No more PJ days

Old webcam picture from when Deegan was probably only 3 months old. I loved being a stay-at-home-mommy and I loved wearing him close to me! I start a new chapter of my life tomorrow morning!

Today is my last day of wearing PJs all day with my little guy and hanging out at home. Tomorrow morning at 8am, I will become a working mom. I am nervous about how I am going to keep everything flowing at my house. I have been running my house one way for the past 15 months and now everything is changing. I haven't updated my blog lately but I wanted to update it today to make sure I have this documented, so I can read about my last day.

There are things that I loved about being a SAHM and things that I didn't like so much. Hopefully I will become a SAHM again when we have another baby, but we will see how things go.

LOVES
- Waking up everyday with my little guy and us hanging out in our PJs together and not getting dressed or getting out of the house until after his nap.
- My mommy group. I don't know what I would of done without them. They were like my "co-workers". I would see them sometimes 3 days a week. Maybe we would do a playdate at someones house, meet up at the park, go out to lunch, take the kids to the Bellagio to see the garden. We had so much fun. I am going to miss hanging out with them during the day but we will still get together on weeknights and weekends. I have seen most of their kids grow up for the past year, so I will miss a lot of the kids too!
- I loved cooking and bake! I loved having TIME to research recipes, shop and cook! Not sure if I will have very much time for that anymore. Hoping to cook and freeze meals.
- Working on crafts and completing them. When I quit my job in January 2010 I thought I would have so much time as a SAHM and I could get so many projects done. Honestly I didn't get too many done. The days fly by taking care of a little one and I think I probably spent too much with the girls from the mommy group! But I still did get some done and I got to practice my sewing skills.
- Seeing my little guy grow up. This has to be my #1 favorite about being a SAHM. I got to see him from the time he was 1 day old until the day he was almost 16 months old EVERYDAY! I got to see the first time he crawled, ate real food, walk, say momma, clap his hands and laugh. I have never spent more then 4 hours away from him.
- Being home every day to greet my husband when he walks in the door. Kevin works so hard for his family everyday. I love to be there when he gets home to talk to him about his day and tell him about our day. I love having dinner in the oven, so we can all sit down together and eat.
- I love not having to put make-up on everyday or doing my hair. The only makeup I have had to buy in the past 15 months was more mascara.
- Having the time to teach my son new things and do cloth diapers. I don't think I would even of tried cloth diapers but since I was home, I was able to do it. We are going to take a little bit of a break with the cloth diapers, while I am just starting work, but hope to start them up again in a month or so.

DISLIKES
- Always cleaning. I feel like the kitchen is always a mess and the sink is always full! We eat at home 3 times a day, so there are always dishes to be washed. Soon we will just be eating at home for dinner and a quick breakfast, so I will enjoy the break from the kitchen and all the other chores! I will now have an excuse when things aren't done. I was at work! Now when Kevin comes home and things aren't done my only excuse is too much Facebook or blog reading!
- My obsession with Facebook. Being a SAHM some days you don't get out of the house. The only one you have to talk to for 10 hours a day is a toddler. So Facebook helped me talk with friends and other mommies during the day. Hopefully Facebook and I can take a little bit of a break! I won't miss it!
- Dealing with a fussy or cracky baby. I loved being here for Deegan when he was sick, but if he was just in one of those moods, those days I won't miss. Now his babysitter can deal with it! :-)
- Not having enough time for myself. Some days I don't sit down or turn on the TV until after Deegan is in bed. I will enjoy having my hour lunch break everyday!

But all of the LOVES out weigh the DISLIKES. I looooove being a stay-at-home-mom. But right now it is best for my family if I go back to work. We are saving for a house next year and the extra income will help us buy the house of our dreams!! We want a big dinning room and we want to have dinner parties and have all our family over for Christmas dinner! I am excited to start this new part of my/own lives but it will take me awhile to get use to the change. I don't like change. I am excited to get back to graphic design though! I have missed it and I really love it!

A Wake-Up Story, by Healthy Child Healthy World

A Wake-Up Story, by Healthy Child Healthy World

We try to do our best with buying good products for our family and serving good food. I think it is hard to find good products because the stores don't always sell them. I guess we need to do more internet shopping. You only have control in your home, so why not make it the safest for your child? I wish we could go back to 50 years ago, when things were more simple.

The Great Cloth Diaper Change at Well Rounded Momma

On Saturday Deegan and I attended The Great Cloth Diaper Change at Well Rounded Momma. There were 26 moms here in Vegas, all meeting together to simultaneously change their babies into cloth diapers to set the world record. It was happening all over the world. It was great to be apart of and when Deegan gets older, I will be able to tell him that he was part of a world record! We all had to change our babies diapers right at 9am. It only took a few seconds but it was fun! The event also helped bring awareness of cloth diapers and how easy they are and how much they have changed in the past 10 years.  They estimated that a total of 10,000 babies were changed on this day at the same time!

All the cloth diaper mommies and babies at Well Rounded Momma. I am in the back on the left. Deegan's head is blocked by the lady in the red. 

They had a raffle at the event and I won a free diaper cover, spray, wash clothes and snappy. I was pretty happy for winning, since it only cost me $5 to be in the raffle!

My goodies from the raffle!

I like free stuff! Saving with coupons!

I got all this stuff for $12.87 out of pocket (not including tax)! I also got $3 Extra Care Bucks at CVS, so really I got all this for just under $10! Ooooh and one thing is missing from the picture. I bought a Covergirl lip gloss that is now in my purse! Do you see what is on the bottom right? That is $3.80 worth of 4x6 prints (Deegan's easter cards). So I totally scored! I used this site to learn how to save a lot on half of the items. I just followed what she bought and what coupons she used and was able to get lots of good stuff!

I went to a coupon class last weekend and learned a lot of great stuff. They said it is best to subscribe to 4 newspapers every Sunday morning. Get all 4 delivered to your home. But now that I am going back to work, not sure if I will have time. Still deciding if I want to pay the $99 subscription for the newspapers.

If you live in Vegas, make sure you check out the website My Vegas Mommy. Awesome website!

I'm a working mom

So I got the job! Only 2 more weeks of being a stay-at-home-mom :-( I am really sad. Now is the hard part, finding a daycare that I LOVE. Yes, LOVE with a capital L-O-V-E. I need to love the daycare we choose. If I am going to leave my son and go back to work, I need to be completely 100% happy with where he is going to be all day. We checked out 2 daycares today and didn't like either one. Daycare #1 had too many kids and not enough teachers and also the lady giving us a tour was not very informed. Daycare #2 was nice but I didn't like their food menu. They JUST started feeding the kids fresh fruits. Before everything was canned. And they feed the kids frozen bean and cheese burritos. So I have 3 more to checkout tomorrow.

The top 3 things that are important to me about a daycare-
- The child to teacher ratio, I would like for it to be at least 1:6 and no more then 12 kids in the class
- The food that they serve. I don't want all canned and processed food. I know that is going to be hard to find, but if I can find a daycare that serves just 15% organic, that is the daycare I will go to. That just shows me that they care about the food they are putting in the kids mouth!
- Caring and compassionate teachers. I want the Deegan's teacher to love her job!

One of the daycares that we checked out was a montessori school. I do like the teaching styles of montessori schools. They teach a lot of independence and self-teaching. I have heard about montessori before and was always interested in the teaching. I am going to check out another montessori school this week. I was surprised they weren't that much more expensive. Well all daycares are pretty much like a 2nd mortgage!!!

Tidbits

- Family coming in town! We have Kevin's brother and his family coming in town in 3 weeks! Then my mom in 5 weeks, then aunt Crissy in 8 weeks! Can't wait to see everyone!

- I have my 3rd job interview next week on Tuesday! Hopefully I find out if I get the job or not very soon! I feel like my life is on hold until I know what is going on.

- I just joined Pinterest! You can follow me here. It is very addicting. I was on it for a few hours last night. I loooooove this. I can never our favorite things to make for dinner.

- Love all these ideas for making use out of old items.

- I have been watching American Idol. Haley is my favorite. Do you have a favorite?

- We have 2 birthday parties this weekend. I was planning on making all the birthday gifts but I can't believe it is already Thursday night! Where did the week go?

- My birthday is next week on Saturday. I will be 29.

- Kevin and I have started walking every night after dinner. We have done it the past 3 nights. Hope we keep it up. I have been slowly cutting the junk food out of the house. He keeps asking where the chips are.

A few random pictures from the past few weeks.

Enjoying the warm weather

It has been a busy week! Kevin has been home since last week on Tuesday! No work. Hopefully they have a project starting soon! We have been babysitting Lilly. We watched her 3 days this week. It was nice to have Kevin home, because we can get out and do stuff. This morning we went to the park and Wednesday we went to Rock N Roll Kids.

The weather here in Vegas has been nice! Today it is suppose to be 90! The sun in the desert is so hot when the temperature is up. So we tried to get out early today and get some fun in! Earlier this week it was in the 80's, so we played in the backyard a lot. Kevin put out fake grass a few weeks ago and put up a fence about a month ago. The fence is to keep the dogs out of Deegan's play area. We also just bought an umbrella for the backyard. We got a playhouse and a slide at yard sales. We paid only $15 for the play house and $2 for the slide! Score!

Our little playground! We still want to paint the fence and get so more toys. It is yard sale season, so hopefully we will find some more toys. 

He loves to open and close the door. He also NEEDS a haircut!

Love his big, fluffy cloth diaper butt!

Washing the dishes! Good boy!

Love his funky little outfit! 

Deegan has been learning so much lately. We have this toy that you have to push, turn, twist, etc to have the 5 animals pop up. In the past week he has learned how to pop up 4 of the 5 animals. Here are some pictures of him playing with it. It is one of his favorite toys!

My job interview is on Monday! I am excited! I just looked through my portfolio and have some work to do this weekend. Also excited about having some friends and family visiting in the next few months. We have Heather and her husband coming next week, then our nieces and their parents coming the first weekend of May (we hope!!) and then Auntie Crissy and her boyfriend coming in June!