Former Nanny Seeks Children to Snuggle

I used to be a nanny. I had been babysitting since my early teens and when I was 19 I decided to become a nanny. I had always loved children, the money was better than minimum wage and I'd much rather play with blocks and change diapers than blend smoothies or suck up to customers at a boring retail job.

My first nanny job was taking care of a 2.5 year old and then helping out with her newborn brother when he was born a few weeks after I started. Some days I was sleepy and the hours of sitting on the floor playing with a 2 year old got mind numbing, but overall I loved it. I went on to nanny for more families after that and continued to love it. Especially the babies and toddlers. My favorite ages are like 3 months through 3 years old. There's nothing like a 1 year old stumbling/running at you for a hug.

I recently reconnected with the mother of the kids mentioned above through facebook. They're now 8 and 5 1/2. Whaaaat? Really? I was looking through her pictures and realized I missed them. I miss being around children way more than I thought I would. So I did the logical thing...

I put an ad on craigslist. Sounds totally creepy, but I found a lot of legitimate jobs this way. I work from home and my schedule is flexible, so I totally have the free time to be a nanny. As of right now, no bites in my little town of a lot of stay at home moms and people who can't afford a nanny.

Also, I didn't actually title it "Former Nanny Seeks Children to Snuggle". Do you think that would get me more replies? Because I'll totally change it if it will put me on the fast track to changing diapers and warm, cuddly babies who just woke up from a nap.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of my posts (also through bloglovin). 

Also follow me on twitter for tiny updates into my little life. We'll be bff's in no time ♥

Randoms.

This is what our Thank You post cards look like. I still haven't mailed them. FAIL!

Random things:

I've always disliked peanut butter. Except for Reece's cups, those are ok. But over the last few weeks I've been CRAVING it ever since Blaine got a banana split with peanut butter sauce (that sounds weird) on it. I mixed in peanut butter and banana in to my chocolate protein shake for several days.

Today I tried apples with peanut butter. I'd rather just have an apple. I think I hate peanut butter again.

The window sills in our bedroom are still dark blue. We should paint those, I guess.

I'm a bad gift receiver. I'm polite, don't worry. But I'm secretly thinking about how I hate getting STUFF because clutter suffocates me. I'm still trying to get rid of clutter from the last 25 years of my life, don't give me anymore. Unless you know exactly what I want NEED, get me a gift card. I'm trying to make my house/life minimalistic here, people!

I gained like 7 lbs while my sister was visiting. This is why she will be moving in with my dad if her husband gets deployed. Me + sister = fatties together. It's coming off naturally now that I don't have someone to stuff my face with all day.

Yesterday, I took a sip of my Monster. Felt something on my tongue. Pulled it off. AN ANT. I did that thing where you rub your tongue furiously with your hand out of disgust. It did not help.

I finally learned the lyrics to Bennie and the Jets. You should have heard what I've been singing for the past couple of years.

On my wedding day I almost didn't wear make up. I planned on mascara, but I didn't really think about make up at all. I hardly wear it. Luckily the girl who did my hair (isn't it pretty?) fixed that for me and put on some natural looking make up.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of my posts (also through bloglovin). 

Also follow me on twitter for tiny updates into my little life. We'll be bff's in no time ♥

Flashback Friday!

I've never done a Flashback Friday post before, though I've seen it on a few blogs and all over Instagram. I'm jumping on that amazing, amazing bandwagon. But in my own unique way. I've been going through boxes in my office and let's just say, I found so much good stuff from photos to notes to printed out AIM conversations.

First off, let me just say I was awesome. I may not have known it at the time, but now I'm impressed. Do you remember those "doll" images from the early 2000's? Let me refresh your memory...

Ok, it took me a lot longer to find that than I thought it would. You can't just type "Doll" in google. Or even "doll graphic". Sheeh... Anyway, about the dolls. I may or may not have used them in my project on The Crucible.

Oh yeah. That happened. And I got an A-, you guys. It was dolls or stick figures. I had to make a choice.


By the way, I have Jesse McCartney's autograph from when he was in Dream Street.

But before you get all hyperventilating on me, I didn't meet Jesse McCartney. Not even when he was a wee little boy and we kind of thought he was annoying. Nope, I can remember being super angry that they were finally coming to California (they lived in New York) and that my friends were going to the mall to meet them. Where was I? On vacation in New York.

Moving on... to a Sears catalog from 1962 that I bought at a vintage shop because I couldn't stop looking at it so I had to take it home.
















And that's the end of my weird twist on Flashback Friday! Happy Friday!

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of my posts (also through bloglovin). 

Also follow me on twitter for tiny updates into my little life. We'll be bff's in no time ♥

Window Shopping Wednesday

I haven't done a Window Shopping Wednesday in a while! Here's what I've been lusting over lately...

Personalized Gold Necklace on Etsy

Hemnes Dresser from Ikea

Buy Local Tote Bag on Etsy

Patio Set at Target

Pretty Toms here & here

Zoku Quick Pop Maker on Amazon

Sectional Sofa from Crate & Barrel

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of my posts (also through bloglovin). 

Also follow me on twitter for tiny updates into my little life. We'll be bff's in no time ♥

Dream Life

So I have this dream life. You know, the kind of life you've been picturing since you were a kid and altering as you grow and your personality and preferences change. Mine has changed here and there, little changes, big changes. When I met Blaine he filled in the blank face of the man standing by my side. No matter what changed, though, something always remained. A happy family loving every moment of life and taking in as much of it as possible. You know, typical sappy Lifetime movie stuff, minus the creepers, adulterers and all the drama filled craziness. Ok, so it's nothing like a Lifetime movie.

My dream life always based itself around a business. I've been dreaming and planning businesses since I was in high school, maybe earlier. I vividly remember sitting in Algebra, planning businesses and brainstorming. Seriously. This dream business would give me the freedom to work from home and eventually would give Blaine the freedom to do the same. So that we could plan our business around our dream life. This dream life also includes a couple cute little Blaine's and Aileen's, the number fluctuates between 3 and 5. Side Note: Blaine does this thing when he's about to spend a lot of money or make a stressful decision where he swallows really intensely as if all the moisture has suddenly been sucked out of his body and his throat is dry as the desert. Like when we have a huge vet bill. He doesn't notice he's doing it until I point it out. Now back to the whole 3 to 5 kids thing. That would make that poor guy gulp like crazy. He's content with the dogs being our babies for now.

This dream life also includes a beach house as well as a cabin in the mountains. And visions of our littles flying kites on the beach with Blaine while I tap away at the laptop working on this dream business that seems to not require much work or stress at all. We would take month long road trips and visit all sorts of places from Mt. Rushmore to ghost towns. Spend holidays in our cabin in the mountains snuggled up in old quilts drinking hot cocoa and watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

As we speak my dreams are coming true. I found an amazing guy to spend my real-life-dream-life with and Kintage is turning out to be my dream business. I could not be happier with how our life is turning out right now and I feel so lucky to be able to say that.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of my posts (also through bloglovin). 

Also follow me on twitter for tiny updates into my little life. We'll be bff's in no time ♥

The Hunger Games Movie: My Thoughts

source

Let me start off with: I completely failed at re-reading the first book before seeing the movie. I got somewhere around page 100, thought about waiting to see it when I finished in a day or two, then literally minutes later went online and ordered our tickets. Yep.

I loved it. Things were slightly different than I pictured them and they did change some random things around, but overall I have no complaints. Other than it's very hard to watch from the front row with half the movie being close ups and the other half being quick moving camera shots. The scene after everyone gets stung by tracker jackers? I eventually closed my eyes to literally keep from puking, I got that nauseous.

When we got to the theater I made a comment to Blaine that there should be an adults only screening of the movie. The tweens behind me gushing about Peeta got old real fast. They also happened to be reciting random lines that they knew were coming. If they weren't like 12, something would have gone down. Except not really, I promise I'm not a jerk. I just would wish I had the guts to say something.

I would love to see it again, from a reasonable distance away from the screen. But overall, I'm glad I saw it. I'm still not in love with the actor that plays Peeta, even though I'm in love with his character. However, he's growing on me and I like him much more than when I saw who was playing him the first time. I think I'll continue reading the first book again even though I saw the movie already.

Oh and by the way, this website exists. Yes.

Happy Hunger Games!

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of my posts (also through bloglovin). 

Also follow me on twitter for tiny updates into my little life. We'll be bff's in no time ♥

Currently

Loving: The weather lately. Crisp and chilly in the morning and then the afternoon is the perfect temperature with an amazing breeze. I've been opening the windows, well the ones with screens, to let all the gorgeous air in. The kitties are loving it too, they sit right in front of the windows and sniff the air. One thing I love about this house is that it seems to be in the perfect spot for air flow throughout the house if you just open a couple of windows. The breeze is going to be our savior this summer without AC. I think we can manage.

Thinking about: Getting the back yard done. We have 1/3 of an acre to fence and we want to get it done before it gets too hot out. We're doing it ourselves to save A LOT of money (no really, do you know how much fences cost? Amazing.) and I am not looking forward to it, but it'll be worth it to be able to have the dogs and chickens out back. I also really want to get my garden started ASAP, but there are enough bunnies and other little animals to eat my crops even with a fence. I feel like it'll be pointless without one. Maybe we'll get started next weekend! Once I get over to my dads and pick up the bag of soil I left there, I can get my seeds started and hopefully have somewhere to plant them when the time comes.

Anticipating: Going out of town this weekend! Super Car Sunday + a bridal shower for one of Blaine's long time friends that I was surprised and excited that I got invited to. I still have to pick up her gift and wrap it up, but I'm excited to get out of town for a day. OH! And seeing the Hunger Games this weekend! I am rereading the first book and was hoping to finish before I saw it, but I still have almost 200 pages left. I'm not sure if I'm up for reading all day today, we'll see. But I'm so excited! And I keep seeing Jennifer Lawrence (who plays Katniss) on interviews by accident and I kind of love her. Blaine was watching Chelsea Lately with me last night when she was on and he mentioned that we would probably be BFFs. Agreed.

Listening to: This morning I was listening to Haley Rheinhart on Spotify. I totally forgot about her until she was on American Idol last night. There have seriously been so many seasons that I can't remember half the winners, but now I remember that we loved her.


Eating: Breakfast has not been the least bit appealing lately so I've been forcing it down or not eating it at all which is worse. But if I don't have breakfast and I have coffee, I usually get a headache. So I made myself eat four bites of oatmeal with raw honey and cinnamon. Now I'm drinking my coffee.

Wishing: That my office would clean itself! It's a bit of a disaster. With my sister here for two weeks, I didn't do much cleaning or upkeep. Blaine finally gave in a few days ago and did the laundry that had been piling up on our bedroom floor. I caught up a little yesterday and vacuumed + swiffered (that's a word, right?) the floors downstairs along with cleaning the kitchen a little. But the problem with my office is I have so much stuff and I need to find a way to organize it. Maybe I can convince Blaine to take a trip to Ikea when we're down in LA this weekend.

Life is getting back to normal after my sisters visit. Blaine is happy to have me all to himself again. My little sister is my bestie so when she's here we just do what we want and it's almost always sister time, poor guy.

Happy Friday!

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of my posts (also through bloglovin). 

Also follow me on twitter for tiny updates into my little life. We'll be bff's in no time ♥

Worst chicken parents ever.

Our chickens are officially just over three weeks old. They are super awkward looking because they're growing their big kid feathers, but there is still some fluff in random places. Mostly their heads look tiny because it is still covered in fluffy feathers. Well along with getting older, they are starting to get more curious... and active. This includes jumping out of their enclosure which is located in the bathroom. It doesn't happen often, but the little droppings on the floor are an indication of that.

When we first got them I was a nervous nellie about the toilet and told everyone to close it, even though they were too little at the time to get out of their enclosure. Well... one of us forgot to close it last night and this morning the scariest thing happened. I was in the kitchen getting water and Blaine was checking on them before heading out the door for work. Suddenly he frantically tells me to come into the bathroom and I'm just casually like "Did one of them get out again?" and as I'm turning the corner into the bathroom he's like "One of them is in the toilet!" My heart skipped a beat, but I assumed she was just flapping around in there and couldn't get out. No.

Our little brown chicken was soaked to the bone, unmoving in the toilet. Head limp, eyes closed. I almost died of guilt and sadness right there. Blaine kept telling me to get her out and I told him "I think she's dead". He insisted he saw her move a little bit, so I scooped her little lifeless body from the toilet and grabbed a towel and started drying her off. She was completely limp and dead with only the tiniest bit of movement that I wasn't sure was actually happening, or if I was imagining it. Finally I got more solid movements, the poor thing kept opening and closing her mouth and would twitch randomly. There was hope, but not much.

I immediately dried her off, put her under the heat lamp to warm her up and try and get her to wake up. Blaine called the vet (closed) and was redirected to a 24 hour vet who told us we needed to get her body temperature up, but not too fast. We were told to put towels in the dryer and wrap her in them. By this time I could see her body move as she took deep breaths, so I laid her down on a towel under the heat lamp and went to warm up some towels. By now she was making lots of noise, angry/sad little tweets. But she was alive. After the towels were warm I wrapped her up in one and we cuddled on the couch for a while. Her eyes would open if I moved her too much, but other than that she kept her eyes closed and hardly moved, but she was making tons of noise and breathing well which gave me hope.
 

I put her down on the towel in front of the heat lamp again and she kept trying to stand, but didn't have the strength to. I watched to make sure she didn't fall over and once she was laying down I went to warm up more towels and feed the other animals since at this point all I could do was hope that the heat lamp helped her out. When I came back about 5 minutes later she was standing (HOORAY!) under the heat lamp. I left her alone in there to bask in the heat, it seemed to be helping and I didn't want to stress her out with my presence.

Now, just a few hours later, she's still got a few damp feathers, but she's back in the enclosure with the other two chickens. She's still a little weak, but she is walking around and pecking which I'm taking as a good sign. I'm keeping it a few degrees warmer than it needs to be in there so she can continue to warm up. The toilet seat is closed and I don't think we'll ever forget to close it again. It's amazing that just 2 hours ago I was holding her lifeless body, ready to hate myself for the rest of my life for letting this happen.

I have had so many animals over the years and have been so lucky because accidents like this are very rare. I am filled with guilt and yet so happy that Blaine checks on them before work because I probably wouldn't have checked for another hour or two and I don't think she would've made a come back. I feel like the worst chicken mommy ever. But on the bright side, I think she's going to be ok and this is going to be the most spoiled little chicken ever.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of my posts (also through bloglovin). 

Also follow me on twitter for tiny updates into my little life. We'll be bff's in no time ♥

Mini Pismo Beach Trip + Snow Day!

On Saturday we headed over to Pismo Beach, even though the weather said it was going to be rainy and cold all weekend. We still had fun! It rained off and on, but not long enough that we couldn't wait it out in whatever store or restaurant we were in. We spent a lot of time in our room, too. Somehow we opted to sit in the room Saturday night immersed in Dateline shows about murders and eating Japanese food from the restaurant around the corner. My kind of night!

On Sunday, my dad met up with us and we had lunch at Splash Cafe (we did the day before too) who is famous for their yummy clam chowder. I was a bad bad vegetarian and got a bread bowl with clam chowder and ate around the clams, I just couldn't pass it up. So yummy! After lunch we hung out on the pier (it was freezing!) then started our trek home where it was snowing pretty bad. We wanted to make sure we made it before they closed the freeways, which they did less than 2 hours after we got home.


All in all it was a good weekend despite all the crazy weather! My sister is leaving to go back to Tennessee on Wednesday so we're all going to LA for the day tomorrow and then dropping her off at the airport on Wednesday.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of my posts (also through bloglovin). 

Also follow me on twitter for tiny updates into my little life. We'll be bff's in no time ♥