News On the Homefront Today

I'm taking this really good class at the rec center. I started it about two weeks ago and it's tough. It's called Power Core or something like that and it's all about toning and weights. I'm really loving it. Today during the class I found out that the three girls who are nearest to me are an Occupational Therapist, a Physical Therapist and a Speech Therapist. What a small world! The OT (Danielle) and the ST (Natalie) work for Tooele School District and I'm not sure where the PT works. Anyway it's such a weird world.

In other news, the rash has gotten a little better mainly because of my diligence to using my allergy medication. But The Marshmallow told me today he feels badly that I've gone around for a week looking like a crazy cat got hold of me and he's willing to get the big-V. I must say it makes me a tad bit sad and that's such the opposite emotion I would have expected from myself. It means he's given up on convincing me that we should have another baby. Well, hadn't I given up? When I talk about having another baby I tell people I'd sooner chew my arm off. But I guess it's one thing to say you don't want more children and another thing to not be able to have more children. Not that him having a "V' would eliminate me from having more children ... well, you understand. I'm not going to go have another baby with someone else but duh - why am I even explaining this. I might just sleep on this for a week or two just to make sure I'm okay with it. On the other hand, he said "make an appointment" and if I wait, he might take it back.

I'm thinking of taking a trip to Idaho next week sometime for a couple of nights to visit my little sister who just had her 4th baby. This is the girl who now has 4 children under 4. I'm sure she was adopted because that sort of tolerance just doesn't run in the family. Personally I think she's nuts but I can't think of a better person to do this particular job. And, she is using my #2 most favorite name that I was going to use for Tinkerpot. She named the baby Charlotte. I just love that name and am so happy that now there's one in the family so even if I can't call my baby Charlotte, at least I can say the name lots. Plus, ended up I did get my very favorite baby name for Tink.

It's 8:30 now. One kid is abed and the other one is pending. I'm going to break my regular routine of lounging after the kids are down, and I'm going running. I've always liked to go in the evening and I'm a stronger runner at night but I get so lazy and so haven't done it much since Bugs was about 3. I need to get back up to my normal 5 miles.

Well, toodleoo. Hope you have a great night.

Please tell me I'm not the only person who still eats the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms. I'm so bad! If the fam caught me doing it, they'd kill me, haha!

In my job I work at a contracted rate per visit. It's been the same rate now for almost two years. Yesterday I emailed my boss about possibly increasing my contracted rate. So far, he hasn't responded. Why is it so nerve wracking to ask for more money? I know I am doing a great job so why do I feel so I insecure about it?

I feel like a terrible mom when I give my kids Mac 'n Cheese for dinner.

There is 22 minutes until Tink goes nitey nite and 43 minutes til Bugs heads up and 65 minutes until I get to put on my headphones and fall asleep to the great book I'm "reading".

One Excellent Reason To Get Married

The Marshmallow and I have known each other since we were very young. I think I actually met him when I was still 21 and he was not quite 26.

On our first date, I came ripping into his driveway in my cute little mx-3 with the sunroof open and some hard rock station blaring out the windows. He says I was smoking - ahhh, I probably was but don't tell anyone. An old habit that was kicked long ago. He also teases me a lot about that day saying that I was doing my best to look cool. Well, all I can say is that he noticed me and it didn't scare him away.

But back to why it's great to get married. Over the past...um....lots of years he's gone from 26, to 32 to, 37 to almost 41. I've gone from 21 to......where I am now. And as the years have gone by we've noticed various things happening to our bodies as gravity pulls, wrinkles become prominent and the early startings of arthritis start to make joints ache a bit in the morning. And then we laugh...at each other. We tease each other badly about getting old. And it makes it easier to take.

Take last night. I'll accept the fact that gravity has pulled my bum into non-existence. I have no bum. And I suppose what bum I do have sags. But I can totally laugh about it if he teases me about my grandma bum like he did last night. And I look forward to teasing him about his balding head. We'll grow old together and totally make fun of each other along the way. It's more fun that way.

I hope he doesn't gyp me out of teasing him about using a walker and carrying oxygen around by dying too young. That'll suck.

There is hardly anything better than starting out Monday morning with an already clean house!

Can't You Wait To Hear About My Rash?

Oh my Gosh people! I'm totally freaking out! I have never felt so completely enslaved to something. This rash has taken over my life!

Little history: I got the Mirena IUD put in last Thursday and oh my heck: it was painful. Let's just say that I don't look forward to getting another one in...ever.

It took about 3 days and I started noticing that my thighs right over my knees and my neck just below the hairline were itching. Then it was my palms, then my forearms, then my calves...then everywhere! And a ton! I looked it up online and turns out it's a pretty common reaction and listed as one of the possible side affects.

I wake up in the night clawing at my hands and arms and back and chest. Today at church I was sitting there talking to someone and I realized that I had pulled up my skirt (it was really long) up over my knees so I could scratch both of my legs with both hands and I realized how weird I must be looking. My neck/chest is so mottled that people are asking me about it! I am itching it constantly! My fingers are especially driving me crazy and because there's not much layer of fat under the skin on my fingers, it's so painful to scratch them the way I want to!

Even the shower drives me nuts because each of those tiny sprays of water pelts down onto my already itchy skin making me itch even more. It's torture.

I don't want to get the IUD out yet. I wonder if I wait a bit the reaction will go away. I've started taking an allergy medication and hopefully it'll help to take care of it. If not, I'll ask for a prescription of Prednasone or something similar. I can't take much more of this.

Cute Pregnant Girl...

I was sooo nervous to take the photos of my friend Korina. She wanted "artwork" and I was really intimidated. It's one thing to take pics of your own kid. If they don't turn out, so what. You try again the next day. But when a person comes to you specifically for beautiful photography, well - I sort of felt obligated to deliver (but I wouldn't take payment...yikes!). And although I can take an ok photo here and there, it's another thing to take a whole bunch of them.

But I did...she was so beautiful. It's so easy - when your subject is gorgeous she does all the work for you. I'm so proud of the way they turned out even if I only pressed the button. Look at her cute belly. She's due in May and believe me...she'll look this cute right up to the day of the delivery. This is her third baby - ya, do you believe it? Some of the photos were quite revealing so I'm just sharing with you a couple that maintained her dignity.

Anyway, thanks Korina for making it so easy for me to make you look beautiful!

In about 15 minutes I'm taking photos of my cute friend Korina. I'm so nervous! I'm sue they're going to turn out awful but I told her I couldn't promise anything. Good thing she's so laid back! I apologize in advance Korina but I couldn't have a prettier subject!

I wish someone had told me that having an IUD would make my whole body itch like I've walked in poison ivy n@ked. I'm scratching myself raw.a vasectomy is looking so apealing right now.

My yearly employee evaluation was this morning and I dreaded it. This past year has been hard trying to adjust my job schedule now with two kids and this job suffered hard core. I evenblew off two whole shifts. So I wasn't looking forward to what was in store. Turns out my boss forgot......just like that. So we're doing it by email which will be smoother and less likely to be so "in my face" bad. Too bad I left my spinclass 10 minutes early to be here on time! Crap!

I made it to spin class this morning even if I had to be 1/2 hour early. What a joke! So here I sit .........waiting. At least I got in though!

If a meal is a winner with Bugs then it is a winner with me! And Tiajuana Train Wreck was definately a winner with her; she even had seconds which NEVER happens. It was glorified taco salad with a sort of "chile" mixture that I ended up putting some hot sauce into just to give it a little more of a grown up flavor or else the sauce would have tasted sort of "chef boy r dee" ish. ID give it 3.5 stars and 5 for family friendly. NOT a low calorie choice though ;)

The train wreck smells good - we'll have to see if it tastes good!

Text Blogging

I've decided to start blogging by text in addition to sitting down and blogging by computer. During my day, I seriously have so many thoughts I'd like to post to my blog but can't because I'm nowhere near my computer...and by the time I am there, I've forgotten.

I could text my thoughts to my FB status but I am less and less enchanted by the time-sucking FB and who really is reading all my status updates anyway? A lot of people but there is no context! Here, at least is a monologue of my daily thoughts and my updates will be an extension of that.

So look for my updates here and probably now on a more frequent basis since now all I have to do is send a little text to my blog and *poof*: you're knowing what I'm thinking. Just what you always wanted.

ps: I get to send pictures, how great is that?

This is a test of the Emergency text-blogging device. This is only a test. Please stand by.

Tiajuana Train Wreck

The Marshmallow has a very annoying habit of coming in as I make dinner and looking around at the fixin's and saying , "What's is this?"

Um, dinner. Watcha think?

I say, "Do you want to know the name of it because that's not going to tell you anything." as I think back to the peculiar names that various things can be called in cookbooks like Husband's Delight (huh?) or Hospitality Casserole (how can a casserole be hospitable: wouldn't that be the cook for making it in the first place?)

Tonight I'm making Tiajuana Train Wreck. I thought the name sounded interesting. How did this dish get it's name. Does it look like a train wreck, all bloody and gory and messy? If so, I doubt I'll get any takers.

I downloaded a huge mess of crockpot recipes into my The Living Cookbook software - just another delight of this awesome program people. I'm so loving it I might marry it.

This is the recipe and I'll letcha'll know how it turns out:

Tijuana Train Wreck

=== SAUCE ===
2 lbs ground beef or turkey
2 Tbs chili powder
4 Tbs ssugar
1 large onion
1/2 can tomato sauce
3 small cans tomato paste
3 cans water - (to 4 cans), tomato paste size
Oregano, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Salt, to taste
=== TOPPINGS ===
Chopped tomatoes
Lettuce
Green peppers
Grated cheddar cheese
Sour cream
Doritos Chips

1. Simply brown meat and drain. Place all sauce ingredients in crockpot
including browned meat and cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours
stirring on occasion.

2. Serve each plate in this order (bottom to top): Doritos on bottom; Meat;
Sauce; Lettuce; Tomatoes; Green peppers; Cheddar cheese; Sour cream for
topping.

3. This recipe yields 8? servings.

4. Comments: Here's a quick and easy recipe you can serve buffet style at a
holiday get-together like the 4th of July. This way each family member or
guest gets to build their own meal with their personal choice of toppings.
The sauce can be made in advance and then simply reheated or frozen for
later use.

Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 495
Calories From Fat: 375
Total Fat: 41.9g
Cholesterol: 105mg
Sodium: 1395.9mg
Potassium: 504.7mg
Carbohydrates: 14.2g
Fiber: 1.8g
Sugar: 4.2g
Protein: 16.9g

Recipe Author: n/a

Recipe Source: Southern U.S. Cuisine (crockpot collection) at
http://southernfood.about.com


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Will The Real Amy Stand Up?

I've got my groove back on, that's for sure! I've been up at 4:45 every day this week to exercise, a feat that I only dreamed about just 6 months ago. It's important to me but I have to be in the right mindset for it. And now I am. I think it's the impending triathlon season that's got me motivated.

I don't want to suck. And clearly right now, I do.

I haven't been to a spin class at the rec center in a couple of years and I recall back then I was going to the Friday morning class. For those of you not up on "spin" terminology, that's "cycle class" in a dark room, set to really fast and loud music designed to bring on a stroke. It's effective. It's a great heart-busting class.

So I show up about 3 minutes early for the class and wasn't I surprised to see that the entire class was full! Last time I was came, there was only about 5 people in the class that holds 17 bikes.

When you first get to the rec center, like most spin classes, you have to sign up and I haven't yet figured out why you have to do that for this one class - why not a step class? So there was one last spot on the sign-up sheet so I signed up and then proceeded up to the class. I get in there and it's already dark and people are getting warmed up. I start looking for my bike...and there is none which means 1 of 2 things. 1: someone is there who didn't sign up (most likely) or 2: a bike is broken and they didn't tell the front desk.

I go back downstairs and the girl at the desk tells me that if I'd like I can take the roll up to the instructor and have her find out who didn't sign up and I could take the place. Keep in mind it's 5:15 AM. I got up FOR THIS CLASS. I grabbed the roll and started hiking up there because I was mad! I did the right thing and am now being screwed out of what is rightfully mine! I paused though imagining myself going through with what I was about to do:

The room is dark, the music loud. The instructor looks at me and realizes I want to talk. She stops biking and ushers the class to continue on. But she can't hear me! She takes off her headset and turns down the music in the room. All of the class people look at me with irritation. I give her the roll. She starts calling out names like we're in kindergarten. Someone says they didn't sign up. They collect their things. They say they forgot to sign up this time and are sorry. They leave. I walk, trying to keep my head erect over to the bike and get on feeling the whole time like a big heel. The girl obviously got there before me.

The indignant side of me says: "But you have a RIGHT!"

The "new" me who I didn't know was in existence says, "It's okay. Don't make a scene. That person will figure out eventually that they have to sign up. You can always come next time."

Wait. Where did that person come from? It's not like me not to cause a scene when one becomes available!

I'm rather proud of myself today. I deserve chocolate.

p.s. I didn't come home and go back to bed.

Treasures and Home Health

Over the years, I have accumulated a small cache of treasures received from patients. Some people are so giving it stuns me with their kindness. In turn, I have passed on a few trinkets myself because I feel that what goes around comes around and that I am selfish if I just take, take, take of these cute peoples' generosity.

Among the various gifts I've received have been crocheted hot mits, hand embroidered day-of-the-week flour sack towels, a sewing pin cushion/scissor holder/rubbish bin (very clever), an autographed original book of which the author was my patient, and a number of other random bits here and there.

Today was the mother of all treasures though and had it been a gift, I wouldn't have taken it. I had a feeling the cute little lady who gave it to me was indeed going to "give" it to me but the poor girl is living in subsidized housing and obviously pinching pennies. Not to mention the item in question is worth a bundle! I am absolutely in LOVE with antique oil lamps and this woman had about 8 of them high on a shelf in her apartment, very dusty and not in use. I commented on them because I always comment on beautiful oil lamps. I told her someone might want to buy those if she was willing to sell them. She said the thought had never occurred to her. I bought it on the spot and she cleaned it up for me and gave it to me the next time I saw her.

I'm ashamed to say how much I bought it for. Okay, $50. But I now know, since checking e-bay, it's worth twice that and so, since the beautiful lamp sits right in my daily line of sight I'll never forgive myself for ripping off an little old lady so I'm going to pay her the rest. But don't you just love this lamp? Is it just me or is it not divine? This lamp has been in her family since she was a little girl and it was one of the primary lamps they used for light. I think that's a wonderful story. I can see this lamp being an heirloom in my family too. At $100 I still think I got a good deal.

A Teenager And A Baby

My sweet friend B had a baby girl last night. She was named Macey and is a beautiful 9.5 oz chubby girl who meows like a cat (for now, lol).

B is a junior in high school and made a mistake that sadly many girls make but she got pregnant unfortunately.

I just came from visiting her at the hospital and both girls are doing very well. B has decided to place the baby for adoption with a very nice young couple who want a family very much. It has been a tough decision for B, understandably and she has vacillated over the past 9 months but who wouldn't?

I told her that knowing what I was like when I was her age, I just don't think I could have made that responsible choice and that I'm so proud of her for doing it. I know it's been hard but as for knowing how she feels, I don't. She walks that road alone.

I look at some of the really rediculously difficult things that people have to go through in their lives, decisions like the one B made and other things like losing a child, losing a spouse, your home being destroyed in a fire...just to name a few really tragic things - and I have to say that I lead a pretty charmed life so far. The worst thing I've probably been through in my adult life is a divorce, and while that is very devastating and horrible, it's not nearly as bad as some of these other things on my list. I just can't even imagine.

When you think of hard events like this, the first thing most people think is, "I could never cope with that - I just wouldn't make it!" but people do. All the time. They make it through somehow. I don't know how, and I'm sure for a time they are just ripped to pieces and they have to completely re-invent themselves in a new world but they do.

I am constantly impressed and amazed by peoples' strength - like my sweet friend B. I know she made the right choice and I'm glad she did for that baby, and for the adoptive family - and for herself. But I cry for her when I think of this next little while and what she'll be going through. 17 - and already doing what most people shudder to think about. What a strong and beautiful spirit she has. I just love that girl.

A Sunday Well Spent

My house is trashed. Literally trashed! I'm so grateful there's no school tomorrow because Bugs and I can get down to business and sort through this trash pit. I would be so embarrassed if someone stopped by right now! Did I mention to you that I have a one year old Tazmanian Devil living in our midst? Her name is Tinkerpot and chaos follows her.

But instead of chasing my little devil around the house with a broom and trashcan, I sat here...

and watched this cutie...

and this cutie...and this Marshmallow and a 4-wheeler wrestle with a boxwood bush.

It was a very nice relaxing Sunday.

Happy Birthday Josh, wherever you are!

Yard Work Has Begun

and the roses are finally all pruned! I wasn't quite sure but it turns out that I have eight rose bushes. And while I am very capable of pruning roses, they don't intimidate me because I learned how to do it, sadly I have never pruned the roses here at this house and this will be our 4th summer here. I know I talked about it last year but seriously, I had a brand new baby AND I was recovering from a C-section. It wasn't happening.

It was torturous, let me tell you! A rose that has gotten away with itself for a number of years is quite difficult to reign back in. They get huge and wild and very thorny and quite like a child grown up without discipline. But it's complete now and they are back to bare bones...literally. I, on the other hand, have many scratches and thorn-pokes to show for my labors.

Here are some before and after pics of my adventures with stern clippers and a no-nonsense attitude. I took no prisoners:

This one's right outside my front door & is a beautiful rose.
oh my gosh! It's naked!

Rose bushes OUT OF CONTROL!

These two bushes are ancient! Many dead branches and old trunks.

Rose bushes ready for a new season of growth...

Adventures in Domestication

It's been on my radar for a couple of years to learn to crochet. And not because I'm just dying to know how really. I come from a line of excellent crocheters and unfortunately the art will completely fizzle out when my mother dies. And if this doesn't strike you as tragic, then you don't understand what sorts of heirlooms an excellent crocheter can leave in her family. In my case alone, not even counting my sisters, I have two beautifully thread-crocheted (not yarn, people - THREAD) blessing dresses for my daughters and their posterity. Beautiful dresses with hats, booties, blankets etc. And my mother has made one of these for each of her granddaughters (and in my oldest niece's situation, she will have one for her daughter because my mom was a little late on the upswing for that her first grandchild). And not only that, but she has made me several absolutely stunning doilies. And before you say what good are doilies except to adorn the house of an old lady - well, then you haven't seen these doilies. They are works of art and should be framed. I don't usually put doilies on tables because they can get ruined. She also crocheted the absolutely darling little hat that Tinkerpot is wearing in her 11 month photos, among many cute little things she's made over the years.

Bugs at 3 monthsTinkerpot at 3 months

I don't want to lose that skill in our family! I want to be able to get good enough at it that I can make beautiful things for my children and their children. I want to make heirlooms, things that last longer than me. Things for my family to cherish because my hands made them. And I suck at quilting and it bores me so this might be just the thing.

Fast forward to today. I chose a cute little beannie hat for Tink and Bugs and we started out. I was feeling pretty awesome - making good time, my stitches were even and not sucking too bad. I was enjoying myself and my mom is a fantastic cheerleader. Until about row 12.....I handed it over to her thinking I had done something wrong. I went to the bathroom and when I got back, her whole demeanor had changed. She was packing up her stuff! She said that she had picked the wrong pattern for me to start with and it was her fault but I had screwed up so royally that she couldn't even figure out what I'd done wrong. She'd pick a nice hotmit (what? a freakin' hotmit?) or a little blanket or something nice I could start with. I mean it was late - like 8:30 and I know she was tired but seriously I almost started to cry! The Marshmallow was sitting over on the couch with his lips totally zipped shut but he winked at me like "hey, don't worry - I don't think you suck...". And then she was outta here.

Soooooo. Um, not sure what I'm going to do with this. Maybe knitting will be easier?

Me and Laziness

are old friends, let me tell YOU! Mainly in the morning though and I do make solid attempts to conquer it. I exercise in the morning faithfully. Ok, not so faithfully but I faithfully make ATTEMPTS to get up and exercise every morning. I make it about 75% of the time which I suppose are good odds for someone as lazy as me.

Do you want to hear how lazy I was this morning? I'm almost ashamed to admit it and if The Marshmallow knew about it I'd be so busted. I mean so seriously busted I might even lose my job. :)

I meant to get up early this morning and either run or swim. That was the plan. It fell through right about the time my alarm went off at 5am. My inner devil convinced me in one of the multitudinous ways it has that I can't possibly get up. So I didn't. I snuggled down and went back to sleep.

Fast forward to 7:30.

Bugs climbs into bed with me. At this point, we're already 1/2 an hour off our of morning schedule which puts me in a funk. But I knew we could catch up if I was really chasing her around (bad idea #1), so I didn't worry and closed my eyes again. Have you done this? Ya, I know I'm not alone out there! Why can't school start at 10am?

At about 7:50, Bugs volunteers that she has a sore throat and that she probably shouldn't go to school. I give her the obligatory, "Are you sure?", hoping against hope that she will say yes. Am I bad or what? This is not my typical behavior. I'd normally never let her get away with that one. I'm too consistent, too stern or whatever that is that makes you send your child go to school despite the best excuses.

I let her stay home because I didn't want to get up and get her ready!

I'm saying it. I said it. I admitted my worst laziness EVER. I can't believe I did that. Don't t;hink I'm awful. I won't let it happen again. I'm not really that mom. I just have a problem. An addiction to my bed.

Crap.

Dear Tinker,

My sweet little snugglebug. Tonight, at 10:15 you woke up and were crying hard in your crib. Most of the time when you do this, I watch you on the monitor for a few minutes to see if you'll find your binky and go back to sleep. But tonight I worried that you were hungry and so went in to calm you myself. I picked you up and took you to the rocker where you snuggled down into the crevices of my body. You didn't wear socks tonight so I played with your toes while you drank from your cup for a minute. You weren't interested in eating. Just snuggling. That was fine with me.

You're a busy little girl. From sun-up 'til bedtime you're discovering, exploring, running, searching, and climbing. I rarely get you snuggling let alone absolutely still for even a moment. But tonight, I held you with both arms wrapped around your chubby little body and my nose buried in your fuzzy bald head. I didn't look up at the clock. I didn't think about putting you back in your crib. I just held you and rocked and nuzzle your sweet smell for about 20 minutes. And you fell asleep in my arms. I held you for a few minutes more knowing that tomorrow I'll wake up and you'll be two, then three then 15. I can barely remember you as a tiny baby.

I'm grateful for these moments of clarity that the Lord gives me; these times when I can fully take advantage of the benefits of being a mother. There are good times, laced with lots of hard times but you, little girl are one of two suns that my heart revolves around. I will never forget how your little body felt in my arms tonight.

Your Mamamamamamama

How I Got a New iPhone - Do Not Try This At Home

Don't let your 1 year old play with your iPhone. I repeat: Do Not Let Your 1 Year Old Play With Your iPhone. She dropped it repeatedly.

Ok, to be fair, I dropped it numerous times. I carry it in my back pocket and whenever I *ahem* drop my drawers, it falls onto the tile (better tile than in the toilet's all I can say). Needless to say, it's been dropped many times. And then the baby got hold of it and dropped it hard 3x in a row.

So the button on the front would not work and this is a problem. This is a problem and for anyone who has found this blog post because their button is now not working, I found this forum which explains what was wrong with my phone, confirmed by the AppleStore folk: So check it out.

I took the phone to MacDocs early the next morning because I was literally freaking out about not having my phone, a fact that The Marshmallow was very frustrated about. I got a lot of crap about being that addicted to an inanimate object. MacDocs was unable to fix iPhones - just so you know. So I took it to the AppleStore at Gateway.

The two guys that were assigned to my case took one look at my phone and I heard one murmer to the other, "check it for water damage". I piped up and said, "I totally dropped it in my drink a month ago!" And he said, "Wow! That's some honesty!" I said, "Well I don't have AppleCare (the warranty) so it's not like I have anything to hide!"

About twenty minutes later, they came out and handed me a brand new phone. Keep in mind that my alternatives were these:

1) take a replacement phone for $200 or
2) take the upgrade on my account for $200

Either way, once I found out that they don't "fix" phones, rather they just replace them, I knew i wasn't getting out of there for less than.....$200.

But back to the part where they handed me a brand new phone. It was free. F.R.E.E. He said I was honest and nice and they just wanted to do me a favor.

You guys, my hair was A MESS, I wore no make-up and I was not cute so it can't be anything remotely related to anything like that. All I can say is that perhaps honesty was the best policy here.

Big Shout-Out to the AppleStore at Gateway.

Amazing Finds - and Not So Amazing

I have lived in my house for nearly 4 1/2 years and in all that time, I'm going to admit right now that I have NEVER cleaned out under my bed. Like, I've never taken everything out and vacuumed it all up. There is a lot of dust under there and who knows what else!

The height of my bed off of the ground is about the height of a shoe box so it's not really convenient to climb under there and pull stuff out - hence why I've never really taken the time. Out of sight, out of mind.

But the other day, I happened to sort of look back there and noticed some little things that I couldn't identify. There's not much light so I couldn't see what they were and then I decided I needed to get under there and clean.

So I did.

Here is a list of a few of the more notable things I found, besides enough dust to make me take a puff on my inhaler:

1. a shoebox filled with tampons (yay! I was about to go buy a super duper big box of them)
2. a super cute pair of brown boots I forgot I owned!
3. a badly needed mousepad
4. a work badge that I thought I lost about 2 years ago
5. 2 clothespins
5. 5 Q-tips
6. my golf sandals
7. 4 bobby pins
8. a tin of cookies (i wonder who these belong to?)
9. an old dish network satellite box
10. several mangled pairs of slippers
11. an extension cord

Do you want to know what the most un-awesome thing I found under there was? Dry, crusty cat poop. The cat got stuck in there one day, I remember. I can't believe we never smelled it! Maybe that's when I was burning Scentsy in my room every day and it masked the smell. No, I wasn't burning Scentsy BECAUSE there was an awful smell, lol although I wouldn't put it past me! I guess I'm just glad it's gone. Almost makes me want to change bedrooms! I almost barfed when I was able to identify it (it was the unidentifiable from the first paragraph).