Wishpot

I am in love with this. It is called Wishpot. You can add it to your tool bar, and anytime you find something you like on any website, you can add it to your Wishpot list. It's just like Amazon's wish list, but you can add anything from any website. Then you can share it with anyone you would like. Hint, hint, David. Here is my list. I have a lot of random things, but they are things I may want to purchase later for the kids birthdays, or later when I win the lottery.

Good Things

• I have been subbing 2 days a week at Hanover Horton elementary for the last 4 weeks. It has been so nice getting some extra money. Each day I work, I think of it as gas money to get to Florida. By now, I think I have made enough to get us down and back, and hotel there and back. And maybe even some extra to do some fun things. We were going to use our income tax money for the trip, but now we don't have too! I would love to be able to work 2 days a week all year- but David will be back to work soon.


• Which leads to the next good thing- David will be back to work soon. Enough said.
  
  
• Which leads to the next good thing- David is nervous about being called back to work soon, so we have decided to leave for Florida a few days early. Jake will have to miss 3 days of school, but it is only kindergarten, and he has already missed 15 days of school- what's 3 more days at this point?
  
  
• Which leads to the next good thing- since we are leaving a few days early, I'm glad I got the boys' Easter baskets around last week. I had to go to 3 different stores to find exactly what I wanted.

They each got a big sand pail, which is their "basket," big bubbles, a squirt toy, boat toy, sand mold, big shovel and disposable camera. Perfect for an Easter at the beach. And it was only $16.00 a piece. I have to get the candy still. I bought that a little to far in advance and may have opened and eaten most of it. Oops.

• Which leads to the next good thing- it's finally spring! We have a pond right next to our house and I love hearing the spring peepers. There are so many frogs it gets down right loud!
  
  
• Which leads to the next good thing- look what came in the mail yesterday. The spring issue of Food and Family. I love this magazine. It is full of easy recipes. It is nice because it comes out in seasons, so this one is full of spring time recipes. If you don't get this magazine, I would definitely recommend it. It used to be free, but now it is $6.99 a year.

• Which leads to the next good thing- since it is getting warmer, garage sales will be starting soon. I found this cute little dresser the other day for 30 bucks. I was going to paint it and sell it, but it will work perfect for little baby clothes so I am keeping it.
  

Now, my not so good things.

I'm sure I've mentioned before, we do not have cable. I don't have time to watch tv, and I have better things to spend $80 dollars a month on. I don't miss it at all. Especially now that Jon and Kate is off the air. I let the kids watch 2 shows a day, and I love PBS because at least they are learning something. They have really cute tv shows like World Word, and classics like Sesame Street, and Reading Rainbow. However, since the government had the switch over to digital, we have had nothing but problems getting PBS to come in. First we purchased a $100.oo antenna, that worked for 6 months. Then one day, no PBS. So then we purchase a $85 dollar "booster" to boost the signal. Worked for 6 months, now we have no PBS again. Why does it seem everything the government gets involved with turns into a bigger mess? Can't wait to see what kind of mess the health care reform causes. Enough about politics, just get me my damn PBS.

My other complaint is blogger. I've had trouble leaving comments on other blogs, it comes up with an error. And I've had trouble moving my pictures around on my posts. When I have to move over the top of another picture, it is a mess. Anybody else having problems?

Not how it was supposed to be

We have had plans to go to Florida over spring break for over a year now. My mom rented a condo right on the beach for the month of April to spend time with my Grandpa who lives down there in the winter. I have not been to Florida to visit him since 2003. I was excited to take the boys to the beach and let Grandpa watch them play. Unfortunately, he suffered a stroke 3 weeks ago and was in a rehabilitation center. Then the worst came when he suffered another major stroke on Friday. This time he did not pull through it and he passed away last night. I cannot believe that in a little over 2 weeks we would have been there. As for now, we are still planning on going, but it will not be the same without Grandpa there.

There are going to be many traditions that just won't be the same. Every year we spend the 4th of July in Harbor Springs where Grandpa had a summer condo. I've done it since I can remember and loved sharing the tradition with my boys. I am thankful that we were all able to celebrate the 4th together this past year with Grandpa. This is our last family picture with him. But I am already thinking about this summer, and wondering if we will still go over to Harbor. I just don't see the point without him being there.

Another tradition we will miss is even at the age of 89, my Grandpa sent cards for almost every holiday. Our last card was on Valentines day and he send the boys each a card with $5 dollars in it. They were thrilled. When I was explaining to Tyler who it was from he said "Grandpa John? That old dude? I have seen that dude." I still smile when I read it because it is such a kid way of looking at things.

He will be missed, and I am thankful for all the memories I have. He lived a long, wonderful life and now he gets to see my Grandma waiting for him in heaven.

Half Way

I can't believe I am half through this pregnancy, and I haven't given this baby any blog lovin. So, since I am behind on my favorite products, I am going to put in on hold and catch up on the kiddos. After all, that's what this blog is for!


I'm going to try and highlight the last 20 weeks so I have some memories from my third time around. And even though it is my third time being pregnant, it still feels new and amazing. I would have thought by the third time the novelty would have wore off, but no. And since I am experienced at this, you would think I would have learned in the early weeks, that even though I am hungry more often, that doesn't mean I have to eat massive amounts of food in one sitting. That just makes you feel gross and full to the point you don't want to move. What it does mean is your body is preparing you for what it will be like to have a baby- which means you are hungry every 2-3 hours and if you don't feed me right then, I will be cranky until I get fed. Which leads me to my next topic. Going to the bathroom 4-5 times per night. Once again, your body is preparing you for getting up with this new baby, so it preps you by having to urinate every 2 hours so that you are used to getting up multiple times per night. Goodbye full nights sleep.

Those first weeks, I was a napping fool. I couldn't understand how someone could work during those first 12 weeks. I couldn't wait for nap time to come! I would stare longingly at my bed all morning. And the odd thing is, with each pregnancy, before I knew I was pregnant, I had one day in particular that I could have slept all day. With Jake, I remember I had to work the 1-10pm shift and I was almost late because I had slept until 11:30am. Then when I was pregnant with Tyler, my mom happened to be visiting so she took care of Jake and I had another morning that I slept almost the whole morning. With this one, there was no sleeping all morning with 2 kids running around, but there was a day I remember that I tried to get Tyler to lay down at 12:30 because I couldn't stay awake. He dinked around for awhile because he usually doesn't go down until 2:00, but I couldn't last. He layed down at some point, but I was dead to the world. I didn't even hear Jake come home from school. I'm not sure what is taking place biologically, but there is always one day for each pregnancy, that I could have slept the whole day.

I'll throw a picture of the man baby up, to break up my long post.

I haven't really had a craving for anything, although there was a little humus incident early on, in which I ate so much of it, along with Stacey's Pita chips, that if I see any I may get violently ill. Other than that, my favorites have been cereal. Which was a favorite with the other 2 as well. With Jake I ate any kind of sugary cereal I could get my hands on, but now that I have 2 kids watching every morsel of food that enters my mouth, I've been sticking to the Cheerios and Rice Krispies. Cinnamon swirl raisin toast is another fav, but I recently noticed how many calories are in 2 pieces and have cut back a tad. Pretty much anything that is advertised or suggested sounds good and is usually put on the grocery list. Especially candy- love the Sweetarts. I've really been trying to drink a lot of water. I can go days without drinking a plain ol glass of water, but I'm trying to be good for the man baby, so I have found if I put in a bunch of ice and a straw, I will suck it down. I only had one night of making David go and get me something I was really wanting to eat, and that was when we got home from Colorado and we didn't have a drop of food in the house. I wanted Yen King sweet and sour chicken so bad! He got back in the car after driving all day and drove the 30 minutes into Jackson for my $30.00 of sweet and sour chicken.

So what comes after food? Weight gain. At my first ob appointment I asked the nurse what I had gained with the first two- 50 pounds with Jake and 30 with Tyler. I think I'll go for the average for this one and do 40. I honestly don't know my pre-pregnancy weight- I think it was 140, and at my last appointment I was at 157. So I have a 17 pound weight gain with 20 weeks to go. I'm definitely going to have to watch myself for the next half. Hopefully the water aerobics will keep things in check until the weather warms up and I can walk.

4 months

When you tell friends and family you are having a third, it is not the same as the first two. Everyone is excited about the first one, everyone expects the second, and the third, most people respond with "you must be trying for the girl." Which I am not going to lie, I was. I probably would not have had a third if I had already had a boy and girl. And I probably will not have the fourth had I not had three boys. No I am kidding! We planned on having this one, but we waited a long time to break the news to our family. I found out on November 28, and wanted to wait to share the news with my mom in person over Christmas in Colorado. I waited to tell my dad the night before he left for vacation January 19. I was dreading telling my dad because I thought he would be disappointed because we are really straining our finances with three kids and our living space! But he was fine with it. We told all of our close friends before we told our family, which is backwards, but we had to tell someone! We told the boys last, because 9 months is a long time to wait for a sibling. I think it was sometime in February. Do you think I videotaped it? Nope. Forgot all about it. I am really regretting that now. What a fun memory for them to have. I don't think their reactions to the new sibling was all that excited- it was the bunk beds that excited them most.

I started feeling the baby move when I was around 15-16 weeks. Now it moves daily. David really felt it kick a few times on Saturday. He was so astounded. This baby has really brought us a lot closer than the other two did.

It's hard to believe I'm already half way done. August seems a long way off. I would say the first half was the easy half. My clothes for the most part still fit. I'm loving my bella band. I still have one pair of regular jeans that fit and I am hanging on to them with dear life. I have few maternity clothes that I wear here and there. I am at the stage where I look pregnant, but if you didn't know me, you wouldn't ask. It's still uncertain if it is a baby or a beer belly to strangers. This second half is going to be uncomfortable and hot. I am going to try and keep up on documenting it more, so I don't end up with a really looong blog post trying to cram 20 weeks worth of events into one page.

Number 8

Ultra Brite Toothpaste

I tried this after I saw it in a Consumer Reports. It's only $2.00 which is a really good price. I can't find it at Meijers, only Target. I'm sure there are some more expensive toothpastes that work better, but for the price, I really like this toothpaste.

Number 7

Ghirardelli Brownies

Best brownies ever. Enough said.

Number 6

I'm already a day off.

Dyson Vacuum

I picked up one of these today. I can't tell you how excited I am to have one. When I wanted my house to be really clean, I would borrow my brothers. Now I finally have my own! Thanks tax return! The best part of the Dyson, is how well it works on the hard floors in our house. Our old vacuum would send the dirt flying everywhere on our hard floors. This makes it hard to clean our mud room. My other favorite part of the Dyson is they way it makes your carpet fluffy like it was new again.

Number 5

Clinique Acne Solutions

Before I got pregnant I was on prescription medicine for my bad skin. But I couldn't keep taking it during pregnancy, so I had to find an over the counter product. My first trimester, my skin was awful. I tried a lot of products and spend a lot of money. When I was out in Colorado my Mom and I spent the whole day looking for a good foundation and concealer. We spent half of the day at Ulta and the other half at Nordstrom's make up counters. Our last stop was Clinique, where I found a wonderful concealer and then had an impulse buy with this kit.

It worked so good for me and although it is $35 it lasted 2 months and it comes with 3 products. I would highly recommend it. Ask your consultant before you buy, but mine told me if it didn't work I could return it.

Cure for cabin fever

Here are 5 ways we cure cabin fever at the Bradley house. I am so ready for spring! If you have any ideas for cabin fever please let me know! We've used some of these ideas for the last couple of years so they are getting a bit old. Note: we have an un-finished basement which helps with a few of these ideas.

1. Hang swings in your basement.

This horsey swing is from Grandpa Bob, and is wonderful because I don't have to push the swing when the kids want to go swing. They use their hands and feet to get it moving. I have another basic swing hanging that is not pictured. Jake used to spend hours on it, and learned to pump all by himself by the time he was 3 1/2. I bought all the hardware and swing at Lowes. We hung them from the support beam running across the basement ceiling.

2. Moon Sand

I really dis-like moon sand. It is so messy, but so fun to play with! For the winter, I move the sand and water table to be basement and fill it with moon sand. If it gets on the floor, I just vacuum it up with a shop vac. And it will get on the floor. See the note about the un-finished basement.

3. Boxes

Last year, I called Lowes and asked them to save some fridge, stove, washer and dryer boxes for me. They even loaded them in my van for me! To get them through the basement door, I had to break them down, but they can be taped together easily, and some of them I just left. It may look like some homeless live in the basement, but the kids love them, and build all different forts. It's amazing to see what they build. The best part? It' s free!

4. Box playhouse

This box was from our fridge when we moved in, so it didn't have to be broken down. We've had this for 3 years now, and it has held up beautifully. It is an inexpensive alternative to a playhouse. I've tried sprucing it up a bit with left over paint, but didn't finish. I would also like to get around to making curtains for the window. There are christmas lights on the inside, and you can't see them, but I found little wood door knobs at Michael's. If I would spend some more time on this it could really be cute.

5. Swimming

I had to throw this last idea in, even though it doesn't really go with the rest of the basement theme. Spring Arbor College has open swim night Fridays from 6-8pm. We took the boys last Friday and they loved it. They are really getting comfortable in the water since Arizona. They were jumping off the side and Jake was swimming again without water wings. It's really good practice until the summer when he'll start swim lessons. Guess what? It's only $1.00 per person! Cheap entertainment and it gets them out of the house. They have it every Friday and they are begging us to take them again.

*I also take water aerobics at S.A. with a friend on Monday and Wednesdays. It's $2.00, and is from 6-7pm. I love it. It's great exercise, especially for preggo's.

Number 4

Cariboo game.

Both my kids loved playing this game. It teaches shapes, numbers, and letters. There are basic and advanced cards so the kids are always challenged as they learn. It is for ages 3 and up. It is a great first game for kids.

Number 3

What's In A Name Pictures

My friend Lindsay makes these and they make great gifts. I got this one for my 30th birthday and it was one of my most favorite presents. Everyone who comes over to visit comments on it. If you can't tell it says Bradley. Here's where to buy:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/whatsinanamepictures OR whatsinanamepictures2008@gmail.com

Number 2

Johnson's Baby Bubble Bath.

I love the way this stuff smells! It works fine on sensitive skin too.

A month of products

I can tell this has been a long winter because lately I've been thinking of all the products I can't live without. And then I thought, why not share one product a day for the month of March. Summer needs to come soon- is this all I have to do with my time? But when you stop to think about some of the great things that makes your life easier, why not share them? How many times have you been in a store and looked at a product but not bought it because you aren't sure if it works or is worth the money? So, here is the first product for the month of March:

Spot Shot.

I am the idiot that has cream couches, cream carpet, and kids. I use this weekly. It works fabulous. It got red kool-aide off my couch. It also works great on your car interior as well. If you go to coupon.com, there is a coupon for $1.oo off, I think it is on page 15. It retails for $5.49, or you can get a 2 pack at Sam's club.