Talk About Moving

Whoa! Where am I???

You can find me at my new blogging home, LazyOrganizer.com/blog. I haven't finished unpacking yet (are you surprised?) but it already feels like home. If you want to bring a housewarming gift I could really use a new heavy duty blender for my green drinks. Or you could just bring your TAT link. See you there!

Talk About Organizing

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting.

I have a couple organizing projects to share today. Nothing too exciting. My pantry is always a challenge. People like to pile junk in there and I didn't keep up with it at the end of my pregnancy.

All clean!

It was hard to toss things I had once thought were valuable enough to spend money on. The first ten minutes osf sorting through clothing was like choosing which child of mine should live or die. Timothy Ferriss from the 4-Hour Workweek

I hear you! Reading The 4-Hour Workweek has inspired me to be even more ruthless when going through our things. I talked to the kids about it when we were in Sun Valley a couple weeks ago. What if we went home and got rid of everything that we couldn't take on a sailboat for a year? Doesn't that just give you chills? Imagine such a clutter-free home!

I started with the game, puzzle, toy cupboard. We just don't need all the stuff we had crammed in there. This is what it looked like before. It was organized but I wanted to get rid of at least half of it.

Much better! The kids always seemed to play with the same games over and over so why did we need it all? There are a few empty drawers now and I even had room for a couple board games that I had stashed in Victor's room. Normally I throw the boxes away and store the games in an Organizing Bag but with games like Scrabble it's easier to just keep it in the box. Especially when it's your husband's game and he would divorce you if you had your organizing way with it.

Speaking of Victor's room... This is the mess I hauled out of it a month ago. He and I finally went through it and got rid of most of it. He kept one small box of treasures and the rest we put in the garbage or the give away box. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to walk into his clean room every day! There is nothing to mess it up except clothes or books. The girls' room will be next.

Because of our lack of book shelves around here I took over the top shelf of his closet for my new Great Books collection that was previously homeless.

A note about my last post. I turned the comments off so everyone wouldn't feel like they had to comment on my pity party. Little did I know you all would email me instead! Thank you for all the kind, supporting words and offers to help! Please don't worry too much about me. I am feeling a bit depressed but it's not overwhelming so I'm handling it. Most of the time. I did get severely depressed after my second baby so I know what that can feel like. I promise I will talk to my doctor if it gets any worse.

In the mean time, let's have a great Tuesday!!!

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About New Ideas

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting.

I have figured out what my Internet addiction is all about. I thought it was me being a lazy slacker but really it's all about my thirst for knowledge. I want to know everything! I have less of a desire to do everything but I do have that too. I have even less of a desire to know everyone. So that's what I've figured out. Some people are, in general, thinkers, some are doers and some are feel-ers (people persons). Did I miss anyone?



I am a thinker. Not because I'm smart. I just have a sincere desire to know everything there is to know about life, the universe and everything. The sad thing about this is I have a horrible memory so I can't remember what I read or thought about yesterday let alone last year. I may not be getting anywhere in my quest for knowledge but I'm treading water fast I tell you!

I'm not interested in trivial facts but I love new ideas. I am always thinking, "Why didn't I think of that before?" or "Why haven't I heard of that before?" Sometimes I feel like the universe is conspiring to keep things from me. There is obviously a lot of stuff out there that I need and want to know about. Why aren't people stopping me on the street, for instance, and telling me the easiest way to peel an egg? (It didn't work for me by the way.)

If I'm not reading a book, I'm on the Internet looking for new ideas. I was poking around last week and followed a link to TED. Now here's where I have to get mad at a bunch of you. Why haven't any of you told me about TED before??? It's a conspiracy I tell you! TED is everything I love about the Internet. I stayed up till 2:00 in the morning watching it and I watched more with my kids today.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

Here are some of my favorites so far:

A man brings mentors and students together in an amazingly creative way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaSF1gPBKrA

Another conspiracy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um5gMZcZWm0&feature=user

This talk has changed my life. Seriously. Getting what we want doesn't make us any happier than not getting what we want? One of the biggest problems in my life is that I try to control every little detail of it. Now that I know I know I will be happy no matter what happens I think I can finally go take a chill pill. Some things you know but you don't really know until you get slapped in the face with them. Hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTO_dZUvbJA


I can not rest until I have seen every single talk on TED.com. My new life's mission is to some day have an "Idea Worth Spreading".


*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About Tuesday Home Tour

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting.

This is the once a month Home Tour edition of TAT where everyone posts photos of a spot or feature inside or outside their home. I hope you'll join us!

What's so cool about our ceilings? Fans! Did anyone guess it?

We have fans in almost every room of our house. There are two in the living room. I voted for one but Stranger had to have two. If Stranger had has his way we would have also had one on the front porch and a couple in our garage. I'm thinking now that I should have let him have his way. Maybe outside fans directly over the front door and garage door would help keep the flies from coming in the house. What do you think?

There are two fans in the the unfinshed sun room. There is one in my little studio that is fabulous because it can get really hot in there when I'm sewing.

There are even two little fans in our two full baths. I love those fans!!! They are wonderful to turn on as I'm getting ready to go somewhere. When the shower, my blow dryer and straightening iron are all heating me up, it's great to have a way to stay cool so I'm not a sweaty mess before I even leave the house.

There are also fans in each bedroom for a grand total of twelve. The only fan we never use is the one in the kitchen. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because we don't hang out in there as much as we do the other rooms and when we're cooking we don't want the fan cooling off the food.

We do have air conditioning but we didn't start using it until just a few days ago because the fans were enough to keep us cool. It is a lot cheaper to run the fans than the air conditioner. When we were building our house we looked at fans at the lighting store and they were all over $300 a piece! We ended up getting ours at Home Depot for around $60. Very cool.

Ceiling fans are also excellent entertainment for six week old babies. I try not to get my feelings hurt when I'm trying to play with Sweetness but she can't take her eyes off the ceiling fan.

BTW, everyone should post photos of their ceiling fans on the internet at least once a year. I had no idea they were so dirty! As I was standing on a stool to vacuum them off I got a whole new perspective on the dust in all the other corners of my house. What started off as taking a couple blog photos turned into an hour long cleaning session but I can feel good about the fact that all the places in my house that are too high for you to see are now clean. (Well, most of them.) Doesn't that make you feel better too?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About A Vacation In Sun Valley

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Not really but close enough. We're here for a Rail Road Union conference. Stranger gets to go to meetings all week while the rest of us play. If you can call hanging out with three kids and an infant by myself playing. With a pool and a skate park next door we may manage just fine.

More later...

What fun things do you have to talk about this week?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About A Giveaway

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

Are you interested in getting organized with style?

I was invited to a fun workshop by Donna Smallin that Staples hosted last month. Donna shared organizing tips and demonstrated how the new M by Staples products can help people get organized with style.

I loved her idea for people who can't bare to file their papers away. She said if you have stacks of papers on your desk and you intend to keep them there, add a labeled file folder to the pile so you can keep them organized. Who would want to hide folders as pretty as these in a cabinet anyway?

Aren't these push pins adorable???

Staples also sent me some fun things to try. If you would like to win a bag full of M by Staples products take a look at their site and then leave a comment in this post. I will pick a random winner on Thursday. This giveaway is open to US residents. Please don't forget that I need to be able to contact you through email or your blog if you are chosen.

What fun things do you have to talk about this week?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About More Babies

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We're having babies left and right around here and its so exciting!!!

For an update on the babies scroll to the bottom.

Ever since we bought our farm and our first three baby chicks from the feed store two years ago the kids and I have been dreaming about hatching our own babies. We finally gave up on the idea since none of our hens looked interested in being mothers. Several weeks ago we got rid of our rooster because roosters are just about the most annoying creatures ever and I was sick to death of him. Good riddance!

Except that two weeks later one of our hens got broody. My son was dying to have her hatch some eggs so like any good neighbor would he went next door and stole 8 fertilized eggs to put under her.

Everything was going great until last week when Lovely went out to collect eggs by herself. She took four of the fertilized eggs, brought them in and put them away in the fridge! I had no idea she could even get in the hen house by herself so it didn't occur to me to check the eggs before she put them away. Maybe my mothering instincts are running a little high these days but I was very upset when my son came in several hours later to tell me that four of his eggs were missing. Later when the kids broke them open to see what was inside two had deceased baby chicks in them and two didn't. Poor things!

The kids were so excited this morning when they saw that two of the remaining eggs were starting to hatch. We've been watching them in anticipation all day. Look at that sweet little wet head!

One of them has finally made his way out and we have some more bad news. No matter how many times I told my kids to leave the eggs and chicks alone they just could not control themselves. The Mother hen finally got fed up with them and abandoned her babies! Our neighbor came over to help us figure out what to do. She broke the second one out of it's shell before it suffocated and now they are both under lights in the house. One of the eggs didn't have a chick in it and the fourth one never started hatching and probably won't now that it's mother isn't sitting on it.

I'm mad because although I wanted baby chicks I didn't want to babysit them! We are going to sneak them back under their mother tonight and see if she will take care of them but if she doesn't then it looks like I will have two more noisy mouths to feed. For such tiny things they sure are loud!

It's been an exciting day around here for us countrified city slickers! What do you have to talk about?

Update

I can't believe it! That third egg hatched last night so we have three surviving chicks!!

This was the chick that wasn't strong enough to peck it's way out of its shell yesterday and after being abandoned by its mother none of us thought it would make it through the night. Look at it now! Its a healthy little chick!

The last of the good news is that the mother hen came back to its nest last night and she's taking care of her chicks again. Go Momma!

We've had baby chicks before and they are fun but it is nothing like watching our hen with her own babies. It warms my heart! You know I will posting videos of them together. You might as well get used to it. This is going to be a chicken blog for a while whether you like it or not!

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About Tuesday Home Tour

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

This week and and the first Tuesday of every month we are going to have Talk About Tuesday Home Tour. I want everyone to post photos of their home. Does that sound fun? It can be an organized closet or room, a beautiful corner or garden or anything else inside or outside your home that you want to share. Inspire us!

I was planning on finding something beautiful or organized to show from my home but then something major happened last week. We got a new road! It's the kind of road only a Mother living in a mud pit for two years could love. It's not beautiful (except to us) but it's progress. Progress is good!

This is what our driveway (and yard) looked like before.

Then last fall we got sidewalks and now we have a road! It's only a dirt road but a dirt road is better than a mud pit right? The bumpy thing we have been calling a road was not a fun ride when I was pregnant. That pile of dirt is going to be a flower bed some day.

The driveway is wide enough to park four cars across the end of it and however many deep.

There is also a place for two cars to park at the end of the front sidewalk. In the next photo you can see our road going out to the main road. It's not terribly long but it cost a bit of money to get this done. Paying for asphault wasn't even an option right now. Maybe after I make my first million from selling Organizing Bags. Ha!

Our new road is one more thing I get to check off of my Mom's Mission Impossible list.

If you've been here a while you know that we have no intention of planting any grass in our yard. We don't have the time or energy to waste on it. If we want to play on grass we can go to a park.

These are some photos I took at the Utah House. they have planted a low water landscape similar to what I want to do. If you are from lush Oregon you are going to think this is ugly but living in a desert like we do I think it is a beautiful and pratical option.

Best of all there is no grass to mow!

You can find the list of plants they used in the water-wise landscape on their site: theutahhouse.org.

What do you have to talk about this week?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About Tuesday

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

Next week and and the first Tuesday of every month we are going to have Talk About Tuesday Home Tour. I want everyone to post photos of their home. Does that sound fun? It can be an organized closet or room, a beautiful corner or garden or anything else inside or outside your home that you want to share. Inspire us!

I can't think of anything exciting to talk about today so I'm going to share something that's not so exciting. My three year old has cut her hair again! This is about the fourth time now and I'm guessing it won't be the last. We were still trying to grow out the pony tail that she cut off last fall!

She was not happy that I was taking these pictures of her. It's only a small spot at the crown of her head but still ... there is no hiding it!

Persistence cut her hair three different times. I was so mad the last time that I told her I was going to shave her head bald if she ever did it again. Is that mean or what? I also took her in and got her hair cut very very short. She cried and cried but it worked and she never did it again.

I have finally had it with Lovely too so I threatened the same thing with her. It had better work because I really don't want a bald Lovely.

What do you have to talk about this week? Any baldies at your house?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About a New Baby

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

I can't believe we finally have a baby to talk about!

Baby Girl (no name) Gallagher
Born May 15, 2008
10:46 p.m.
8 pounds 8 ounces
20" long

This was her weight 24 hours after delivery.

The short story is that I labored all night on Wednesday, went to the hospital Thursday afternoon at 2:30 even though my labor had stopped completely because I was determined to have a baby anyway. My labor started up again at 6:30. My midwife broke my water at 7:30. I was dilated fully at 10:30 and our new baby girl was born at 10:46 with no epidural and no stitches. All wonderful and good!

If you want the looooong version keep reading.

Persistence loves her baby.

Last Tuesday I was four days overdue without any sign of going into labor so I made an appointment with my midwife and had her strip my membranes. Gross and painful. I had painful contractions all day and all night for two days but no labor. I didn't get any sleep Wednesday night so I decided I was going to have this baby on Thursday. I was done being pregnant!

I got up and showered and got ready to go and then got everyone else up. I had made Stranger take a couple vacation days so he was home. It's always a fear when I'm having babies, that he will be on a train somewhere in the middle of nowhere when I go into labor.

We all went to my Mom's for breakfast. My sister and niece were there but they didn't end up getting to stay to see the baby come because they had to get back to work on Friday. That made us all very sad!

We had to give Sweetness a couple bottles to help her jaundice.

We left our ten year old boy and three year old girl at Grandma's house but we took our eight year old girl with us. I thought it would be a great experience for her to be there during the entire process and plus I needed someone to keep Stranger busy so he wouldn't do anything crazy. He can get a little out of hand when surrounded with expensive medical devices and equipment and tries to use it all on me. Twittering also gave him something to do. I'm excited that he was able to twitter through the entire thing and happy that some of you followed all the action! It's fun to look back and see exactly what time everything happened.

So then we were off to the hospital but not before stopping at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants first which was a good thing because I wouldn't be eating again for many hours.

Momma and baby Au Naturale.

We got to the hospital at about 2:30. It was very weird pulling up and walking into labor and delivery because at this point I was not in labor in any size shape or form! I was having contractions no less than 30 minutes apart!

You know how lazy I am? Well I am also very stubborn. Once I decided I was having a baby I was determined. Stranger kept telling me we should wait. "Didn't you want this to happen naturally," he asked me? Yes! "Then shouldn't we wait till you go into labor?" NO!

My good friend brought me this beautiful bouquet from her garden!

The nurses at the hospital all thought I was as crazy as he did but they checked me in anyway and put me on the monitors. I was dilated to 3 cm and 70% effaced. I told them to call my midwife and that she was going to come in to break my water. They came back and said they talked to her and she didn't know anything about it. Well, not today! She told me that on Tuesday! Again with the crazy looks. Especially when I informed them that I wasn't going to be having any pitocin. So they had this pregnant woman on their hands who was not in labor, was not going to be induced but thought she would be having a baby today. Mmmm-kay.

Like I said, when you're 6 days over due they don't send you home so after monitoring me to see that in fact I WAS NOT IN LABOR they took us to our own room and said Kathy (my midwife) would be coming to check on me after she was done at the office. Stranger and Persistence went out to wander the hospital and eat dinner while I took a nap.

Lovely picked flowers for us from Grandma's garden.

At 6:30 I woke up and felt so much better after a night with no sleep. I sat up in bed and immediately started having the best contractions ever! Finally! I was so excited! Bring on the pain. But not too much pain please. Kathy got there an hour later and broke my water. At that point I was 5 cm and 90% effaced.

At about 8:00 Stranger called my Mom to have her bring the other kids to the hospital. I wanted them there for the delivery too. They all sat in the room with us until things got too intense. At that point I sent everyone out and ordered the TV off.

My contractions were strong but still too far apart to do much so we waited. And waited. And everyone kept trying to talk me into have just a TINY bit of pitocin to help things along but I would have none of it. I was already in so much pain that I knew I couldn't take any more and I didn't want to end up with an epidural so I waited it out.

Kathy tried to get me to walk around but there was no way I was going to wander the halls in a hospital gown, laboring in front of the entire world! I spent some time on a birthing ball instead which felt pretty good.

I love how grumpy Lovely is in these photos. She didn't get a nap the day we came home so she was a force to be reckoned with. Somehow we all survived.

At 10:12, almost three hours after my water had been broken I was still only 7 cm and getting very frustrated and exhausted and scared that I couldn't do it anymore. Kathy was still trying to talk me into having a little pitocin and Stranger was siding with them so I finally relented. Just as the nurse was going to give it to me I had a horrible pain and felt something sort of pop inside me. I said, "Wait! Something just happened!" Kathy checked me and I was ready to go!

At 10:22 we brought the kids in and the nurses filed in. We had a full house with three kids, Stranger, my Mom, my midwife and four nurses. I found out later that almost NOBODY goes natural around here so I had the attention of the entire labor and delivery wing. My main nurse had to give up her other patients to take care of me and the rest of my stay in the hospital every staff member that came in my room would say, "Oh, you're the one who went natural!"

I tried pushing with the next contraction but Kathy said my cervix needed to open up just a little bit more so I waited for two more contractions. I kept waiting for that feeling that other women talk about where you feel like you HAVE to push but I never felt that. I finally just started pushing before anyone could tell me not to.

Awwww!

It is the weirdest thing to feel the head coming down the birth canal. I got her head out and then decided that the rest of her was coming out right then too. I was so done. Persistence said she shot out like a rocket and about went flying over Kathy before she could get a good grip on her! I was surprised that I never felt the "ring of fire" that I felt with Lovely when the head came out.

I was so happy and relieved and kissing my baby's head by the time they told me she was a girl. What a shock! We had all decided we were having a boy. Except for Lovely. She knew she was getting a girl baby sister all along.

You would think the worst would be over at that point but you would be wrong! All the sudden Kathy started doing unspeakable things to me and I started screaming and almost jumped through the roof. I also nearly squoze the life out of my newborn baby daughter that I was holding. She started wailing before I came to my senses and realized what I was doing. Hmm, maybe giving the baby to Mom right after delivery isn't such a good idea? (Stranger said I wasn't actually screaming so that part must have been happening in my head.)

Wide awake!

Apparently (as far as I know) the umbilical cord broke off the placenta which started hemorrhaging so she had to shove her arm inside me to stop the bleeding until the placenta was delivered. Maybe someone knows more about that sort of thing and could explain it to me. All I know is that I thought she was trying to kill me!

It all ended well after that and I feel great. I think the labor was a little bit harder than my last one because I had more back labor but I was happy with how things went. I loved having the kids there and Persistence stayed with me the entire two days I was in the hospital, bringing me drinks and bonding with her sister. She is amazing. Stranger was there with us the first night and then I made him take Victor to a Father son camp out that I didn't want them to miss.

In case anyone is wondering about giving birth without an epidural I will say that it is very scary and hard but it is a wonderful experience. I did it with my last two babies and I wish I had done it with my first two. One of the main reasons I did it was because of the complications that are involved with the epidural. Why risk them if you don't have to? But I gained so much more out of the experience than that. I never really felt like I gave birth to my first two babies. They were just medical procedures. But my last two deliveries were real. They were experiences I will cherish forever.

I want to thank all of you for your warm wishes and for all your support during my difficult pregnancy. It's amazing how blogging can brighten my day and make challenges in life a little bit easier because I have people to share them with. Thank you!!!

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About Baby Clothes

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

Who was wishing I would have a new baby to Talk About this week? ME!!!!!

My due date has come and gone so you are now welcome to start sending condolences. In the mean time I have absolutely nothing to talk about so instead I will show and tell what I have done so far to get ready for the baby.

I can't believe we are in the market for such tiny clothes again! Well, not so tiny considering I buy 3-6 month size for my newborns. Did I ever tell you the story from when I took my first baby out? An older lady asked me how old he was and I told her three weeks. She replied, "You mean three months honey?" Um, no. I think I know how old my baby is, "I mean three weeks." By the time he was four months old he weighed 20 pounds and we were enrolling him in preschool.

Last week I made Stranger take me to the mall so I could buy some baby clothes. Not that we really need them because Baby Noodle (apparently that's it's name now) could come home from the hospital wrapped in a baby blanket but I bought homecoming outfits for our other babies and I don't think we should start out neglecting this one right away. I would like to wait till it's older for it to feel like the unloved and unwanted fourth child.

I have been looking for outfits for months but everything I've seen in the stores has been hideously ugly. So one day before my due date I finally broke down and stepped inside a Gymboree store. It was a little scary because it was full of crazed sale shopping pregnant women. Maneuvering was difficult and not just because my belly was too big to fit between some of the isles. It was like a demolition stroller derby in there. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate crowds? My hatred of crowds exceeds my love of "The Deal" but I was too pregnant to turn back. I had to go home with baby clothes!

I was busy throwing things in the stroller as fast as I could (all at 30% off the sale prices lucky day) while Lovely followed the other mothers around telling them everything they wanted to know about our new baby and how it would soon make it's way into the world. See why I have to keep secrets from her?

Outside when Stranger asked me how much I had spent I told him he didn't want to know. He will get the pleasure of returning half of it after the baby gets here. That's his favorite part of shopping. If he gets the boy he's hoping for he will save even more money because I bought twice as many girl things as boy things. What can I say? Little girl clothes are irresistible!

Now all we need to do is buy a car seat, unpack and wash the baby clothes from the basement, find somewhere in the house for the baby to sleep, set up the crib, pack the hospital bag, clean the house and maybe start discussing what we'll be naming it but what's the rush?

If you want to be updated on my delivery you can follow my progress (or lack of it) in my sidebar or by visiting me at twitter.com/lazyorganizer.

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Talk About Shoes

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

For TAT this week, we are going to talk about shoes. You can say anything you want to about your shoes, which are your favorite, how many do you have, how many do you actually wear, how many are you going to get rid of now that you are blogging about them and showing them to the whole world, etc. I would also love to see photos of how you organize/UNorganize them as well.

Here are my unorganized shoes in my unfinished closet. This is what they normally look like. A bunch of black and brown shoes with one red pair thrown in for excitment. They cost anywhere from $5 to $150. With size 11 feet I can't be very choosey about the shoes I buy. This was pure torture when I was growing up but luckily these days more and more places are selling my size, especially online. I have one pair of dress boots, two pairs of running shoes, and a lot of flip flops and slip ons. I'm too lazy for anything else.

I used to be a take your shoes off at the door kind of gal but ever since we moved into this house with all wood floors that destroy my feet I wear shoes in the house. The kids of course still have to take their shoes off at the door because they can't be trusted. I would make them take their dirty feet off at the door if I could.

Do you like my cheap wire shelves that are about 20 years old? There are three shelves in the back for shoes I never wear and two shelves in the front. The shoes I wear every day get thrown on the floor.

There, all dusted and organized. I know there are some shoes in there that I could get rid of but I'm going to wait to do that. I've been pregnant and wearing the same comfortable shoes for so long that I don't know what to keep or throw out at this point of my life. My dream is to some day own some cute and colorful shoes. Some day when I'm not cheap and lazy. Oh, and finishing the closet would be nice too.

Now that you know all my deepest darkest shoe secrets let's hear yours!

P.S. I'm posting a give away for Organizing Bags tomorrow night so make sure you check back to enter.

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

The Cookie Police

Persistence and I are making cookies tonight. She mixed them up while I sat on the couch and then I scooped them onto the pans while I sat on the couch and now I'm writing about them while I sit on the couch.

Actually I have to get up to take the pans out of the oven because no one else in the family is smart enough to figure out when the cookies are done. You can't just set a timer for cookies because each pan cooks differently and they must be taken out at precisely the right moment to be a tiny bit crisp on the edges but slightly undercooked in the middle. If it's not done right then the entire pan is ruined and can be fed to the chickens, I mean children, as far as I'm concerned.

I had the perfect amount of cookie dough to symmetrically fill three big pans and one small pan and then Stranger messed everything up by eating two of the cookie dough balls on the small pan. He didn't even try to look sorry when I accused him, "You ate TWO cookies???"

"Yes, I did. How many are you going to eat?" he replied.

"Twelve!!!"

But at least I have the decency to wait until they are cooked before I eat an indecent amount of cookies!

The real problem here is that my family grosses me out because they eat raw dough. They'll eat bread dough, cookie dough, cake batter, anything. Don't tell me you do it because then I will have to be mad at you too. I used to tell my kids that they couldn't eat the raw cookie dough because they could get sick from the eggs. If we only had our own chickens then we could know for sure that they were healthy and then we could eat raw eggs and raw cookie dough. But then we got our own chickens and it still makes me queezy. It's not like I've never eaten raw cookie dough before but watching other people do it is too much for me.

I think my aversion to it started when I first saw Stranger's (now passed away) Grandmother eating raw hamburger meat out of the frying pan. That was when I knew I was going to have problems in this family. (Luckily Stranger doesn't eat raw meat, just the baked goods.) Things are fine as long as the kids and I are cooking because I'm the boss and I can tell them to keep their hands out of things until they are cooked. But then Stranger shows up and he and the kids start ... I can't even type it, it is so gross.

Well, it's late and the cookies are done. I haven't quite eaten twelve of them yet so I need to get to work.

TAT Winner and Theme for Next Week

The thing I really meant to write about tonight instead of cookies was Talk About Tuesday. We had so much fun talking about purses last week that next week we are going to talk about shoes. You can say anything you want to about your shoes, which are your favorite, how many do you have, how many do you actually wear, how many are you going to get rid of now that you are blogging about them and showing them to the whole world, etc. I would also love to see photos of how you organize/UNorganize them as well. I have a very complicated organizational system for my shoes. No not really. I'm actually very shoe-handicapped but I'll show them to you next week anyway.

BTW, did anyone notice that I forgot to pick a winner for last week's TAT? I just did!

The winner will be ... Christy from The Crafty Conservative. Congratulations! Send me your address and I will get your extra small Organizing Bag in the mail just as soon as I get to all the others I have promised and not sent yet. I'll do it, I will! Just give me a minute because I have to go to the store to buy some little envelopes to mail them and at the rate I am getting around it may take a while. Or maybe I don't need envelopes. Can't I just wrap them in brown paper and call it good? That sounds like a better plan.

Talk About Your Purse

Welcome to our first themed Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

This week we are talking about our purses. We want to hear all about yours, what works for you, what doesn't and we want photos. Pretty please! If you have something else you are dying to talk about instead of your purse we will forgive you.

Are you sure you're ready for this long post? This is how I organize my purse.

First of a