Wanna Win?
If you visit the button on the side of my site you can enter to win a treasure chest full of Pirate's Booty natural snacks from @magicdandelions http://tinyurl.com/yfhg23x Ends 1/22 and $25 GC to EcoStore USA (all-natural household & bath/body products) http://tinyurl.com/yeyosgq Ends 1/25. @magicdandelions. So head on over and check it out!
Ordered Placed!
Yesterday I placed my order for some Vibram Five Fingers. I saw these shoes about a month ago and as soon as I started reading about them I was in love. I have even been having running dreams. Which isn't like me at all. In the past running for me has just been pain my ankels and knees always hurt. So excited to see what these will do for me. I am also planning on making these my main shoes unless it just pouring outside in which cause i'll just switch to crocs or something that is as close to barefood as I can get.
About time…
Well about time someone updates this thing. So since Will has done it the last few times I thought it was probably my turn. Normally you have the not much has changed post, but for once I feel like a ton has changed.
First off today we got a new member of the family. I think we have settled on calling her Rocket she's a basset hound somewhere between 1 and 2 years old. So far she seems to really be working out nice for us. But it hasn't even been 24 hours so probably a little early to say. But she hasn't bit Margaret or torn anything up. So that's a pretty good dog in my book. Margaret was running and tripped and fell on her and she barely opened an eye.
Second big thing in our lives is I have started working. Not your average job I will only work a few days out of the month. Which goes great with being a stay at home mom and only having one car. But I am currently training to be a birth assistant with the midwife that helped deliver Margaret. Or I should say I will help assist all the midwifes in the practice. So far I have done two births and am really enjoying it.
Margaret is growing like a weed and learning so much. I guess every parent probably feels like there kid is a genius. But its really amazing hearing her put two and three words together now. She also knows and using a little over 5 signs very well. Margaret is still really into being outdoors, her movies, and of course her new dog. Won't be long and we will already be coming up on her two year birthday.
Will mostly works and plays games 
A few other big things for us are that we are coming up on one year as a one car family. Which means we have had no car payment for a year. Something were both really proud of. Also we have started using cloth diapers and are about to hit the 2 month mark of that. They have already paid for themselves so everything now is just pure profit. Next which just shipped today is our un-paper towels. So all these little changes I am excited to see how they impact our monthly budget. I know just me using the clothesline during the summer dropped our bill $50 dollars a month. We don't have a fancy dryer or anything so I am sure it does suck a lot of energy. I have also started a compost pile for a garden next year and am looking forward to working in it with Margaret.
Much needed Update
So I guess we have become to busy to blog, or don't want to write a blog only about Margaret. But we do have plenty going on, she's just involved in it all.
So first off you might be able to tell that we bought another video camera. We lost our old one around Christmas, bad timing we know. However with Circuit City going out of business we thought it was time to at least replace the camera we had. But once we got there we just upgraded. So YouTube videos are back and better than ever.
Margaret is doing all kinds of new things. Mostly she can crawl everywhere really fast. Also she pulls up on any and everything and then can walk the outer edge of the house with no problem. She is great at mimicing you! We can get her to make some pretty funny faces. She adds her own twist to them which makes it even better. Shes been saying "mama" for a little while now. But with in the last two weeks or so she has started saying "dada" or "didi." Which of course can make Wills day anytime she feels like saying it to him. She also says "ki"everytime she sees Ping Pong our cat. Who we point to and say "Kitty" all the time. She trying to fight her naps and sleep period like every other kid her age. Oh and playing in the grass is something she really loves.
We also got a new member to our family. Her name is Queso, shes a yellow lab. Probably about 10 weeks old now and all puppy. Her and Margaret play everyday at least though the back window. Its super cute! Queso doesn't come in right now unless both of us are around. Both her and Margaret try and put each other in there mouths. Which ends up with someone getting hurt (mostly Margaret). But she has really calmed down in even the last four weeks. So looking forward to being past the puppy stage. Don't think I will miss it one bit.
Will got a new helicopter. I am sure more videos are to come of that. So far he hasn't had a bad crash. This is getting into the bad boys of helicopters. So Margaret and I have to watch from behind the brick wall or inside the house. It pretty fun to watch, seeing as I am not the one flying it and all.
I got a new camera. Its a Canon Rebel XS and I love it! It takes amazing pictures. But now the expenise hobby has bitten me and I am wanting new lenses and such. Probably also noticed more pictures being posted. Has to do with the new camera. If you really want to see how awesome it is view a picture high res.
A few other changes in our lives over the last six months or so have been. We sold both cars and bought a mini van. But now have zero car payment which is pretty cool. I think its the first time in our marriage we have really been saving some money every month. Queso of course is a big change. And on the smaller scale of things Will won a Macronni Grill gift card from RaffStar.com so are pretty excited about that. Now if only we can win that blueray player.
Standing and Waving
Margaret is pulling up on the couch easily now. As of Monday, she's also taking great joy in waving at people. Sometimes she waves her whole arm, and other times she opens and closes her fingers. Either way, she's usually grinning ear to ear.
Mama
Margaret said mama today. And not just with her new sounds she is making. But she stuck her arms out and said "mama." Was too sweet.
Hit a Deer
So as many of the 5 or so readers we have may know that we got a new van. Well a week ago Rick and Charla got a new van too. So when they got it we all loaded up in it and went for hot chocolate. Was a lot of fun so this week we thought we would return the treat and take them for hot chocolate in our new van. Not five minutes into the trip and we had hit a deer. I was in the very back and didn't see a thing. Just heard a loud noise and looked out the window were I saw pieces of our new car fly by. From there we of course pulled out to get out and check the damage. Our head light was broken and the drivers side door wouldn't open. Bummer.
Will and Rick went and pulled the deer out of the road so that no other wrecks were caused. We are all just thankful that Will reacted the way he did and did go off the road HWY 346 for the locals that know. Its very curvy and has no sholder. We would have all been in much worse shape had anyother thing happen besides what did. So we are all just thankful for being okay. With a car loaded with kids and families it was pretty easy to get over the fact that our new car was hurt. Plus the car we bought was far from perfet on the extorior to begin with.
So now we are stuck with as a one car family with a somewhat broken car. We knew this would happen at some point just didn't know it would happen with in 24 hours of being a one car familiy. Shouldn't be a big deal as our insurace has a rental car if we choose to file a claim. Will is about to head out to a body shop and just see what it would cost to make the door open. From there we can order and over night the shipping on a new head light and be back in business.
One ironic thing is the car wasn't inspected when we got it I was suppose to carry it up to the dealership to have that done. Well when I called they told me an hour wait. Which I was not willing to do with a baby. So I thought I would spend the 15 bucks myself. Well of course I get out and about going to have it done and Margaret needs a nap. So we come home and we going to do it today before going to Longview. So that of course isn't going to happen. I figure we could throw a fit at the Toyota place for them selling us a car that wasn't inspected. So if it comes to that we might see what they can do for us. But for now just going to try and handle things on our own.
So much for getting to save the first car payment... Or the next few.
Asus EEE PC 1000 Review
So now that I had my Asus eee pc for a little while I have had time to decide how well I like it. A few things to keep in mind are that I am a stay at home mom and I mostly surf the web, read email, and watch videos. The time I do get to spend on the computer happens all over the place, kitchen table, living couch, floor, cooking, etc. Notice I
didn't mention sitting comfortably at a desk for extended lengths of
time. Keeping all these things in mind, I must say that I love my new
computer! It really fits my lifestyle well.
I chose the version with Xandros Linux pre installed. My first
impression of it was god, but I ultimately decided to install Ubuntu
EEE. After a day and a half with Xandros I found it to be a little too
locked down for my liking. However Ubuntu EEE fits the bill just
right. I am able to watch all my shows, email, surf the web, perform
basic photo editing, and pretty much everything else I'd typically done
on my Mac. Won't be playing WOW or anything but I didn't do that in the
past either.
The portability is wonderful. I can easily carry it in one hand and the
baby in the other. The hinge on this thing is "beefy" I would be very
surprised if it ever breaks. It is probably half the weight of the
machine. It also came with a sleeve for when we take it places which was
a nice little perk and something I honestly think should just be
included in the price of any portable machine.
The screen is nice and bright and is very easy and comfortable to use.
The keyboard is great for the size of the machine. There was no learning
curve at all for me. It's 95% the size of a full size keyboard and the
difference is hardly noticable. The Intel Atom Processor is blazing
fast for the little machine. I currently only have one gig of ram but
will probably upgrade to two seeing as its only around $30 to do so.
The only gripe I have so far is that the track pad buttons are a little
more difficult to push than I would like. I have solved that by learning
to tap the track pad to click. I never liked tap clicking before but
having spent a few days doing it, I am used to it. I couldn't have seen
myself liking the tap clicking option a week ago though.
The near eight hour battery life is also very nice considering that I
only have plug it in at night. Its very nice and light in my lap and
doesn't get hot so no risk of buring myself or having to keep it on a
table or desk at all times. I went ahead and opted for the solid state
drive due to having a baby I know it will probably get
bumped/dropped/something so the smaller drive was worth the durability
factor to me. But if you need more space there is a 160GB version.
Over all I would recommend this netbook to anyone with similar usage patterns as myself. Or anyone just looking for a light computer to be able to put in almost anything and carry anywhere. The pros greatly out weigh the cons in my opion. As long as you know what you are getting and you are sure it will meet your needs.