Author Archives: Amanda

I’m mapping out my day here, people

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I am feeling slightly overwhelmed today. I could blame it on the new puppy, but it has nothing to do with her. In fact, she’s acting like a newborn baby and sleeping…. a lot. Thank you, Sophie, thank you!

I have a huge list of things that I need to accomplish, and I feel like I have no idea where in the world to begin.

Household:

  1. Mop floors – all of them
  2. Clean master bath
  3. Clean downstairs bath
  4. Have Roomba vacuum for me…… gotta love that Roomba!
  5. Do 4 loads of laundry
  6. Clean up my room so I can actually work in peace…I hate it when I let my room collect clutter and toys… not okay!

Wildtree:

  1. I need to schedule my 2 tasting launch parties
  2. Need to call on my SOI’s
  3. MUST call in on Team meeting call today….. excited!

For Work:

  1. Get Norm’s bills paid and in the mail
  2. Go through and do collections
  3. Spend 30 minutes working on Tenant files
  4. Spend 30 minutes working on taxes
  5. Spend 30 minutes working on insurances

CRAP – I have a really busy day ahead of me. Really busy. Guess I better turn off the computer, and start dinner. I’m making something absolutel delicious, which you lucky people will be getting the recipe in my next post.

Our Family’s New Addition…. and I need advice :)

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Here’s Sophie!! She’s such a sweet addition 🙂

What a Sunday. It started for me at 5am waking up to Sophie pooping in her crate…. me not knowing, because it’s dark and letting her walk out of the crate instead of carrying her. It was gross, and made me want to cry, but we dealt with it.

She’s honestly done pretty well today on going to the bathroom outside…. I’m pretty proud! I must say though that dogs have HORRIFIC GAS! EWWWWWWWW!!!!!!! The kids have been having an absolute ball with her. They all run around the house chasing each other and having fun. Ella is hilarious and Jayden is so happy.

So, I’m funny in a way that I don’t like change. I hate it actually, and when you throw something new in the mix I feel kinda down. I’m feeling that way today and I’m not sure if it’s Sophie or if it’s a decision that I think we’re going to make. It actually could be a mixture of the 2.

A while ago I talked about an opportunity that my Grandma had offered us, which you can read about HERE. Basically I just never talked about it with her and made up my mind that it’s not doable. There’s no way in hell that I’m going to live in a *&it hole like Ely for 2 years. Just not happening. Well, she called today saying that she really needs our help, and I know this. I am the manager of this mobile home park there that is her’s, and I know that there are many things that need to get done. Things that I can’t make sure are getting done from Oregon. So, her new proposal is that we come for 6 months. This is a lot better than 2 years and is actually doable. If we leave when Jayden gets out of school then 3 months of that will be summer, in which we can take lots of little vacations with him. I won’t need to actually be in Ely for the entire 6 months, we can do 3 weeks there, 1 week on the road…. or something like that. The next 3 months after his summer break I’ll home school him until we return to Talent.

So, what’s my husband to do about work when this is all over? What are we going to do about insurance since I do have a Cardiac baby? This is why 6 months just might be okay. Gino can take a leave of absence from Home Depot for up to 6 months (I believe this is the max he’s going to check into this). At the end of our journey he will be guaranteed his job back at Home Depot, with no change in position or pay. Nice huh? For insurance we just pay Cobra and we will all remained medically insured.

The Perks?

  1. We get a 6 month vacation from life with guaranteed jobs after we’re done.
  2. Get to live for free
  3. All money I get paid just gets saved up
  4. We get to travel
  5. I get to spend time with my Great-grandma before she passes away
  6. Did I mention we get to travel????
  7. We will get to help my Grandma out in ensuring that the park is running smoothly and looking it’s best.
  8. We’d get to take the kids to the Salt Lake Temple…. Gino definitley needs to see that!
  9. All the above isn’t too bad right?

The Downfalls?

  1. Well, first off I’d be leaving all my friends that I’ve learned to love so much.
  2. I’d be leaving the beauty of Southern Oregon
  3. I would miss out on the first 2 1/2-3 months of my nephew’s life
  4. I’d be in the miserable town of Ely
  5. We’d have to change wards, which is something I really don’t want to do, but I think we’d be okay here. We are a very strong family, we’ve been through it all…. literally, and I know that we can make it through about anything. I know that we can stay strong in the church, and if Gino has issues with it I’ll just stay strong and set the best example I can.
  6. Jayden would miss out on the first month of school…. luckily here they don’t start school until September, so if we came back in October I’d only be homeschooling him for a month.

I think we might do it. We’ve been planning on moving out of this place anyways, since we’re growing out of it. So, in June we can leave and come back in October to a new home…. maybe even one we’ll own 🙂

I had amazing feedback on my last post regarding this topic, and I appreciate it all so much, so I’m begging for some here! Looking at the perks and downfalls, would we be dumb not to do this?

UBP 2009!!! Welcome to Garibay Soup

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There’s a blog party going on at 5 mintues for mom. If you’ve never been there, you definitely should check it out!!

My name is Amanda and this blog is mainly a place to document my family’s milestones. A place for me to write about how I’m feeling. A place to share my faith on the Mormon religion. A place for me to write about my many ventures in life. A place to brag and complain about my kids and husband. A place for me to discover peace of mind…. it sometimes exists. I hope you enjoy looking around!!

I started blogging November of 2007, and never expected it to become what it has. I have met AMAZING women, received the best advice from strangers. The support in the blog world rocks!

So, you’re probably reading the above wondering why in the world I linked up to the mompreneur blogs, well…. I have a new venture going on and it’s something I REALLY want to share with moms out there. Especially moms who are trying to feed their families healthy, natural foods with no preservatives, no dyes, no MSG, no high fructose corn syrup, and no trans fats! Especially for moms who on top of the feeding their families healthy foods, are interested in making a little extra every month. So, I’m taking this opportunity for the blog party 2009 to link up and spread the word.

To read up on the word I’m trying to get out there CLICK HERE. I just recently wrote a blog post about it on Wednesday. It contains all the info I want you to know. You know what’s even better? I’m hosting a sweet giveaway.

AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!!!
Go to www.amanda.mywildtree.com and leave a comment here telling me what you think about Wildtree, and what you’re favorite item is and you’ll be eligable to win a 12.7 ounce bottle of your choice of GRAPESEED OIL!!! Good luck choosing, because they’re all delicious!!! To double your chances of winning, post about my giveaway on your blog and leave a 2ND COMMENT letting me know you’ve done so and you’ll be entered in twice for the giveaway.

I will choose a random winner on Friday, the 27th @ 9:00pm PST. Make sure you get your entry or entries in before!!

Parent/Teacher Conference

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It went great! I’m really proud of Jayden and how far he’s come. When we first moved to Oregon he couldn’t recognize all of his ABC’s. I started feeling EXTREMELY guilty, because in California I had worked all day and didn’t get much time to work with him.

Seeing how me being home with him and of course him being in school has helped him makes me feel REALLY good.

There are a few things during testing that Jayden didn’t too well on, but she knows that he understands what he was supposed to be doing and that he just kinda “panics” during testing. So, she said the numbers don’t show what Jayden is capable of. I really love his teacher!

One thing that he got an Excellent in is respect. He definitely is one respectful, enjoyable little boy.

On another note…. the infamous Alexcis, who he was in love with, wanted to come over. So, she had her mom call me and on Tuesday she came over for a playdate. She wanted to stay the night LOL. Jayden now denies ever loving her and claims their just friends. 🙂

On Ella…. and our new addition

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Ella turned 19 months yesterday. It’s shocking to me, and I really can’t fathom the idea that my baby now speaks to me in sentences. She’s so smart and everyday she shocks me with something new. Her new phrases that come to mind right now are:

Help me
Let me see
To go to go… meaning let’s go
Where’s JJ – her brother
Pretty… she likes to tell me that she’s pretty
What’s that?
Where’d it go?
Cartoons?
My shoes
MOM! NEED HELP!

There’s more, but I can’t think of them. I need to upload an updated pic of both of these kids of mine, which I will soon.

Ella’s just becoming more and more independent. She doesn’t like to be fed, but has to do it on her own. If Jayden has cereal, she has to have cereal. This morning she was at the table with her cereal and was yelling for Jayden to come eat his nummies…. she said, “JAY!!! NUMMIES!!!”

She’s such a joy to be around. I love her personality, even though at times it drives me CRAZY!!

On a different note…..we’ll be having an addition to our family, which I will give details on next week 🙂 Got ya thinking didn’t I?

My Sunday Message on Faith

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Normally on Sundays I like to come on and write something inspirational that touched me at church. Unfortunately, I didn’t get anything out of church today. Ella had a meltdown during nursery and Gino got a migraine so we left early.

However, I thought I might as well share some sortof message that has inspired me. It made me feel better and strengthened my faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We believe that after you die you go to spirit prison if you have not had a chance to hear the gospel, to accept the gospel, or know anything about the gospel. The thought of that sounds horrible, but I’ve learned that it’s a place that the spirits go and they are given a chance to learn about the gospel. They receive a second chance to accept these teachings. I’m not sure if other religions believe this, but when I find little “nuggets” as my bishop calls them in the bible I get really excited. I found a scripture that talks about how Jesus went to preach the gospel to the spirits in prison. You can read that in 1 Peter 3:19

One thing I know is that Heavenly Father is loving. He loves us all and does not want us to suffer. He gives us chance after chance and continually forgives us for the sins that we do unto others. Do we always forgive others for the sins that they do unto us? No. And that is something that we most definitely should learn how to do. Forgiving isn’t easy, but it is necessary if you want to be forgiven for your sins. We get a second chance and others should too!

Putting shoes on first thing in the morning

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It’s Wednesday, so we’re all gathering over at Kristen’s blog to talk about what works for us. These days I don’t feel like things are working very well for me, but I’m trying. I’m trying to get organized, I’m trying to do little by little daily, and I’m starting to see some results.

One thing is that I am a Flylady fan, but I usually don’t do what Flylady tells me to do. So, this month’s habit is get up and get dressed to shoes that lace up. Well, I have busy mornings and sometimes don’t get in the shower til close to noon… still trying to stop this habbit, but I have listened to Flylady and I am putting on my lace up shoes, and strangely…. she’s right. The past week I’ve been making sure that if anything, my shoes are on, and I’m doing things. I’m being more productive that I usually have been, and if the trash needs to be taken out then my shoes are already on – and when I do dishes, I’m not stepping on the splashed water. I’m really liking the whole shoe thing…. try it, let me know if it works for you too.

Peace – It has to start with me

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I had a wonderful day at church today. It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve gone thanks to our trip and the flu. Even before all that, we were going off and on due to illnesses and another trip to Sacramento, and I’m so relieved that I have nothing planned and will be attending as far as I know every Sunday.

Ella went to nursery. She still isn’t doing very well in there, but she was in there for most of the time. I got a good 20 minutes of sitting in Relief Society and I am so thankful for the 20 minutes that I did get in there. I have no idea what the lesson was on, but I got a message that touched me. It’s a song, I believe, and it goes like this…..

Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be
As God is our father
Children all are we.
Let us walk with each other
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
With peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.

I’m not at peace. I have anxiety, at times I feel my temper is short, and this is something I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to work on. Having peace in my life, and having it start with me. This is a very difficult thing for me, because I don’t think I’m in any way a peaceful person, but I want to be.

I want to be that person that people look at and say… wow, what makes her so peaceful and graceful. It can’t happen over night, but I definitely want to work on having peace within myself.

Here is how I think I can accomplish having peace:

Get my home in perfect order. Perfect is a very strong word, but I need it to be darn close to it. I worked a lot on this today and am very pleased with what I accomplished. I have a goal of having the entire house in perfect order by Friday… excluding the garage. This is a very easy goal to accomplish… it might not be PERFECT, but it will be in order and I need that.

Reading my scriptures every single day. I am TERRIBLE at this. I want to start my day out by reading a message through scripture reading and I want to end my day by reading a message through scripture reading.

I need to get routines and schedules going in my home. Sometimes it’s chaotic and stressful, and it shouldn’t be. We need set bedtimes, set homework times, set bath times… I think it would bring peace in our home.

For me, I’m going to start doing Yoga once a week and make it a point to set aside time every evening to take a relaxing bath with a good book. Ever mom needs time away.

So, this all starts with me.

If you have ideas of things that could bring peace within yourself, please let me know.

Pictures

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We had the icky stomach flu hit our home again. It had the domino effect… hit us all. Started Sunday @ 1am w/Ella, Monday with me, Tuesday with Jayden & Tuesday into Wednesday with Gino.

I’m just happy it’s all over with, we’re all feeling better and we can get on with life.

I thought I’d share some of our family pictures that we took in California. They’re with me and the girls in my family.

My mom, my sister Jess, my Grandma & Me 🙂

My mom & my Grandma

My Favorite Pic of my sister with my nephew Vani

Me, My Aunt Ksee, My Grandma, My Mom & Jess

My & My Sister…. I love her!

Things I Love Thursday – Burt’s Bees Baby Bee

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I LOVE The Burt’s Bees Baby Bee products. With all the icky stuff being added to all of the baby products that can cause reproductive problems (this might be way some women can’t have kids… scary!) I am at east knowing that Ella is not being effected by this. And that she smells super yummy!

If you haven’t tried their line yet, I highly recommend it. A bottle of the Shampoo/Body Wash lasts me a couple of month. I’ve only bought 3 in Ella’s 18 months.

Over at Diaper Diaries there are other things that people love, so if you’re interested head over there and read up on the entries. Plus, she’s giving away something kinda cool today!!