#MMM A Very Manic Weekend

I'm joining in on a blog hop with The Gnome's Mom to share a little bit about the life I lead here. The Gnome's Mom is one of my favorite blogs to read and follow on a regular basis as well. If you're a blogger and would like to link up, feel free! And add us on Twitter with the hashtag #MMM

Today, I think the weekend is catching up with me. I'm fighting a migraine and just trying to find the motivation to get something done. As of Thursday evening, all my laundry was washed but not folded or put away. Wednesday morning we were called that Hubby's grandma had passed away. She was 92 and had been saying for about 2 weeks that she wanted to "go home" and "see her husband" because she was "tired." Her husband had been dead for 34 years. So, it was not completely unexpected. However, the speed at which everything else happened was rather quick. We had to get everything ready, packed, and be at her viewing on Friday evening. Of course, I was in charge of all of that. Now, I have a huge pile of unfolded, but clean, laundry on my loveseat to sort through.

The funeral was Saturday and we ended up staying until later in the evening visiting with family. It is really weird to think that Hubby and I have been married 7 years and I was just meeting some of these people for the first time! After all that was over, we drove the 2.5 hours home. Fuss slept the whole way. Even though I ended up sleeping with her at the hotel, she didn't sleep well and was exhausted.

Sunday, Fuss and I spent the day with my MIL, SIL, her husband, and their 3 kids. We even went to the pool! Fuss had a blast! She actually cried when we left asking for her Swimmy back. MIL and I are going to get pool passes for this summer since Fuss had such a good time and I will probably take her at least twice a week when I can. As soon as Hubby gets his dad's boat up and running again, we'll be headed to the lake! I can't wait!!

We also have a tomato! It is still green and still rather small, but I can't wait to see it turn red and eat it! MMMMMMMMM! Our basement is finally 98% complete. Hubby is putting up the ceiling tiles right now. After that it's only cleanup and painting. Fingers crossed nothing else comes up! lol

Wordless Wednesday

Helping Mama wash dishes

#MMM Results are In

I'm joining in on a blog hop with The Gnome's Mom to share a little bit about the life I lead here. The Gnome's Mom is one of my favorite blogs to read and follow on a regular basis as well. If you're a blogger and would like to link up, feel free! And add us on Twitter with the hashtag #MMM

I received my test results today. I am officially a graduate! I passed my  test with a 97% on objective/medical knowledge and an 86% on the actual transcriptions! I plan to retake the final and try to increase my score, but I am SO excited! Fuss and I even celebrated with ice cream today. :)

In other news, I have planted my herbs and 2 tomato plants and hope that everything comes up. I don't seem to have quite the green thumb that I used to have. Fuss and I have been relaxing and enjoying the warm weather. She even helped me plant some seeds and trim the hedges.

Yesterday, we went to PA to visit another friend and her 2-year-old for her birthday party. Fuss had so much fun and neither of the girls wanted to leave! I ended up home around 10:30 last night because we stayed way later than planned. Oh well, it was a good time. We hope to go back up soon. Maybe a trip to the zoo or Carnegie Science Center sometime soon.

It's been pretty quiet around our house lately. I figure that will change soon enough! LOL. Don't forget to check out the other blogs in the hop and share some love! (P.S. Fuss has recently started calling me "Fussy Mommy". lol)

The Diva Cup - #Review and #Giveaway

This post WILL include information regarding menstrual cycles and other less often talked about subjects. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, please note that you were warned!

TMI ahead!

 

What is a "Diva Cup"? you may be asking yourself. Here are the specifications direct from http://www.divacup.com/ :   

"The DivaCup is a non-absorbent menstrual cup that simply collects menstrual flow. It is inserted in the vagina and sits at the lower base of the vaginal canal. It is worn internally, yet because it is soft and smooth, it cannot be felt nor will it leak when inserted properly.
The DivaCup is the most clean and convenient method of feminine hygiene protection. No need to touch the flow. It is worn low in the vagina, not near the cervix, so it is easy to remove. No mess!
The DivaCup ends hassles with unreliable disposables in endless absorbencies, shapes and styles. It is perfect for all activities – giving women true freedom without the worry, guessing and unreliability that disposable feminine hygiene products pose.
The DivaCup can be worn for up to 12 hours before emptying, washing and reinserting for use for another 12 hours. It can be used for light or moderate flows and is emptied more often to accommodate heavy flows.  Perfect for overnight use.
The DivaCup’s expert, proprietary, patent-pending features make it comfortable and assures ease of use and reliability. Perfect for traveling, running, biking, hiking, dancing, camping, swimming, diving, scuba, yoga, extreme sports and more..."


Now, that you have an idea of what a menstrual cup is and what it does, I'll tell you a little more about the Diva Cup. First, it is made of medical-grade silicone. You're probably wondering why you should care about that. Well, I know if I am putting something in my body, I want it to be safe! The Diva Cup is a solid piece of vulcanized silicone so there are no crevices for nasties to creep into. It does have ventilation holes at the very top to make removal easier, but those are easily cleaned (more on that later). Silicone is also safe for people who have latex allergies. The cup comes in 2 sizes to accommodate women who have never had children or are under 30 as well as postpartum and over 30 women.

Second, is it sanitary? Yes! The Diva Wash is extremely gentle and works well to clean the Diva Cup. There is no mess to deal with after your period is over since everything just gets flushed down the toilet. At the end of the cycle, you also boil (yes, actually boil) the Diva Cup to sanitize it and place it in its custom bag for safe keeping! And since that's all you need, there is lots of extra cabinet space that becomes available in your bathroom!

For me, personally, I have the Size 2 Diva Cup since I have a child. The first time I used a cup was a MESS! I couldn't quite get the fold right; I tried different positions to get it to go in correctly. I eventually got it in. I still wore a liner and had a little leakage. *Note: My first cup was NOT the Diva Cup and also was the wrong size for me.* Then, well, let's just say it got "stuck." I couldn't reach and my hands were so slick that I couldn't get a hold of it! I was flipping out! Now what do I do? Bearing down didn't work. Taking a break didn't work. Finally, Hubby had to come to the rescue...yes, my husband is officially the most awesome man in the world. After that incident I was nearly done trying with cups, but decided I'd try out the Diva Cup. I'm SO glad I did!

Off the bat, the Diva was much easier to insert. Of course, that may have been due to practicing with the other one. It took about 3 cycles to really get the hang of inserting the cup and knowing when to take it out to empty it. Back to the previous train of thought: When inserting, you simply fold it up and slide it in. Once inside, it sort of "pops" open and you push it a little further up to seat it and give a little twist. (On the rare occasion I don't get it seated correctly right away, a quick squat usually fixes it without having to take it out and reinsert.) That's it. You're done. For up to 12 hours. Let me repeat that. UP TO 12 HOURS. You can't do that with a tampon! My system is so sensitive to tampons that I have to change them every 4 hours or risk a yeast infection. That means I also have to wear pads to bed. You know the ones I'm talking about. They could double as a disposable diaper in a pinch! Very uncomfortable. With the Diva Cup, I simply need to make sure I empty it and clean it thoroughly before putting it in before bed. It even handles that morning "gush" that I'm sure you're all familiar with.

I have been using my Diva Cup for about 6 months now and I LOVE it! I plan to only use a cup from now on! My only problem was actually my own fault. I had irritation and itching from use after my period would end and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized it was the antibacterial hand soap I was using. I learned the hard way why there is a statement not to wash your cup in antibacterial soap...and I had to replace my cup because of it. So, when I replaced it, I got the Diva Wash as well and have used it exclusively for my cup as well as to wash my hands before/after insertion. Yes, my system is that sensitive. However, I have had NO yeast infections or irritation due to the Diva Cup itself. NONE! I also don't even have to wear liners anymore because it doesn't leak. My favorite part is that I can sleep comfortably with it in as well as I can insert it just before my period starts so I never have to worry about ruining another pair of underwear again! This is probably the best investment I have made in a long time! Not only are my periods more comfortable, but they are noticeably less painful and a little shorter.

 If you'd like more information on the Diva Cup, feel free to check them out on Facebook and Twitter and check out http://www.divacup.com/ for Frequently Asked Questions. For a list of retailers, please head over to Where to Buy and click on one of the links! You can also visit their Store Finder to find a store near you that carries the DivaCup. Now, on to the fun part: DivaCup has generously offered to give away a DivaCup in winner's choice of size to one of my lucky readers! I am very excited to share this with you! All you need to do is fill out the Rafflecopter form below. This giveaway is open to US and CANADA!

**I was not compensated in any way for this review. All thoughts are my own and true to my own experience with the DivaCup. Your mileage may vary. **

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wordless Wednesday

#MMM Finally!

I'm joining in on a blog hop with The Gnome's Mom to share a little bit about the life I lead here. The Gnome's Mom is one of my favorite blogs to read and follow on a regular basis as well. If you're a blogger and would like to link up, feel free! And add us on Twitter with the hashtag #MMM

I won't know my scores for a couple weeks, however, I have submitted my transcription final. I am SO excited (and relieved) to have finally finished this course! I started it when Fuss was 5 months old. She is now 25 months. That means it took me 20 months to finish a course that should be able to be completed in 9 months. When I started, the advisor I had at the time told me that she knew of one person who finished in 6 months! A little too fast for my taste, but whatever floats your boat! Admittedly, I had some road blocks along the way. Fuss would cut a tooth or get sick; Hubby needed help immediately on a home project to make it safe for Fuss; computer glitches and crashes happened. Now, that it's done, I'm not sure where I'm going next. My hope is to be able to work from home and still take care of Fuss with the level of care and attention she needs (and expects). If I can't find a WAH job, I guess we'll take whatever steps are necessary to make it work, like we always do.

I, also, now have some tomato plants to put into "pots." We're actually using 5-gallon buckets for the moment. I can almost taste those nice, fresh, juicy tomatoes just thinking about it! In addition to that, I have the start of an herb garden that my MIL gave me for Mother's Day last year. It has rosemary and parsley still alive from last year, but I plan on adding some basil and a couple others soon. My MIL also just gave me a pot of oregano for Mother's Day! Since I have Beast, I have to be careful where I keep anything...he'll either eat it or pee on it. On the other hand, we have deer. Lots of 'em. And they eat EVERYTHING!! Apparently, they don't eat herbs, so I may be able to work with that. They will eat tomatoes. That means Hubby and I have to figure out a way to keep them at bay.

Naturally, Mother's Day was yesterday. We didn't do anything special. I made spaghetti for "dinner" and took a card and flower up to my MIL. Hubby got me a beautiful card, but he had to work so we didn't get to celebrate. I did get snuggles most of the day from Fuss though and that was really nice! I will be getting my mom her present sometime today since I didn't get to her yesterday.

That's it in a nutshell! 

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mommies out there, remember you are MOM ENOUGH to care for your family! You are loved even if underappreciated. ;-) Keep doing what you do!

Tomorrow is the Big Day

I officially take my final tomorrow. It consists of 150 written questions and 8 transcriptions. I'm definitely nervous, but very confident in my ability to perform well. I will be VERY busy over the next 48 hours with the testing process. Then, the hard (and worst part) begins...waiting to receive my grade! LOL.

Wish me luck!

Success!

Fuss is officially potty-trained now! We have been letting her give us cues from the time she was 15 months, when she first showed interest. "Official" potty training began at about 18 months, full-on was by 20 months, and she was doing very well by her 2nd birthday. So, why am I just now claiming success? She's had accidents. Fewer each week, but accidents nonetheless. She started out with a couple a day and lessened over time to a few a week, especially at night, until there were almost none.

As of today, we have had over a week with only 1 day with accidents (and that was 2 accidents). Of course, every time I have tried to write this, Fuss has decided to have an accident day. lol. She hasn't had an overnight accident in about a week and a half!  24 months and Fuss has been out of diapers for almost 5 months! *Happy Dance*

#MMM It's That Time Again

I'm joining in on a blog hop with The Gnome's Mom to share a little bit about the life I lead here. The Gnome's Mom is one of my favorite blogs to read and follow on a regular basis as well. If you're a blogger and would like to link up, feel free! And add us on Twitter with the hashtag #MMM

Time for our weekly update on the family and our life. As you know, Hubby and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on Saturday. Well, actually, we celebrated on Friday since he had to work Saturday evening. We went out to dinner at a local Italian restaurant and even had ice cream afterwards. Fuss was with my MIL and FIL, whom she loves being with, but she was ready for Mommy and Daddy to be home to take her and go to bed. One thing about her: She's only been away from us once in her 2 years. The last time she was with someone for an evening at her bedtime, she screamed for an hour and then crashed until we picked her up. She was mad at my mom for MONTHS afterward! LOL. But, I digress. We picked up Fuss and let her eat ice cream with us before settling her in for bed. It was really a great evening.

Our ceiling tiles came in at Lowe's, so we're preparing to get those up this week. I know I am looking forward to completing this project...it's been 3 years in the making. Although, we're not completely finished, it will be useable once the tiles are in and we have a "new" TV room.

I also had a computer crash last week. My uncle got it running well enough to extract the information from it. Well, we resurrected Hubby's old Dell....and it died. Wouldn't even bring up a Windows screen! (Well, sh*t!) Now what? We still had my laptop and a laptop MIL had given to Hubby, so that wasn't a big deal. Things were still functional. We still wanted to have a desktop though. Since we'd bought a new monitor less than a year ago, we decided to buy one without a monitor. That turned out to be harder to find than expected. So, instead, we opted to buy a "kit" computer. It had a tower, hard drives, USB ports, video card, and motherboard just like any store bought computer. The only difference? It wasn't assembled. We had rebuilt one of our desktops in the past, so it wasn't too big of a step. Plug and play, pretty much. So, that is now up and running. We're still loading programs as we come across ones we use frequently but forgot about. We slaved in the drives from the old computers and managed to extract all of our important information - photos, videos, documents, even music - with only a few lost songs. Not too bad!

I am VERY thankful we were able to extract my shorthand wordlist for my transcription school. That was, literally, MONTHS of work to put together and I nearly cried when I thought I couldn't rescue it. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to get the program to run well on 2 separate computers from a flash drive. If I can't, I'll just have to use the flash as a backup.

I'VE FINISHED MY MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION SCHOOLING! 100%, BABY!!!! Now, I have to schedule my final and get graded. :D ,br />

#Review and #Giveaway for Llama's Bowtique

 

 When I found out I was having a little girl, I knew I would eventually be thrust into the world of bows and baubles. Of course, that's not a bad thing. I loved being girly and having lots of bows and jewelry as a little girl myself! Fuss had quite a bit of hair when she was born but it was all very fine and wouldn't hold anything in it. So, we ended up with lots of head bands like this one. (P.S. Don't you love those cheeks?)




By Thanksgiving this year (when she was 19 months old), Fuss's hair had grown out quite a bit and she was finally able to wear little bows in it.

She still only had what my dad liked to call "sprinklers" because her bottom hair wouldn't reach anywhere near to being put in the ties. These small/medium bows were perfect for that age! She still wears her little corkers but not as often as she likes to pick out each bow.

The quality of these bows (and bow holders) is excellent! I have gotten bows from other vendors as well as been given bows as gifts only to have them fall apart after one use because of too little glue holding them on the clip. I haven't had that problem with bows from Llama's. As a matter of fact, I accidentally WASHED one of the Llama's bows after sticking it in a coat pocket for "safe" keeping. (Can't you tell that worked so well?) I was surprised when I took it out of the washer and it was still completely intact AND still looked great! I compared it to the identical bow that had not been run through a wash/dry cycle. As you can see, the only difference is that the corker on the left has bunched a little around itself. All I had to do was unwrap the curls, and the washed bow (on the left compared to the original on the right) was good as new.

The new Llama's Bows also have this great no-slip grip added. It helps keep the bows from sliding out of fine baby hair. Fuss has a lot of fine hair so this extra grip is very helpful. Especially since, once it starts sliding out, she cries, "Oh no! Bow back!" LOL. This way I don't have too much to worry about.

To the right, is an example of one of the bow holders that Nikki sells. These are all but one of our actual Llama's Bows. The Dora bow was a custom order for Fuss's birthday party and matched her outfit perfectly!  Nikki also has headbands and "piggy toes" barefoot sandals for sale in her shop. She is great when ordering custom items as well.

For the giveaway, simply enter below. This giveaway will be open from 12 a.m. May 6 through 12 a.m. on May 20.

7 Years and Counting

Today marks the day Hubby and I got married. :) Happy anniversary to us!

We have been a couple for almost 10 (!) years as well. While not everything has gone as planned or expected, we have survived and grown stronger each day as a result. We now have our beautiful Fuss to keep us on our toes as well! I know that I look forward to the rest of the adventure that our life brings to us.

From here to eternity...living our dreams together. 

Wordless Wednesday (Belated)

Swinging