Update on yesterday

So, yesterday was not a day of rest. We dropped the car off for an oil change and went to St aple's for another filing box so I could work on my kitchen table. Then we went to Lowe's to buy Michael a new skilsaw and saws-all, and me a rug pad for our living room rug (it slides across the hardwood - not too safe).

Then it was off to Jody's Optical to see my seester. She had bought me a present, and she wanted me to come pick it up while we were in town. Guess what she got me.... The book Love You Forever!!! I've been looking for it every time we go to Wal-mart, and haven't been able to find it. Well, she found it and bought it! SQUEEEEE!!!

Then we walked down to Piggly Wiggly for a few items that we had run out of. I just went grocery shopping last Monday, but I've been eating 5 times a day, sometimes 6!!!

Then it was time to go for my checkup at Roberta's. We got there and signed in. I noticed the waiting room was empty except for us, but I thought maybe it was just because Dr. Carlota was out of the office. The receptionist noticed we were there, and told us that Rpberta was out delivering a baby. We could either wait, come back at 2:30 (it was 11:30 right then), or reschedule for next Monday. So we rescheduled. Next Monday it is.

After rescheduling our appointment, we went to see if the car was ready. It was in the garage on the rack when we pulled up, so we waited. After getting our keys from the mechanic, Michael called and ordered us bacon cheeseburgers from S&Z. I followed him until he pulled off there. I went home, got in the mail, and waited on my burger. After eating, he cut grass and cleaned up the yard while I worked on the table.

I got the table half cleaned off before dinner time. I threw away half of the stuff I cleaned off the table. If it wasn't ours, it got thrown away. (We still get junk mail for people who lived there before us, and for Mamaw. It sometimes gets lost on the table.) If it was an old newspaper, it got thrown away, read or not. Junk mail, garbage or shredder. Bills that have been paid, filed. Coupons, stored in coupon organizer or thrown away. All Michael's screwdrivers and stuff he's piled up there, taken back out to the shed with his other tools. Unread magazines, dumped in a shoebox-sized plastic tote for reading or giving away. (Maybe I can use some of them for reading material during my maternity leave and hospital stay?? All I know is, there's no way I'm throwing away Better Homes and Gardens, American Baby, and Michael's Field and Stream magazines without looking through them first.)

I also created temp files in one of my file boxes for crafting ideas, recipes to add to my MasterCook software, paint samples for painting our bedroom (one day, I hope), and stuff like that.

I also cooked dinner last night! Lemon Pepper Chicken, mashed potatoes, shells and cheese, salad, and Texas toast. (Easy cooking with Lawry's Lemon Pepper marinade. I don't marinade - just pour it over th etop of the chicken pieces, add a little water to the bottom of the baking dish, and bake until the chicken is cooked through.)

After eating dinner, I got Aaron to put up the leftovers, I neatly stacked my file boxes and stuff back on the far edge of the kitchen table, out of the way. (Mainly so we could walk through the kitchen around the table this morning!) After stacking everything up there, over half the table was clear! Yay me!

Then I went to bed. I was exhausted. I woke up this morning still tired. I started to cancel my overtime today, but the thought of missing out on duoble overtime made me come to work anyway. I'm going to tell my boss today that I'm canceling tomorrow. It's only regular time-and-a-half overtime, so quite a difference in the amount of money lost by canceling tomorrow instead of today. I may have them cancel one overtime day each week from now on, giving me two days off and five days on. Or I may have them swap me to 40 hour weeks until I take my leave. It depends on how I feel after I work the rest of this week (except tomorrow).

Project Procrastinator's Party

I'm joining in on the Project Procrastinator's Party at The Inspired Room. Click on the link for more details, and to follow along with us.

My project will be my kitchen table. I hope two weeks is enough time for me to do this. But I really need to get it done, so here goes. **deep breaths**

I will take a pic tonight, and post it then. It's horrible, and I am ashamed to show you what it looks like. I'll be truthful, though. Except that technically, I have to start on my project before a pic is posted, because I believe my camera is on said table. Easy to get to, it's not buried under all the piles, but it's still there.

Also, in the interest of truthfulness (is that a word? My pregnant-brain can't remember right now....), I will dump all my work stuff on it before taking said picture. That's where I dump it every night anyway, mainly because the table is the right height for me to pack my bag in the mornings and pick it up without bending over, which would NOT go so well for me right now if I tried. That's my excuse, anyway. Really, I've dumped my stuff there every day for the last (over) two years, and I'm not stopping now. We don't eat there. My pic later will prove why we don't eat there. That and, frankly, my couch is more comfy after twelve and a half hours at work than any kitchen chair could ever hope to be.

So, I'll add my pic to this post later tonight via the magic of editing. Until then, imagine Mount Saint Helens piled on a table, ready to erupt at any moment (AKA, all my piles of stuff sliding off into the floor AGAIN).

Gah... Still behind the times.....

I just figured out that Google Reader gives you the option of creating folders to store blog feeds in.... DUH! I was wishing Blogger had that function, then I thought, "Why don't you hop on over to Google, and check out the Google Reader? I bet you can organize your blog feeds there." Guess what??? Of course you can. And I've been dealing with my Blogger Dashboard for how long, when I could have been using Reader???? Why didn't someone tell me this?!?!?


Edited at 12:24 to add:
So, I added all my blogs from blogger to Google Reader. I gave each one a tag so I could remember why I had followed these blogs (after I had to open some of them and scroll through trying to figure out why. But that's because I just weeded all my blogs out, and subscribed to a few new ones, which still left me with less blogs to follow than before!). I'm figuring out how to use the reader, and I have to say, I think I like it better than Blogger's reader. Google automatically tells me if there are any new updates since I last checked out all my feeds, so I know if I need to waste time trying toscroll through posts or not. I just scrolled through about the last week of feeds, and then marked all of them as read, so I can start off with "0 new". I figure if I haven't read them, I don't need to, right??

To-Do List update

It's been a while, so I think I need to update on my progress of wading through my massive to-do list.

I cleared everything out of my office closet except papers that need filing or scanning and trashing. I organized all my pens, pencils, markers, labels, etc. into bins. I put everything back in the cabinet neatly. I put items of a similar type (writing utensils, notepads, sticky notes.....) together in the cabinet.

I bought a few more pieces of maternity clothes. I could use a few more shirts, but I'm almost there, so trying to hold out on buying more.

I cleaned our ceiling fans. I also went through the house and dusted all the cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. While I was in the bedroom dusting, I cleaned the TV and dusted the entertainment center there. (Bonus points for me!)

I pre-registered at the hospital. Now I'm ready to go, in 6 to 8 weeks..... :) (Still have to pack my bags, wash some of the stuff baby will need the first week, get all that stuff downstairs, and buy a couple of those plastic carts-on-wheels to hold his stuff for the first few weeks, when I don't feel like and can't physically go upstairs....)

I got my hair cut! And my eyebrows waxed! I think it's been 8 years or longer since my hair has been this short. The longest layer is down to barely past the top of my shoulders. Now I can go in for a trim when I take my maternity leave before the baby gets here, and I'll (hopefully) be good to go there for a couple of months (until about the time I get ready to go back to work, give or take).

Our glider came in, and has been assembled. Yay us! It only took about 15 minutes to put together. It was just about 12 screws or so. So easy!

I bought a breast pump. I couldn't decide, so for now I got one from Walmart, an Evenflo single electric pump. Then one of the girls I work with offered me hers. I just have to buy new valves and stuff for it. It's a Medela. So if my Evenflo gives out, like a lot of people said will happen, I have a back-up.

I bought new, bigger nursing bras. Walmart doesn't sell anything that I could find above a DD cup, so I had to settle for going up a band size for now. I really need a 38F. I had to deal with a 40DD. It still fits pretty well, for now. If they'd get a little bigger soon, it would fit perfectly. I don't want to have to keep buying bras that probably won't fit once my milk comes in. I have so many better things I could spend that money on every month or two. I now have around 6 or 8 bras that I've bought the last 8 months, that don't fit anymore, and 2 that I can wear comfortably. Pitiful, isn't it? I do have a girlfriend who is giving me 2 new bras, I think a 38F and one maybe larger than that??? I can't remember.... She never wore them, she didn't get big enough for them.

So that's where I stand with THE LIST right now. I can live with that. Nesting is starting to set in. I get home from work and look around at all the things I need to do, but am too tired for, and a slight panic starts to creep in. So I take a deep breath and try to convince myself to not care, and so far it works.

To-Do list update... AKA post #40

Since I haven't marked anything off my list in a little while, I thought I would post an update. I hate that it looks like I haven't been working on it any. So, without further babbling:

1.) I tried to purchase a few maternity items that actually fit me. The shirts fit, the pants were all too big. Ao I packed the pants back up, and shipped them back to Old Navy for them to exchange for smaller sizes. I have been working toward this item, but I don't feel I can officially cross it off my list until I have both pants and shirts that fit. At least a few of each for now. I'm not buying an entire wardrobe of stuff that will fit me now, because it probably won't fit in a month or so.... I digress.....

2.) I have been slowly clearing stuff off my old desktop computer. It is a slow process because it takes so long to burn a CD from that computer, coupled with the fact that I have limited time to work on this. But I am slowly making headway on this. I guess that's all that matters in the end, right? Again, not marking off until completely finished.

3.) I have begun cleaning out kitchen cabinets. The food cabinets have been done, although not inventoried. I still have the cabinets full of dishes to do, as well as all my drawers in the kitchen, and the tops of my cabinets. Same story as with the computer. Limited time, but making some progress.

4.) I have somewhat updated my calendar, but since this is always gonna be an ongoing thing, I choose to not mark it off the list.

5.) I have made just a little progress under the bathroom sink. I moved all our bottles of body wash, shampoo, conditioner, etc. to the front of the cabinet, and put things like my bath jet thingy and baskets of "stuff" in the back. Again, not completely done, so not marked off. But progress.

6.) I have submitted paperwork for filing on last year's HCSA, as well as some of this year's prenatal appointments (I could not find one co-pay receipt from this calendar year, so it has not been submitted). This hasn't been marked off, because I have not received approval and reimbursement yet. If the one charge from last year's funds hasn't been approved by close of business Friday, I am planning on submitting other charges from 2008 to ensure I receive all $17 and some cents left in my account for last year. The federal government will NOT steal my $17 ad some cents from me, by golly! Not if I can help it!

So, six more items that I have worked on at least a little bit. Better than nothing. Too bad I didn't have my registry down as a to-do. I could actually mark something off. Oh, well, baby steps. Some progress is better than none at all.

Maybe before the outage starts, I can mark these items off my list. I would feel better if I could. I know during the outage not much will get done that doesn't have to be done by me. Clean clothes for work, doctors appointments kept, and groceries bought is about all anyone can expect out of me then. If they expect much more, they will be sadly disappointed. :)

Blitz-it Friday #2

For info on Blitz-it Friday, or to join in the fun, click the button above.

I am participating in Blitz-it Friday hosted by Organized Everyday whenever I can. One more small step toward an organized house, ya know? I missed Blitz-it Friday #1, but that's OK. I wouldn't have gotten it done, anyway, since I worked night shift last weekend.

Since I had to work today, I blitzed yesterday. I worked on organizing my kitchen cabinets. They weren't horrible, I supposed, but they bothered me. And people in my house keep eating the food and snacks I buy for me to take to work. Or they'll eat something I have planned for dinner. Then they feel bad when I get on them about it, which isn't exactly fair.

In the interest of fairness to them and keeping my food for me, I went through all of my kitchen cabinets that store food. I took out all of "my" food, as well as all the dinner ingredients I have planned meals around. I put them all on one side of my kitchen, in two cabinets, in a semi-organized fashion (meaning all of "my" food is together, and everything else is grouped by "food in a box" or "food in a can".

I took all the food that has no specific purpose other than "someone" eating it when they want a snack, or I'm not home to cook, etc. and put it in the other cabinets, on the other side of my kitchen. I grouped these into a cabinet of meal-type foods (cans of soup, canned pasta, etc.) and snack food (cereal, popcorn, etc.).

I took all of the kitchen appliances, storage boxes, canisters, etc. and put them in a cabinet, which will also house 2 liters of drinks, sugar for tea, garbage bags (the cabinet is right beside the can, more convenient than across the kitchen in the drawer full of aluminum foil and such), chips, etc.

I actually worked on this for about 3 hours, off and on, while I made a menu for all of April and part of May, using up as much as I can from my stash of canned veggies and rice mixes. I actually went through the dinner ingredients, took out what I had already planned on, made a list of what was left, and found a day to eat it on. We're trying to save a little extra money before the baby is born, so I'm trying to cut down on grocery expenses by using what we have, taking advantage of sales, and using coupons when I can.

My next blitz will be finishing the kitchen cabinets. I still have the cabinets holding my dishes, mixing bowls, and cookware left to do. I hope to get to blitz sometime next week, if not Friday. Monday I am going grocery shopping, and I have to sit down and pay bills (yuck....). I have to work night shift Tuesday through Thursday nights. I have to pick up the keys to the community center for my baby shower Friday afternoon. My shower is Saturday. Maybe Monday after grocery shopping? I can come home, unload the car, put up the perishable items, blitz those cabinets, then organize the canned goods. I can use my breaks during the blitz to pay bills. Sounds like my plan!

Organizing update

Since I finished setting up my new file box, I have been slowly getting all the loose paper around my house filed. Saturday afternoon before work, I filed a pretty big pile of paperwork from stuff like our pool, cordless drills, toaster, coffer maker, etc. That got some of the pile of paper out of my office cabinet filed. I felt pretty good about that. I spent about 30 minutes on it. Sunday I didn't do any. Instead, I read the newspaper so I could go ahead and throw it out.

Also Saturday, I moved a few items around in my office cabinet (my two new reams of paper) so I could store Granny's scrapbooks in it before someone spills their drink on it or something..... She's kill me if that happend. So far it hasn't, but I've been growing more uneasy every day about taking the risk with them laying out on my desk. My dear, darling husband is notorious for accidentally pouring (OK, spilling) his drink into my computer keyboard. Problem solved, potential for accident minimized. For now.

A quick update

Since my seven days off were filled with out-of-town guests and drama, I thought I'd post a quick re-cap of what little I accomplished (that was planned) while off work.

*Menu was made, and groceries bought.
*I bought a shelf to go beside my freezer. I put all my paper goods, extra laundry detergent, etc. on it.
*The boxes that were stacked where the new shelf is were brought out. I went through the THREE boxes of bathroom stuff (makeup and OTC medicines that were several years old, bath gift sets I can't use that are several years old, etc.) and threw away two boxes of stuff that wasn't any good. I still have the one box of bathroom stuff I kept, and a box of lids to my Glad bowls and such that I have to go through.
*Bought a new file box, with a lid, and new hanging and manilla file folders. I have transferred all my files from my old crate to the new box. I used up almost an entire box of hangng folders and a box of manilla folders for this. I kept my old folders that were still useable. I'll be throwing out my old ones that are falling apart, which is mainly some of the old hanging folders. I still have stuff in piles and my office cabinet that I need to file.
*Got part of my kitchen clean (mainly stuff you could see).
*Crib is up and covers are on it. Still have wall art to hang, and a recliner to clean in there.
*Cleaned some pics, docs, etc. off the old desktop for transfer to the laptop or archiving.

I'll be working night shift this weekend, so not much will get done by me. I have my 26-week checkup Tuesday at 10:30 (after working Monday night), so nothing will get done Tuesday, either. After my appointment, it will be nap time.

Maybe Wednesday, I can get something else done.

My To-Do List for the next seven days

Starting tomorrow, I have seven whole days off from work. And a lot to do around the house. It sucks that it'll be raining, but maybe I need a week of rain to keep me in the house.

I seriously need to declutter my whole house and finish unpacking all the boxes before the baby gets here.

So, in the interest of "maybe-I'll-get-more-done-if-I-hold-myself-accountable-here", here's my to-do list:

Tonight:
1.) Call Granddaddy to wish him a happy birthday.
2.) Throw a frozen pizza-or-something in the oven for dinner.

Tomorrow:
1.) Sleep until at least 8 AM. (sooooo tired from working this week)
2.) Possibly take our friend Sherry to Huntsville to the doctor for her 12PM appointment (Chopper has to go to B'ham for an appointment with one of his doctors, so he can't take her).
3.) Quick clean through the whole house (dishes, laundry, sweep, etc.)
4.) Cook something for dinner (TBD what exactly that would be)

Saturday:
1.) Robbie's birthday (need gift suggestions???? Anybody????? Email them to me please.)

The rest of the week:
1.) Clean off kitchen table.
2.) Go through the two totes and several boxes of stuff in my kitchen. Toss anything I don't need and can't give away.
3.) Clean out office supply cabinet. Organize contents.
4.) Clean desk.
5.) Clean off some of my stuff on my old desktop to try to get it to run better. Burn files to disk or transfer to laptop for access or organizing.
6.) Clean out stuff beside upright freezer. Buy a shelf for the things I'm keeping (paper towels, toilet paper, kleenex, laundry supplies, etc.).
7.) Clean fridge.
8.) Clean out kitchen cabinets. Clean on top, too.
9.) Clean oven?? (If I can stand the cleaner - Fume-Free but still, sometimes it bothers me.)
10.) Clean my poor, filthy, no-hope-for-it microwave.
11.) Scrub stove top and sink with Barkeeper's Friend.
12.) Clean windows in kitchen and dining room. Wash curtains while I'm at it. Dust blinds, too.
13.) Scrub kitchen and dining room floor. They're so nasty, even mopping leaves them dirty. Clean baseboard and cabinet kick plates while I'm there.
14.) Put together baby bed. Wash linens for bed and put them on it.
15.) Finish hanging wall art in baby's room, since what I have left has been reserved to center over crib and fill in gaps in wall.
16.) Take belly pic and pics of baby's room. Post all to blog and Photobucket.
17.) Buy some clothes I actually fit into. (Involves a trip to either Madison Square Mall - torture - or Bridge Street - torture, plus I don't know how to get there - because no one in Athens sells maternity clothes.)
18.) Clean out my dresser and closet (at least the clothes portion, preferably the boxes, too). Then have Michael clean out his closet and dresser.
19.) Clean off my bedside table.
20.) Finish blue and brown blanket (already done crocheting, just need to finish adding tassel fringe on both ends).
21.) Buy new porch lights for Michael to hang.
22.) Buy a coffee table and new end table for living room so I can give Bobby my old end table as promised, since he already has the one I didn't have room for after we bought the new couch. And since we've already bought the new rug for the floor.
23.) Clean off the entertainment center in my bedroom.
24.) Get three rolls of film developed. Have them loaded onto disks so I can archive them without having to scan each picture.
25.) Set up my new scanner and pics I'm working on on the kitchen table, which has been designated "My Future Scanning/Scrapbooking Table" by Michael.
26.) Work on scanning Granny's scrapbooks so I can give them back to her.
27.) Clean under my bed.
28.) Update calendar.
29.) Scan photos and archive on CDs after sorting.
30.) Clean recliner.
31.) Clean under bathroom sink.
32.) Clean under kitchen sink.
33.) Organize doctor's statements and BCBS EOBs for easy access and filing on HCSA (before April 2). (actual deadline is April 15th, but I procrastinate, hence the earlier date, to motivate me).
34.)Fill up donation boxes as I go through each to-do on this list.
35.) Clean pictures in the living room and bedroom. Dust furniture and knick-knacks.
36.) Pull up carpet upstairs and down the stairs (Michael to help with this one).
37.) Clean ceiling fans. Clean cobwebs from ceilings.
38.) Menu planning and grocery shopping.
39.) Pantry/fridge/freezer inventory.
40.) Thank you notes for shower gifts.
41.) Pre-register at hospital.
42.) Haircut.
43.) Transfer docs to Google Docs.
44.) Glider assembly.
45.) Order breast pump.
46.) Buy bras.

This is a general to-do list, I don't really expect that I'll be able to get it all done in 7 days, even with Michael's help. [So no having a fit over how long it is, MOM... :) ] But at least I can keep up with my list and update what's done as it goes. And add to it as I need to.

A declutter Challenge for tomorrow

Tomorrow We're Decluttering (Organising Queen's Blog)

Declutter your blog feed reader of blogs you don't particularly read AND bookmarked favorite websites you don't use. So, if I make a folder under "My Documents" to store ones I check occasionally, but not a lot, does that count? LOL. Hopefully, I'll get around to this one. I also probably need to file my favorites that I actually use that haven't been filed under category folders yet, for easier access and a neater Favorites list.

I am almost POSITIVE my mother (**hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge**) could probably use this challenge, too. I've seen her blog rolls and links listed on the sidebars of her blogs. Way worse than mine. And my blogger feed is the only feed reader I use, so HA! I only have one feed to declutter.

Whenever I get to do this (sometime in the next seven days) I'll post my results.