You know what else I love?

I love LISTS. Love making them, crossing them off, tidying them up, typing them up, blogging about them, typing them so I can blog about them...ANYTHING. i HEART lists.

I have a notebook that I carry around with me, now it basically lives on my desk though, that is just ALL LISTS.

Here's a sampling of my lists in my List Notebook.

• Foods Liam can eat at 8 months old
• Bills due each month
• Target
• Things I need to stock up on at Bath & Body
• What size clothes Liam is a different stores
• Who gets pictures & cards lists
• Things I want to blog about
• a For Liam List with things such as the type of stroller we want or baby gates
• Books I want

Then on my monitor I use a Post-It note for a WEEKLY To Do List & once I cross enough things off, I can make another one :)

What's on that list right now:

• order cat food
• CDN taxes
• Dad - tools- reminder email
• Dr. appt - Liam - 9 mos
• Journal Storybook for G. Grandma

THEN if I have an "event" that will take up more than a Post-It note worth of space, I have a little pad of paper that I use for my larger lists - you saw that one earlier with My Things To Do Before G. Grandma Comes List.

And I do NOT throw out these notebooks. Oh heavens, no. I file them away. And choosing my next one is always a hard decision for me because I need some specific qualifications to be met...

• spiral bound - since I'm a Lefty I need to be able to fold it over to write properly
• lined
• hard enough cover so that it "with stands" the pressure & stress I will put it under
• LOOKS. Hardly the last thing on the list but usually the RIGHT ONE will make itself known to me rather quickly so it's usually not an issue.
  

Friday Five - Saturday Morning Edition

1. favorite cereal and why? Honey Nut Cheerios - I'm not a real big cereal eater but I will have a bowl every now & then as a "filler"

2. what is the best thing about summer? Outside! And I'm hoping the pool! And yes, of course, Flip Flops!

3. would you rather have a slurpee or a milkshake? depends...BUT I think I've had more milkshakes in the past year than slurpees so...chocolate milkshake from In & Out it is! I'm bummed that Five Guys does not offer the shakes, or else I would get them from there :)

4. If you could be a member of any band/musical group, past or present, what band would it be and why? alrighty, easy one! DMB, I would be a Lovely Lady or cowbell player extraordinarie! Also, I would have loved to sing back up with Buffet OR Gladys Knight on Midnight Train to Georgia - move over Pips!

5. Who is your idol? What are they famous for? "idol" is a tough word...BUT mainly authors fall into this category for me - Douglas Coupland, Toni Morrison, Louise Edrich...to name a few...then my geeky side says Deep Throat & Woodward & Bernstein :)

I REALLY have Issues

**Edited** I'm going to go through & mark off what's been accomplished.


I had to put Make a To Do List on my To Do List. Since my grandma & Aunt are coming for Easter we have to have the place in Master Guest Order, you know, so I have this list of missives that we HAVE TO get done. And I had to write myself a note to write the list down. I'm such a dork. Or would that be geek? Tough call.

And cause I know you are dying to see my To Do List here it is without further ado! Please note that M = Matias & J= Jen

1. Clean fridge - M (he makes the mess he can clean it)
2. Put snowmen away - J (yeah that's all me. but we had snow last weekend.)
3. Winter dishes away - J (see above "excuse")
4. Vacuum ENTIRE house - M (not just the bloody stairs)
5. Dust all rooms - J (be sure to do this before M does #4)
6. Clean bathrooms - J (although I should get M to clean that disgusting sticky spot all men leave on the seat...TMI?)
   
7. Clean kitchen - J (seriously, I want it done right...)
8. Basement CLEANED - M (all his)
9. Baseboards dusted - J (you start spending as much time on the floor as I have lately & you begin to notice things you never noticed before)
10. Pictures hung - M (because MY LORD we moved in here last MAY, hang the bloody pictures ALREADY)
11. Walls cleaned - M (if you counted every time M ran into a wall with something you totally should NOT run into a new WHITE wall with, you would have to count really high.)
12. Clean floors - J (Two Words - Hard & Wood)
13. Laundry - J (Liam Laundry & Mommy Laundry - which, of course, also includes our linens and towels which we BOTH USE but only ON OF US EVER CLEANS THEM)
    

Things I Love

I've got a blasted headache which is in turn making me cranky so in an attempt to lift my spirits without lifting any Spirits I'm going to ramble on about Things I Love. Is that ok with you?!?!!? Heh.

1. My friendship with Christina - we have this strange, powerful connection that keeps bringing us together, regardless of the distance or length of time we've been apart. Before they trekked out for our wedding, I hadnt seen her since 93! And even then we ran into each other at the mall while I was getting my Timberlands for my Paris adventure...
2. Amanda. This girl is SO bright & SO full of "good things". She got a 4.0 GPA for her college career. Only good things are coming her way! Especially her first trip to EUROPE!
3. The health of Mystic & Monkey - Mystic is pushing 14 1/2 years & Monkey turns FIVE next month! They are my Boyfriend & my Protector & I love them to death.
4. My mom. She's my best friend. And I love spending time with her & Liam.
5. My husband. For caring about the safety of our child & not fighting me on lowering his mattress or getting baby gates and for being excited about clothes shopping for our son.
6. Spring. Goes without saying, I suppose
7. My car. I do love my car. And she just got a buttload of repairs done on her & now she's running puurrrfectly.
   

The Spiders have hatched.

And they are EVERYWHERE. Matias had one crawl right across his mousepad. I just found one on myself while I was on the phone with my mom & I started screaming and swatting it away. It landed on the couch NEXT TO LIAM & I continued to scream with my mom telling me to stop screaming that I would freak Liam out...so I was screaming "where did it go?" and "shut up" alternatively. Until I killed it on the couch & crumpled it up in a PB Teen catalog page & tossed it outside...where its dead, rotting evil ass belongs.

I feel like I need to take a shower now. All I can feel is shit crawling on me.

Things that Annoy Me

These things just get under my skin & I know there's no changing them/him but yet they still bother :) And for the record...these sorts of "things" have ALWAYS bothered me.

1. leaving cabinets open any amount - how hard is it to shut it completely?
2. leaving the shower door open about an inch every single time - how hard is it to shut it completely?
3. not putting things back where you got them - like books, screwdrivers, etc
4. not throwing things out but instead placing them 1/2" away from the garbage can
5. not answering the house phone EVER
   

I'm so excited!

I finally finished my 2003 album!!

I have already organized, digitally, our Honeymoon pictures & ordered the first 1/2 of the trip! I have a Crop on Saturday here for the DCMMScrapClub group that I am a moderator for so I'm very excited to have NEW pictures to crop for a NEW album!

I'm going to use the Cottage Power Palette for a good number of the pages using the Idea Book that comes with the set & I'm also REALLY excited about using new products :)

And you know, after organizing & choosing the prints to go in the album I saw how happy & how much fun we were having & it made me smile.

THEN, I'm going to do a NYC album for our 2005 trip with my mom, sister & Aunt to see DMB and every corner of that city! THEN, I'm going to do a Babymoon album of our wonderful trip to Tahoe with my parents & my brother's family in 2006. THEN, in between all of this, I'm going to start Liam's album - there is SO much fantastic new stuff out for baby & little boy/little girl from Creative Memories that I cannot sit on it any longer, I need to break it out & start playing with it ASAP! THEN, I will start working on my pregnancy album which will cover 2005 in its entirety and of course 1/2 of 2006.

Actually I havent worked out those specifics as of yet because I just dont know how to organize a pregnancy that happened in Nov & a birth that happened in July with my general organizational process of doing a YEARLY album...I'll work that out when I come to it but I'm trying to eliminate "issues" by doing a separate NYC & Babymoon albums...

Watch it, I'm on a roll

Only 9 months later & I just unpacked the four boxes that got putstuffed into our bedroom closet.

That leaves only ONE box to unpack. And for some reason that's been sitting in the dining room & I think it's my snow globes.

At least I know where I'm going to put them, which honestly has been a huge part of the not unpacking them issue...cause why unpack them if I have no clue where I'm going to put them?

Did that convince you? cause it sure as hell worked for me.

Good thing we are staying here another year.

In other boring home news, I bought some new baskets (5 set for $11.99 at AC Moore) for Liam's "things"...new book basket, new basket for his farm blocks, new basket for his dirty bibs, new basket for his little things lying around & new basket for his toys that live in front of the fireplace...starting to feel organized about keeping that stuff under control too.

But, I really like that our bedroom is feeling more "homey" even though it's only been a couple of hours, I liked the vibe I got when I just walked in a few minutes ago...cozy, warm, welcoming...

And I also added my purse lamp to our guest bathroom/Liam's bathroom & Matias went in there (he hates that lamp) and I could hear the TSK from the other room. Oh well, I think it's really cute & it adds a little something to that bathroom that is just so boring and dull. But I'm to blame for that since I have not done anything to it at all beyond get the brown towels I wanted.

I added a few things to the guest room too...and I have further plans for that also with stuff from around the house...and I honestly, just now, got another AWESOME idea for that room! YAY!

I'm finally going to put my snowmen away - even though we still have some snow on the ground, I'm getting a little tired of looking at 'em ;) Plus, I have my Easter stuff to pull out - for Liam's sake, of course!

And lord, speaking of Easter stuff - even after my horrible Valentine's Day Card debacle, I could NOT resist the $1 bin of stamps at the craft store. So, I bought two for St. Patrick's Day & I am still brainstorming through ideas for them, although it's basically a done deal since the stamps are making it so easy to create an easy layout. RIGHT. Plus, I have green ink I need to use. RIGHT?