susuwatari

I don’t really know what the plot is about but am intrigued by how it looks.

I have never done the March Madness Brackets till this year. Now I’m obsessively watching ESPN scoreboards at work all for a dollar that I actually borrowed from someone else. I probably should pay her back sometime. ;p

I have managed to get pre-approved for a house loan and give my Grandma a heart attack all before the time I am usually starting to wake up on a typical Saturday morning. Maybe I’ll actually manage to clean my house and get my taxes done today? Ha yeah right.

Okay, so I’ve started shopping around for a diaper bag. Or maybe two… The controversy is whether you should just get one man friendly diaper bag that a couple can share, or to buy separate bags. Being on the cheap side of things, I sort of lean towards getting one bag that will work for both of us. I think this will be less complicated in the long run. But here I run into another problem. I don’t like to carry around huge bags. So should I get one big one and one smaller one? Here’s what I’ve been looking at.

Skip Hop Dash Deluxe in Chocolate: $33 (on sale! normally $64)
This seems like a decent bag. It gets good reviews and looks like a good size to carry everyday. Also very minimal amount of pink so should be man friendly. It also coordinates well with the stroller we picked which is brown, green and gray.

Skip Hop Via Messenger Bag in Gray: $80
This one would be a bigger bag option. I don’t mind it being so big when it’s a messenger bag. It clips onto strollers pretty easily and is not a huge eyesore. Again, man friendly. Just not sure I’d like to lug around something this big everyday.

Olivia Diaper Bag by Yak Pak in Gray Birds: $80
This is the most girlie of the bags I’ve picked but I love it. It’s cute and doesn’t scream diaper bag. I’m a fan of Yak Paks. I carried one of their mini messenger bags as a purse throughout college and it took a beating like a champ. This would be “my bag” since I’m pretty sure Wes wouldn’t want to be caught carrying it around.

Diaper Dude Bag in Gray: $55
This is a bag designed for guys to carry. This seems kind of big to me. I’m not sure I’m in love with it. Maybe that’s because I keep seeing this image of it in camo and want to puke. It seems to get good reviews though.

Diaper Dude Messenger II Bag: $99 (I like it better in gray.)
I watched the product demo for this one on the Diaper Dude website. I like that this one seems to have some improvements over the regular Diaper Dude, like an insulated bottle pocket. I also like that the pockets are covered now. I think Wes would be happy with this but I’m just not sure I’d love it. It’s pretty big.

So there you have it. Making lists like this helps me keep my thoughts organized. When I scroll back over this my eyes always go back to the Olivia bag so I’ll probably at least get that one. I think my second choice is the Skip Hop Messenger. What do you guys think?

So this was the year I was finally going to get my horse. In fact in late January I almost bought a horse that in the long run it’s good I didn’t get because he was not the best fit for me. For those of you who don’t know me that well it has been my hearts desire to have my own horse since I was 6 years old. In fact the decision to go into Biology instead of History in college was the desire to have a job that could fund my horse habit. It’s hard to describe why I want my own horse to a person who does not have an obsession but just know that it’s something I need to fulfill a part of my soul. My father needs a boat of some sort to be complete, I need a horse. Anyway come late February I learn that if I buy a house this year, as a first time buyer I can get $8000 possibly from the government and NOT have to pay it back (which is different from the deal last year). If I did buy a house and got that money I could pay off the rest of my car next year and then I’d have enough money to board my horse in style and still have some left over for savings. I prayed about it and decided if I can get approved for the loan I would defer the horse dream for yet another year and get the house, otherwise sweet diggity I finally get my horse! My fate was all in the hands of my loan guy (dun dun dun). Well he got back to me this morning and it looks like I’m going to become a house owner this year. Right now I’m elated that the decision has been made and a little sad that it’s not the horse route but I am too cheap to my core to pass up a chance to get $8000 bucks for something I was going to do anyway. Tomorrow it will probably really hit me and the panic about making commitments, then I’ll look at my pup Freya and realize that this is the best for all of my crew.

Running on ~4 hours of sleep when I need a minumum of 8-9 hours to be sociable and functional within society. Tolerence for annoying co-workers is in the negative range. I clearly deserve a cookie for not beating any of them with my notepad. Stupid Lent.

So my Dad sent us a funny little story about marriage which was good timing for my sister as she and her husband Wes were fighting over him cleaning the bathroom last night. Here is my Dad’s response….may it’s pearls of wisdom be of help to any other couple fighting over bathroom cleaning duties.

Sorry to hear about the battle over the bathroom it won’t be the last. Wes (like me) is probably resentful that he still has to do any recurring household chores now that you are not working. Your mother convinced me to clean my own bathroom “because men splash”. However, she then proceeded to follow me around the house. When I moved from the new bathroom back to the old bathroom, she followed me so that she wouldn’t have to clean “her” bathroom. Anyway, we finally solved it (after 30 years of marriage) by hiring a cleaning lady. She comes once every two weeks for $60/visit. Hopefully, you guys won’t have to wait as long as we did before you can afford that.

I saw an adorable little girl with her mom yesterday at the grocery store and for the first time I was like, “Oh my god, I’m going to have that in three months!” Like it just sunk in! I think it’s the first time I’ve thought beyond the amorphous idea of just bringing home a baby. Usually when I think of the baby I think of what we can do to get the house ready, what we still need to buy, or how the hell I’m supposed to push a basketball out of my bajingo. *Answer: DRUGS* (too graphic?) I think I get distracted by the responsibility side of all of it. There was something about the way this little girl had her head wrapped in a goofy scarf and was reaching to hold her mom’s hand that really yanked on my heartstrings and made me realize that I’m going to have a cute little girl running to catch up with me someday. If this is too mushy for you, you may want to avoid the website come June. Because I’m pretty sure my heart is going to explode rainbows and puppies and flowers everywhere. You were warned!
~Christina

I saw this video and there was just something about it that reminded me of the love between my dear friends Justin and Kris. This one is for you.