I think i'll keep him

He's a boy after my own heart...

he vacuumed this rug for about 20 minutes until i finally made him quit!

Guess who is sick again! Poor girl is having drainage from every place on her head that drainage can come out of! Her eyes are like a faucet and so is her nose. Her poor ears are hurting her and she has her first ear infections since having tubes...but because of having tubes we knew this only because gunk is draining out of her ears. We just had to call her ent to get some drops. She is like trying to hold down a little lion while putting the drops in. She HATES it and that is an understatement. John holds her down and i get them in, with lot's of screaming in between! She just wanted to be held and rocked last night and i took advantage of her slowing down and cuddling with me!

Have a great weekend!

Focus groups

One way i have made little bits of extra fun money over the years is to get signed up with some research companies. I get calls a lot! They will give you a little survey over the phone and by your answers determine if you qualify for the group of people they are looking for. I every now and then qualify for one. I have participated in numerous focus groups, taste tests, and other studies.

I am not a very outgoing person, especially in a group setting. Get me one on one and i can talk your leg off, but in a group i tend to sit back and take in rather than join in unless it's a group that i feel extremely comfortable with.

Focus groups were hard for me at first. You have to talk. If you don't they will pick you out and ask you specific questions. I learned quickly it is easier to speak up that be put on the spot with the more difficult questions! Non participation just does not fly, they are paying you to participate! The money drove me to keep going to them. An hr or two for $100...who can pass that up?!

I did endless number of diaper studies...keeping bags of stinky diapers, logging info about them and hauling them in to drop off. Again, the money and free diapers, couldn't pass it up. Plus, i didn't have to talk at those!

These are just the studies i can remember doing:

*diaper studies (way too many times to count)
*toilet paper packaging
*hot pockets
*magazine advertisement
*party supplies/paper goods
*chicken sandwiches
*gift wrap
*Christmas ornaments
*drinking and driving
*purses
*taco shells
*toy study (avery had to go along and play with a toy and be observed for this one)
*HGTV
*paper towel print

The hardest one i ever did was the HGTV one. Everyone there was extremely green and were discussing things i didn't even understand. All i did was agree that i watched HGTV, I am not so much a green person. (don't get me wrong, i'm all for recycling) I have no idea why they picked me. It was the longest two hours of my life i think. I completely faked it. I earned every penny of that money. I think there might have been a survey error on the part of the person conducting the survey that time!

It is great money for short periods of time so if you have never tried it you ought too. John has done one and he loved it. He, unlike me loves to talk in groups. If your ok with giving your opinion (i have gotten pretty good at this over time/ i feel comfortable in these settings telling them this particular thing is horrible and i would never buy it for instance) and don't mind people filming you and watching you from behind mirrored glass this jobs for you! :) Once you get in their data base you will start getting calls!

Fashion queen

Why i still pick out my daughter's clothes (when we go out in public) at least most of the time! She can be a free little spirit all she wants at home though! (take a peek at Ethan's flip flops too)

I hope we never get in an accident when transporting kids to and from school as well cause you never can tell what the kids might be wearing!

He got his badge

I was working on Sunday night and in the middle of my shift got a call from John that Ethan had hurt himself and he needed to take him to get stitches. Thankfully, i was able to make a quick getaway and was able to get to the hospital not too long after they got there. I hadn't had to rush because once i got there i realized we would be waiting for awhile...but when you hear your child is hurt, you want to be there to comfort them...right now!

We sat in the er waiting room for over 3 hours. The waiting room was packed with sick kids everywhere and John and i felt like we were catching the flu as we sat there! Hopefully none of us did!! I just wanted to go home and soak in a tub of sanitizing gel!

Finally we got called! They got us back to the suture room but upon further inspection under a huge light and a second opinion from another doctor they said they just did not have enough skin there to suture it.

He had ran right into the door latch on his bedroom door (the part the latch latches into) and had gouged out the skin apparently (they were hoping a little was flapped under but it was gone). So, the doctor told Ethan that "he would have a wicked scar to show the ladies". Ethan just grinned. They cleaned it up and put some steri strips on to help hold it together as much as possible.

Good thing he's a boy. It's just a cool scar he will have to show how tough he is...he got his badge for boyhood...his first scar!

4th grade writing

This is a piece of writing that Avery did for her 4th grade writing state assessment. She had it sitting by my computer when i came home from work the other night. It made me smile. I don't ever want to lose it!

My Mom

I love my mom. My mom is special to me because of her looks, her kindness, and her family. She has layered brown hair, and her eyes are sea blue with a pinch of sparkle, and lots of style. My mom is kind to everybody because she never gives put downs to people. She also loves to make new friends all the time! She is a person who wants things to be fair to all people. My mom is married to my dad named John Seaba, and they have 4 kids named, Trey, Ethan, Raegan, and me Avery. Trey is 12, I am 10, Ethan is 5, and Raegan is 3. My mom is like a cupcake because a cupcake is so sweet, but on the other hand my mom is so sweet to people! Have you ever noticed something you love about your mom?

Project complete

Avery finally has her pink (and brown) room! After John whipping out the painting in one evening, i have spent the last two days trying to get everything back on the walls.

Do you think Avery has enough Webkinz?? Every dime she comes in contact with is usually spent on one of those!

We were frequent flyers at Hobby Lobby and Michaels the past two days. Ethan's response when i said we had to go to Michael's to pick up some more flowers this morning was "oh no, are you kidding me? that store again?" Although they like the store and pick up loose flower petals from the floor and stuff them in my purse the whole time we are there!


Lime green must be on clearance everywhere because everything i bought that was lime green i got super cheap! The letters...let me just tell you about the letters...i wanted to throw a tantrum like a two year old while trying to get them up! They have two wall hangers on the back which makes it a project i don't want to take on anytime in the next 20 years! John was way better at it than me but i didn't feel quite as incompetent watching him struggle with Raegan's name last night!


I'm so happy to have this project complete and the girl's love their room. Raegan says it's beautiful! Avery says the only thing it is missing is a whiteboard so we may have to find a little spot for a small whiteboard so the girl can write! :)

Paint project

John turned into a painting machine last night and got the girl's room completely done. It is amazing in a small home how when you tear apart one room the whole house get's destroyed. Raegan thought it was so cool that her bed was in our room that she built a whole house around it with "stuff"!

We only had three shirts ruined with paint :/ Mommy yelled "don't touch the wall" too many times to count, Avery asked to paint too many times to count, Daddy finally let her take after a wall for a bit.
Here is a little preview of the room. I have slowly been getting all the things back onto the walls today and it's all coming together. i will take some pictures once i'm all done but first i have a trip to make to the craft store to finish up a couple of projects.


I guess i better get back to it...

Project pink and brown

I have been putting off this promised project for too long and for some reason i was suddenly spur of the moment inspired today to go pick out paint. I took Avery with me and the paint lady was awesome, she let Avery do everything behind the counter. Avery loved every second of it! We took one of the girls blankets that we were trying to somewhat match. The lady offered to color match the blanket but i thought it might be too bright.

After putting a sample of the first pink color i bought on the wall i quickly decided it was not what we wanted so ran back to the store and had them color match the blanket. Amazing, i might just start color matching everything in my house to paint! It's going to be bright but i think i'm going to really like it. It's a good thing my husband is dying to paint something cause we are in full fledged project mode now. I am not even being sarcastic about him wanting to paint. He wants to paint the living room, the boys room, the bathroom...again! I told him we had to get the girls room done since i had intended on doing it last spring.
We are doing an accent wall with a 'chocolate truffle". We will see how it all comes together. I am so glad they have these cheap little paint samples or with my indecisiveness i would spend a small fortune in paint! I was pretty confident with the brown so i bought the full gallon right off with that but so glad that i didn't with the first shade of pink!

Hopefully i will be able to post the finished room by this weekend! And, since i haven't posted in kids pictures in a week here is my little Valentines "tornado" that is going to turn into an orange! She LOVES oranges and would eat them all day long. All that vitamin C and she is my only one that has gotten sick twice in the past month...go figure!

Happy Valentines

I will be serving all those Valentine's dates tonight at the restaurant since after being married for almost 16 years it works out better to pick up a shift on this super busy night (translated to good money night) and then go out a week later!

Everyone is well again around here. Raegan had a stomach bug for 24 hrs earlier in the week but thank goodness she didn't seem to share this with anyone else in the family!

The snow is melting away and i'm excited to get outside this week and enjoy some sunshine!!

Happy Valentines Day to my husband (who might read this in about 3 weeks) He is my best friend and does so much to help me out! He always supports me in anything i'm doing and is a super Daddy/Dad (that's for my 12 year old)!

Happy Valentines Day to my 4 special kids! I love each of you very much! (they will read this before Daddy/Dad).

Have a great V-Day, i'm going to go sneak one of my kid's chocolates from their boxes now (thanks Gramma!) :)

10 random facts of the day

1. My house is trashed!

2.Fruit spins are of no comparison to Fruit Loops and will never be purchased again!

3. I turn into a human jungle gym anytime i sit!

4. The treadmill is calling my name and i am wearing imaginary ear muffs so i don't hear it!

5. Our neighbors are being served with a subpoena. They keep stopping John and i to ask us questions about our neighbors.

6. Raegan tried climbing into bed with us last night for the 2,999th time!

7. I am shopping for a trip for John and i for our 16th anniversary in May that we were supposed to take for our 15th last year!

8. I got an awesome deal on a set of hot rollers for Avery and she is loving her curly hair!

9. Max and Ruby...Ruby and Max...right here on Nick!

10. "can i have a snack" is asked approximately 558 times a day in our house!

I said 10 but i had to add an 11th

11. The trash man finally came!! Thank goodness, after two weeks we had a massive amount of trash around here!

Number 6 can't actually be true...she hasn't even been on this earth 1,500 days yet!

Have a great day!

January challenge results

Our January challenge came to a close Monday night! I was oh so happy to see a month come to a close. I was sick of my treadmill! My mom and my sister were some stiff competition! At one time in the month my sister and i each admitted to each other that we were each in the 50's...that was mid- month. There was no more hinting or telling after that between us. We chatted and texted back and forth on the phone on Monday with each other while we were both walking.

I went to work Monday night and when i got home i saw everyone posting that they were done and just waiting on me. I quickly got on the treadmill for some final miles. I had originally planned to go till midnight before stopping but the fact that everyone was waiting and the fact that after a few miles i got hit with low blood sugar that spoonfuls of peanut butter and everything else i tried i just couldn't pull out of it. I decided it wasn't worth passing out on the treadmill, and trust me i was getting to that point...things were going fuzzy! So, i stopped.

I'm glad i did because i could have walked till midnight but i would have had to run almost a full marathon in that time to catch my sister June. My final January miles were 153.5! Junes were 178!! She did her miles all outside since she does not have a treadmill with some yaktraxx that her husband bought her. So if any of you think I am crazy you very well have not met the rest of my family! :)

I'm pretty confident my mom, who had lead all month and who June and i were chasing all month long could have finished strong and won but i believe pulled back and let her girls run the race right past her to the end, cause that's my mom and that's how she rolls!

So, the January race is over and a new month starts and a challenge continues. It is now on to the 2011- 1,000 mile challenge. I have got a good start on my miles for the year. Good thing, since i have taken three days off! 16 miles on Monday and i was ready for a little break, but i need to get back to it! This picture that was used for our facebook group pictures exactly how i felt on Monday night!

School years pictures

I have been wanting to get this little project started for some time now! About a year ago i went through all the kids pictures and found a school picture from each year and put them all together somewhere safe so that i wouldn't lose them. I have NO earthly idea where that safe place is and can't find them anywhere! So today, i decided so that i could stop stressing and wondering if i still had a picture from each year i was going to find them all. They are all in different envelopes in various places in my desk but after an hour i had one for each school year for each of the kids!

The frames that i wanted from Target just happened to be clearancing out and our Target only had one left. If we hadn't just had 14 inches of snow i probably would have gone all over the city to find four...but we do have a whopping amount of snow and i wanted to stay close to home so i settled for the time being for the frames from Walmart even though i don't like them quite as much.
It felt so good to finally have all my little pictures safely in a frame! I can't even hardly believe that i will be needing to start two more of these frames in the next two years!!


I think the kids will enjoy having these to look back at someday because Trey asked me tonight if he could take his with him when he goes to college!! I told him he could have it after college!

Blizzard of 2011

The kids are out of school today and tomorrow, Johnny is home today and they called and canceled work for tomorrow. I was supposed to work at urgent care tonight and got called this morning saying they had already canceled. Malls, restaurants, and businesses all over the city are shutting down! Walmart was still open though! We ventured out this morning to get a few things but mainly just to get out of the house. The roads were nastier than i have seen in a long time! I was really glad we didn't have more than a mile or so to go!

Avery has all her friendship bracelet making supplies laid out for us to get to work, the boys are playing war in the kitchen, raegan's watching a movie, my husband is shoveling the driveway (for the 3rd or 4th time). I'm chilling the Coke for the snow slushies we are having with dinner.

If you are reading this from a warm climate, i would gladly ship you some if i could! :)