Good Bye Pink, Hello Pretty

Remember me mentioning our PINK counters and how everyone always complained about them.....

In hopes to speed up this selling process and catch a buyers eye, we had Custom Design With Connie PAINT our counters!!

Connie did an AMAZING job and it cost less than 500 dollars!!!  

If you are in the St. Louis area, and your counters need a little pick me up, definitely check her out!!

Bc I just cant find the words....

celebration!?

My big brother turns 30 on Friday!!

He's also moving to Seattle next month.....

He's on the cover of Men's Health! ha!   All the "articles" describe him pretty well!

I am excited about my brother's big move.... but super sad at the same time. He currently lives in KC and is 3.5 hours away... there is just something about moving halfway across the country that gets to me.   Maybe its the fact that we have to save, and plan, to go visit him... its not just a "Hey! We are going to come this weekend".... not that that really happened often either.... its just..... far.

I know he will love it in Seattle... Its definitely a place where I can just picture him and his wife. They are the type that love to get out, visit new resturants, and see everything that their city has to offer... They will have an amazing time in Seattle...   I am just being selfish and wish he was moving closer rather than further away.... hopefully someday down the road we will live in the same city again...

My brother also blogs... and wrote about this big move. You can read it HERE.   He is an awesome writer, and his post actually makes me feel like a big loser, with a boring life, who needs to stop living the life that every body expects.... except I like that part of my life... We are compelete opposites in some aspects...

Happy Birthday Brother! I love you!!

The down side to my career...

I had always heard that becoming an SOA actuary could be a bit depressing.   By selecting the SOA path, I am electing to work mainly for health and life insurance companies.    

My entire day deals with looking at claims.... surgeries, hospital stays, lab tests... you name it.   I look at statistics reguarding how often these things occur...how much they cost. Its mind blowing.

I once was looking at a claim reguarding a hospital stay.   The data showed the length of stay as zero.   Impossible I thought, so I asked about it.   The response I received was "It could just be an error, the claim was not filled out correctly.... or the person died while there that day." 

My heart sank.  

Today emails circulated about the news of the cost increase of the drug that prevents and stops preterm labor.   As an actuary we are responsible for figuring out how much this will effect our company.  

As a mother it breaks my heart.  

No parent deserves to see their child arrive too early to survive.   There should be no price tag on saving a child's life.... and saving a family from heartbreak.  

Stupid supply and demand....

A child is worth so much more.

I will be donating to the March of Dimes tomorrow.... Future babies need my money.

beyond randomness

If you havent noticed, I am having a hard time putting together very good blog posts. 

Maybe I am in a writting slump.

Maybe nothing exciting is going on in our lives.... totally untrue..... life is BUSIER THAN EVER!  Just nothing worth writting about.... yet. Maybe I just dont want to jinx anything.

A few random tidbits though....

Happy 2 years of Blogging!   Last week marked the 2 year anniversary of finding out about the creation of little Miss Leah, and the beginning of Growing with the Gilmores.     I think I will reminice each Mar. 6th .... I will remember it as the day my life headed in a new direction. The freak out when I saw the words "pregnant" appear, being on cloud 9 all day, and breaking the news to Brian.  It was probably one of my favorite days.

As a result, I admit I have baby fever right now!! I am NOT pregnant, but... I have been thinking. Next baby, I dont believe I want to find out the gender.   The excitement of that moment when your child is born and waiting to hear "Its a..." makes me giddy!!! I get butterflies in my stomach thinking about it, and Im not even expecting!! I just want to experience that moment! I want to let Brian walk out to the waiting room and spill the beans to the awaiting grandparents.   I cant wait!

Leah busted her lip open the other day.... she fell, and nearly bit thru her bottom lip at daycare.   I received a voicemail that said "Leah fell... blah blah blah... we think she might need to be looked at."  It was a little scary.... I mean, what do you mean it needs to be looked at? Do I take her to her Dr? To the ER? I actually went to visit a coworker before calling back, seeking "mommy advice".   After discussing a game plan, I called back, and they said it was looking alot better and she was OK... they got it to stop bleeding and she was acting fine after her popsicle.   She has a huge bump on her bottom lip, with some crazy white spot where its trying to heal..... its gross.... oh and today was picture day!

Leah can totally talk.... but she doesnt.   I supposably was the exact same way when I was younger.   I guess I passed that trait on to her.    We have heard her say ball, up,eyes, head, bye, juice, milk and more, among other things... but only says it selectively! Ugg... It would really help if she would use her words more often!!

Our house is still on the market.... 1 month and counting!   Someone please buy it!!   We found our DREAM  home... and we want to start building it!!! The location has changed... but it will allow us to save a little money.... our kids will go to Brian's alma mater.... its a little hard for me to accept, its my HS's rival... but for this house... OK.   The minute I saw the floor plan I just knew it was exactly what I always dreamed of.... then we saw it in person and OMG I could not ask for more!!  PERFECTION! ... and in our price range!

and now I am blank.... I guess that was as much as I could do. 

I want to do THAT!

You cant really tell from the picture... but our dining room table chairs are sort of ruinned.... they are really stained, and punctured by cat claws. (GRRRR!!) I dont know if its the fact that they are microfiber fabric or what... but they did not hold up well. They are only about 3.5 years old!

We were thinking we would have to buy new, non upholstered chairs in the future... but then I found this video on how to fix our problem!!!!!

I am so excited to do this!!! Part of me wants to find some really fun fabric to put on them! I am sure Brian will complain.... but I cant wait!

Now I just need to find time to do it............28 hours in the day would really help....

Another Proof

Me:  That's like another 9 thousand square feet!

 

Brian : 9 Thousand?!

 

Me: Yeah! Its 3 thousand, and the one we are looking at is 21 hundred.

 

Brian:  Kim, think about it! 9 Thousand!?

 

Me:  Ha! Ohhhhh 9 hundred!   People probably wonder if I even have a brain!

 

Another example of how I have a math degree and sometimes suck at it!

 

 

No Baby Here

There are no words necessary...

Guilt

I am having major working mom guilt this month.

Brian will be out of town for work from the 16th-23rd.   Over a weekend. 

I will be out of town for work the 22nd - 23rd.

We are both abandoning our baby for a night!   It breaks my heart! 

Then the following week I am out of town again for a exam seminar (Math Camp) from Wed to Sunday night.   

Another weekend together missed.

Since becoming a working mom, I truely cherish my weekends and free time to spend with my little family.   It breaks my heart to know that we will be missing out on 2 weekends together this month.  

My mom will probably watch her while we are both out. Brian plans to stay at his parents while I am out so that they can help watch Leah while he works late (Stupid Tax season!), and on Saturday morning (Again stupid tax season!).   But I cant help but to feel like we are being horrible parents... I know she will be taken care of.  Her grandparents will LOVE the time with her, and she LOVES being with them.  

But part of me cant help to think of myself as those awful parents in movies, who work too much, and are never around to get to know their kids.  That  often think work is more important than spending time with their families...  
I try to live by the motto of  "You work to live, not live to work."   but at the moment I feel like work is controlling our lives!

Stupid work responsibilities...