A bit of chaos lately?

It's been somewhat of a busy week!  Cady started school on Monday, Hurricane Isaac hit S. Louisiana forcing Gage to evacuate Baton Rouge, our nanny got sick, the AC broke, and I had to have some dental work done that forced me to take a day off work.  I "suppose" I could have worked after my dental appt, but let's face it - I'm a wimp.  Plus, like I said, Gage was here and the nanny was out sick so I figured I should just take a personal day.  And all of this happened Mon - Thurs!  We haven't even made it to Friday yet!  Friday will be easy breezy tho - we're headed on a mini vacay to Missouri to see Matt's family.  It will be Cady and Milo's first time to meet the Missouri kinfolk.  We are excited to see everyone and excited for cooler temps!  We'll come back Monday evening.  I'll try to get Matt to write up a post following our trip.  Cady is supposed to be writing a post about her summer/back to school but she is yet to send it to me...  So anyway that's what we've been "busy"doing the last few days. 

And just so you know...  Hurricane Isaac turned out to be sort of a dud and was mostly just rain and wind (we are thankful for this) - Gage already left to head back to school, we were thrilled to get to spend a couple days with him... 


sweet baby boys :o)

 We got the AC fixed and it was only $350 (could have been much worse)...  Cady is adjusting to school and trying out for volleyball this week (more on that later)... 




picking Cady up from school

 I suppose I am getting over my traumatic dental visit (the numbing shots are the worst part don't you think?)...  And our nanny will be back next week. Thank goodness cause Milo does not like to let us get any work done - he needs to eat and be held 24/7!  (ok, ok so we kinda spoiled him like that but still).



Finally got a shot of his eyes wide open so you can see the beautiful shade of blue they have turned!

 Enjoy you're long weekend!

First Day of School 2012

Cady started 7th grade today!  And this is the first time in 8 years that I didn't have 2 Littles starting a new school year on the First Day of School.  She texted me at lunch to say so far her day was going great.  And then she texted me a short time ago to tell me that she decided that I didn't need to pick her up from school and that she wanted to ride the bus with her friends.  :-( Oh well.  She's a cutie, huh?  I can't wait to hear about her day!

Weekend Events via phone pics

Here's what we did this weekend...

Milo cried....



Milo slept...

Milo wore headphones and we cracked up... a lot...

Matt worked on the clubhouse...

I made this tasty turkey taco...

And I worried about Hurricane Isaac because Gage lives in South Louisiana now!

The End.

Goals and such.

I wrote the title to this post and only noticed later that I had accidentally typed Goals and suck.  hahaha That's probably more accurate.

I like goals because I like the feeling of accomplishment but I haven't been great about following thru lately.  I really wanted to run a half marathon in October of this year.  I had to take a whole year off from working out when I was pregnant and then recovering.  When I finally got the go ahead to start working out again earlier this month, I was excited.  I had big plans of doing a DVD workout every day (to build muscle and tone) and running several nights each week (for endurance) after Milo went to bed... Once I did that for an entire month I was going to reward myself with these babies:

I can sync them with my iPhone cause they are Nike+... and they are purple... and super cool lookin'.  I was doing great until I really thought about the shoes and realized we didn't need to spend over $100 on a pair of athletic shoes... when I already have at least 4 pair of nice running shoes...  And those 4 pair help make up my whole shoe collection of nearly 50 pair... which was cut back from over 80 pair last year.  Once I realized I didn't NEED the shoes I lost all motivation and quit working out.  Which is ridiculous cause here's the thing...  Did you notice above that I said I used to have over 80 pairs of shoes and now I have around 50?  That's because last summer after Matt and I got married I went thru all my clothes and shoes and donated over half of them.  We needed to make more space in our closets and drawers so I got rid of anything that was too big or that I didn't wear often.  Then 2 months later I got pregnant!!!  While that's great that I was wearing a size 4 last summer and only wearing skinny jeans, short dresses and heels - NONE of that fits anymore!!! I am not close to a size 4 and 95% of my wardrobe no longer fits.  I need to work out to get skinny again! Ha!  I need to suck it up and accomplish following thru with a workout routine without the benefit of expensive shoes as a reward.  Which brings me to our second big goal... Creating and STICKING to a budget...

This has been harder than working out! I've created several versions of a family budget for us but we just don't seem to have the "stick-to-it-tiveness" that I had when I was a single gal.  I used to have a healthy savings and contribute to retirement funds and college funds and all other necessities and still have money left over at the end of the month.  Now we have a double income and I can't figure out where all the money goes!  I guess we've just been living it up since we got married... I'm really determined to get things back on track.  A new baby is more expensive than you might realize - especially nanny costs!  While we do have money for all the necessities, I like to have extra for "shoe funds" and "vacation funds" and "Kimmy's next car needs to be a Mercedes fund".  I kid.  not really.  But I am thinking more and more about moving in a couple years.  I love our house and the size of it but I'd like a little more space and a pool and some trees.  I know that will cost in this area so we need to start setting aside money now.  And I'm also determined to go on vacation next summer.  By that point it will have been a year since our vacation to Cancun so we'll be due for some beach time. 

Soooooo.  I think the answer is this.  I will start small.  I will take a walk/run a few times a week (especially since the temps are nicer now).  I will get the regular size KitKat instead of the King size.  That will be my "get healthy/weight loss" goal for now.  And we have a new and improved budget that involves us spending much less.  We won't eat out (as much) and I promise to spend less on random shopping sprees.  We can do it, right?  Now if I could just somehow get amazon blocked from my laptop...

The little Littles are Gettin' Big

Look at these two!  Cady is getting ready to start 7th grade next week and Milo is now 10 weeks and 13lbs!  Seems just a few days ago summer was just starting!

In preparation for this Fall, all 3 kiddos have had to have physicals in the last few weeks and all 3 of them have had to get several shots!  I guess starting college and starting 7th grade (it's a Texas law thing) and being born are all good reasons to get your vaccinations updated.  Even Matt had to have a shot last week!  The good news is that everyone is happy and healthy.  Cady finally got her school schedule situated so that's a huge stress that has been lifted... And trust me... when Cady is stressed and worried, we're all stressed and worried.  That's one of the things she got from her Mama I'm sorry to say!  But for today, all is good.  Gage is wrapping up his first week of college and feeling much better about being so far away.  He is enjoying his classes and getting involved at school so he'll be a busy socializing college freshman in no time.  Cady is choosing outfits for her first few days of school and busily texting and chatting with friends about classes and clothes and who knows what else.  The good thing is she is excited to start school this year, that hasn't always been the case in the past.  Milo is just growing and eating.. a lot.  He is sleeping thru the night (that's the big thing at this age) - in fact he slept for 10 hours straight the other night!  He's laughing and smiling and baby babbling up a storm.  So there ya have it... another summer on the books and it's nearly time to get giddy about the change of seasons!  It's even been in the 70s here in the mornings - that's unheard of for Texas in August!

Recent DIYs around the house... "before" edition.

Matt may not realize how great he is at household projects, but I do.  He has built several shelves for our bedroom, den and living room - and they look really good!  When I tell people he built them from scratch they're like "wow, my husband could never do that!"... And I just beam, cause mine can.  We have a running list of DIY projects that we'd like to do around the house and we try to mark off one or two a month.  Recently we started Milo's nursery. 

There was a ton of prep work before we could even start his "nursery".  We had to move everything out of the space, buy some organizers for the closet, have the carpets professionally cleaned and paint the walls.  We painted the room a soft gray.  Matt drug Cady's old crib from the attic (I saved it because it's beautiful and I want to keep it forever... for our grandchildren someday!) and put it together along with a few other pieces of furniture.  We made new bright orange curtains that match his bedding.  The room is still a work in progress so I'll post pics when it's done, but it's coming along nicely.  Doesn't Milo look so proud there watching his Dad?!

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One of the other projects he's working on is a "clubhouse" for Cady.  She has wanted a clubhouse for FOREVER.  You may think she is too old for one, but it's actually quite the opposite.  It will be big enough for her and her friends to hang out in and sleep in (if they want) and a private place that she can go to read or craft or whatever.  We are going to make sure she gets electricity and some cute "small size" furniture for the inside. 

We are also going to give it a small patio on the front with some plants, etc.  She is excited about painting it and decorating the inside.  We figured if she does get tired of it we can use it for storage until Milo can play in it in a few years.  So win-win all around.  Again, it's a WIP (work in progress as we say in the corporate world) so I will definitely post pics when it's done!  I'll confess...  I'm actually looking forward to hanging out in there too!

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And just so you don't think I'm getting all braggy on Matt and his home improvement skillz...  Here's a pic of him after he made some repairs to one of our bathroom ceilings the other day.  hahahaha!  I think it could have gone better "during" but the ceiling looked great "after"!

Our Family in "Clay"

Cady is an amazingly creative child.  She can sew, paint, draw, build - you name it.  Recently she has started creating mini versions of people, food, animals, etc out of polymer clay and her creations are FANTASTIC!  The minute details of these creations would blow your mind!  Here are a few examples. 

But my favorite by far is this...  She created our family and I do believe they are adorbs.

Gage's new digs.

Sad... Gage has officially left for college.  He actually left last week but he had some travelling and family visits and orientation type things to attend.  But today he moved into his new dorm...in college... in another state...8 hours away.  I've tried to not be upset about it.  I've tried to be happy about his new adventures and this next chapter in life and most of the time it works.  But today I was feeling sad.  He was missing home (his words!) and I was missing him.  I know he'll meet new people and be having a blast in a couple weeks, but today I wanted to get in the car and drive the 8 hours and pick him up and bring him home so I could baby him... as if his elementary school nurse had called me to say he had a bad tummy ache.  I guess our kids will always be little in our eyes.  Cady and I asked for a pic of his new digs and here's what we got.

At least he has his favorite blanket and moose pillow pet... and his Saints and Monty Python posters.  I know he'll feel right at home in no time. I bet by the time Thanksgiving rolls around he won't even want to come home!  Nah, he'll miss us... I'm sure of it.  Geaux Tigers!

Milo's politics...

Does this mean Milo is a republican or does he think they are all asses? Wait, if they were jackasses, they'd be democrats.   

The moral of the story is this... don't wear elephants on your butt during a presidential election year.  It's confusing.

TWO good things from the weekend...

1.  Milo turned TWO months old! 

2.  I made this amazing bacon sammy for myself and it was gooood.  I used half a package of bacon on it.  Triple stacked and loaded with mayo on toast.  Then we watched a scary ghost movie.  It was perf.

Party Animals

Just another Friday night at our house!  Exciting, huh? 

At least life with a newborn is allowing us to catch up on movie nights and couch time at home.   I wonder where that saying "Party Animal" comes from... Our animals pretty much look like this 23 out of the 24 hours in the day. ha!

Back to Work

I'm back at work... just part-time this week, full-time next week.  My company allows for a week of transition the first week back after maternity leave.  Of course I work from home so Milo is just in the other room, but still.  It's hard to get used to sitting at a computer all day.  Listening in on (sometimes) meaningless conference calls feels like a waste of time.  But mostly I miss just hanging all day with my little guy.  And I miss naps...  I miss naps WITH Milo. haha  He seems to be doing just fine tho. 

His nanny starts next week so things will get easier/harder at that point.  Easier in that we can actually have several hours during the day to work and concentrate on getting things accomplished.  Hard in that I really want Matt or me to be the ONLY people taking care of him.  That's selfish tho.  Oh well, at least I'm having more adult conversations with acutal grown-ups now... sorta.

Start Here...

We have a blended family. There are kids here and kids there.  Family here and family there.  Exes here and exes there.  So we are in fact NOT all Mungles - there are a few last names floating around this house.  Honestly, I still go by my maiden name 90% of the time - it's probably confusing for our mailperson!  Our family is perfectly imperfect and I'm absolutely sure I wouldn't have it any other way.  We subscribe to the concept of "it takes a village".  And I believe love multiplies, not divides.  Matt and I married in July of 2011.  We already had an amazing family made up of two kiddos.  Gage is a college student at LSU and Cady is our favorite middle high schooler.  We initially thought we'd add another baby to our family and then I figured it wasn't medically going to happen and I was ok with that.  It was quite a surprise when we found out we were expecting in the fall of 2011.  We welcomed Milo into the world in June of 2012.  Yes, you're doing the math right in your head - when Milo was born the older kids were 18 and 12! The last few years have been exciting to say the least.  Lots of ups and downs.  We've had blogs or sites in the past, but I believe that these new beginnings deserve a new spot of their own.  Stories need to be told, pictures need to be seen and life is meant to be shared.  Enjoy.