, she's getting so big. Time sure has flown by.

I took a pic of her yesterday that I was going to put up, but apparently when Emma accidentally knocked my digicam off of the table, she broke it and it will no longer transfer pictures to the computer. That sucks. Hopefully I'll be able to get it fixed and I'll update this post with a pic of my beautiful little girl on her sixth birthday.

Edited to add:
Here she is!

So, for some reason I felt the need to check an old email address of mine that I never check anymore because it had become overrun with spam. Sure enough, thousands and thousands of emails about making my penis larger, housewives who want me and cheap viagra.

I was quickly scanning the subjects of the latest 100 emails and one of them caught my eye. The subject was, "A personal message from Frank Mendoza." I thought to myself, "How funny, I knew someone in like Kindergarten and first grade named Frankie Mendoza." I assumed it was just another shiek telling me he had millions of dollars that he needed to put in my bank account so I could transfer it to someone else, and for my help, I could keep a million of it. So, I just passed it by.

As I was about to go to my next 100 emails, I accidentally clicked on the page. Apparently I actually clicked on the email I mentioned earlier. So, I read it. It said something to the effect of, "My name is Frank Mendoza. I'm looking for a woman by the name of Katie Mann. I knew her when I was very young and I was wondering if you happen to be her."

OH MY GOSH...it was actually HIM! I mean, what are the odds? I NEVER check that email address. I was going to pass that email right by, but I accidentally clicked on it. Not only that, but he only sent it TWO days ago, so it wasn't like he sent it months ago and figured he had gotten the wrong email address since he never got a reply. It was all just a totally random series of events.

I'm thrilled that he got in contact with me. He was one of my absolute best friends before I moved away from Fremont. I haven't spoken to him since I was like Caitlin's age. Of all of the people I knew at that point in my life, there are only a few that I actually remember. He is definitely one of them. I'm hoping I will hear back from him. It will be interesting to hear what he's done with his life. He was an awesome kid. I loved him to death. He was one of my very early life crushes.

I'm thinking about going to Mexico. I was talking to Seth tonight and was mentioning that even tough I've lived in San Diego for a number of years, I've never been to Mexico. So, Seth suggested that perhaps we should go to Mexico together, just so we can say that we did it. I think it would be fun. However, I'm slightly scared. All I hear about Tijuana is that the police pull you over for no reason and say that the only way you're not going to jail is if you give them all of your money. Then there's the little kids who offer to sell you chicklets, but are really reaching into your pocket and stealing your money. Or, the people who lose their birth certificate while there and then get stuck in Mexico because they aren't allowed back across the border. However, I'd really like to be able to say that yes, I've been to Mexico. I've never left the US and it would seem silly not to do so when I have the border so close to me right now. Perhaps we can spend a short amount of time in Tijuana, then travel further south and enjoy the less touristy/party aspect of the border town. However, I think if we do go, we'll probably walk across the border since American car insurance is no good in Mexico. So, going further south would require taking a cab. Hmmmmm...I've heard cabbies offer to take you to the "donkey show." Maybe it's not such a bad idea ;)