So I'm sitting here, watching the UFC fight and decided to go ahead and blog... it's not the big fight yet, lol.
Anyways, my mama and I went dress shopping today and I found my dress for our Valentine's Ball! It's navy blue, down to the ground, kind of plain and flowy in the front, with a sweetheart neckline. The straps go straight over my shoulders and then come around to my side(up by my underarm), without crossing, but they're connected by a pretty silver ring. Then there's another silver ring down by my lower back, with most of the back very open. I love it! I've always gotten dresses that were really pretty in their material and colors, but were very plain in design, so I decided that something with an open, decorated back, was a must! I'll definitely take pictures, just not right now:).
I better keep working out, keep my back and arms looking nice, hehe... or get 'em even nicer, is probably my real goal, lol. I definitely want to kick up my workout regimen a notch or two... I kind of want to do Tae Kwan Do again, but who knows if I'll be able to find a "beginners" class for adults, lol, since I only had my green belt, and I don't even know where the certificate for that is. I think it's in one of my boxes. But, anyways, I want to get into a class of some sort, just to change things up. McKaleigh will be in solid in like two months, and when that happens it will be so much easier to leave her with people. I definitely need to find out if they have daycare at any of the gyms on post.
Well I don't have much else to write:) I'm sure I'll have more later. I love writing! Hehe...
~Tara
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Just my thoughts.**
So I've been watching HGTV like non-stop since I've been at my parents' house! It really makes me want to express myself creatively, haha. I just feel this urge to decorate and renovate. Someday I will get to turn a house into my dreamhouse.
Actually when we finally decide to own a house, I really think we'll end up building. There are so many specific things that I want, that will be hard to find already put into one house. I hate ranch style houses, I MUST have at least two stories. My ideal house will have a finished basement, main floor, second floor, and a finished attic! I want a large two story foyer, with either a grand staircase or winding staircase.
I want at least one, if not two guest bedrooms, we both have big families, lol. I could easily put four bedrooms upstairs, plus one attic and one basement bedroom, and even a bedroom off the garage, lol... There are plenty of options. I need to get some graph paper so I can draw some floor plans, just for fun. I did that a few years ago, and honestly, that house pretty much rocks, but my tastes have changed... I no longer feel that an atrium is necessary, haha.
In other areas of brainstorming, I've decided to use a different method for picking baby names, so some are still up in the air. I'm pretty sure that I'll use those middle names in some combination, but now the first names are not for sure. Well Torin Joseph Lee is still definitely going to be our first son's name.
Instead of all boys T's and all girls M's we're going to have every kids' name start with a different letter, using Michael's and my initials, M, S, T, J, and E.
For a second boy I'm thinking Sanford(my mom's maiden name), Jefferson, Ewan, Schuyler, Strom(?), Jude(like Jude Law, yummy, hehe), Eli, Emerson, Emery. And Adrian Ray will almost definitely be a second boy's middle name.
Actually when we finally decide to own a house, I really think we'll end up building. There are so many specific things that I want, that will be hard to find already put into one house. I hate ranch style houses, I MUST have at least two stories. My ideal house will have a finished basement, main floor, second floor, and a finished attic! I want a large two story foyer, with either a grand staircase or winding staircase.
I want at least one, if not two guest bedrooms, we both have big families, lol. I could easily put four bedrooms upstairs, plus one attic and one basement bedroom, and even a bedroom off the garage, lol... There are plenty of options. I need to get some graph paper so I can draw some floor plans, just for fun. I did that a few years ago, and honestly, that house pretty much rocks, but my tastes have changed... I no longer feel that an atrium is necessary, haha.
In other areas of brainstorming, I've decided to use a different method for picking baby names, so some are still up in the air. I'm pretty sure that I'll use those middle names in some combination, but now the first names are not for sure. Well Torin Joseph Lee is still definitely going to be our first son's name.
Instead of all boys T's and all girls M's we're going to have every kids' name start with a different letter, using Michael's and my initials, M, S, T, J, and E.
For a second boy I'm thinking Sanford(my mom's maiden name), Jefferson, Ewan, Schuyler, Strom(?), Jude(like Jude Law, yummy, hehe), Eli, Emerson, Emery. And Adrian Ray will almost definitely be a second boy's middle name.
For another girl I like Evelyn, Jacqueline, Janelle, Janine, Janie, Eastlyn, Eileen, Elaine, Eliza, Emelyn, Emelia, Evette, Joelliane, Juliet, Sadie, Scarlet, Seraphina, Sienna, Stella. I'm not sure what the middle name will be but it will be some combination of Stephanie, Julianna, Renee, and/or Lynn... well unless I choose one of the many names that end in the lynn sound, because that would sound weird, lol.
So which ones do you like... don't even tell me if you don't like one, haha!
Well McKaleigh's up:).
~Tara
Well McKaleigh's up:).
~Tara
Sunday, January 25, 2009
101 things I love....**
I love...
1) Being me.
2) Being married to Michael.
3) Going to bed with him every night.
4) Waking up with him every morning.
5) Having long talks with him about nothing at all.
6) Knowing I'll spend the rest of my life with him.
7) Being McKaleigh's mommy.
8) At the end of a feeding when she looks up at me and smiles.
9) Her smile anytime, really.
10) Her coos and other babbles.
11) How cute her face is when she's grumpy.
12) How cute her face is all the time.
13) Watching her grow every day.
14) Being my parents' daughter.
15) And being my siblings' big sister.
16) Thinking back on all the times we've had, good and bad.
17) The house on 17th street, that'll always be home.
18) Remembering all the friends that have come and gone in my life.
19) Reminiscing with old friends.
20) Getting to know new friends better.
21) Rekindling friendships that were lost (I love you Leanne and Jen B.)
22) Looking at old pictures.
23) Taking new pictures.
24) Cuddling with my dogs.
25) The calm I feel when I pray.
26) Running on a nice day.
27) Being sore after a workout.
28) Stretching.
29) Yoga.
30) Pilates.
31) Denise Austin :).
32) Saving money.
33) Paying off debts.
34) Not acquiring new debts.
35) Dave Ramsey :).
36) My big TV.
37) Watching movies on it.
38) "Casablanca"
39) "Breakfast at Tiffany's"
40) "When Harry Met Sally"
41) My furniture.
42) Making my husband rearrange it ;).
43) Reading a good book.
44) "Great Expectations"
45) "The Great Gatsby"
46) The Gossip Girl Series
47) Anything written by Dave Ramsey.
48) "Shattering Glass"
49) Writing when I'm bored.
50) Writing when I need to sort something out.
51) Writing because I just want to write.
52) Getting picture comments, blog comments, any comments really.
53) Watching McKaleigh eat her hand, hehe.
54) A big ice cold glass of water, when I'm really thirsty.
55) Babycenter.com.
56) The girls I've gotten so close to through that site.
57) Realizing how much things have changed in the last few years.
58) How much better my life is than I thought it would be.
59) A really good PB & J.
60) A huge breakfast.
61) Trying new seafoods, for Michael's sake :).
62) Chili on a cold day, with a cinnamon bun.
63) Donuts on Sunday before or after church.
64) Being back at St. Paul and feeling at home.
65) Making Christmas decorations.
66) Playing in the snow.
67) Being with Aunts and Uncles that I rarely see anymore.
68) Catching up with cousins who had grown distant.
69) Giggling whenever anyone says sixty-nine.
70) "That's what she said" jokes.
71) Watching TV on the internet.
72) "The Office"
73) "Desperate Housewives"
74) "Lipstick Jungle"
75) "30 Rock"
76) "Grey's Anatomy"
77) Looking through someecards.com.
78) Sending bumper stickers to friends.
79) Watching sxephil on youtube.
80) Listening to the news.
81) Listening to "The Dave Ramsey Show."
82) Doing our budget.
83) Helping other people.
84) Giving people advice.
85) Watching Disney movies from when I was a kid.
86) Stand up comedy.
87) Jim Gaffigan.
88) Brian Regan.
89) Dane Cook.
90) When McKaleigh grabs onto my fingers.
91) When Michael tells me he loves me.
92) Telling Michael I love him.
93) When the house is clean.
94) When I feel like I've accomplished something
95) Thinking about all of the wonderful things in my life.
96) Realizing how lucky I am.
97) Knowing there's no where I'd rather be.
98) That I have the most amazing husband and daughter.
99) Just appreciating every minute we have together.
100) Growing together as a family
101) My life!
~Tara
1) Being me.
2) Being married to Michael.
3) Going to bed with him every night.
4) Waking up with him every morning.
5) Having long talks with him about nothing at all.
6) Knowing I'll spend the rest of my life with him.
7) Being McKaleigh's mommy.
8) At the end of a feeding when she looks up at me and smiles.
9) Her smile anytime, really.
10) Her coos and other babbles.
11) How cute her face is when she's grumpy.
12) How cute her face is all the time.
13) Watching her grow every day.
14) Being my parents' daughter.
15) And being my siblings' big sister.
16) Thinking back on all the times we've had, good and bad.
17) The house on 17th street, that'll always be home.
18) Remembering all the friends that have come and gone in my life.
19) Reminiscing with old friends.
20) Getting to know new friends better.
21) Rekindling friendships that were lost (I love you Leanne and Jen B.)
22) Looking at old pictures.
23) Taking new pictures.
24) Cuddling with my dogs.
25) The calm I feel when I pray.
26) Running on a nice day.
27) Being sore after a workout.
28) Stretching.
29) Yoga.
30) Pilates.
31) Denise Austin :).
32) Saving money.
33) Paying off debts.
34) Not acquiring new debts.
35) Dave Ramsey :).
36) My big TV.
37) Watching movies on it.
38) "Casablanca"
39) "Breakfast at Tiffany's"
40) "When Harry Met Sally"
41) My furniture.
42) Making my husband rearrange it ;).
43) Reading a good book.
44) "Great Expectations"
45) "The Great Gatsby"
46) The Gossip Girl Series
47) Anything written by Dave Ramsey.
48) "Shattering Glass"
49) Writing when I'm bored.
50) Writing when I need to sort something out.
51) Writing because I just want to write.
52) Getting picture comments, blog comments, any comments really.
53) Watching McKaleigh eat her hand, hehe.
54) A big ice cold glass of water, when I'm really thirsty.
55) Babycenter.com.
56) The girls I've gotten so close to through that site.
57) Realizing how much things have changed in the last few years.
58) How much better my life is than I thought it would be.
59) A really good PB & J.
60) A huge breakfast.
61) Trying new seafoods, for Michael's sake :).
62) Chili on a cold day, with a cinnamon bun.
63) Donuts on Sunday before or after church.
64) Being back at St. Paul and feeling at home.
65) Making Christmas decorations.
66) Playing in the snow.
67) Being with Aunts and Uncles that I rarely see anymore.
68) Catching up with cousins who had grown distant.
69) Giggling whenever anyone says sixty-nine.
70) "That's what she said" jokes.
71) Watching TV on the internet.
72) "The Office"
73) "Desperate Housewives"
74) "Lipstick Jungle"
75) "30 Rock"
76) "Grey's Anatomy"
77) Looking through someecards.com.
78) Sending bumper stickers to friends.
79) Watching sxephil on youtube.
80) Listening to the news.
81) Listening to "The Dave Ramsey Show."
82) Doing our budget.
83) Helping other people.
84) Giving people advice.
85) Watching Disney movies from when I was a kid.
86) Stand up comedy.
87) Jim Gaffigan.
88) Brian Regan.
89) Dane Cook.
90) When McKaleigh grabs onto my fingers.
91) When Michael tells me he loves me.
92) Telling Michael I love him.
93) When the house is clean.
94) When I feel like I've accomplished something
95) Thinking about all of the wonderful things in my life.
96) Realizing how lucky I am.
97) Knowing there's no where I'd rather be.
98) That I have the most amazing husband and daughter.
99) Just appreciating every minute we have together.
100) Growing together as a family
101) My life!
~Tara
Saturday, January 24, 2009
A week from the end of January:) wow!**
So I can't believe the first month of 2009 is almost already over!!! A week from now January will be coming to an end. Not too much has been going on. If you read the last blog I need help, because Michael doesn't like the name Talon. What are some other T boy names... they can't have ever been on the top 100, lol, and they have to sound like real names, hehe. Maybe Topher? I don't know if Topher Adrian Ray sounds right, hmmm.
This month is going by so fast! And then before we know it next year will be here! It felt like 2008 went by really quickly, considering I felt like I was pregnant forever, haha... last January I was finding out that I was pregnant!!! How weird to think about!
I've recently changed my thinking from only wanting one kid to wanting three or more. It's craziness. Every so often I think, only one would be sooo much easier! Plus I could give McKaleigh all of my attention. But then I start thinking about have one or four more, hehe, and it doesn't sound too bad. I think three sounds good :) hehe.
So McKaleigh has seemed pretty bored lately, so I think we're going to go get her a jumperoo, hopefully she'll like it! I'm thinking she will.
Well there's not much else to say for now!
~Tara
This month is going by so fast! And then before we know it next year will be here! It felt like 2008 went by really quickly, considering I felt like I was pregnant forever, haha... last January I was finding out that I was pregnant!!! How weird to think about!
I've recently changed my thinking from only wanting one kid to wanting three or more. It's craziness. Every so often I think, only one would be sooo much easier! Plus I could give McKaleigh all of my attention. But then I start thinking about have one or four more, hehe, and it doesn't sound too bad. I think three sounds good :) hehe.
So McKaleigh has seemed pretty bored lately, so I think we're going to go get her a jumperoo, hopefully she'll like it! I'm thinking she will.
Well there's not much else to say for now!
~Tara
Sunday, January 4, 2009
I can’t believe she’s three months old already!**
Well it's the 3rd, which means McKaleigh is another month older! We're a quarter of the way through the first year, wow! She seems to change everyday, some days she looks more like me and some days she looks more like Michael. She's babbling and cooing more and more, and I love it! As of late McKaleigh has discovered her hands which is absolutely adorable! She holds them out in front of her face and plays with them constantly. I love watching her discover the world around her! Oh, she also has pretty much mastered head control, and is always trying to sit up, it's like she's doing a little sit up because she wants to be upright, she's pretty much awesome:).
On Christmas Eve we made our way up to North Carolina to be with Michael's family. It was a ton of fun, getting to meet a large portion of her daddy's family:). On the 27th we went to the Fayetteville airport and flew to Omaha(via Atlanta.) My friend Alissa and her boyfriend Casey met us at the airport and then we made our way to Applebee's to meet up with my parents and one of my dad's friends(pretty much like my aunt, lol) Michelle. After supper we drove to Fort Dodge, getting in pretty late.
The next two days were absolutely hectic. We ran around Fort Dodge to see all of my parents' families. It seemed like everytime McKaleigh woke up she was in a new place! It was fun though, I loved getting to see everybody, and I even saw all of my mom's siblings except for one! With a family with nine kids, that's pretty hard to manage. Tuesday we drove back to Fort Benning, where Michael met us to celebrate the New Year. We didn't really do anything special, but it was still a good time.
Now we are finally back in our own house and it sure does feel nice! I love the holidays, but I also love when everything goes back to normal:).
~Tara
PS: Forgot to mention that we got to take a five generation picture! With McKaleigh, me, my dad, his dad, and his dad's mom. She has four great-great grandparents!
On Christmas Eve we made our way up to North Carolina to be with Michael's family. It was a ton of fun, getting to meet a large portion of her daddy's family:). On the 27th we went to the Fayetteville airport and flew to Omaha(via Atlanta.) My friend Alissa and her boyfriend Casey met us at the airport and then we made our way to Applebee's to meet up with my parents and one of my dad's friends(pretty much like my aunt, lol) Michelle. After supper we drove to Fort Dodge, getting in pretty late.
The next two days were absolutely hectic. We ran around Fort Dodge to see all of my parents' families. It seemed like everytime McKaleigh woke up she was in a new place! It was fun though, I loved getting to see everybody, and I even saw all of my mom's siblings except for one! With a family with nine kids, that's pretty hard to manage. Tuesday we drove back to Fort Benning, where Michael met us to celebrate the New Year. We didn't really do anything special, but it was still a good time.
Now we are finally back in our own house and it sure does feel nice! I love the holidays, but I also love when everything goes back to normal:).
~Tara
PS: Forgot to mention that we got to take a five generation picture! With McKaleigh, me, my dad, his dad, and his dad's mom. She has four great-great grandparents!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Living like no one else:)
So it's been more than a month and I have not blogged.
I've decided that I'm going to blog about my journey to becoming debt-free, with some other random topics thrown in randomly.
We currently have about 38K in debt.
It breaks down like this.
15K for that brand new car we just had to have.
16K for my student loans, and no degree to show for it, I only did two years.
2K on credit cards, not bad compared to a lot of people, lol.
&
5K in random unsecured debts, mostly for financing things, ugh.
So for us that's quite a bit, seeing that we, meaning my husband, bring in probably around 30K a year, being lower enlisted in the Army. I am lucky though that we can manage enough for me to stay at home... I honestly don't know what kind of job I could get that would justify the cost of day care though!
We have chosen to follow the Dave Ramsey plan, which is to do these 7 simple steps.
1)Save up your "Baby Emergency Fund" of $1000, for lower income families like us, you can save $500 if you don't see any storm clouds over the horizon, which we don't.
2) Dump all of your debt using the "Debt Snowball). The "Debt Snowball" is making minimum payments on everything except for your smallest debt. The smallest debt is the one that you throw every extra nickle and dime you can find on. You do the smallest instead of the one with highest interest because finance is 20% knowledge and 80% behavior. A quick win will keep you with the plan and get you motivated. After you pay the smallest debt, everything you were paying toward that debt now gets put onto the next smallest, and so on and so forth.
3) Save up a fully funded emergency fund for 3-6 months of expenses.
4) Save 15% of your income in pre-tax retirement accounts.
5) Save for college.
6) Pay off your mortgage as quickly as possible!
7) Invest and Give!
You isolate and focus on the first three steps, then you do steps 4, 5, and 6 together.
There's the synapsis of the plan we are following. Due to a tax refund and raise early next year we should be able to do this quickly. If we can get that stupid car sold we'll be able to do it even faster. Although we won't be trying to sell the car until early next year.
I'll post monthly, at least, with updates... so if anyone ends up reading this, they can follow along with our story:). Otherwise, this is still beneficial to me!
I've decided that I'm going to blog about my journey to becoming debt-free, with some other random topics thrown in randomly.
We currently have about 38K in debt.
It breaks down like this.
15K for that brand new car we just had to have.
16K for my student loans, and no degree to show for it, I only did two years.
2K on credit cards, not bad compared to a lot of people, lol.
&
5K in random unsecured debts, mostly for financing things, ugh.
So for us that's quite a bit, seeing that we, meaning my husband, bring in probably around 30K a year, being lower enlisted in the Army. I am lucky though that we can manage enough for me to stay at home... I honestly don't know what kind of job I could get that would justify the cost of day care though!
We have chosen to follow the Dave Ramsey plan, which is to do these 7 simple steps.
1)Save up your "Baby Emergency Fund" of $1000, for lower income families like us, you can save $500 if you don't see any storm clouds over the horizon, which we don't.
2) Dump all of your debt using the "Debt Snowball). The "Debt Snowball" is making minimum payments on everything except for your smallest debt. The smallest debt is the one that you throw every extra nickle and dime you can find on. You do the smallest instead of the one with highest interest because finance is 20% knowledge and 80% behavior. A quick win will keep you with the plan and get you motivated. After you pay the smallest debt, everything you were paying toward that debt now gets put onto the next smallest, and so on and so forth.
3) Save up a fully funded emergency fund for 3-6 months of expenses.
4) Save 15% of your income in pre-tax retirement accounts.
5) Save for college.
6) Pay off your mortgage as quickly as possible!
7) Invest and Give!
You isolate and focus on the first three steps, then you do steps 4, 5, and 6 together.
There's the synapsis of the plan we are following. Due to a tax refund and raise early next year we should be able to do this quickly. If we can get that stupid car sold we'll be able to do it even faster. Although we won't be trying to sell the car until early next year.
I'll post monthly, at least, with updates... so if anyone ends up reading this, they can follow along with our story:). Otherwise, this is still beneficial to me!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
She’s two months old today!**
Wow, McKaleigh is getting so big! People still point at her and say "awww look at the tiny baby," whenever we're out, though, lol. McKaleigh and I spent all of last week at Ft Benning and then Michael came Wednesday night. Thanksgiving dinner was good, uneventful for the most part. Michael and I had our first night out alone, we went to dinner and a movie last Friday. So McKaleigh got her first bottle, which my mom said she took pretty well, but looked confused, lol. I doubt we'll be making a habit of bottle use though.
Sunday McKaleigh was baptized at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, after the service. Antonio, Selena, Zachary, and my cousin Tyler are her sponsors, basically what some churches would call godparents, I think. I wish we could've done it at St Paul in Fort Dodge so more of my family could've been there, but I'm not sure when Michael will be able to come to FD with me.
McKaleigh's become way more vocal lately and coos and aahs a lot more, hehe, it's adorable. She has a bouncy seat with animals dangling in front of her and she'll just kick her legs and flail her arms like crazy to get those animals to move back and forth, haha. I can't think of much else... Time goes by so quickly!
~Tara
Sunday McKaleigh was baptized at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, after the service. Antonio, Selena, Zachary, and my cousin Tyler are her sponsors, basically what some churches would call godparents, I think. I wish we could've done it at St Paul in Fort Dodge so more of my family could've been there, but I'm not sure when Michael will be able to come to FD with me.
McKaleigh's become way more vocal lately and coos and aahs a lot more, hehe, it's adorable. She has a bouncy seat with animals dangling in front of her and she'll just kick her legs and flail her arms like crazy to get those animals to move back and forth, haha. I can't think of much else... Time goes by so quickly!
~Tara
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