Cloth Diapers For Sell - See Post Below For Pictures and Updates on the Family

I am going to keep this post on top so that everyone can see my cloth diapers for sell. Please see the next post for pictures and updates.

I have some of Mikayla's old cloth diapers that I would love to sell. I tried Ebay but they have taken used cloth diapers off of their list of items to be sold. So please take a look - if you would like to purchase some please send an email to oconnellhouse@msn.com or leave a comment with your email address.

Shipping on everything will be $3.00 for the first diaper and $1.00 for each additional diaper.

Kissaluvs Size 1 - 10-25 pounds. You will need a cover with Kissaluvs. Price $5.00 and they normally retail for $11.50 each. If you buy all 3 the price is only $12.00.

Kissaluvs Size 2 -20- 40 pounds. $5.00 per diaper or all 4 for $17.00.

EZ Gerber Diapers - Size 20-30 pounds. All in one. These are older diapers but they work just fine and they also come with a diaper double attached inside. Price $3.00 each or all 4 for $10.00.

Snug to fit - Size - all sizes (they have multiple snaps to adjust to all sizes). They have an attached insert but they will need a diaper cover. Price $3.00 each or both for $5.00.

Training Pants. Size 2T. They were barley used. I ended up potty training Mikayla with her wearing nothing. I have a total of 6 to sell. $1.00 each or all six for $4.00.

Diaper Covers. These are a bit older but work just fine. I have a total of six to sell. $1.00 each or all six for $5.00.

Prefolded flat cloth diapers. Price $0.50 each or all 4 for $1.50.

Reducing our Carbon Impact

A few months ago I mentioned that people are trying to reduce their carbon emmissions by 90%. Here is where I first blogged about it. Jen picked up the challenge is August and so it got me to start thinking that I need to start working on this again. I am not going to try and reduce my emmissions by 90% but I will try to reduce them by 50%. I am also using my summer bills to help me and summer is when our utility bills are the lowest. Hey if I can keep my utility bills as low as in the summer that would be wonderful - but we all know that is not going to happen. So here are my October Goals.

Gas - Car - The average 3 person family uses 125 gallons of gas per month. I do not want to use more than 62.5 gallons this month. We have some trips planned so we will see how good we do. I need to buy a new bike tube so I can start riding my bike to work again.

Electricity - This summer we average a usage of 14.5 per day. I have no idea if that is kwh or what. I would like to keep our usage for the month of October at 14.5 or less. Since it is getting colder it is harder to dry clothes outside and we use more electricty to heat the house. I need to turn more lights off and buy more CF light bulbs to replace the regular ones.

Natural Gas - House - Our usage this summer was 1.509 per day (again I have no idea what the number means but it shows me a starting point.) For the month of October I am planning on keeping my usage to the same or less. Ways to do this - Wash all clothes in warm water - not hot (I tried using cold water but my clothes were not as clean. We need to keep the doors shut in the evening to keep the house warmer, and use the heat less.

Consumer Goods - The avearge American spends $10,000 per year on new consumer goods. A 50% reduction would be $5,000. So our goal for this month to reduce would be to only spend $417. That does not seem to high. But I will be keeping track.

These are my starting points - so we will see how well we do.

Pictures and What Not

Here is a post that is a little bit of everything. Below is a picture of me 21 weeks pregnant. I ran a 5K race this weekend and I think that will be the last of the 5Ks. Even though I felt great during the race lately whenever I run I feel pressure in my lower belly and I swear this kid loves to jump on my bladder. I will be sitting at my desk feeling just fine and then I feel pressure on my bladder and I have to pee. I think that this baby is sitting lower than Mikayla was so I feel the pressure more.

And since we were talking a picture on my belly Mikayla wanted us to take a picture of her belly.

I did manage to get her to smile for some pictures but the smiles were pretty odd - close mouth and eyes shut - oh well we will work on getting her cute smile on the camera. I know I have said this before but I love being a mom. She was in such a good mood tonight. We all took a walk after work and she rode in her stoller, ran with Daddy and had a blast. Tonight after her bath she cuddled with Daddy on the couch on it only took about 5 minutes until she feel asleep. Daddy is now working on falling asleep on the couch as well.

Mikayla likes to sit on Teo.





A couple of weeks ago we drove to Crested Butte via Ohio Pass so that we could see the Aspens changing. We might have been a week or so early and it was rainy the whole time but we did get some could pictures.

Our house is almost under contract. A young couple from Crested Butte would love to put the hosue under contract but they are trying to get out of their current contract due to other issues. So keep your hopes up that they can get out of their current contract and we can get this house sold. I keep telling myself the house WILL be under contract by October 31st and we will have sold the trailer by October 31st! Also I WILL be able to work 4 ten hour days at work.

Pictures - Just for Fun!!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Joe made spaghetti for dinner the other night and Mikayla love it. She loved slurping it up, just like Daddy.

A friend is storing his canoe at our house so we get to use it whenever we want to. Here is a picture of Daddy and Mikayla going down the stream behind out house.

A friend of ours has two pigs and Mikayla got to go play with them the other day. Here piggy, piggy, piggy

Pictures of the Little One

Here is a picture of the little on. You can see face and hand.

Here is another shot of the face and hand.

Ultrasound Done - And it is a???

We had the ultrasound done and we are having a girl*. I threw in the * because we only got one shot and it was not a great one and each time they kept going back to make sure it was a girl, the little had her legs crossed, then she was sitting on her legs, - while crossed. So I am planning on a girl but hey it could be a boy.

Mikayla had lots of fun looking at her baby sister. When we got in the car to leave Mikayla asked, "Where is my baby sister?" How cute is that!!! I said in my tummy. She was pretty confused. That night she asked again about her baby sister and I said in my tummy. Then Mikayla said her baby sister is coming. I said yes, in February.

I am going to try and upload some ultrasound pictures tonight - but we will see since we have dial up at home.

The Secret

Joe is reading a book called The Secret. The basic idea behind it that if you believe in something it will come true. So I have been saying these sayings the past few days and hoping they will come true.

1 - Our house will be under contract by October 31, 2007

2 - Joe will find a better paying job, soon - such as in the next month.

3 - We will have sold our trailer but December, 2007.

4 - I will be able to work 4 ten hour work days (More time with Mikayla, less money for daycare and less time spent with the office manager from hell!)

Those are my items that need to come true - what are yours?

Pictures Finally!!

Here are a bunch of radom pictures I have been promising you forever.



Joe likes to take Mikayla to the lake on his afternoons with her. She actually asks to go to the lake with him before he even says anything. The lake days are almost over for the year.




I don't have many pictures of our New Jersey trip in July-August. One day we went to the science museum and it sits acorss the river from New York City. We had great views at lunch time.

As you know from my previous post about our New Jersey trip . This is a picture of Joe and Mikayla waiting for a flight in the Denver airport. Mikayla had her first Mcdonald's lunch ever, 2 chicken nuggets, a few french fries and orange soda.

Here I am 5 months pregnant. Isn't this a cute picture!!

18 Weeks Pregnant

I am now 18 weeks pregnant or in the middle of my fifth month. Wow - at first the weeks dragged by but now the pregnancy is flying by. We had a doctor's appointment last and and even Mikayla got to come along. Baby is doing just fine - heart is pumping away at 140 beats per minute. I thought I was leaking a little fluid so the doctor hooked me up to the ultrasound (everything is fine - not leaking amniotic fluid) and we got to see the little critter moving around. We are having our ultrasound on September 18th and right now we are not going to find out what the baby is but at the same time I want to know - and if I don't find out it will get harder and harder!! Oh well we will see.

Random Posting

I really want to get better at posting on a more regular basis but it seems as it I don't have much to say or I say the same old thing so this is a random posting of my thoughts at the end of a long and boring work day. That brings me to the first one:
1 - I am bored at work!!! The attorneys do not give me enough work to do - I really enjoy my job when I am busy from 8am to 5pm and I still have a pile on my desk for the next day - they are paying me to work 8 hours and I would love to produce 8 hours of work for them. I have gotten tired of asking for work because I would be doing it every day. The last few days have been really slow and today the two main attorneys that I work with were gone all day. So hopefully I will be busy tomorrow - but who knows. I only billed out about 2 hours worth of work in an 8 hour day - ugh!!

2 - Mikayla is pretty much potty trained. We put a diaper on her at night and that is it. She goes potty at home, in daycare and at every store we go to and she can even hold it when she says she has to go and I still have to drive two blocks to the store, park the car and walk as fast as her little legs will go while be distracted by the horsy to the potty at the back of the store!

3 - I took last week off from working out hard all I did was some easy walking. I think I really needed the break because I jumped back in full force this week. I even went home at lunch for an awesome cardio and strength training workout - it was great.

4 - I have not been riding my bike to work as much and it is a good because it rains almost every afternoon around 5pm.

5 - Fall is coming to Colorado. The trees are slowly starting to turn and the windows have condensation on them in the morning - I am not ready for winter but I do love an indian summer in Colorado.

6 - I am in the middle of my fifth month of pregnancy and getting big. I have gained 12 pounds and I hope not to gain another 20 which would put me at gaining over 30 pounds. I am still exercising so hopefully I won't gain another 30, but boy is my belly getting big. I am having a hard to waiting to feel the baby start moving and it should be anytime now - but I want to feel it move now!!

7 - Does anyone have any name suggestions for a boy or a girl. We like Julieanne Marie or Miller Joseph but we are not attached to those names so we are looking for any and all ideas.

I think that is it for now and now I only have 10 minutes left of work.

Bye!

Big Hike/ Little Hike

On Sunday Joe and I decided to head to Crested Butte to go for a hike. Mikayla loves to go hiking, she gets so excited and the dogs get excited and then I get mad at the dogs for being too excited in the car!!! We decided to hike to a lake called Copley Lake. It is only 2 miles to the lake - not too bad, we were warned that it is a pretty steep hike. Thankfully Joe carried Mikayla on his back up to the lake - if I had done it we would not have made it! The trail was so steep it took us over an hour to get here - two miles in one hour is pretty darn slow! But when we got to the lake it was beautiful and quite. Mikayla had fun on the way up signing songs with Daddy, playing games, and holding as many flowers as we would give her.

I carried her on the way down and it still took us over 50 minutes. She did fall asleep in the backpack on the way down. For a while I could tell she was getting tired because she kept putting her head down. Then Joe turned around and said she was sleeping but she was still tossing around. Finally Mikayla found a spot for her head and settled down. At the end of the trail is a really steep section. Joe pulled her out of the backpack and carried her down himself - she slept through the whole time! But she did wake up in time for a late lunch.

Pregnancy update - I will be starting my fifth month of pregnancy on Friday - times does fly and I am getting big. I only have one or two pairs of pants that are not maternity that I can still wear and that is because they are a size 14. I cannot believe how big I am getting. I am trying to eat pretty healthy with a few more fun snacks than before. If you have not tried "No Pudge Brownies" you must. Excellent taste, moist and they taste great!!

Break Throughes in Potty Training

We have had two small break througes in potty training. While we were camping we took Mikayla's potty for her to use. At one point she said she had to go poppie but ended up not, then a little while later she was busy playing with Sienna, then next thing I knew Sienna said that Mikayla was saying she had to go potty, well we did not make it to the potty in time and Mikayla did poppie in her pants and the big thing was that she was upset about it. We called her down and told her that was ok and it happens. - Yea - she was upset at going in her pants!!

Yesterday evening I took her with me to run some errands. I realized as I was putting her in the car that she did not have a diaper on - I said oh well. At each stop I asked if she had to go potty and each time it was no. Luckily she was not guzzling liquids before we left. At the grocery store she told me she had to go potty and we went to the bathroom and she went. This was the first time she peed in a public toilet - yea!!!

I am determined on Monday to tell our daycare provided that Mikayla is not going to wear diapers unless she is napping. We will see how that goes.

Camping Trip

Our camping trip was a success - sorta of. We arrived at camp on Saturday around 1pm and Mikayla was sleeping in the back seat. I was shocked that she was still asleep because we covered very rough road in order to get to camp. We unloaded the car and Mikayla woke up just in time to help set up the tent. She loved running around, hiking the camp site, playing in the dirt. Every time I cleaned her face it was dirty 5 minutes later.

Our friend, Keith joined us at camp around 3pm and Mikayla had a blast playing with his 10 year old daughter - I thought - babysitter!! I can sit down and relax now. After a while Mikayla and I went for a little hike with the dogs down the road, but she still had more fun hiking to the "potty" at camp with mom.

We sat around the fire eating hamburgers, bratwurst, pasta salad for dinner. They boys decided to go 4-Wheeling after dinner and I used that chance to get Mikayla into bed. She did not go easily and cried for about 15 minutes and then she finally settled down. I eventually got tired of waiting on the boy to come back to camp so I went to bed as well. Shortly after I went to bed they came back to camp with their big trucks and made plenty of noise and of course Mikayla work up. So I pulled her into bed with me. Once Joe came to bed I realized how cold it was outside and so Mikayla would have to sleep with us. We have never spent the whole night with Mikayla in our bed. We were sleeping on a double size air mattress. We all did not sleep good that night, but Mikayla slept the best. Joe and I spent most of the night awake.

Finally morning rolled around and I was excited to see the sun - I kept waiting for it to warm up enough that I could crawl out of bed. Joe got up and started a fire so I was finally able to get out of bed. One of the other guys that was camping with us said he could go for a cup of coffee. I let him go on for a little bit and then I spoke up that I would love a cup of coffee. So Joe, Mikayla and I hoped in the truck and drove 30 minutes each way to get a cup of Camp 4 Coffee - the best coffee anywhere - better than Starbucks - but only served in Crested Butte. That was the best cup of coffee and it was so worth the 1 hour trip to get it.

Once we got back to camp we loaded up the camping gear and Joe wanted to do a little fishing. He caught a couple of tiny fish - only a few inches long. After that we went for a hike and saw a huge dear. We headed home around 1pm we were all tired. Mikayla quickly passed out in the car and stayed asleep until we got home and I was even able to put her in her crib at home and she slept for 4 hours! Joe and I both took long naps as well. We were exhausted.

So I think we will go camping again, probably not this season but maybe next summer and someplace warmer.

We left out camera at home so here are the only pictures we have. Saturday evening we climbed to the top of a cliff that was above our campsite.

Another Kid's Say the Darnest Things

While we were in New Jersey I was in line to buy some candles at a store. My husband and mother-in-law were entertaining Mikayla. They were gathered around a kid's size patio table and chairs. Mikayla sat in each chair and then turned to her daddy and said, Daddy I want this, Let's go pay now!!!

Well at least she knows she has to pay for that even if she has no idea of money.

Going Camping

Mikayla is going on her first camping trip. We are borrowing a huge army tent that will have plenty of room for her pack and play and for Joe and I to sleep on cots instead of the ground. Sleeping on the hard ground does NOT appeal to me anymore - especially since I am pregnant and my back is already bothering me. I think we are going up Cement Creek. Which for those of you who know, you turn down the road that takes you to CB South but instead of turning into CB South you keep going on the road. For those of you who do not know it is between Gunnison and Crested Butte and should take us no more than one hour to get there. I will try to post pictures when we get back. I know that I still have to post pictures for our NJ trip - but soon!

Blah, Blah, Blah

Well not much exciting has been going on at our house. Joe has been busy painting a condo so that leaves me and Mikayla to ourselves in the evening and all day on Saturday. Joe did spend some extra time with us on Sunday. It seems as if during a normal work week Mikayla is clingy to me when I am home and I have been saying it is because she sees so little of me during the week. Monday through Friday she only spends from 5pm to 8pm with me, then on Saturdays I have been cleaning so she would only see me from noon on, but she would also nap for 3 hours and finally on Sunday she would have me all day. In contrast Joe gets to spend an extra hour with her every morning and he also gets to spend Tuesday and Thursdays afternoons with her and then all day Saturday and Sunday. But I noticed on Saturday night Mikayla was missing her daddy. After he got home from painting and we were relaxing in the living room she wanted to sit with daddy and not mommy.

As I have said many times this pregnancy has been a little harder on me, I have had to start wearing maternity clothes earlier and my back bothering me earlier than with Mikayla. Maybe we are having a boy - who knows. I have determined that cleaning my floors really gets my back going, so I am no longer going to clean other people's houses and Joe said he will have to take care of the floors, but he is so busy right now I don't see that happening. I am getting better at only cleaning the floors once a week instead of multiple times.

Finally on my other blog I have started an 8 week challenge. I am using this challenge to really work on strength training, I want killer arms and legs - hey just in time for winter so I can cover them up!!! Check it out and see if you want to join. Basically you need to commit to 3 days of 30 minutes of cardio, 2 days of 20 minutes of strength training and one extra goal every week. Not too bad - the government says we need at least 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week.

Kids Say the Darnest Things

I went in to Mikayla's room this morning and after she said mama she said "My head hurts." At first I brushed it off but then she said it again. I started wondering why her head would hurt - 2 year olds don't have stress like you and me. I asked her "Why does your head hurt?" She responded "I hit it on my crib." Well no wonder it hurt, mine would hurt too.

LOL

New Jersey

We are back from New Jersey and we had a great time. We left on Friday, July 27th planning to catch a red-eye flight out of Denver at midnight and we would arrive in NJ at 5:30am. Perfect - so Mikayla can sleep and I don't have to take an extra day off of work since I don't get paid for vacation days yet. Denver is four hours from our home in Gunnison and we were about 2 hours into our trip to Denver and we received a call that our flight was cancelled due to weather but when we called our friends in NJ they said what weather? We decided to try to Denver and get a hotel room and deal with the situation on Saturday morning. Continental said that they had already rebooked us for a 5pm flight out of Denver on Sunday!! I told them that was not acceptable, I had a wedding in NJ at 2:30 on Saturday. Finally at one point I just wanted to get to NJ on Saturday so I would not have to pay for another hotel room.

We went to the airport on Saturday and they rebooked out of Denver Saturday night but we hung out at the airport because they had us on standby for earlier flights all day long in hopes we could get out earlier. Finally we boarded the plane at 5pm on Saturday and instead of the direct flight I had booked we had to fly to Houston and then catch another plane to Newark. Mikayla was wonderful. She was a chatter box all the way to Houston and they slept the whole flight to NJ.

We finally arrived in NJ Sunday morning at 1:30. I am very upset at Continental at cancelling out flight and then rebooking us for Sunday night therefore costing us money for a hotel room, missing the wedding which we had to buy new clothes for, and we lost 20 hours of our trip. My husband is going to write them a letter. From what I am hearing all of the airlines made money last quarter and they are doing this by cancelling flights that are only half full (red eyes or very early morning flights) and they claim it is due to weather since they do not have to do anything for you in that case. Also no one on the phone at Continental suggested to go to the airport to try and get on stand by they just kept saying that you have been rebooked for Sunday and that is all they could do. I am also planning on writing a letter to Travelocity. They are the ones who booked our trip and not once did they call us to let us know the flight had been cancelled. Since they have that stupid gnome with the Travelocity guarantee stating that is something is wrong they will work to make it better. Travelocity was worse than Continental - they kept us on hold forever and they could not do anything to help us. What has happened to customer service in this country?

Well once we finally arrived at Joe's parents house we were able to relax. We were going to go to Vermont for a couple of days to check it out but I was so tired from traveling I did not want to wake up Monday morning and get in the car for another 5 hours so we decided to skip that part of out trip. Mikayla had fun shopping with Grandma and playing in the kiddy pool Grandma bought her.

One night Joe and I went into New York City and had sushi with friends. That was a lot of fun. I enjoy going into the City and seeing different parts. Our highlight of the trip was going to the ocean. Mikayla loved running to the water but she expected me to be right behind her when the waves came! She loved it and did not want to leave.

I will post pictures as soon as I download them from the camera - and Sue please email me the ones we took with your camera.

We ended our trip late on Saturday. We caught a flight out of Newark at 5pm and that was another disaster due to Continental. With all of the rebooking on the front end of the flight no one bothered to rebook us on the return trip. They finally got us rebooked on the correct flight but we had three seats all over the plane. I told the person at the counter that would not work because I had a 2 year old. She said to the flight attendants on the plane. The first flight attendant I spoke with said there was nothing he could do about that but then the second flight attendant worked very hard to get all of us seats together - the first time the whole trip. Mikayla slept part of the flight and was awake for part of it. She does not sleep in her carseat like she use to. We arrived in Denver around 7:30 and we arrived at home at 12:30am! What a long day. Now back to the real world and working everyday!

Growing Out of My Clothes

When I was pregnant with Mikayla I did put on 5 to 10 pounds pretty quickly. During the first trimester I was eating all of the time in order to prevent morning sickness. As long as I had food in me and I would not get too nauseous during the day. But that 5 to 10 pounds was all over. Well this time I am almost 11 weeks and I have gained 4 pounds. Not a whole lot but it is all in my belly and boy am I growing out of my clothes fast. Before I got pregnant I was a 6 or 8, today I put on the size 10 jeans (that I have been wearing for a few weeks) and well they are a little tight. I guess I will dig out the size 12's tomorrow. I am delaying the maternity jeans for a while because I HATE them. Also since this is summer all of my summer clothes are form fitting so that means I am growing out of them as well. Since I can't drive over to the local mall for a shopping trip I ordered a couple of shirts from Old Navy - it took them over a week to get here and I hate them!! So today I ordered more shirts but from Motherhood, I am hoping I love them and since we are going out of town at the end of next week I paid extra for 2 day shipping. Man - sometimes I hate living in a small town in the mountains. I do keep telling myself to just be patient because next weekend we are headed to see Joe's family and that means New Jersey, big city with malls and shopping. New clothes here I come!!

Stuff

Well I see that I have not posted in about 2 weeks. I keep telling myself to load the pictures and I should post but well I have been letting it go. Sorry. My parents came in over the 4th of July. I had no babysitter that week so I took two days off of work (I have not been at my job for a year so I don't get any paid vacation time yet - otherwise I would have taken the whole week off.) We met my parents in Denver, hubby wanted to see a baseball game. So basically we drove 9 hours round trip for a baseball game. We met my parents, who live in Kansas City and spent the night in a beautiful hotel right in downtown. My parents, Mikayla and I went to a excellent restaurant and then we hit the pool. Mikayla loves swimming. The next day we went to the aquarium - Mikayla loved it! All we heard was fishy, fishy, fishy (I have to throw this in - right now Joe is outside mowing the law and Mikayla is eating dinner. She is awfully quite right now, so I just turned around and she is spreading yogurt all over her hands and arms!!! At least she is busy so I can write this)

Well after the aquarium we headed back to Gunnison. Mom and Dad babysat Mikayla the next two days and Mikayla had the time of her life. Mom sure does have a lot more energy than I do right now!

Other than that not much is going on. It is pretty hot here, hot for Gunnison is 85. We have a big blow up pool that Mikayla spends most the weekend in.

We are still working on potty training and it seems as if we have been stuck in the same place for a while. If is she is naked from the waste down she will use the potty, no problem but if she has pants or panties on she will go in them. Oh - pull ups - they are useless to her they are just like a diaper. I know if I was a stay at home mom she would probably be potty trained because we would be working on it all day instead of at night and on the weekends. I just wish we were past the diapers at this point because I she can hold it.

Well I better go and clean up the dirty girl!!

Here are the pictures of her getting dirty. Forgive the shaky camera, we need to get a new digital camera. Whenever I take pictures inside or in the evening (even with full lights on) I have to use night and in order to use night you have to hold the button longer - with an active 2 year old the pictures get fuzzy.

90% Emmissions Reduce

As you know I am working on reducing my emissions, not by 90% but reducing them. So I sat down this month and kept track of how much gas we used. Normally Americans use 500 gallons of gas per person per yes. To break it down that means for a family of 3 we would be using 124.8 gallons of gas per month!! That would be over $400 in gas per month!! Wow. This month we used one gar for 75% of the time. I rode my bike to and from work at least 3 days a week. We also took trips on the weekend to go hiking were we drove over 40 miles total. Our total gallons used this month were 42.5. If we reduce our emissions to 12.5 gallons we would be reducing our emissions to 12.5 gallons we would hit the 90% mark. We also went over in gas when I had to use my car for work to drive over 60 miles and I know my husband uses the car for work purposes as well. I know that the month of July we will be using more than 42.5 gallons because we have to drive to Denver (200 plus miles) twice and we are flying to New Jersey at the end of the summer - I don't know how to figure those miles in but I will be over.

Once I get my gas and electric bills I will post the difference on those. I have been using the clothes line outside to dry 80% of our clothes so the dryer only runs about 2 hours on the weekend. Hubby still uses the clothes dryer when he does laundry during the week. If I was a stay at home mom and I did all of the laundry I would hang it outside, but I am not and I need the help that Hubby gives.

I have also bought 3 of the CFL (is that right) low energy light bulbs and installed them in different fixtures. We will see if that helps the electric bill as well.

Hiking, Hiking and More Hiking

I know I have not written in awhile and I am trying. But I forget. Also the past couple of weeks I have been exhausted in the evening and exhausted in the morning and exhausted in the afternoon. I was exhausted for a reason - we are going to have a baby!! We are very excited and man - second time around it is easier. I had about two weeks of being so exhausted in the evening I could hardly take care of Mikayla and I was a little sick in the morning but a bowl of cereal took care of that. Now I feel great, I don't even feel pregnant!

Well on the weekends we have been taking Mikayla hiking in the beautiful mountains around us. Last weekend Mikayla also got to go to a mini-livestock show put on by the local 4-H. She petted mini sheep, goats, ponies, horses, cows. She loved it! She even led a mini pony around! I will post pictures this week - I promise.

Yesterday we headed up a place called Rainbow Lake and went for an almost 2 hour hike. She rode in her backpack the whole time, on my back no less!! Great workout for me. Later that day on Sunday Mikayla and daddy played in her little pool. They both had a blast. We ended the weekend by going to see Bruce Hayes, a local musician, playing in the park. What a great weekend.

I promise I will post more often! Not ready to commit to once a day but I will try to post at least 3 times this week.

How is your green challenge going?

I am no where close to some others but at least I am trying. Let's see how I am doing.

Electric bill - I have not bought any special light bulbs yet, I am waiting for some light bulbs to burn out. I would hate to waste a perfectly good light bulb. But maybe this weekend I will buy a couple and replace a few. I am also turning the lights off a lot more than I use to. The clothes line is working great, I have only been running the dryer for maybe 2 hours the whole weekend instead of all day Saturday and all day Sunday. Now if I could get Joe to hang the clothes out when he does laundry in the middle of the week - that would be accomplishment. (Not gonna happen!!) I tried to wash all of our clothes on cold and was not happy. I know the clothes will get much cleaner if I use warm.

Gas for the car - Joe and I are pretty much using my car only. I ride my bike to work as much as possible and he takes my car the rest of the time so instead of paying for gas for 2 cars we are only paying gas for one car. But it seems as if we are filling it up more, trips to Lake City for my 10K run (over 120 miles round trip), trip to Crested Butte to go for a hike (60 miles round trip). I estimated that we spend about 70 gallons total on gas per month - I am keeping track of how often we fill up and how many gallons so I will see at the end of the month.

Plastic Grocery Bags - I have two canvas bags that I take to the store every time and I try to remember to bring left over plastic bags. Hey mom - if you any extra, spare canvas bags laying around I would love it if you would mail them to me!! I should have about 10 canvas bags, that way when I do a full load at the grocery store I am set - no more plastic bags. I have also been using a reusable bag for Mikayla. I am on the look out for a cute lunch bag for me and a different one for her.

Garbage/Compost/ Recycle - I recycle everything that I can and it is not much - plastic 1 and 2, clear, green and brown glass, tin cans and aluminium cans. I do wonder how much actually gets recycled in a small town. The clear and green glass just go to help cover the landfill! I need to reuse more glass containers and plastic containers as well - especially the ones that I cannot recycle. I needed more TP so I bought recycled TP and I plan on keeping this up. My grocery store does not offer recycled paper towels - otherwise I would buy these as well. I have invested in a lot of towels so I am using cloth towels for cleaning the kitchen, napkins, cleaning the house and anything I would have used paper towel for in the past I am using cloth towels. I need with the compost pile. If you have any advice please let me know. I am looking for something small (garbage can), dogs cannot get into, does not smell, and if a potential home buyer (our house if for sale) would not know what it is. That brings me to my next question - if I start composting now (I would use it for kitchen scraps) is it worth the while if we sell our house in the next couple of months and we move across the country? I would not transport compost material.

That is it for now.

A Great Weekend

This weekend Mikayla went for a long hike - well long to her. We hiked up Mt. Crested Butte. She climbed from the base area to half way up the Peachtree lift (bunny slope). It took us at least 15 mintues of steep uphill. Then she did some walking and some riding in the stroller the west of the way up and rode the whole way down. She loved it and it was sooo pretty and of course I don't have pictures - sorry. Then we had lunch with Jen in town and Mikayla got to play with her friend Solas or now as she calls him Soleman! She got that from me. Sunday we stayed home and relaxed and Mikayla went fishing with dad. She held a worm in her hand and saw three planes. Well that was our weekend at the O'Connell house. How was yours??

Clothes Line

I finally got a clothes line. I have wanted one for a long time but never took the time to get one. Well with the challenge to reduce emissions I finally bought one. This way I do not have to run the dryer as much. So of course I had to take a picture and of course Mikayla had to be in it.

Daddy, Mikayla, Skyler and Teo - all having a good time outside in the beautiful weather.

You can't catch me!

On Saturday I went to Lake City and did a 10K run. Daddy hung around with Mikayla in the park while I ran. Elle, the girl in blue, is Mikayla's friend from daycare. Elle's mom, Leah, ran the 5K while pushing her 2 year old and 5 year old. Go Leah - she finished fifth for the 5K!

This afternoon we headed to the lake for some fishing and fun. Daddy caught a very small fish

Can you be more green?

I keep hearing all over the news and Internet that we really need to start doing something about the amount of energy we consume and waste we create. Simple Living has challenged herself to reduce her emissions to 90% of the national average. She is also challenging her readers to reduce their emissions - not by 90% but just reduce. I personally feel that if we all do a little it will help a lot. So after reading her blog I have decided what I can work on.

Gas for the car - The national average is to consume 41.6 gallons of gasoline per person per month. After some math I believe that Joe and I consume about 70 gallons total, which puts us at about 35 gallons per person per month.
Right now I am trying to ride my bike to work every day. I am going to keep riding my bike to work as much as possible. Also on the weekends I already try to do all of my errands at one time in order to reduce time and gas.
So my goal will be to only put in 40 gallons of gas per month or 20 gallons per person per month. I will keep track of this by keeping a gas receipt for every gas purchase.

Electricity - The national average is 900 kwh per household per month. I have no idea what we consume and not too sure how to reduce our electricity usage. I need to buy the energy efficient light bulbs and a clothes line to dry out clothes outside. After I receive our electric bill early next month I will address this issue.

Garbage - This is another tough one for me. The average person generate 4.5 lbs of garbage per person per day. So we are generating 13.5 lbs per day. On average on a weekly basis we put 2.5 cans of garbage at the curb for pickup. I already recycle what I can and since I live in a small town it is not much. Mikayla is still in diapers but we are working on potty training and since we are almost done with diapers I am not going to switch to cloth for a few months. I am thinking about creating a compost pile. I would have to buy something that is enclosed so the dogs do not get into it. I am also going to buy re-usable lunch bags for Mikayla and myself. Right now I put our lunches in a plastic bag from the grocery store and toss the plastic bag when it gets too old. I am also going to buy more canvas bags so when I go to the grocery store I will have re-usable bags instead of plastic bags. I have cut down on paper towels by using cloth towels but I need to get Joe to do the same. The next time I buy toilet paper it will be recycled.
This goal might take a little while but I am going to aim for 1.5 cans of garbage per week.

That is all that I am going to tackle for now. Are you up to the challenge? What would you like to do to help reduce your emissions. Here are some great blogs that address these issues and really open your eyes to what needs to be done. Also remember small steps are better than none at all and most the these links that I am sending you to have been doing this for a while so don't think you have to do what they are doing.

Simple Living

The Green Mommy

No Impact Man

Walk Slowly Live Wildly

From all of these blogs you can find other green blogs as well.

Did you buy gas today?

Today was the Gas Out. On May 1st I posted this. It was an email I received about not buying gas today. So - did you buy gas? All I know is that it is getting way to expensive. I am also biking to work more in order to not waste gas.

Birthday Pictures at Last

Sorry this has taken so long. I do not have the software at work to put the pictures up there and in the evening I don't have a chance normally to sit down and relax until after Mikayla is in bed and dinner is done, normally after 9pm - and everyone knows that I like to head to bed around 9:30!! Joe's parents, Grandma Linda O'Connell and Grandpa Big Joe came in for Mikayla's birthday. They arrived on Saturday and the big party was on Sunday. We invited lots of people and quite a few came. The weekend before her party it was super beautiful outside and of course the weekend of her party we had snow! It snowed Saturday and Sunday - off and on mixed with rain. These are the few pictures were the sun came outside. Here we are sitting outside enjoying the beautiful day.



Is Joe telling Sean how to grill the chicken or vice versa?

More people enjoying the little bit of sun we head.



We are opening presents. Grandma is in blue taking pictures.


More presents. Mikayla's friends, Sienna, Rory, Conor and Annabell are in the watching.

This is now called her dolly. Cake Time!


Mikayla and Cooper enjoying some of the yummy food at the party.

The day after the party it was beautiful - of course. Joe, Mikayla, Grandma and Grandpa went to the lake while Mommy had to work. As Mikayla says Mommy, bring home bacon! Someone has to.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. For mother's day we headed to Grand Junction to get some much needed shopping done. One thing I hate about living so far from the city is having to drive 2 1/2 hours to go shopping, so therefore we only go once or twice a year. Mikayla had fun. she kept saying going shopping all the way there. She also loved running all around the store with Mommy following her and trying to shop at the same time. I thought shopping use to tire me out but with a 2 year old it really does!! Oh well we had fun and we also got a lot of great clothes.

Potty Training

Well I have a job this weekend, it is potty training! After Mikayla takes a bath she normally runs around the house naked for a while. The past few times she asked to be changed pretty quickly so I put her clothes on and a diaper. This evening I was cleaning up the kitchen and she said she wanted to be changed and she was grabbing herself so I told her to go use her potty and she did!! and she went pee!! I was shocked. She has sat on her potty before but never long enough to use it.

Little Wool Gatherings

I am trying something new. I am reviewing a post put up by Little Wool Gatherings. I get paid to review her blog by Pay Per Post. I have no idea if I am doing this right but I am going to give it a try. Melissa is a 29 year old stay at home mom to three kids. I am 28 and I only have one child - I cannot image having three at my age. The post that I am reviewing is about wanting to go back to college and graduate. I image most moms that never finished college think about this all of the time, but right now she is too busy being a mom to try and finish college. Even if she did finish college what would she do with the degree, find a part time job. There is no way Melissa would want to work full time and be away from her kids - she enjoys staying at home too much. I would highly recommend her blog - it is an excellent mommy blog.

Mikayla is 2

Mikayla turned two on Monday and on Sunday we had a huge birthday party. I invited about 40 people and I really did not except all of them to show up - well not everyone came but we still had about 30 to 35 people with at least 10 of them being kids. We had so much fun. Joe tried to do a rubber ducky race in our creek it started off great but then a neighbor dog came over jumped in the creek and tried to eat all of the ducks. Mikayla received plenty of nice presents. She really loves the baby stroller and the grocery cart with groceries that Grandma got for her. She will say she is going shopping - at the age of 2!! The Grandparents left today and they had tons of fun with Mikayla. It was Grandma's job to give Mikayla a bath each night. But Grandma would not clean her - Grandma said that is not the point of bath time!!! I would hear hooting and hollering from the bath while Grandma was in there. I am going to try and post pictures tonight!!

DO NOT BUY GAS ON MAY 15

DO NOT BUY GAS ON MAY 15TH

in April 1997, there was a "gas out" conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight. On May 15th 2007, all internet users are to not go to a gas station in protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most places. There are 73,000,000+ American members currently on the internet network, and the average car takes about 30 to 50 dollars to fill up. If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companys pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on May 15th and lets try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day. With it saying, ''Don't pump gas on May 15th"