jacquiandroy on Xanga

Weblog

Thursday, 01 March 2012

Confession

I have been putting off writing this blog post until I knew it was true. No, I am NOT pregnant or even thinking about getting pregnant any time soon. The truth is....I haven't lost all of my baby weight and it has been 8 months since Jordan was born. In the beginning, I blamed it on my difficult recovery, which included stitches and then mastitis which was worse than getting cut. Then, it was packing the house and moving. It continued while we lived at my in laws house where I said I would start once we moved in to the new house. Moving into the new house brought more issues with unpacking and getting everything organized. Now, most of the house is finished, well except my craft/extra bedroom which should be done this weekend, I still haven't started to think about losing weight again. None of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit and I had to go out and buy clothes in a size 2 sizes bigger than usual. The sad thing is I have been this size before back when I was taking classes at night after work for my Master's degree. I do not like being this size and it makes me sad every morning while I try to find something to wear. I refuse to buy more clothes in this size!! UGH. I have a running stroller so there should be no excuse not to use it. It is hard to work full time and then come home from work, make dinner, feed Jordan and then go workout. The time I only have is after he goes to bed around 8:00pm. I am tired by that time. What to do? I need to put my butt back on WW for the umpteen time. Any suggestions are welcome ???
Thank you for allowing me to vent.

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Another giveaway

It is Photobook girl's 2nd birthday so she is sponsoring a My Publisher giveaway. You have until March 6th to enter.
photobook girl picture
Good luck!!

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Before & After

Remember how I asked you all where I could find a nice entryway piece of furniture? Well on Monday, we were able to find the perfect piece at Pier 1. We went into Pier 1 to buy a vase for upstairs when I noticed this entryway table in the clearance section of the store. I thought it was perfect since it wasn't too big or wide for the space under the window. The table was regularly $350, but it was marked down to $199. Since it was the only one left in the store, we had to buy it as is. We asked for an additional 15% off because there were a few nicks and scratches on the top. Nothing major a furniture pen couldn't take care of. So we got it for $175.
Here is our entry before:

Up close picture before dusting:

Looks good!!

I am happy we were able to find a table with drawers and extra storage for picture frames, and other breakables for when Jordan starts crawling.

Monday, 13 February 2012

T-Bones Chophouse

Roy and I had an early Valentine's Day on Saturday night by celebrating at T-Bones Chophouse at Red Rock Station. Roy is going to be out of town at school in Cali so we decided to go out Saturday since my mother in law was able to baby sit Jordan for us. We chose T-bones because we wanted to go there for NYE, but it was booked. Luckily for us, I was able to score a 6:30 reservation for Saturday n ight.

We arrived a little bit before 6:30 and we were sat right away in their bar area.
I started the night with a $13 glass of Merlot....which was so dry that it caused me to cough every time I smelled it. Needless to say I didn't order a second glass.

Roy got oysters as an appetizer.

Love the presentation. Roy said they were delicious.
When it came time to order dinner, I ordered the 8oz filet and Roy got the 24oz T-bone steak. We decided to split 2 sides: 1 potatoes gratin and 1 order of onion rings just to be different.
Once we ordered, we sat a LONG time before our dinner came out to us. It must have been over a half an hour to 45 minutes before our food came out. The waiter kept coming over saying the chef said it would be 5 more minutes like 2 or 3 times. I was getting pissed. Finally our food came.

My filet was good, but not the best steak I ever had. I could take or leave it honestly. It needed more flavor. Roy's steak was better than mine though the cut of meat is more flavorful to begin with. I ate half of my steak and took the rest home.
We saved room for our traditional dessert of creme bruele.

The dessert was the best part of the meal. That is pretty sad I think.
I read of Yelp that T-bones has an awesome happy house Sunday-Thursday 5-7pm so maybe that is the time to go to T-bones. I would skip this place and go to Fleming's or Sonoma if you want to have a steak in Summerlin.

Monday, 06 February 2012

Entryway Design Dilemma

I need help in decorating our entryway. I didn't have this problem in my old house because the entryway was only a small patch of tile with the stairs in front. Now, I have to furnish the entry way with something!
To give you a better idea of the space I have included some pictures. When you walk in the front door, you have the coat closet to your immediate left, and then the stairs when you walk

I would need a piece of furniture that isn't huge so it doesn't block the door from opening. Also, it can't be too wide since the space is a high traffic area. Our downstairs is one great room so we need the entry table, or whatever, to fit with the rest of the furniture of the room.
Here is what the wall looks like that continues form the entry.

Another view of the entry.

Any ideas??
We are the champions!!

Yesterday, we had our annual Super Bowl party with about 20 people attending. This year's party was extra special since it was the first party in the new house plus my favorite team was playing.
Some pics from the party!

Friday, 03 February 2012

New furniture

We have been in our new house a little over a month and we quickly came to the conclusion that our living furniture didn't work in the new layout we have. Our old living room was long and skinny while in the new house, it is more of a square.
A picture of our old living room, the TV is on the right

Our coffee table was simply too big for the new space. We decided that we needed a new coffee table and end tables ASAP. We looked for about two weekend and finally found a set that would fit perfectly. at Bassett.
We received a phone call yesterday that our new furniture is going to be delivered tomorrow. WooHoo...Just in time for our annual Super Bowl Party!
Here is the new coffee table we bought.

and 2 end tables from Bassett.

Thursday, 02 February 2012

Blogging for credit

With being a teacher, every 10 years I have to renew my teacher license in the great state of Nevada. I have to earn 6 college credits before I can renew my teacher license which expires on my birthday in 2013. I know, you are probably saying you have plenty of time...but I don't want to take a chance and wait to the last minute. No credits=no job. So when I saw a 2 credit class on Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts and Skype, all distance ed. mind you...I knew I had to sign up. Now, I will only have 2 credits to take over the next year or so and then I can renew. Score!
Our second assignment for the class was to start a blog and to post the link for all to see. I was so excited to share my blog to my classmates! The feedback I have received in our discussion forum has been nothing but wonderful. I hope they will fall in love with blogging as much as I have, even though I do not have the time I once had to blog more often.
source Google images
A lot my classmates are new to the blogging world so I wanted to share some of the blogs I envy and wish my blog could be. Granted, the people behind my favorite blogs sole income comes from their blog. Blogging for them is work, while for me Blogging is for fun.:)
source Google images
Here are my top 5 favorite blogs:
http://pinefeather.typepad.com/pine_is_here/
carrotsncake.com/
http://www.thewannabeathlete.com/
http://www.photobookgirl.com/blog/
http://www.crumblycookie.net/

What are your favorite blogs??

Wednesday, 01 February 2012

Dropbox

I am not sure what I would do without the program Dropbox.

It is a program, browser or app, that saves your files instantly so you can access them anywhere you want. You can access your Dropbox via the Internet, by using a program you can install on your computer or on your Smartphone (iPhone or Droid). I have Dropbox installed on my phone, and both of my computers at my two schools. The reason I use Dropbox so much is because I do not have access to the server at my one school because we are a Windows school and the other has Novel. I was able to see both school's servers when I logged in, but once School D moved onto Windows that ability was gone. I needed a way to house documents I use all the time, such as my inventory, password sheet and docs I am working on for trainings. Dropbox has made my life as an ECS so much easier! With the free subscription you receive 2 GB of storage. It is plenty for me since I only store documents I need access to all the time along with some pictures of Jordan. :)
Do you have any programs you could not live without?
7 months old

For comparison, here Jordan is at 1 month old. I can't believe how big he is getting so quickly!
We are sitting

Last night, Jordan sat by himself for over 10 minutes without falling over. He has made a lot of gains in the last week since turning 7 months old. He has been rolling around like crazy, especially at night when we put him in his crib. Monday night was the first time I found him different than when we placed him. We put him down with his head facing North and when I went to get him in the morning, his feet were facing North. Some how, he was able to rotate in his crib! I have to get a picture of it so I can capture how silly his is now!!

Monday, 16 January 2012

You want to enter this giveaway!

One of my favorite blogs in my Google Reader is Photobook Girl. You need to subscribe to her RSS because she is always giving me new ideas on how to make photobooks. She also lets you know when there are coupons so you never have to pay full price for a book!
Check her out!!
photo from Photogirl.com
MyPicTales Giveaway 2012
Details here!!

Friday, 13 January 2012

Amazon Mom Changes
I received an email this morning from Amazon discussing how Amazon plans to change their service called Amazon Mom. I have been using Amazon Mom now for the past 8-9 months and use it to purchase Jordan's baby food, (we use Earth's Best brand along with Plum and Happy Baby when at Target and Sprout when at Wal-Mart/Whole Foods) and diapers since there is no tax on them. You can use the Subscribe and Save feature and save even more money by having what you need come to your house once a month or how ever you like it. I usually subscribe and save for maybe 2 months and then cancel. You can cancel right away if you want after your first shipping. The nice part of Amazon Mom was it was free to join and you got free 2 day shipping on everything Prime on Amazon for 3 months. It is fabulous. You earned more months of Prime depending on how much you spent on other Baby products on Amazon. They all counted towards you Prime membership until you reach 12 months. I am at my 12 month mark in March...then I will have to pay for Prime ($79). I am not sure if I will be saving money once I have to start paying to use the service, but for free 2 day shipping its worth it. I have compared the prices of Earth's Best at Target and Babies R US and the prices are very similar. It is just nice to order from your couch then to go out in the cold to get baby food, like I had to do last night when I noticed Jordan didn't have any fruit until my shipment comes Monday. :/
Jordan at 6 months!

Here are the new rules for Amazon Mom if you are thinking of joining...what do you think? Am I missing another place to save on baby related items?? Maybe diapers.com? Haven't tried that one, but will look into it...
The Amazon Mom program is changing in 2012 and we want to make sure you know about it. Some of these changes affect your membership. Here's how:
- Starting on January 24, 2012, the maximum discount available on diapers and wipes subscriptions will be 20%. This includes a 5% Subscribe & Save discount plus an additional 15% exclusively for Amazon Mom members who are earning free shipping benefits or have an active Amazon Prime membership.
- Customers who join Amazon Mom in 2012 will get three months of FREE Two-Day Shipping benefits. However, as a founding member of the Amazon Mom program, you were eligible to earn up to one year total of free shipping benefits. (Note: you have already earned the maximum amount of extensions, and your free shipping benefits will end on April 1, 2012.) Once the initial free period is over, customers can join Amazon Prime to continue to receive full access to Amazon Mom and Amazon Prime benefits.
To continue receiving the Amazon Mom diapers and wipes discount once your free shipping benefits end, you can join Amazon Prime for $79/year. As a Prime member you'll receive:
- 20% off diapers and wipes subscriptions with Amazon Mom and Subscribe & Save.
- FREE Two-Day Shipping on millions of items.
- Unlimited instant streaming of thousands of videos with a wide range of content for the whole family, including Sesame Street and Phineas and Ferb.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.
- Membership sharing benefits: invite up to four household members to share your shipping benefits for free.
Please note, if you cancel your Amazon Mom membership before January 24, you will lose the additional 15% Amazon Mom discount on diapers and wipes subscriptions, though you will maintain the existing base Subscribe & Save discount. You will also lose all shipping benefits associated with your Amazon Mom free period. To learn more or make changes to your Amazon Mom membership, please visit www.amazon.com/mom-faq.
To see details on your current subscriptions, please visit www.amazon.com/manageyoursubscriptions.
Sincerely,
The Amazon Mom team

Tuesday, 03 January 2012

Update on the house

I haven't had a chance to update you all on how the house is since the day we closed in December. Above is the only picture I have on my work computer to show you the kitchen completed with the fridge. As you can see, I labeled where everything was to go with blue painter's tape. It made the kitchen so much easier to organize. I was able to move the tape instead of the drawer/cabinet's contents if I made a change. I organized the kitchen by zones: dishwasher, baking, cooking, Jordan, serve ware and Tupperware.
I was on winter break for the past 2 weeks so I was able to get the downstairs totally done and organized. I still have to put my office/craft room together and the spare bedroom. More pictures to come!

Thursday, 08 December 2011

THE Final Walkthrough

Woohoo...yesterday was our final walkthrough before going to title to sign our paperwork and loan docs for the house. During the walkthrough, we only a few issues that are remaining to make the house perfectly brand new. All of which should be fixed before we get the keys on Friday.

The biggest problem we have is the wall paint- all the pieces of blue painter's tape indicate a problem...well, the painter came and touched up some areas around the house using the WRONG type of paint! Our house is painted in eggshell and they used flat so you can totally tell where the touch ups were made. Needless to say, we weren't very happy. The project manager said he is going to have our entire house repainted today.

Some more pics

Ah, can't wait to use this bad boy...

Signing our life a way as

happy home owners!!
The loan went through yesterday around 4pm and now I am waiting for a phone call tell us the keys have been released to us!!!
Then, the fun REALLY begins this weekend with moving.....can't wait!!
SOLD!!!

Tuesday, 06 December 2011

Jordan and Santa

Monday, 05 December 2011

Getting excited!!!

Only 1 more day until we close on the house!! Can you believe the house is almost move in ready only after 4 months of construction?? We cannot wait to get moved in this coming weekend.
So here is what is in store for us this week:
Wednesday, we have our final pre closing walk through, where we tell the builder what needs to be fixed so the house is perfect.
Like we are missing a bulb hood for the chandelier

There is a carpet seam showing downstairs in the great room.

There are some other things we noticed, which we will let the builder know about during our walk through. After the walk through, we are going to the title company to sign off on the mortgage documents and make our down payment for the loan. We receive the keys on Friday! Then the fun begins with moving in Friday and Saturday. On Saturday, we have cable and our fridge and dryer coming as well as our stuff from storage. It is going to be a busy weekend for sure!!
Updates
They installed the shower surround and mirror in the master bath

The appliances are in!

Our oven is a convection oven!!!

Does anyone know how to use a convection oven??

Monday, 28 November 2011

Almost ready!

I can't believe we have less than 9 days until we close on the house. The outside is just about done!
I am so surprise by how fast the builder got our house done in less than 4 months. We are right on schedule to close on the 7th. We will get our keys 48 hours later when the county records the deeds into our name. I am so excited to get my stuff out of storage it isn't funny.
Here are some pictures my parents took on Thanksgiving. It was the first time my parents had a tour since they have only seen the outside until now.
The big girl kitchen is almost ready!

The granite is in called Uba Tuba from Brazil.

All the greens and golds look pretty in the sunlight.

Also the under mounted stainless steel sink was put in place. It is going to be so nice with cleaning the counter tops. I had such a hard time with crap getting stuck around my old sink because it was a drop in.
Our tankless water heater has been installed. We will always have hot water thanks to this baby.

The backyard has been leveled.

I know, you are probably saying we have a pretty small backyard. It terms of where we live in Summerlin, it's pretty big. Compared to where I grew up in New Jersey, it is VERY small. Yards in Vegas are on the smaller size since land is at a premium. Usually $1 million an acre. When we started looking at houses to buy in this development, this is the lot we wanted from the beginning since no one is behind us, it has a strip and mountain view, but the biggest part was we didn't have to pay a lot premium which some lots had a $1500-$5000 price tag . The lot to the left of us was $1500 for 12 inches. No thank you.
What do you think of my big girl kitchen???

Friday, 18 November 2011

Downstairs

Ah, the bigger kitchen I have always dreamed about. I know this sounds silly, but I am so excited to have a window over my sink. My old house had a wall there! I can't wait to eat my breakfast at the island. It is going to be nice to have a big girl kitchen!!

Kitchen is in as well as the tile in the kitchen and dining room. They grouted too, but I do not have a picture of that yet since we didn't want to walk on it when we were there. The living room will be carpet for now which we want to change to hardwood floors eventually.
We have been busy buying the rest of the appliances we need for the house. We had to leave my old fridge and dryer with the townhouse so we had to get new. I am not complaining!
We went with this french door fridge from Samsung because it had a flex zone counter hight drawer for Jordan when he gets bigger.

Go to Lowes if you ever need appliances because they tend to be the cheapest. I have a Lowes charge so you can choose either an additional 5% off or 18 months no interest. Nice!
The dryer I got is a steam dryer because I hate to iron. The steam will help me with our wrinkle clothes problem!