Sponges!

I like to clean. I don't LOVE to clean but I don't mind it. I love the feeling of a clean and orderly home, I always have. And I like to clean even more when I have products that are easy to use. So, when I received a new cleaning product to try out, I was pretty excited. The product I received was a pair of sponges. Right away I liked that they fit perfectly in my hand because it made them easy to use. I tried a sponge on my clarinet that's been sitting in it's case for the last few years. It was dry so I added a little water. I was not impressed honestly, because there wasn't a change in the way my clarinet looked and the sponge started to fall a part. I wasn't scrubbing hard on the keys but apparently enough to have little pieces of come off. So then, I tried it on my stainless steel bathroom sink faucet hoping a different surface would make a difference and it worked better. It took off the water spots and the smudge prints. I thought hey, this looks nice, I wonder how it would work on the bathtub drain. A little while ago we were cleaning with bleach in the tub and it made a weird black stain on the drain. After a few scrubs with the sponge, 80% of the blackness came off. I was stoked! I'd tried a few different things but nothing got more off than this sponge did. And I also tried it on my dishes and those too turned out well. Overall, it worked pretty well. It's not one I'd say you could use a lot, but you'd definitely get a few good uses out of it before needing a new one. :)

Microfiber towel

Do you like shiny things? I do. No really, I do! That's why I was really excited to do a product review about Microfiber towels. Why? Because it makes things shiny! At least the one I received did. :) At first, I expected the towel to be small, like the size of a rag. Uh no, it was huge! Not huge and bulky, but long and thin which is perfect because I don't have a lot of extra room in my apartment. I was wondering what I could use the towel on and my husband suggested my clarinet. Now you have to realize, I've had this clarinet for 15 years and it was used when I bought it. I haven't even played it in the last few years so it's been sitting in a case that whole time. So it was perfect to test my new microfiber towel on and guess what? My clarinet looks awesome!! It's never been as shiny as it is now and I love it! It made me even want to start playing again because it looks so nice and I wouldn't mind showing it off. My clarinet wasn't the only thing I polished. I also did my bathroom faucets and they too look nice and shiny. There's just something about extra nice about shiny objects. I was glad to do such a fun review and one that made my home a little nicer. :)

A fun tired

We've been doing quite a bit of traveling recently and it takes quite a toll on your body. Beforehand, we had planned out our schedules and made appropriates times for when we'd need a place to stay or just some downtime between trips. But sometimes, things don't go as planned. Our first day out we were supposed to come home that night and grab everything we needed for the following day, and then continue driving that same night. Nope, the baby was exhausted and so were we. Although I didn't mind sleeping on my mattress bed versus a hard floor at family's in a sleeping bag. So for the next night, instead of driving home, we made arrangements to stay with family and that worked out really well. Initially we were planning to drive all the way home but that night, we had had it and barely made it to a relative's before crashing. But it was good, a good kind of fun tired!

Freezing

It feels like we went from winter to fall and completely missed summer. It was still cold and snowing during early summer and now towards the end, it's getting really cool. We did have a few days that were up in the 90's but not many. I like cooler weather but it seems weird to not really have had a hot summer like we normally do. My husband keeps turning on our ceiling fan saying he's hot while I'm shivering lol. It's cool outside and for some reason, I feel cooler inside. Except at night, then my body's temperature decides to go up and I roast. So I guess the recent weather AND my body are having issues! LOL

Open house

We were out driving one day and saw a home with a sign on it saying "Model Home." I drove by it a few times before I told my husband, "hey, maybe it would be fun to just look at it." I'm beginning to regret my decision because we totally fell in love with the house! We fell in love with a house we can't afford now and not even in the near future. It was beautiful and I can't get it out of my head. It was filled with modern furniture and appliances. LOVED the master bedroom and the downstairs with all it's possibilities. The guy showing the house gave us a lot of good information but it made me sad to hear how excited the girls were. They kept running around saying "we're so excited that we might get to live here!" One day girls, one day. And in the mean time, no more looking at model homes. :P

New place, new stuff

Since we're in our new place, we've wanted to buy some new things. We have more room for things like pictures. But we don't have a ton of pictures so we might end up buying more frames to utilize the extra wall space. Anything thing is we have a larger patio. We've talked about maybe getting some inexpensive patio furniture and how nice it would be to sit outside once in awhile but we haven't found anything in our college-budget-price-range lol. It's just fun to have extra space to do new things in a new place. All those little details that make your house your own you know? :)

Trying to do better

I don't do well with little sleep. I never have, even when I was a child. But yet, I try to push the limit. I find myself staying up too late, too often. When I was doing my rotations for school I always made sure to go to bed early. Hmm, maybe that was the difference. With school, I HAD to go to bed early because you can't be tired at work. Well you can, but it's not very professional lol. But when I'm home and not working, if I stay up late the next day it's ok. I can stay in my jammies all day long and no one would even know lol!

But even at home it's not good to be tired all the time. How fun is it for the kids if mom is too tired to play with them? Or too tired to think of new and fun things to do with them? Or too tired to get out of the house and go to the park? Not much fun being around mom at all when she's that way. So, I've decided I'll start going to bed by 10pm. That gives me a few hours to study without interruptions from my children who will already be asleep. Plus, going to bed early means I'll get a little more sleep when I have to get up anyway during the night to nurse the baby. So it's a good thing for for me and my children. Now I just have to do it lol!

New and fun!

I'm loving our new place! Going from a two bedroom to a four is huge! We have so much extra space. We have a little pantry and more cupboard space. Four bedrooms means four closets, one of which is a walk-in! Two bathrooms, instead of one, and both have pretty good bathroom lighting. I just love it here. It actually feels more like a home than an apartment. I hope we can stay for awhile. That will depend on our schooling of course, but who knows, maybe we will stick around for longer than we think!

Spectacular!

Over the weekend, my husband and I were watching something on TV that gave you a tour of beautiful homes. The one we saw was in California and it was a mansion and beautiful! I can't remember the style the owner modeled it after, French maybe. The gentleman did an awesome job with his home. Every room was incredibly detailed and he chose everything from the furniture down to the crown molding. The landscape was just as beautiful too. I don't know if he had a pond with pond uv filters but the part I saw, he had a pool and jacuzzi. The part that really blew me away was his bedroom. It was over 3,000 square feet! I doubt I'll ever be able to afford a whole HOUSE that size! Needless to say we were blown away. The man's home was amazing and he loved it. So neat. :)

I wonder

I've been wondering if we should get some outdoor rugs or at least one. Outside our door gets pretty dusty and dirty so I think it would help. My only worry is that my next door neighbors smoke and drink and we find a lot of that garbage outside our door. I wouldn't want to buy a new rug, leave it outside, then the next day have junk all over it. So I don't know if I'll buy one or not. Maybe if they move. :D

We all need some protection

My husband reminded me a few days ago that we needed to renew our security system. No, he wasn't talking about one of those fancy systems for your home, but the ones for our computers. I swear time flies when you purchase something like that, I feel like we're always renewing them. It's good to have that kind of protection though, so many people online trying to corrupt everyone else's computers, you have to protect what you have. I would hate to get some virus that shuts my computer completely down and makes me lose everything. That would really suck! We did just recently get an external hard drive, so that will help too, having a back up!

All lit up

We love this time of year. Not just because of Christmas but also because of the snow, family time together, and of course all the lights! Everywhere we go, we see Christmas lights. Our girls can't get enough of them and neither can we lol! Of course Christmas lights are different from Hubberton Forge Lighting products but that's what makes them so much fun! You don't see them all year round so they make this time of year even more special. When we have our own house we want to decorate the outside from top to bottom. Just thinking about it makes me so excited! Love, love, love this time of year!

Anyone want to trade?

My hips are killing me and I wish I had a softer bed. :P I remember the last time we went and looked at mattresses, even then, I couldn't find one that was really comfortable. We don't have the money now to buy a new bed but I wish we did. I've been trying to rest as much as I can during this pregnancy which means laying down a lot and my hips are getting tired. I can't lay on my back very long so that means either on my right or left side, no tummy option. Ice and heat help but I think a new bed would do wonders for me right now. I keep telling myself, 9 more weeks and I will be back to normal, laying down however I want! :D

The Amazing Race

For the longest time we were never able to receive CBS on our TV and it sucked because I love watching The Amazing Race. But now we have CBS which means more Amazing Race for me woohoo! Does anyone else like to watch it? The one on yesterday was good. One of the tasks was either to build what was called a "hookah" or to go and measure out a certain amount of gold using the gold exchange rate. Personally, would have gone with the hookah building. They didn't look like they were made out of glass tiles but maybe they were glass based. Either way, I thought they would be easier to assemble than trying to figure out the gold thing. It was so good to watch! I love seeing how the contestants react when under pressure. Some do really good and some, not so good. If it was me, I'd probably have many moments of not handling it well lol.

When you're sick...

We've been sick for over a week. Illness sucks! But I've noticed this past week that I felt better when we had more light coming into our home. If I had one light fixture on, it made all the difference. During the day, all the window blinds and curtains were opened to let more light in and it made me and even my family, feel better. Isn't that amazing? A little light goes a long way! And when you're not feeling good, anything to make you feel better is a good thing. Now, if only I could get the weather to act more cheery, we'd be all set!

Keep it coming!

I love to hear from friends and family about what they go through when buying a home. Whether they just bought a duplex, or a house in another state, I like to hear about it. Since we don't have our own home, it's fun to "live through" someone else. Watch as they paint and redecorate each room. Listen to all the little changes they want to make. Hear about what goes where. I think it's fun not to mention it gives ME ideas for when we do buy a home! So, if you're in the process of buying or you're just switching things around, feel free to talk to me about it. I enjoy listening. :)

Darn allergies!

I don't have allergies but apparently, I have pregnancy allergies and frankly, I don't like them! My eyes are itchy, my nose is runny (this may actually be from a cold), I can't stop snnezing, and my head is swimming. I haven't felt like myself in almost two weeks. Don't pregnant women have enough to go through besides adding allergies on top of it? Ugh. I've been taking medicine everyday, which helps, but my symptoms are still there. It's driving me nuts! I can't focus on school work and I can't sleep at night because of it. My husband thinks maybe we need a new filter. Not one of those furnace filters but maybe an AC filter. If it will help, I'm game. Alleriges suck. I want to breathe again!

I like where I live

A lot of people who live in our city, don't really care for it and want to get up and move away someday. We do to, at some point, but for right now I really like where we live. I love our city and our little neighborhood. They're not perfect, but what really is? I love our apartment too. I've said it before, it's the nicest we've ever had and we don't intend on moving, unless it's within this same complex but bigger apartment. We feel pretty safe here which hasn't always the case for other places we've lived. Yes, it would be nice to have an alarm system of sorts just to be on the safe side, but right now we're ok. I'm so thankful to be in such a nice place and area!

A house, someday

We all know how hard the real estate market is right now. A pretty good time to buy, but so many people aren't in a position to. I often think about the time when we'll be able to buy a house, after school of course. I know people who know exactly what they want in their first home, everything from the type of kitchen to the carpet. Me? I don't really know. I've thought do I want granite countertops? Hardwood floors or carpet? Would I like glass tile in my home somewhere? Do I need a basement? There are a million questions! I figure when the time comes and we're out looking, I'll know which house is the best for us. I just haven't seen it yet so I don't know what I want lol!

My sink needs something

My kitchen sink is a normal stainless steel sink. Not one of those zero radius sinks. But, for whatever reason, it won't clean very well. I've tried rinsing and washing it out but it hasn't been enough. I finally Googled a solution to my problem and I guess vinegar is one good way to clean stainless steel. I haven't tried it yet but I was surprised that a common household item like vinegar could help me with my problem. I'm going to tackle my sink tomorrow and hopefully the vinegar works the way all the reviews I read, said it would!