Final Blog-a-Thon post & goals for the future

Good News: The blog-a-thon is almost over! I don’t think I can do one more night in a row of staying up late blogging.

Bad News: The blog-a-thon is almost over :/ It has been kinda fun blogging my heart out.

For the last post, I have yet another list. Then I will try to stay away from lists for a while. This list is of my goals for the rest of my time here. They say if you make your goals public, you are more likely to reach them. So thanks in advance for helping me reach my goals!

1. I want to keep up on this blog better. I have lots of fun ideas of things I want to post about. Not saying I am going to post everyday like I did this week {that was A LOT of work!} but I am going to try to post at least once a week.

2. I want to do more activities with the kids. This is my FAVORITE part of babysitting. I think that is why I have always been the favorite of the kids I tend, because I do activities with them. I would literally spend hours planning things for them the day before I was supposed to babysit and often, I would spend more money than I would make on supplies. But it’s why I love it so much. Coming into this, I had such great plans. But then reality set it in, & I realized that with Christian being so little most of my time was going to go to him. And it has. I have done a few activities here and there with the girls, but not even close to how many I would have liked. But I feel now that Christian is becoming a more independent little toddler that I can start doing more activities with the girls. & this makes me happy inside!!! I am going to try to plan fun little activities for him to be doing with us. I still won’t be able to do as many as I would originally have liked, but a few crafts & treats a week is going to make my life & hopefully the girls 10x better! I’ll keep you posted on all the fun stuff!

3. I want to put some effort in to how I look on a daily basis. I never wanted to be that girl who never bothered to put on decent clothes & makeup, but sadly, that is what I am becoming. Working with a toddler is not a clean job, so I obviously don’t want to wear my best clothes, but I am going to put a little more effort forth & limit sweats to a few times a week. As with makeup, a little mascara never hurt anyone right??

4. Start working out in the mornings. Of all my goals this one is the one that is probably the least likely to happen, but maybe since I made it public…. I really need to start getting in shape for our Bahamas’ trip that is coming up very quickly! Plus losing those couple of pounds I’ve put on since I’ve moved here would be nice. Is the freshman 15 applicable here?

5. Keep in touch with siblings more. Like I’ve mentioned before, I talk to my parents every night. But with my siblings, that is so not the case. I play scrabble on my phone with Mir & text them all when I get a chance, but I feel like that is not enough. I really want to call them all at least 1x a week.

6. Start going to church more often. Let’s be honest, when Sunday rolls around, getting up @ 7:30 is not at the top of the list of things I want to do. But sleeping is. But I really want to change that.

7. Make friends. I don’t want to go back to Utah with the Waller's being my only friends here. I was looking at this other girls blog who is a nanny & how many friends she had made & all the things she had done with them. I want that.

8. Take lessons of something. I am on a bettering myself kick & I want to learn something new. I’ll let you know when I know what it is.

9. Read my scriptures nightly. Even when I was taking seminary, I was never good at this. But when I did have a while when I was, I felt so much better about life & had a better outlook. I want that again. 10 minutes can’t be that hard right?

10. Have my future planned. By the time I leave here I want to have figured out what I want out of life, where I am going to school & what I am going to do for a career planned out. Luckily, I already have a pretty good idea of this.

11. Save $10,000. I have money that automatically goes out of my account every paycheck, so if all goes as planned, this goal should be easy. Not taking that money out of savings is the hard part.

Well, that's it. My first offical Blog-a-thon. Good times, right?

P.S~ I found pictures on my phone that I wanted to add to my "Home & Jessica's wedding" post so if you already read it, you might wanna go back & check those out :)

What did the Waller's buy now?!?

So quick funny story: When I first told my brother, Tyler that I was going to nanny in North Carolina, he told me that he had a buddy that lived in NC who told him they have mini horses that live in their houses. So naturally, one of the first things I asked when I got here was if they had mini horses that lived in their houses. Elizabeth’s answer was “maybe in the deep backwoods” but defiantly not in main stream NC. But she took me to a place down the street that had some mini horses (Outside of course) & I got to see them! Cutest things ever!

Fast forward to today & guess what they just bought?? You guess it! Mini horses!!! They are going to board them where the girls take riding lessons, but they can go see them whenever. We just went by to see them tonight. Aren’t they cute?

10 Things I Miss Most About Home

Obviously, there is a lot I miss about home, but I tried to narrow it down to 10. I realized that it depends on the day as to what I miss most.

Here is what I miss most today.

1. My family. Vague, I know. But I truly miss each one of them deeply. This is by far the hardest part of being gone. I feel it every.single.day


2. Family Events. Missing Aydri’s birthday party this weekend has been hard on me. I usually am on the front lines planning her party. Not this year, but next year, watch out!! Briar’s first birthday is also coming up; I’m working on preparing myself for missing that one.

3. Fresh fruits & veggie’s from our garden. I realize this is kinda a silly thing to miss, but the garden is one of my favorite parts about summer @ home. I love being able to go out and pick a fresh cucumber or tomato, grab some salt and eat it up. I doesn’t help that mom & dad brag about it anytime they eat anything from it :}

4. Regularity with family. I miss just doing the normal everyday things with them. When I go home for a week, there are always big things going on, but I really just miss the simple everyday activities with them.

5. My Car. I am very blessed to drive the hummer while I’m living here. But I miss my little red mustang. I guess just because I know she’s all mine & she was my first car. I am a little worried I am going to be claustrophobic going from hummer to mustang though :/

6. Cooking. I was hoping I would be able to cook more out here, but because of reasons like time, & picky eaters, I am limited. I miss just being able to cook whatever I wanted for my parents for dinner and they would eat it & {mostly} love it.

7. I kinda miss those petty arguments I would get in with my family every once in a while. This is probably the weirdest thing I have ever posted, but it’s true. Not saying we fought a lot, we really didn't but I guess just the fact that we could. I love the Waller’s but were not close enough that we can get into an argument & be ok the next day. Come to think of it I don’t know what I would do if I ever got into a fight with them :) So yeah, in a weird way, I do miss having arguments with my family. Does that make any sense? I am just weird.

8. Sunday’s @ Grandmas. I guess it’s just cuz today is Sunday, but I have really been missing just riding over to grandma’s on Sunday night to hang out & play rummy with the whole gang.

9. Having someone my age to do things with. I have really been wanting to go to a haunted house or something else Halloween-y, but that’s not really something you do by yourself. My schedule doesn’t allow for a lot of social time & on Wednesday’s I usually am running errands n’ such, not really doing stuff to meet new people. & I haven’t been going to singles ward a whole lot, but when I did, I still didn’t make many friends. So I tried the local family ward around here this week & I think I am going to like it better & maybe{maybe} meet some new friends there. In the meantime, if anyone wants to fly out here to go to a haunted house, that would be great. :D

10. Hugs. I am a huggy person. I just love them! So that is one of my favorite things to do when I get home. I especially miss my dad’s big bear hugs, Lane’s wrap around hugs & Aydri’s little sweet hugs. I miss just being able to hug whenever I wanted. I can get some out of Hannah, Kenz or Londyn every once in a while, but it just doesn’t fill the need. So who ever fly’s out to go to the haunted house with me, better be a hugger to :]

Confessions

This post is kind of a downer…

It’s all my homesick confessions. But I’m doing it anyway, cuz it’s what I had planned.

In the words of Usher… These are my confessions.

1. I still check the Utah news almost everynight.
2. On the same note, I am always comparing the weather from NC to UT on my iPhone.
3.I hate not being able to say “See ya later” when I talk to my family. I catch myself saying that every time and I have to change it to “Talk to you later” :(
4. I have really only had 2 “Big” cries since I’ve been here.
5. Shopping is my therapy.
6. It makes my day when I get sent a picture of my nieces :) I just got this one today:


Cute. Cute. Cute.


That’s all I got for tonight. I just realized this post is kinda lame. Oh well. The picture of Briar makes the whole thing :]

All about the Waller's

Well I knew I wanted to do this post, but I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to do it. It could really go a lot of directions, but it’s late so I don’t want it hard or too long. So my idea is to list a bunch of random facts about them. If I would have given myself more time I could have thought of more, but on short notice this is what I can throw out…

1. I don’t think I’ve ever posted about this, but they own an alarm company!! GO ISI!!!



2. It is not uncommon to run the dishwasher more than once a day.

3. It is also not uncommon for the kids to be up at 11 pm. Most of them can run on no sleep!

4. The average weekly grocery bill: $500

5. We have a full fridge outside dedicated to drinks. Need proof?


6. We go through at least 1 roll of paper towels a day.

7. Hannah Loves to leave me notes on my white board. Usually it is the MOST random stuff… Example:

It’s true she does love corn dogs, she eats like 4 at a time! :) And she wrote glue after she came into my room and glued her hands together. Gotta love Hannah!

8. We have a maid service that cleans the house. Not just once, but 3x a week! & I still feel like I’m cleaning up all the time! Guess that’s what you get with four fun kids!

9. They have 3 vehicles: 2 Hummer’s and an Escalade.

10. This might sound cheezy, but they are the greatest! They have totally welcomed me into their lives with love & support, I couldn’t ask for a better “adoptive” family!!

A Day {off} in the Life

Well I did a day in the life post, so for those of you left wondering what I do on my day off… Here ya go!

To me, my day off starts as soon as I get off on Tuesday night & although usually never planned, I always stay up SUPER late (3 am this time) I really need to stop doing that. I just got doing a bunch of stuff & then looked at my clock and crap! It was 3 am. Anyway, that will explain why I slept in the next morning..

11:15- Wake up

11:20-12:30 Eat breakfast, Shower, Start a load of my laundry & get ready for the day

12:30-2:00 Driving. It usually doesn’t take me this long to get to where I was going (next entry) but I wasn’t paying attention & drove right past the interstate entrance ramp that I usually take. My GPS didn’t say to make a U-turn so I figured it would still get me where I needed to go, just in a different route. So I follow it & nothing looks familiar. I end up on these tiny that Hummer’s are NOT meant to go on. It’s telling me to turn left in 500 feet. When in 500 feet is a dead end. In the midst of being lost I found a post office, I needed to go there anyway, so I decided to take a break & run in and mail off a few things. By the time I got out, the GPS had repositioned itself & FINALLY got me to the right place.

2:00- 5:00- Volunteer @ Habitat for Humanity. I decided that I was spending way too much money on my days off. I wanted to get out of the house and do something, but that always involved spending money that I needed to be saving. So I decided that volunteering was the perfect solution to my problem. I emailed a few places, but Habitat just seemed like the best choice. I just do random stuff around the office. This time I went, I called people to notify them if they had one a raffle prize from a fundraising event, then I researched places to get stadium cups for a future fundraising event. The bulk of my time I spent working on a bulletin board, I never knew those things took so long. So far I really like volunteering there, the people are super nice and I feel like I am making a difference in the community, and saving some money in the process.

5:00- 5:30 Driving towards home. No getting lost this time.

5:30- 6:30- Target. I can’t think of a week since I’ve been here that I haven’t gone to Target. I guess its cuz I would usually just run to the store whenever, but since I can’t do that here, I build my list up all week and make 1 trip. I love Target!

6:30-7:00 Dinner with self at Panera bread. Yup you read that right. I am not afraid to eat dinner in a restaurant by myself. It’s actually quite relaxing, just me, my tomato mozzarella Panini, mango smoothie and a book. Nerdy.

7:15 I finally get home unload my stuff & eat the piece of cake I bought at target. It wasn’t the best so I shared with Hannah. hehe

7:30 Jayson gets home from his Detroit trip seeing the Lions and Tigers play. He brought a ton of souvenirs as always. He got me a cute Tigers shirt. Thanks Jayson!

8:00-9:00 Folding/ Putting away my laundry & talking to Krista, but mostly talking to Krista. Have I ever mentioned how I am not a good multi-tasker when it comes to talking on the phone? Well now you know.

9:00 Bath & talking to mom & dad. The normal.

9:30 Remaking bed and finishing putting away laundry- Putting away target stuff

10:00-11:15 Blogging. I feel weird putting this as I am blogging.

11:15- 11:45 Do some more research for Habitat for Humanity events.

11:45-12:30 Computer time: Blog post, email & pinterest

12:45 Sleepy time {the BEST}

Sometimes my days off are more eventful, sometimes I just hang out at home & sometimes they consist of sleeping most of the day. (Those are my favorites:) But for the majority of the time it’s something like listed above. There you have it.

I'm coming out...

....As a vegetarian!! This week has not only been my 6 months anniversary as a nanny, but has also been my 1 year anniversary as a vegetarian! So I thought I would make my official statement :] It started out as something I thought I would just try for a while and turned into being one of the best decisions of my entire life! I have always loved animals, but never truly realized how many are used each year for human taste buds (10 Billion- not including fish!!!) & how horrible they are treated. Pau McCartney once said “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.” I did some research and looked behind the “glass wall” and did not like what I seen, so I decided to do something about it. When I first stopped eating meat, I thought I was going to miss it, little did I know that a year down the road I would feel that people who eat meat are missing out on how great it feels not to eat it! I feel so much healthier & happier knowing that an animal does not need to be killed to give me a delicious meal. Well, I did not post this as a soapbox for why everyone should be a vegetarian, so I won’t babble to long :) But I would love to offer support for anyone wanting to make this wonderful life changing decision :D