Happy New Year!!!

So one of my resolutions is to start posting on here more, or again I guess. Usually I don't have any new years resolutions. The most creative Doug and I get is to see how long we can go without getting fast food. Woo. This year I probably have around 5 or 6. Like I said, the first one is simply to post on here again. I like blogger, but never really have anything to talk about so there isn't too much of a point to posting. I'm determined to post on a regular basis once again even if it means talking about absolutely nothing.

One of my other resolutions is to reorganize my life again. Basically since I've been working at the hotel I feel like I've completely fallen off the organization wagon. I don't feel like I neccessarily have less time to keep my life organized, but having such an active job definitely makes me exhausted at times, and sometimes it's just hard to come home from work and then try to get other stuff done that requires physical effort or concentration. My body and brain just can't handle it sometimes. Unfortunately, excuses like that have lead to a house that looks like a tornado hit it on a consistent basis, and my beloved lists basically sit there collecting dust. That leads to a very crabby Karissa. I can't handle walking into my house and seeing the mess. It drives me crazy when the dishes from the night before are still dirty and sitting on the counter the next day. It drives me crazy walking up the stairs to the bedroom and having to step over crap because I'm too lazy to put it away. It drives me crazy when I don't organize my coupons right away and then when I buy something at a store for regular price when I know there's a coupon for it somewhere, but can't find it because it's lost in a pile of crap on our bar.

It's amazing how being disorganized in little ways just add up and become a HUGE problem throughout your entire life. I was very lucky that I was able to stay home instead of having a job outside the home for 4 years. As much as I absolutely love my job I have now I 100% miss what I was able to do at home before the hotel. I miss being able to clean my own home on a regular schedule, making menus, remembering to actually take the laundry out of the dryer, cooking every night, going to CVS.

So for awhile I've felt sorry for myself that I wasn't able to do everything I used to and also work at the hotel. I hate that. I hate feeling sorry for myself, so I gave myself a little lecture and decided to do something about it. During my vacation this last week I've basically just been taking back my organized life. I made a GIGANTIC "To Do" list, and I'm proud to say, I'm almost finished with it. My list contained just about everything I could think of that I usually put on the back burner because other stuff needs to get done first. Normally if I have to choose between cleaning the bathroom or organizing our closet I would pick the bathroom. Nobody likes a stinky toilet. ;) But this week I actually cleaned and organized things I'm pretty sure I haven't cleaned/organized in a year. Gross, huh? I don't work Friday, so my goal is to get the rest of the list finished. I'm excited!!!

My plan is to revise all my lists to hopefully better fit with my work schedule. I used to be big on cleaning a bunch of stuff one day a week, but I've found out that just doesn't work well anymore. I need to clean fewer things at a time, but clean on more days throughout the week. I don't think it will work out perfectly right from the beginning, but I can always revamp my lists until I find something that works. I should have absolutely zero excuses for letting everything get this bad ever again. None. Will there be times when my stairs get congested with stuff? Yes. Will there be times that I wake up to see the previous nights dirty dishes still sitting there? Yes. Will I still lose coupons? Yes. As much as I try to be perfect I need to remind myself that I am not, and that's ok. I need to remind myself that I'm not super mom like my mom. :)

I have other resolutions but that is by far the biggest and most important one on my list today. I wasn't planning on writing that much, but congrats to me for being able to ramble on for so long.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I HOPE IT'S YOUR BEST ONE YET!!! :)

Hellloooo blogger...

I really should update this sometime.

Dear Neda...I don't cry...

Neda ...I cried.

My favorite picture...

Isabella watching a couple little girls during dress rehearsal night for her dance recital. Too cute.

Making the eggs pretty.

The easter bunny was awesome enough to balance an egg on this random pipe thingy we have.

Where's her easter basket and gift???

Peeling the eggs to make deviled eggs.

You can't see it but she's using her knife from Pampered Chef that I got from Amber to cut the eggs in half.

Putting the deviled egg filling back into the eggs.

Sprinkling paprika on the deviled eggs.

Isabella's awesome deviled eggs. She tasted the filling and refused to eat them after that. She enjoyed making them, but thought they were gross. Oh well, more for me and Doug.

Putting some strawberry sauce on her Angel Food cake. Long story short, I had to make the strawberry sauce from scratch. In the end I realized that making it from scratch is WAY better than the pre-made stuff. I guess it's like most things made from scatch. It always tastes better. The cake itself, however, was a box recipe. Making angel food cake from scratch is still too scary for me. Maybe next year I'll try it.

She makes me laugh...

Isabella and I had lunch from the Pretzelmaker before her manicure/pedicure on Saturday. Luckily, they had samples because she originally wanted McDonald's and I soooo did not. I was able to convince her to have a plain pretzel with pizza sauce. The following is a conversation we had during lunch.

Isabella: "I think auntie Kayla should give me her baby."

Me: "I think auntie Kayla wants to keep her baby."

Isabella: "Maybe she could give me her next baby."

Me: "You can ask her, but I think she'll want to keep that one too."

Isabella: "I don't want a baby in my tummy."

Me: "That's good because you are too little to have a baby in your tummy."

Isabella: (after much thought and with an extremely serious look on her face) "I'm not gonna think about it. I don't have anything to worry about right now."

Me: hysterical mom laughter in the middle of the mall next to the Pretzelmaker.

Princess dance pictures...

Isabella picked out everything she is wearing for the princess dance. She picked out a bright pink headband with a giant flower, hello kitty necklace, the dress, pink ring, pink bracelet, lace tights, and sparkly shoes. Although its not what I would've picked out for her to wear I think she looked beautiful as always.

Her new heart shaped sunglasses. They remind me of Elton John.

Isabella and daddy before the dance.

Showing her ring and manicure. I took her to get a manicure and pedicure earlier in the morning. She picked pink sparkly polish for her nails and red sparkly polish for her toes.

Checking out her giftbag she got at the dance.

Crazy upside down glasses.

Funniest picture ever! Doug got her in mid jump and she looks like she had one too many tator tots at dinner. I laugh every time I look at it. Too funny!

Big surprise she would rather draw at time than dance. She got a little sketch pad and pen in her giftbag so that obviously was a big distraction for her.

Sounds like her and Doug had lots of fun and Isabella is excited for next years dance.

St. Patricks day shirt...

I couldn't find a St. Patricks Day shirt for Isabella that wasn't retarded looking, so we did puffy paint. Doug drew the clovers and Isabella traced them with green puffy paint. She was very excited to wear it the next day.