So, I’m going to try something a little bit new.  For the next month or so, I’ll be doing This is How I Feel every Friday.  I think it’s a fun way to close out the week, and I honestly cannot get enough of these GIFs.  So we’ll Bill Nye it up and experiment around here for a bit.

Click here for Vol.1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4., Vol. 5., Vol. 6, Vol. 7, and Vol. 8.

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When I’m watching Tangled or, uh, most Disney movies.

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When I’m running around cleaning the last 30 seconds before someone’s coming over, but pretend that I wasn’t.

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When an acquaintance mentions that she’s heard that I write a blog, but hasn’t had a chance to visit yet.

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When I’m out and I just realized that I left my curling iron plugged in.

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When I drive to a non drive-thru Starbucks, and they’re out of cake pops.

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Holla!  We get chatty on Facebook.  iii:)

The post This is How I Feel, Volume 9 appeared first on NEON FRESH.

   

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I need to give a major whaddup and yeah girl to Jenny, the Bloggess, for introducing me to another website with which to waste my time.

I can type in cats now.  I’ve been wanting to redo my logo anyway, and now is the perfect time.

Except… I’m concerned for the R cat.  I think there’s something seriously wrong with the R cat.  Medical professionals, please feel free to weigh in.  (Cat font site here.)

Last week and this week we’re doing the girls’ yearly allergy testing.  We’re really hoping they’ve outgrown some of their allergies.  I would tackle any one of you right now and risk getting punched in the face if it meant that I could introduce a couple new foods into their diet.  The first round is a skin test, and the second is a blood test.  While we haven’t yet heard anything definite on their food allergies, they did get tested for environmental allergies as well (more on that later).  They are, for sure, most positively allergic to….

cats and dogs.

No cats.  No dogs.  No cats or dogs now or when they’re older.  It’s not a fur vs. hair thing either.  No pets, ROO.  Don’t get them any pets and don’t let them stay in homes where pets live.

You can get a pet snake, the doctor said.  
Drop your voice down a few decibels so my kids cannot hear you, Lucifer.

I’m a little bummed about the no non-reptilian pet thing.  I’ve always wanted a dog; I went to extreme measures and begged pitifully, to no avail.  I’m not going to shed a single tear over not being able to get a cat.  (I’ve well documented my disdain for them, much the chagrin of PETA, but I feel like I have an excuse.  See here, here, and here.)  However, I still feel badly that Remmy and Sophie’s dreams of owning a kitten have been forever dashed.  >^.,.^<

But like, whatever, I still have one child in diapers, and not one of them has yet learned how to blow out my hair, so I feel like we have other priorities.  In the meantime…

[Incorrect email/password combination.  Please check your CATS lock key.]

I’m not sorry.

The post A Snake is a Poor Consolation Prize appeared first on NEON FRESH.

   

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We have a small house with three small bedrooms.  One bedroom is for the grown-ups, one bedroom has been converted into an office, and one bedroom is for the girls.  If you’ve been reading for awhile, you might recall that their bedroom used to look like this:

I looooved that bedroom.  (See the whole room here.)  It even won 2nd place in an Apartment Therapy contest and got a neat feature here.  It has a bunch of personal features (I made that little owl; my mom and I sewed the pennant, the bunnies were gifts from sweet friends) that I really love.

Since then, however, I’ve added another little girl to the mix, and we’ve squeezed three girls into a 98 square foot space.  This has only worked because Remmy and Sophie are in toddler beds, and Minnie is in a smaller sized crib.  Yeah, it’s actually called a mini-crib.

The layout looks like this.  Please do not be intimidated by my artistic abilities.  We are all human.

It works surprisingly well.  They rarely wake each other up (we’ve got white noise humming all throughout the night), and Minnie is the only one napping, so she gets her room to herself during naptime.

I knew this setup would be temporary because Remmy turns five at the end of the summer, and needs a big girl bed.  Remmy and Sophie’s cribs converted to toddler beds (so no added expense there), but we’ve decided that they’re both going to get upgraded to big girl beds.

However, two twin-sized beds side by side eat up most of the floor space.  (Oops, forgot to say, there’s a big window right behind the bookcase that houses “toys + stuff”.)  We’ve decided that we’ll be going the bunk bed route, although I have plenty fears about that.  WHAT IF IT COLLAPSES?  But everyone I’ve interviewed has said they’ve never experienced a bunk bed collapsing, and I feel like they told me the truth because they were scared of the panic and rage in my eyes.

Now I have grandiose plans to redo their whole room (Jack’s sort of on board… maybe) to make it a cozy, fun place for three sisters.  Of course, this can all get a little pricey.  I forgot that mattresses were kind of expensive.  I looked them up online and my wallet made a face.

I rarely shop in store, because I do not have the capacity to drive here and there and take things back – such a time killer that I feel like I’m not even saving enough money to make the trips worth it.  I’m weirdly addicted to deal sites, so I’ve been stalking them for discounts on kid furniture and rugs and fitted sheets that I will likely be cursing when I have to change the sheets on the top bunk.  >:(

The list includes:
- bunk bed
- two twin mattresses
- bedding for both
- paint
- storage
- a low pile rug
- a karaoke machine
- JK on that last one
I found this rug at Zulily (I like getting away from nontraditional “girl” colors, whatever that means.)

WOOT.com is another fave.  (I asked them to hire me to write their copy, but they said no.)

I really like Joss & Main and One Kings Lane for home decor/furniture action.  Everything is discounted significantly – like Groupon for things for your house.  Sometimes a buffet is discounted from $3000 to $2000, so I won’t be buying that anyway, but a lot of times they feature furniture for under $300/$500.  I think of it as a lot of furniture at IKEA/Target prices.  A major caveat: There are no returns, so when buying, keep a tape measure or a ruler handy so you can get an idea of the dimensions listed.  I messed up big time and thought these bottles were actually wine bottle size.  Woops.

What is this?  A WINE BOTTLE FOR ANTS?!  This needs to be at least…. 3x bigger.

I really hope you understand that movie reference or I’m just going to sound really dumb.

So now I have a million questions for you.  Fine, 3.

1) Have your bunk beds ever collapsed??  :(  No urban legends, LOLA.  I get enough false email fwds from my mom about the dangers of microwaving water.  But tell me if you’ve experienced it firsthand so I can scrap my plan altogether.

2) What online stores/deal sites do you frequent?  Please feel free to include any affiliate links (a couple of the ones above are my own), that way if you describe a site and I or another reader are interested in checking it out, you can get that kickback.

3) Did you share a room as a kid?  With more than one sibling?  Love it?  Hate it?

I lied, here’s #4.

4) Do your kids have bunk beds?  Any tips for a rookie?

The post Three in the Bed and the Little One Said, Back Up Off Me appeared first on NEON FRESH.

   

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We went to a wedding yesterday.  On Mother’s Day.

Jack was asked to sing at the wedding, so he set up early and started playing as people were filing in and taking their seats.  He began singing Adele’s Make You Feel My Love and I saw some dabbing at tears.  I smiled at them and their sentiments.  The wedding hadn’t started yet.  Mascara would be streaming down their faces before the bride even walked down the aisle.

We’re not quite seasoned veterans, but it feels that way.  We’ve been to many a wedding and we’re not long from hitting the ten year mark on our own marriage.  I was once the fresh-faced bride, so young and not stupid enough to not be at least a little scared.

The outdoor ceremony was lovely.  Candles in mason jars hung from trees in front of an old barn that would house the reception.  Wide strips of linen and muslin hung from a large piece of driftwood that made the altar.  The pastor officiating the ceremony is a friend of ours, and the best man at our own wedding.  And I know I am biased, but the music was incredible.  The bride walked down the aisle, and I smiled again at the tears freely flowing all around me.  More music, and the vows.  The groom spoke without faltering.

For the past four years, you have been the best part of my day.

That line stunned me.  My emotions betrayed me and my eyes welled up.  When is the last time I was the best part of Jack’s day?  When was he the best of mine?  We love each other, to be sure, but we’ve been through years of schedule and routine and sleepless nights with three babies.  The “love you, bye” hurriedly said at the end of each phone call has become rote and mechanic.

Marriage is the hardest thing I’ve ever been a part of.  More so than parenting, because you can’t just walk away from being a mother and leave destruction in your wake.  You can walk away from being a husband; a wife; from vows spoken before friends and family and God.  I’ve had a few friends who have had to end their marriages, and in some of these cases, it was necessary.  But still hard.  We bring decades of history into a marriage before it has even begun.  Emotions and experiences and even scars and we pledge to stand by each other until we take our last breaths.

That first year of marriage is a doozy, isn’t it?  You’re learning to bend or else you’ll break; to give; to live with hands open to change and opportunity and compromise.  Add a baby, and another, and another.  Late nights out and lazy Saturday mornings in take a backseat to diaper changes and nursing sessions and all of the fears and joys and heartaches that come along with parenting.  The spouse you spent your best moments with turns into a business partner or a crew member, and you’re both just trying to navigate the seas.  Of course, this is just us right now, and we’re in the throes of parenting small children (1, 3, 4).  But maybe it’s you.  Or maybe it was you and you, like the couple we sat next to at dinner with three older girls of their own, say to me, Really, it gets so much better.

One thing that I have come to know about marriage and parenting is that both require selflessness and self-awareness.  My husband and my children are holding up the truest and bravest of mirrors and I am required to stand and realize where I fall short.  Am I being patient?  Am I being selfish?  Am I being grateful?  When the answers to these questions are hard to hear, I’m standing in front of these mirrors and feeling bare.  It’s hard and uncomfortable.

Jack’s voice sings clearly.  Oh, love hopes all things, and love believes all things, and love… it bears all things.

Maybe we all go through this.  Maybe we sit a little closer to our spouses at weddings and maybe our hearts soften a little and maybe we wistfully remember what it was like to be young brides and young grooms with the best years still ahead of us.  And maybe we can still feel that way.

Yesterday I quietly celebrated being a mother, and I also quietly celebrated being a wife.  We lifted our wine glasses at the best man’s toast.  To Tyler and Madison.  And to you and me.  And to the silent wonder that is waterproof mascara.

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Hard working people across the globe may have a little bit checked out already and are anticipating a weekend of barbecue or corralling children or waxing their upper legs, since it’s almost summer, y’all.  Instead of telling your mind to hit the snooze button, I’ve found some incredible ways to test your mental acuity and the inner workings of your brain.

Braaain teeeaaasers!

Lola used to have me sit at the kitchen table and work on puzzles like these.  Sometimes I thought they were incredibly frustrating, but I’m glad she drilled me, even though it meant spending afternoons counting toothpicks and making hexagons out of them.  Groannnnn.

In the words of Ah-nold, I’m going to pump (CLAP!) your brain up.

Except I’m pretty sure I got most of all of these wrong, but let’s have fun with it anyway.

1) Which four US states have been scrambled together here?

2) You are on your way to visit me, and you feel super badly about missing my birthday, so you want to make sure you give me two birthday cakes.  So thoughtful of you!  Between your house and my house, you have to cross 7 bridges, and each bridge is guarded by a troll!  An internet troll.  Each troll insists that you pay a troll toll.  Before you can cross their bridge, you have to give them half of the cakes you are carrying.  But these trolls are kind of nice, because after you pass, they each give you back a single cake.

How many cakes do you have to leave home with to make sure that you arrive at my house with exactly two cakes?

3) You are running a timed 5 kilometer race and you overtake the person in 2nd place.  What place are you now?

4) Max’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name?

5) How many words can you find?  You must use the central H in each word, but the letters don’t have to be connected.  You can’t use the letters more than once in a word, though.  Example: ACHES.  (Excellent: 79 words. Good: 50 words. Average: 35 words.)

Check out all of the answers here.

Are you a puzzle person?  I had to delete Scramble with Friends off my phone because it was taking up too much of my time.  (But I’d download it again….)  AHEM.  I do love a good brain teaser now that I’m a grown-up.  And bridge troll.  And slice of cake.

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For those of you who don’t know and wanted to know but felt weird for asking, my mother hails from the Philippines which makes me half-Filipina.  No one ever guesses that I’m from the Philippines, because I don’t “look” like a typical Filipino.  In fact, Filipinos usually give me an incredulous look when I tell them that my mom grew up there and I lived there for a short while.  I was born in Hong Kong, but I’m not Chinese… I’m half British (Welsh, to be exact), and Hong Kong was under British rule at that time so that all makes sense, and I had a combined Filipino-British accent that my mom laments I’ve since lost.

Then I married Jack and we had these three little girls that are 1/4 Filipino and… they don’t look it at all.

“Oh my God, Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white.”

I’m tan with a narrow nose and lots of freckles.  Sometimes I feel like I’m a chameleon, and this rings very true for me at airports.  On a flight last week, one woman spoke to me in Spanish, and another in Arabic.  I had to confess that I spoke neither, but I can communicate in emoticons.  :)  :D  ?:#  A flight attendant stopped me as I was getting on the plane, and asked, “What’s your background?”  I told her, and she was all “ME TOO, but I’m part Irish and mostly Filipino.”  We did that nod that you do when you’re pushing a stroller and you see another parent pushing a stroller…. you know.. that I GOTCHU GIRL nod.

Anyway it’s National Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, so I’m all woooo Pacific Islanders, throw ya hands upppp!  Sort of, I actually didn’t know about this until Erma clued me in, and then sent me this hysterical BuzzFeed article “34 Signs You Grew Up Filipino.”  I grew up in a pretty Americanized household, so a few of them didn’t apply to me, but thiiiis?

(photo credit: Zojirushi)
 

This exact rice cooker was such a staple in my childhood, that when I moved out of my house, my mom bought me a miniature one.  :’)  Meeemories.

The bit about dancing and karaoke certainly rings true as well.  When we go to parties hosted by a Filipino-American Association in Connecticut, my girls are always going hard on the dance floor.  Growing up, we called these events “Filipino parties.”  When I was going through an extremely awkward stage at the age of 12, it was at a Filipino party that I learned the Macarena and showed up my classmates with it at a school dance a week later.  MMMskk MMMskk.  And so, I have made sure to pass this on to my children.  Also, let this be a lesson that if you have the radio playing as background noise while you’re driving around in your family vehicle, YOU may not be paying attention to the songs, but your four year old just may have memorized the lyrics.  We’re switching to kid-safe CDs.  Ahem, sorry, Jack.

For best results, watch in HD. :)

Cool. Now go hug an Asian or a Pacific Islander.  If you want to.  And if it’s a stranger, maybe ask permission first.

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Last week I was in California at a blog conference.  I was hanging out with one of my favorite people/bloggers, Kristen, and we discussed the problem she addressed in this post.  Summer.

Summer, inherently, is not a problem.  It’s full of cool things like beach trips and water balloon fights and blasting a censored version of a Kanye song with the windows in my minivan down.  Let’s stop for a moment to pause and reflect on how ridiculous this probably looks.  I’m down for some lazy summer days where things are just a little bit slower and sweeter.

Except I’m a mom and I’m a working mom, so like my peers and colleagues, I’m facing the summer with a little bit of trepidation.  I need to get junk done, but I also want to have a beautiful summer experience with my kids.  I need to hustle, but I also need balance. I’m scratching down notes:

- Rachel will still be here four mornings throughout the summer, but I don’t want to increase her workload.  Taking care of her baby and my baby is PLENTY, and adding a 4.5 year old and a 3 year old to the mix would just be chaotic and unfair to her.
- Remmy + Sophie’s preschool offers a summer camp for the same cost as preschool, so this looks like it might be a feasible plan.
- Jack’s work schedule stays the same, but he works strange hours to begin with.  On Mondays, he usually takes the two big girls to school and spends the morning with Minnie (Rachel has the day off), while I work, run errands, do laundry, etc.
- I could put the girls in camp four mornings a week, and have Monday morning be a chill family morning where the five of us go to the beach or the park and spend some quality summer time together.  This means I have to make up the hours at nighttime.  And I already work at nighttime.
- Some bloggers go on a summer hiatus or line up guest posts for one day a week.  Across the board, blog traffic in the summertime seems to dip, so maybe you guys would rather be playing outside than reading our blogs??  A good thing.  I GUESS.  Just kidding, sort of.

I promise I’m not complaining.  I know a lot of parents have to keep the same 9 to 5 at-the-office schedule, and I feel very fortunate to make my own hours (for the most part) and work from home.  Enough rambling.  I’d love to hear from you guys.  :)  Working from home or not, how do you simplify in the summer?  We’ll be styling our hair less and wearing baseball caps more (gross? maybe).  I’m hoping to come up with some easy, no-cook meals like hummus, raw vegetables, sliced fruit, lentil bean chips.

A spray down with the garden hose totally counts as a shower, right?  Maybe?

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This is How I Feel has been going on for 8 months.  Can’t stop/won’t stop.  (Until everyone’s like NO and then I’ll think about it.  MAYBE.)

Click here for Vol.1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4., Vol. 5., Vol. 6, and Vol. 7.

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When out to eat and waiting for the server to bring my meal.

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When I opened my inbox to see that Google Adsense dropped me like a bad habit.

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When shopping online and someone buys an item right out of my shopping cart.

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When I see people are commenting on my Facebook status.

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When out in public and I hear someone mention a sale at Sephora.

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When Jack offers to watch the girls while I take a fifteen minute catnap.

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When I’m really really hungry and I’m at least twenty minutes away from a hot meal.

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When my comeback hits harder than the insult, hiyoooo!

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Like this post? Holla at the NEON FRESH Facebook page!

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Jack and I are complete and total opposites.  Alright, maybe not opposites, since we both enjoy good pizza (HOLLA!), but one thing we totally don’t see eye-to-eye is shopping habits.  When I first met Jack, this is how he’d shop for clothes.

1. Go to a thrift shop.
2. Find a shirt he likes.
3. Wait for it to go on sale.
4. Read number 3 again so you really understand what I’m saying here.

Homeboy used to wait for shirts at Goodwill to go on sale.  

I, on the other hand, had such a hard time finding stuff that I loved that when I did, I bought it despite the cost.  Oops.  Neither of us have these habits any more, but we’re still not 100% reformed.

Our closets are a perfect representation of how we shop.  Jack probably has four times the clothes that I do, but he got them each for a song and a dance.  I paid more for my clothes, but I prefer to keep a small selection of stuff I love.  My wardrobe is very, very, very tiny.

Sometimes I stumble across amazing products that are really cheap, and then I get completely giddy because I feel like I’ve beaten the system.  I tell Jack about them and he’s like YEAHHH good job! and he slaps me on the back and gives me a noogie.  (Mostly kidding).  Here’s some “gold” I’ve found:

1) Target brand diapers and wipes.  Pampers can run you up to 40 cents a diaper, but the Up & Up diapers are about 17 cents (or less) each.  HUGE difference, and they’re top performers.  A major caveat: It gives some babies rashes.  Other babies do amazing with them.

Mine did not, so we don’t buy Target brand diapers, and it’s probably weird that I listed them here considering that, BUT so many of my friends have slashed their diaper bills in half just by switching to Up & Up.  (Cloth diapering parents are probably laughing and rolling around in piles of dollar bills since it’s wayyy cheaper to cloth diaper.)  But if you’re using disposables, they’re worth picking up a small pack to see how your baby fares with them.

2) NYX blush in Pinched.  I love Sephora.  I tend to like the pricier brands, but I justify it (to Jack and our budget, anyway), because I buy so little of it.  My entire makeup stash can fit in a teeny tiny bag.  Anyway, once upon a time, I fell into the craze and purchased a blush called (forgive me, Mom) NARS Orgasm.  It’s this almost universally flattering peachy pink blush, and yes, indeed, it’s very pretty.  It’s also $29.

NYX is a drugstore brand with a blush that is incredibly similar to the NARS one (I can’t keep typing that word. Guys read this. My mom reads this. My pastor’s wife reads this).  I grabbed Rachel and her paler-than-mine arm and sampled them both.

Okay, this picture isn’t fantastic, but this is just photographic evidence that Rachel indeed held still while I painted her arm.

Verdict: They’re identical.  The NYX seems to be as pigmented as the NARS, so you won’t use any more of one than the other.  The only difference is that NYX is slightly less shimmery.  I’m actually pleased with this as I feel like most shimmer should be reserved for young teens and nighttime, and I like to wear this during the day.

NYX blush is $5, a whopping $24 less than any NARS blush.

3) Eucerin Skin Calming Moisturizer in the little bottle.  

This little bottle is 99 cents and I keep one in my handbag and diaper bag.  I use it on my face, my hands, my elbows, my legs, my kids, and Jack even swipes it when his hands are dry.  Perfect for on the go.  It’s $1.  I mean, it’s cheaper than fries at Wendy’s.

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In the interest of keeping this short and sweet, unlike last week’s thesis, I’ll stop here.  Would you be into seeing another round-up?  Do you have any cheap products you swear by?

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First of all, I checked with the smartest grammar person I know, and my blog post title is on point.

Second, I’m bringing “cool” back and “awesome” can take a backseat for the next fifteen years until it becomes COOL again.

Third, I know time is short and you don’t necessarily need more THINGS vying for your attention, but these are cool, but also weird, and probably more weird than anything else.

And third-B, since I don’t want to say FOURTH and end with an even number, I’m not including any blogs in this post, because if you wanted a list of cool blogs, we’d be here for awhile.

1) Wikipedia.  I know, I know, you use it every day, right?  But have you thought about all of the ways you could use it?  I kind of use it like this: “Just finished reading a Little House book with the girls.  I wonder how old Ma Ingalls was when she had her kids.  Let me Wiki dat.”  ”I never watched more than the first couple of episodes of Gossip Girl, but I still want to know WHO the Gossip Girl was.  Oh, look, I can read a recap of the series finale.”  Okay, of course it didn’t really make a lot of sense to me, but now I KNOW.

Criticisms of Saved by the Bell?  Check.
The biography of any semi-famous person ever?  Check.
Run-downs of big historical events?  CURRENT events?  OH YES.

WIKIPEDIA, WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL?

2) If you’ve got a) an extra chatty co-worker that won’t leave you alone, b) a fellow student that won’t leave you alone, or c) a teenager that you want to impress for a solid 45 seconds, send them a link to STROBE ILLUSION.

You click on it, stare at the pattern for 30 seconds, and then look away.  The walls start moving, your coworker/fellow student/teenager friend starts tripping out and may require a trip to the ER.  Just kidding about the last one, but it is pretty fun.  Uhhh, and a warning, just in case you need it – DON’T send it to anyone with epilepsy.

3) If you are a history or trivia nerd like I am (I could spend hours on wikipedia), you will loooove these Mental Floss videos.  (Major hat tip to John for introducing me to MF.)

4) I found Laine’s Letters years ago and found the letters to be pretty interesting.  I don’t know who Laine is, but she wrote letters (to whom, I’m not sure) about various topics – mainly concerning frugality and caring for her family.  Huge disclaimer: Linking you to this does NOT mean I agree with ANYTHING she says… some stuff is cool, some stuff is interesting, some stuff is over the top weird (in my opinion, of course), but it’s kind of intriguing.  And much of it – from the nostalgic web design to giving a cassette tape to a friend as a gift – is completely outdated (I think she started the website in 1999).  There’s also a very clearly religious overtone (disclaiming again: one that I don’t necessarily agree with), so if that offends you, enter at your own risk.

5) If you ever, ever liked He-Man or cartoons hailing from that era, click on this link, turn up the volume, and get your party on.  You will dance and lololol.  Probably.

5b) [Edit: I can't math. I had two 3s. Thanks for the heads up, Amy.] For those of us who go every evening without a fireplace or the delightful smell of smoky wood :( :’( :/, there is this.  Don’t forget to turn up the volume and strike a couple of matches to get that burn-smell going.  Let’s get cozy, y’all.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

OH PS.  This giveaway and this contest both end tonight, and I’m looking forward to making a few people super happy tomorrow!  If you haven’t yet, make sure you enter!  :D

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