Five Years! #Blogiversary

Wow! It is so hard for me to believe, but today marks the fifth anniversary of when I started this blog and made my first post (which was just a "hi, I'm here" type of post). If you had asked me on that random day in 2008, how long I thought I would be blogging, I'm not sure that I would have ever guessed I would still be at it after five years; after all, I started the blog on a bit of a lark. I had been out surfing the web and seeing all of the other blogs that were sharing about deals and opportunities, recipes and life.

As I was reading the other blogs, one of the things that struck me more than anything was the idea that you could get deals at the drugstore. I could remember a time, a few years earlier, where I had headed to a CVS and bought something like a pair of hosiery for a wedding. I remember them being on 'sale' but that it wasn't actually a sale price, to take advantage of the actual deal, you had to come back. I can still remember my first CVS shopping trip, after I started reading about the drug store game on so many other blogs. I was so nervous, I was shaking and I kept thinking that the clerk is going to tell me that I can't do that...I can't actually buy product for nothing OOP. But, I did. With each visit, I gained confidence. I learned that half the battle was finding the right sequencing of the items, to maximize the savings and minimize the out of pocket. I thought, I considered myself a reasonably cost conscientious shopper, if I didn't know about the drug store game, there might be others that would benefit from reading about the scenarios that I saw for the coming week. I thought, why not set up a blog where I could share my plans and deals. Plus, an intern at work had asked one day that summer, do you have a blog...it seemed like a sign, that I should join in.

In order to start the blog, I faced one of the biggest challenges - choosing a name. I wanted something simple, yet memorable. There were a variety of blogs that I was reading at the time, with some that I read the most being The "Cent"sible Sawyer, Money Saving Mom, Rocks in my Dryer, and Mommin' It Up. I was worried that if I chose too specific of a name, that I would lock myself in. Although I have now seen a few of my favorites update their identity successfully. In the end, A Busy Mom of Two seemed to be a good fit. It didn't necessarily seem to say a lot about the content, but if nothing else, it was a description of my life and hopefully, something that others could relate to. Of course, sitting here 5 years later, I realize what an understatement busy really is. At the time I started my blog, my son was almost 5 and my daughter was 18 months. I felt busy then, but I am here to tell you that I am still busy, but it is a very different busy.

My strengths in life have always been in the area of science and math and never really considered myself to be creative. I have really enjoyed having the blog as a creative outlet. I have used it as a way to share with others the things that I love - cooking and baking, reading, music, movies and more. I enjoy trying new recipes to share on the blog (although, most of my recipes now I share on A Busy Mom of Two In the Kitchen). I really enjoy all of the books that I get to read and share. I have discovered new authors and grew in my enjoyment of familiar authors as I have read books and shared about them here on the blog. I have had the opportunity to check out so many new things in general.

In addition, as time has passed, I have found in my life that others come to me to talk through challenges and looking for ideas. A Busy Mom of Two has allowed me to share many ideas and tips, things that have worked for me to solve one thing or another - whether it be doing laundry each day or tackling cleaning one room at a time, the tips are nothing earth shattering or crazy creative, but honest, tried and true ways that I tackle things. In fact, as a regular participant in Works for Me Wednesday (at least I used to be), I even found links to my posts included in an eBook that was published, which I thought was pretty cool!

I am really enjoying my experience as a blogger and hope to continue for years to come. Thank you for being a reader - having readers and reading comments or posts on Facebook is part of what I love best! And, to help celebrate, I have a couple of upcoming giveaways that I will be posting in the coming week and a big giveaway coming in August.

The End of an Era

Today was a rough day for me. Today was the last day of daycare for my daughter. Now, I understand that the kids will be back next summer for latchkey, but that, even though the same school is at a different location.

Going to daycare has been a part of my daily routine for the past 8 1/2 years. I have come to know several of the teachers and the owner/administrators very well in that time. They are almost like family.

I will never forget the first day that I had to take my son to daycare. I was so worried. He had been home with my husband and at my neighbor's since I went back to work.

As background, my husband worked from a home office and most of the time kept him at home, but as needed for travel, business meetings or teleconferences, we would rely on a neighbor to watch my son. That all changed one week when my husband was traveling on business and unable to make it home as planned. Our neighbor was not available on short notice and I was forced to take an unplanned vacation day at an inopportune time. At that point, we made the decision that we needed a different child care solution. We had checked out several options - both daycares and in home care - when my son was first born, but had never found the one that was right for us. A coworker that knew that we were looking made a recommendation for a daycare just south of where we lived and on the way to work for me. I just had a good feeling about the place when we went for a visit.

The first day of daycare was a cold day in March and my son was just 7 months old. There was a shutdown at work that week, which meant that I needed to be in early for the project work I was supporting. I dropped my son off, right as the daycare opened. I cried when I did, I cried when I left. It was so weird to think that someone I didn't really know was going to be caring for my son all day. I called in the morning to check on him and drove up on my lunch hour, having about 15 minutes to hang out after accounting for drive to and from. I got there and he was sleeping. I didn't care. I picked him up from his crib and went and sat on the floor in the play area and just held him and rocked him. I put him back in the crib when it was time to go back to work. I couldn't wait to pick him up at the end of the day.

It took some time, but as I became more and more familiar with the teachers and the administrators, it got easier to say goodbye to my son each day. I knew that he was in good hands. By contrast, when my daughter came along and had to go to daycare, aside from the fact that I didn't want to leave her and go back to work, it was much easier, I knew the center and the staff and there were no concerns with leaving her there. I knew that they would take care of her and cuddle her and hold her and that they cared about her.

The center has grown a lot in the time that I have been a parent. The room my son was first in as a baby is now the 'big' 2s. The latchkey that used to be at the center has been moved offsite. Many of the teachers moved up through the school with my children. One of my daughter's teachers in the 4s and 5s, was one of the original baby teachers that my son had. The one owner/administrator left the center several years ago. I have grown close to a couple of the teachers and the remaining owner/administrator.

They have all become part of my daily routine over the past 8 1/2 years. It was very strange when I dropped off my daughter this morning. I was sad. I was saying good-bye to friends. Sure, we can stop by and visit, but it won't ever be the same. They won't be part of my and my children's daily life. We will be back for latchkey, but that is a different location and different teachers. We will still see the owner/administrator at latch key, but not every day - she isn't normally there when I drop off or pick up the kids. I had to say goodbye this morning though, because by the time I return to pick her up, they are done for the day.

When I picked her up tonight, I cried again. I said goodbye and it was hard.

I feel very fortunate that I found a center that I truly loved, filled with people that I really trusted with my children and formed a bond with.

Now, tomorrow is the first day of kindergarten. I am sure that it will be an equally tough day for me. My daughter is so excited and I am excited for her, but the reality is that my 'baby' (she tells me she is not a baby) is going to school and that is sad to me. I hate to think about how fast the time is going. I will be a mom of two school-aged children.

Rough Weekend...

Really, I guess it wasn't the whole weekend, maybe just Sunday. In fact, the first part of the weekend was pretty good. My son lost his second top front tooth on Friday (had lost the first one last Friday). He looks pretty cute with that great big gap in the front of his smile. He had his first baseball game of the season and did really well. We watched Yogi Bear on Saturday evening as a family, complete with popcorn and soda (a real treat for the kids).

Sunday started out as any other Sunday would. The kids got up way before they should have, just like normal. They tried to play nicely, but for as slow as I feel when I first wake up, they are full of energy. They were of course running around in the bedroom and my son fell (or wash pushed?) into the wall (thankfully just the wall, considering all of the sharp corners in a bedroom - the dresser, the bed, the bookshelf, the toy shelf). So, I got up to see what was going on and thus started my day.

We all had breakfast together. We headed to church. The kids wanted to get donuts, but I asked if we could stop at home to get everything I needed for the grocery store so that we could take care of it all while we were out.

Then, we decided to eat lunch before going, so we were all busy doing our thing until lunch time. My husband was doing his annual spring clean of the garage. Sweeping away the leaves and the salt and such from the garage. The kids had been out back swinging and came in for a snack of celery and carrots (their request, not my suggestion).

While we were hanging out in the kitchen snacking, we heard the cat get sick. Not anything unusual, as he always seemed to have a hairball. I went to see about cleaning up the mess and I knew something was wrong - it was green. His food's not that color, his fur is not that color. We decided that with the other changes we had been seeing lately, not eating much (even his "yummy" food), not being as playful as he normally is, and such, that we really needed to take him to the vet.

I think we knew what the outcome would be even before we left. Before going, we spent some time (in the garage of all places) holding him, petting him and we even took pictures with him. We told the kids that he was sick and we weren't sure if the doctors would have a medicine that would make him better. They were sad and said good-bye to the cat and then we went to the vet.

He weighed just over 10# when we checked in. This, my same cat who two years ago weighed in at 22#. We knew he had lost weight, but at first it was gradual. At a check up this time last year, he was 16#. The doctor also said that he was very dehydrated. They did the physical exam and the bloodwork. Based on the results, we had to make the very difficult decision to allow him to not suffer any longer.

It was very hard. Telling the kids that the cat wasn't coming home, that was even harder. They were sad. They cried. From their perspective, we had always had a cat. From our perspective, our cat was our first joint venture. We adopted him 13 years ago (last Wednesday was that anniversary to be exact) as a kitten.

It's amazing how a part of your routine a pet can be. This morning, when my alarm went off, there was no cat to sit next to my bed and cry to remind me to get up and feed him. When he was younger, I almost didn't even need an alarm clock - he would come in and wake me up. Walk on my face if he had to, to remind me to feed him. I still listen for the sound of him "hopping" down the stairs. I see empty spots where I used to find him, like next to the dining room window, where he had the best view on the outside world.

If that wasn't enough stress for one day, my husband headed upstairs to change for a meeting that he was planning to attend and heard a drip in our bathroom. After checking all the faucets, and even the float in the tank, he realized it was the tank that was leaking. And, really, not just leaking - cracked. Yes, another toilet tank in our house has cracked from top to bottom. In all my life, I never remember having a toilet tank crack and yet, I have had two occurrences in this one house (thinking it was a bad lot of pottery used for those tanks?). We headed out to Lowes at 7 pm last night, in hopes of replacing it - no luck. Called Home Depot. Checked Walmart. Turns out that no one stocks tanks for the brand that we have. So, needless to say, I will be calling the manufacturer, like I did four years ago when this happened to our other tank and hope that I can get one at a Plumber's Supply like I did then. (think I should be worried about the third one?) So, right now, we are without a toilet in our master bath. We have a wet spot on the ceiling in our kitchen. It appears to be drying. I find myself thankful that it wasn't any worse, that we caught it when we did. If my husband, hadn't have gone up to change, when would we have found it? My guess is either we would have noticed the wet spot in the evening or I would have found it when I went up to bed.

The bad part about the toilet tank cracking and the leak showing through on the wet ceiling is that my son is very concerned about this. He was very stressed last night, between the cat and the leak. I'm not sure what it is, but he was also very stressed when our basement flooded a few months ago. He fell asleep in bed, but when he woke up, he came downstairs to hang out with me and sleep on the couch. Hopefully, seeing that the ceiling is drying today will help him feel better about that. Then, he will only have the loss of the cat to manage through.

I sure hope that you all had a much better weekend.

Is Everyone There?

I did some blog housekeeping this weekend and of course, I didn't think to send out something ahead of time in case I lost people in the moves.

Why the moves?
You see, three or so years ago when I set up the blog, I was just "playing" and set it up in one account. Then, I wanted to make things more cohesive, so I set up a new e-mail account to associate with my blog. When I tried to move my blog from the e-mail where I had set it up to the e-mail I was using for the blog shortly after creating it, the move failed miserably.

I'm not even really sure what went on but I couldn't seem to move it. I tried adding an author, but never got the "invite" which left me unable to move the blog. So, for nearly 3 years now, I have been having to sign in and sign out of accounts to be able to read my e-mails, edit my blogs, follow blogs, etc., because the functions were split amongst the two e-mails. It was a nightmare (really, more so just a frustration).

So, finally last night, with my husband's assistance, we moved the blog. The challenge was that we couldn't delete the other log-in that I had originally tried to move the blog to. So, we had to first transfer the ownership fully to him and delete both of my log-ins that were listed on the account (even the one that never worked!). Then, we were able to finally invite the "right" log-in to be an author and set it up as the administrator so that we could "delete" my husband.

Now, everything is under one account. No more having to toggle between my accounts to keep up with blogging, e-mailing, following and such. So far, I like it, but I have some concerns, like did my feed stay intact? I was able to move my feed (as far as I know) and can access the history through the new log-in, but I'm not yet sure if it is still publishing. That's where you come in...could you stop by and leave me a comment letting me know that you are still getting my feed? It would be great to hear from someone that has e-mail, someone that has it in a feed reader, etc. I just want to make sure that I haven't lost everyone!

A busy weekend...my birthday

As I have mentioned, I was very busy this past weekend. This is the first in a series of posts to share my wonderful, but busy weekend.

My birthday was last week and my husband surprised me by arranging a getaway weekend to Pittsburgh. He arranged for my parents to come and stay with the kids, he made reservations at a hotel and reservations for dinner and, he didn't say a word to me until I opened my birthday card and found a note inside.

A little backstory...

My husband and I met in New Jersey. He lived there, I was living there for a 6 month training assignment for work. I wasn't looking to meet anyone out there. My goal was to move west, closer to home, when I completed my training assignment and got to choose a more permanent position - the last thing I needed was a tie to New Jersey, some 10 hours+ away from home. Of course, when you aren't looking is typically when you meet someone. We met at a restaurant/bar the first weekend I lived in New Jersey. My roommate, also on a temporary assignment - only as a co-op, and I had met a girl at the gym and we met her and friends at this restaurant bar. Long story short, at the end of the evening, it was my roommate and myself sitting at a table with my husband and his friend (whom he hadn't seen in months). We agreed as a group to get together the next weekend and do something. Over the next month, we spent a lot of time hanging out - I saw them as two new friends. Then, one night, it turned into something more and we started to date. We still mostly hung out as a foursome, but occasionally, got together on our own.

As expected, after 5 months, I received my list of final location options. There was one that was a few hours away and there was one back in Pittsburgh, where I had done my first training assignment. I visited the one that was closest, but it just wasn't a fit for me. I decided on the Pittsburgh opportunity. My husband didn't think that he was up for a long-distance relationship, and broke up with me, saying that we could be friends. I was heart-broken. I thought we had a great relationship and didn't understand why he wouldn't even try to work it out, but it had only been about 5 months. When I moved, I called my other new friend first to catch up. This evidently struck a jealous chord and I soon received a call from my husband. He was rethinking this long-distance thing. We arranged a few visits (thank goodness that Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were hubs for US Air and we could get reasonable flights) and the rest is history. We eventually got engaged, he moved to Pittsburgh and we got married.

Which brings me back to my weekend...

When we arrived in town, we drove past our first house. It was strange to see it again. It looked like I remembered, only a little more overgrown. The Cleveland Pear tree that we had planted in the front yard was now taller than the house and the shrubs at the front of the house were a little ragged, but the house looked good and hadn't changed much since we lived there.

For dinner, my husband made reservations for us at the restaurant on Mt. Washington, overlooking Pittsburgh, where we had gotten engaged. We headed into town, all dressed up (I don't wear a dress out often). We parked at the bottom of the hill and rode the Fort Duquesne incline up to Mt. Washington. It was a nice treat to not only have a grown up dinner out, but also to have an opportunity to reminisce about the night that we got engaged.

After dinner, we stopped at the hotel to change (it was getting really cold) into jeans and then we went down to the South Side to meet up with some friends. We had a great time catching up with them - these were friends from my childhood - the first baby I ever babysat and her baby sister. I hadn't seen my one friend in probably 5 years and the other in one or two years.

We stayed out late, but not too late. It was good to know that I could sleep in the next morning. It had been a long time since I could just sleep as long as I wanted in the morning - I'm used to someone coming to my room at 6 or 6:30 to ask if it is morning yet.

After enjoying a complimentary, continental breakfast at the hotel, we drove home. We were hosting three concurrent home parties - Kraft Homestyle Comfort Food House Party, Hexbug Nano In Home Party, and a Healthy Home Party - that evening and still had a lot to do to get ready. (more to come on each of these home parties)

It was really refreshing to get away with just my husband, even if only for a night. I missed the kids, but having a little us time is important to a marriage. This works for me!

This post shared at Works for Me Wednesday.

Where to begin...

I sit here feeling like I have so many things that I want to say and to share, and for some reason, I can't seem to find a starting point. I find myself jumbling all of my posts into one and that makes no sense.

Life has been very busy and very fun lately. This weekend, we had the opportunity to get away for a little mini-vacation with the kids. We headed to Canada to visit Niagara Falls. It was their first trip out of the country. I plan to share more about our trip as part of some this week's posts, so more to come.

It was a nice break from the ordinary, but as with all breaks I am home now and overwhelmed with the things that need to be done. We had planned a longer trip and so, I had today off, which was a great way to at least get partially caught up. I was able to take care of some things that I might not have gotten to otherwise. One thing that I did today, because the kids were playing outside and I didn't want to be inside was turn over my garden. I still have a few weeks before threat of frost is gone, but my garden is ready when the weather is.

I do have a lot of posts to get caught up on. I do intend to menu plan this week - it was such a struggle last week to figure out each day what we were eating that day. I have really grown to like menu planning. We sometimes shuffle dinner plans around, but at least I have a pretty good idea of the week ahead of time and know that I have the ingredients that I need to prepare the meals. I'm not sure I will get a chance to post the drugstore deals, but I do hope to get out and pick some stuff up and maybe even use a few of the rain checks I have been accumulating.

Earth Day is later this week (I've been hearing this week called Earth Week). I hope to include discussions about Earth Week this week in my posts. Having just been to Niagara Falls it really makes you appreciate just how beautiful the Earth is and how important it is to protect it and preserve it for those that will come after us. There are a number of stores and brands that are doing special events as part of Earth Day. Saving in Akron has a great post of those offers here. In addition, with Earth Day’s 40th anniversary on April 22nd fast approaching, Cascadian Farm wants you to join the celebration by pledging to follow a few eco-friendly tips on Facebook. Choose from eight different pledges, ranging from reusing clothes to reducing your speed while driving on the highway, and find the one that fits your lifestyle. For each person that signs a pledge now through May 31, 2010, Cascadian Farm will donate $1, up to $40,000, to the Organic Farming Research Foundation, which fosters the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems. I've been making some changes to be a little more less wasteful and more eco-friendly at home and I will share some of those things with you later this week.

I have a few more giveaways that I need to post this week and I still need to share about the giveaway that I won through a Twitter contest. Soccer and Baseball practice start up for us this week. Between the kids' activities and school, work, blogging and the rest of life, it should be a pretty busy week around here.

So, how have you been?

Hi! It's Me!

I'm still here. I had the opportunity to enjoy a nice long weekend visiting with family. The kids and I took a roadtrip and now we are back. The challenge of course is that with us being gone, I didn't do the things I normally do (like meal planning) and now I am trying to catch up. That is the hardest thing about enjoying some time away, I always feel like I have twice as much to do when I get back - as I am doing what I need to do on those days, plus all of the stuff that I missed while I was away. The same thing happens at work. Makes the rest you enjoy that much more important, because you have to work twice as hard when your back.

I really need to sit down and review my ads and clip coupons. I know that there are a few deals out there that I would like to take advantage of. I saw a couple of CVS free after coupon and ECB deals when I glanced through the ad.

I definitely need to finish the week's meal plan and get to the grocery if need be (I stopped yesterday, but just for milk). Last night's dinner was chosen by my daughter on the way home from school - she wanted to have chicken nuggets and lucky for her, I just happened to have some that we had ordered from Schwann's a while back. Now, I'm stuck facing another day with no idea about what to have for dinner.

I have about 3000 things I want to post about and I hope to get back up in motion this week and get a number of them posted. I have some reviews and giveaways, some special offers, some new recipes to share (asparagus guacamole is one of them), some exciting news about a prize I won through Twitter and many of my regular posts that I want to write, if only I could find the time.

Plus, there are so many things I need to read, like the series that Crystal is doing on clutter and decluttering: Clear Out the Clutter Challenge. I think I could benefit from this series, as much as I try to declutter my life and my house, I think there is still plenty of room for improvement. In addition, there are of course a lot of new freebies out there that I need to track down and request.

Now, I'm off to do my morning exercise and get ready for the day. Hope yours is a great one.

Just Got Back...

from a wonderful getaway weekend in Niagara Falls, Canada. It was a 10th Anniversary celebration for me and my husband. We got to visit a number of local wineries, catch up with some friends that we hadn't seen since just after we were married, and visit the Falls, which was a favorite pre-kids destination for a getaway weekend.

I hope to get back onto track with some regular posts soon, but for now am busy getting settled back in routine.

Have a great day!

Ultimate Blog Party 2009

I'm joining in the fun. I love to host a party, but being a guest will work just fine for me too!

A little about me...
I'm a mom of two wonderful children. I love to see them learn new things, but feel a little sad that they are growing up so fast.

I'm married to a wonderful man. We are about to celebrate our 10th anniversary.

We live in a comfortable, lived-in looking house and have a rather large cat, who is 11 years old. My two year old loves to follow him around, he looks for any opportunity to escape from playing with her.

I work full-time at a job I really enjoy with a great group of people. It still is hard to leave my children everyday, but I know that they are happy in school and daycare, so that makes it not so hard.

I love to cook and bake. I think I would enjoy going to culinary school. Imagine a career like that. In my MBA program, my business plan that I wrote was for a personal chef that would offer two services delivery of meals for the week or come in one day a week to prepare a personal meal.

I enjoy finding a good bargain. Having this blog has allowed me to share my finds with others. Plus, I've learned a lot from reading other blogs. I never knew the deals at CVS were out there. I had been missing out for a long time.

I love a good book. If I had a few hours to myself, I would be torn between taking a nap and reading a book. I like medical thrillers (Michael Palmer) and sappy love stories (Danielle Steel). I have read some interesting books for book clubs, but mostly, as a mom, I look for a quick read. If the storyline doesn't draw me in in the first couple of chapters, I'm not likely to finish it.

Learn more about other bloggers attending the Ultimate Blog Party, by heading over to our gracious hosts - 5 Minutes for Mom.

Oh yeah, the prizes that I most would want to win are one of the $50 Target giftcards, the Omron HJ-112 Digital Premium Pedometer, or the Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer.