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"

Piggy

Mikayla did something so cute today. She came over to sit on my lap after work and she said piggy. I looked around and I did not see a pig. I told her to go get the piggy. She climbed off of my lap and went over to daddy's wallet, which was sitting on the coffee table and she picked it up and opened it saying piggy. She wanted money from daddy's wallet to put in her piggy!!

Beautiful Weekend

We had a BEAUTIFUL weekend! It was 65 or 70 all weekend and perfect sunny weather!!! On Saturday Mikayla played in her sandbox and and played with daddy outside all morning. When she took an afternoon nap I took my book outside and sat in the sun. Around 4 my friend Jen, her husband, Kevin and their son, Solas came over. Mikayla was very excited to play with Solas. We went out to dinner at a Mexican place in town and everyone loved watching Mikayla run around the restaurant, pulling her shirt up in order to show Solas her button (belly button.) Then Solas gave Mikayla a kiss on the nose! Toddlers are way to cute!

On Sunday Mikayla and I went for a walk just as the college track team was heading out for a run. Mikayla kept wanting the boys to come back. "Where are the boys?" She started saying "boys come back." After the walk we went to see another friend, Kathy, who has a horse. Mikayla loves horses. She could sit their all day and watch the horses. We can home and enjoyed some lunch outside. Right now she is sleeping - going on 4 hours - I guess she was tired and had a very busy and playful weekend. Enjoy the pictures!

Mikayla playing in her sandbox where a pretty dress. I love to dress her in dresses and I can finally put her in dresses now that it is getting warm outside.

We have an outdoor room, I guess it use to be a storage room or something. Now it is Mikayla's play room.

Mikayla got her first pet on Friday. A beta fish. She loves to feed it and watch the fishy

This is her Zebra. She will go climb and go "rocky rocky" on it but she needs help getting off!

Loving the Outdoors

I love living in Colorado and we are really pushing all of the things we love about the outdoors onto our daughter. I try to take Mikayla for an evening stroll a few times a week and I like her to get out of the stroller and walk some it herself. This evening we walked down to the river and watched Daddy fly fish, the birds fly by, the dogs play in the river and of course Mikayla loved throwing rocks into the river. What a perfect evening! Hopefully next time I will remember to bring the camera so you could see for yourself!

April Snow?!?

One of the things I love about living in the Rocky Mountains is a Spring snowfall, especially since I know it won't stick, it is pretty and it adds a lot of moisture to the ground. Here are two pictures of our backyard this morning at 7:30am.

Here are a few pictures of our backyard at 6pm!

Just for fun here is a picture of Mikayla eating her blueberries. She loves them - especially the frozen ones!!

All Natural 7-Up

Ever since I had Mikayla and especially since she has a wheat allergy I have been really reading food labels. If something says all natural, I expect to be able to read all of the ingredients and that they come from nature. So after seeing the commerical for all natural 7-up, where they have removed all of the preservatives I wanted to see exactly what was in it. The next time I went to the store I picked up a can of "All Natural 7-up" and well it said high fructose corn syrup!! Last time I checked high fructose corn syrup was not made in nature. Why can't they use regular sugar? I just came across an article saying that 7-up was suppose to drop the all natural campaign because of the high fructose corn syrup but that article was dated January 12 and I just recently saw this ad aired on TV. It just goes to show you that you cannot believe everything you see and you have to read the ingredients.

Going Green - no impact

Today all we hear about is global warming, trying to create no impact and living green. I am slowly working on my share of trying to live more green and creating less of an impact. I use paper towels a lot less than I use to instead I bought basic kitchen towels about the size of a wash rag and I use those all of the time in place of paper towels. I use them to clean the house and almost any time I would use a paper towel I grab a rag. I recycle what I can - clear, green and brown glass, number 1 and 2 plastic, aluminium and tin cans. I buy recycled toilet paper a little more. It costs a lot and we are on a tight budget but I try to buy one four pack for ever other time. I re-use my plastic bags - I should just break down and buy a whole bunch of canvas bags so that I never need a plastic bag.

Well - my whole point is that I cam across a blog called The No Impact Man. It is a blog about a man, wife and two year old who are living no impact for 1 year. I think this could be done if you live in a warm climate with a little bit of land to have a nice garden on - but no this guy lives in New York City in an apartment. Check out blog. It is really interesting and it makes you think what else you can do to help the environment.

Birthday parties!!

Sorry it has been a while since I wrote last but nothing exciting is happening right now except that it seems as if Mikayla adds at least 5 new words to her vocab a day! She is learning and retaining so much. Last night, Elly - another 2 year old at daycare - had her birthday party. We get to Elly's house and Mikayla is saying Elly house. It was so cute to see them greet each other inside. Hi Elly, Hi. They played so hard. There were some 3, 4 and 5 year old kids there as well and they all had a great time - no temper flew or anything! When it was time to go Mikayla said bye to Elly and gave her a hug - how cute is that!!!

Paper Back Swap

For awhile I have been a member of the Paperback Swap. It is a wonderful website where you post the books you wan to get rid of and you can order books from other people for FREE. Yes I said for FREE. Whenever you send out a book to someoner you pay the postage but when you order one it is free. I love it. I have sooo many books that I have either read so many times I have the entire book memorized or books that I personally do not like but other will enjoy. I really enjoy using this site for when I just finished a really good book and want to read other books by the author I go sit at the computer, pull up the website and do a search by author and I see what others have posted. Check it out today.

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