Let's Get Organized!

Picture me dancing around to Olivia Newton-John as I type this: "Let's get organized! Organized! Let's get organized! Let's go get organized."  Here's hoping someone else get's that reference!

 

Life with 1-year old twins is chaotic, to say the very least.  Most days, I'm lucky to make it to the office with my shirt on the right way (though not always smushed-banana or peanut butter free).  By the time we make it home after work and picking up the kids from the sitter, it's nearly 6:00pm and I'm frantically scrambling for something to throw together for dinner.  While we're on that topic, by the way, do any other toddler parents suffer from the we-can't-keep-food-in-the-house plague?  Pre-kids I religiously clipped coupons and categorized them, scoped out the best deals, and made some pretty decent dinners.  Grocery shopping these days includes rushing  through Meijer with Brooke (she's the most patient) while Brad keeps tabs on Aiden.  Needless to say, because of this fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants shopping style, most nights include some form of processed chicken, peanut butter and jelly rollups, or *GASP* frozen pizza.  "Mom of the Year" award I will NOT win!

 

In order to bring some BIT of organization to our lives, I am going to attempt meal planning.  Enter Ziplist! I'll admit it, I found this website on Google, but I'm officially obsessed.  Ziplist contains literally THOUSANDS of recipes - seriously - I was even typing in restaurant recipes to see what would pop up (Outback Steakhouse Alice Springs Chicken, you get in my belly!).  You can save recipes and create your shopping list based on recipe ingredients.  There's even a feature that allows you to create meal plans for each day of the week.

 

Brad and I have committed to sitting down together every few weeks and planning out our menus for the upcoming 2 weeks.  I think it will be a great tool for controlling the chaos, sticking to a budget, and adding some variety to our meals (seriously, one can eat so many chicken nuggets!).

So here's our "checklist" if you will:

1. Decide what sounds good. Browse recipes
2. Plan meals and snacks for each day at least two weeks in advance
3. Create a shopping list based on recipe ingredients
4. Search stores (also on ZipList) to find best deals

 

Check it out for yourself: http://www.ziplist.com - let me know how it works for you! I'd love to know your tips for organizing your life; feel free to share what works for your family!

 

 

Third Time's A Charm

My name is Jaymie and I have commitment issues.  I tried to tell you that in my last post some 9 or so months ago, so if you're back for more, you've got no one to blame but yourself.

 

Ultimately, I think the problem is that I'm scared.  Scared I won't be funny enough.  Scared my life isn't interesting enough.  Scared I'm not creative enough for blogging.  Deep down, I know none of these are true.  Why do  I want to blog?  Ultimately, I'd like a living, breathing, yearbook, of sorts, for our family.  Something we can look back at together and see what was happening in our lives throughout time.  Let's be honest, I'm not artsy enough for scrapbooking - so this could be my outlet.

 

I don't promise to update this everyday.  Heck, I don't even promise to update it once a week.  But I will update it, I can now promise you that.  You don't have to look at it if you don't want to; I will update this for us - for Brad, Jaymie, Brooke and Aiden.  If you're interested, I welcome you into our world - every chaotic bit!

I'm Back With A Vengence!

Alright, my peeps, I'm back. And what I mean by "my peeps" is the nine of you that actually look at this blog; or looked at it waayyyy back in the summer of 2011 when I made the promise to update this blog on a regular basis. HA! Suckers!! So, why did I give it up?

Well, I wouldn't say I really gave it up. I TRIED to tell you I had commitment issues, but nooooo, the nine of you kept reading! I blame it all on these two:

That's right. WE HAD BABIES! I mean, obviously, I didn't just pop them up in the Summer of 2011, thus ceasing all blog operations.  For those of you that follow my obsessive Facebooking (seriously, I have a heroin-like addiction to Facebook. It's deep and it's real!), these two cuties joined our family on July 9, 2012. 

So, why the long hiatus?  Well, getting pregnant wasn't exactly all wham-bam-thank-you-maam for the Huncklers (how's THAT for a visual!). The very Huncky Husband (you like that? ;-) ) knew before we got married that we wanted to start trying for a family as soon as we got married. Being as that we both come from VERY large Catholic families we never thought getting pregnant would be an issue. AU CONTRAIRE MY FRIENDS.  I think I alluded to this in a previous post (alright, like one of 4 previous posts), so I won't go into all the details; but what it all boils down to is that we decided to give a round of Invitro Fertilization a try. Just call us Bill and Giuliana (extra credit if you know who these two are) at the end of Summer 2011 hoping and praying that we might get pregnant with a future little Hunckler. If any of you have actually gone through the IVF process, you realize it's a mighty uncomfortable and mighty stressful process. We were blessed for IVF to work for us the first go around. Not only did it work, but it worked DOUBLE - we found out right around Thanksgiving 2011 that we were expecting TWINS.  HOLY MAMA! I'll go more into the whole process in a future post.

Flash forward nine months to this summer. On July 9, 2012 we welcomed Brooke Jean and Aiden Paul to our little zoo (seriously, two adults, two babies, two dogs and a cat).  We couldn't be more in love with these little blessings (not that they are that little anymore - they are growing like weeds!). They have changed our lives in ways we never imagined.  I for one, never thought that I would not be totally grossed out by another human puking in my hair; nor did I ever think that I would just wipe it out and carry on because after said puker FINALLY fell asleep I was too exhausted to shower.  I never knew I could love my husband more than I already do, but watching him love on his son (who is a little CLONE of his daddy) or tickle his daughter melts my heart into a little puddle of love everytime I see it.

Ok, I'm done with the cutesy stuff.  I know this post was a whirlwind, but give me a little credit - at least it was a post! Here's a truth - I know I will NEVER lack for subject material to post about; so stay tuned folks - it only gets better from here!  And now, cue the gratuitous baby shot. :-)

Here Comes The Bride

We found out some news tonight and whenever I get emotional, instead of outwardly expressing it, my best outlet is to write about it.

One of our favorite couple friends are pregnant (not mentioning names because I'm not sure if they've told everyone yet). First of all, let me say that we are INSANELY excited for them! Brad and I love, love, love these friends and this is a couple that will be extraordinary parents!! We were hoping to get pregnant at the same time in order to have a co-ed, keg baby shower (hehehe....WE wouldn't be drinking the beer, of course!!).

Having said that, when you're struggling with infertility, it's difficult to hear about other couples getting pregnant. And don't get me started on Teen Mom! UGH - it's a trainwreck and I CAN'T.STOP.WATCHING. We'll have a family - we both know it. All in due time, right? It's just hard to remember that when you're in the midst of struggling with infertility/waiting to adopt.

So, hubs and I were feverishly cleaning the house tonight when we received this call. And by feverishly cleaning I mean shoving things in closests and in our bedroom so our out-of-town guests won't see it this weekend. :-) While we were tackling the guest bedroom we came across my wedding gown *sigh*. We keep meaning to have a "trash the dress" photo session, but since funds don't allow for that right now, I haven't tried my wedding gown since our wedding day. Who would - that's crazy right? Welllll......I was obviously feeling a little down, then a little nostalgic...so I tried it on. I mean, come on, EVERY girl gets nostalgic when she's sees her wedding gown, right? hehehe..FORTUNATELY, it still fit...a little better than even on our wedding day. INSTANT DAY BRIGHTENER!! YAY!

Thank goodness I have such a fantastic husband who doesn't mind that his wife is a mild lunatic!

And she fell down the rabbit hole....

I will preface this post by emphatically stating that I cannot BELIEVE what I am about to write, nor can I believe that you, my dedicated nine followers, WILL HAVE TO READ THIS! Sadly, or more pathetically really, it is 100% true: I.FELL.IN.A.SEWER.

Yep, that actually happened. In my own front yard; and if you know me, you're laughing hysterically right now and shaking your head, because you know that doesn't happen to anyone else. Except Jaymie Hunckler.

Let me back up a bit and those of you who don't know my long, clumsy life story, letting you know that "accident prone" doesn't necessarily apply to me. A more apt description of me might be "disastrously efficient" (and yes, I did just make up the word disastrously, and by the way, is it grammatically correct to use quotations and parentheses together? One never would've known I was a journalism major in college). I tend to take clumsiness and twist and mold it into a confusing mass of "What the heck just happened?!" Seriously - walls jump out at me, floors jump up. When I was a kid, I could often be found wandering around the house with a fresh new bruise quite regularly, unaware of the event causing said bruising, baffling my mom and dad. "That bruise just came there!" was my most frequent excuse for a new injury. As I got older, the clumsiness got worse...

Let's do a little timeline, shall we?

Summer 1991: Three weeks before school started, I was on a summer camp field trip. I didn't QUITE manage to jump up high enough to reach the monkey bars (hey, it was on a FITNESS trail - those bad boys were taller than the monkey bars on the playground). What would you do if you were falling - put your hands out to brace yourself, right? That's what I did. In doing so, I managed to snap the bones in not one, but both, my wrists This, however, worked in my favor. I was the most popular girl in the 4th grade for a month with a neon green and hot pink casts. Oh yea - that happened.

(Creepy note: During this fall, I broke the growth plates in said wrists. As a result, my wrists are the same size they were when I was 9. Weird, huh?)

Spring 2001: Warning: don't screw with sorority girls playing powderpuff football. You're likely to lose an eye. Or hair. Competition runs deep in my veins. Simply put: I don't like to lose. So, after a month of practicing (I SO hope this tradition has continued at Ball State), I was ready to kick some sorority butt. Three plays into our first game of the day, I dislocated the ring finger on my right hand. I didn't even notice it had happened until I looked down and saw my ring finger where my pinky finger should be. I puked. Seriously. It happened. Luckily, one of my sorority sisters was a athletic training major and popped that finger right back in place. Ever the glutton for punishment, I had it taped up and went back into the game. Genius, I know. Two plays later, wouldn't you know I ripped every tendon off the ring finger on my right hand! THAT.SERIOUSLY.HAPPENED. To to this day, you can still see the screws holding my finger bones together as a result of the subsequent surgery that occured later that week (I want it noted, that despite having two broken fingers, I played the rest of the day and we finished as tournament runners' up).

The surgeon, a prominent surgeon in Indianapolis laughed so hard he almost cried when he saw my predicament. This is a surgeon that deals with some professional athletes in Indiana every day, and here I am, this 19 year old college girl that broke THE SAME FINGER ON EACH HAND PLAYING POWDERPUFF FOOTBALL. I'm not sure I'll ever live that one down. Definitely not in the surgeon's mind - he remembered me five years later when my little sister went to him for a basketball injury (a more credible inury, as she's actually GOOD at sports).

The list goes on. I once flew off the back of a moving treadmill and broke my big toe. At our first softball game of the season several years back, I took a line drive right to the shin in the first play of the game. Season over. From then on, I was referred to simply as "injured reserve". I can't win.

So, how does all this equate to falling in a sewer? My job affords me the opportunity to work from home every once in awhile, so, it being a slower season in our industry, I took advantage of that perk a few days ago. After several hours working diligently (really, boss!), I thought it might be a nice idea to take the dogs (you'll meet them soon) for a little walk. There we were, minding our own business, walking across the front yard when I took a step onto one of those giant, heavy sewer covers. Who would ever think those things wouldn't be bolted down! Before I had time to even yelp, that bad boy gave way, and DOWN I WENT.

Holy balls, that hurt! Had my right foot not been planted firmly on the ground, I would've ended five feet under ground in a NNNASSTTYYY sewer! As it is, my left leg was down to the thigh! If I had seen this happen to someone else, I probably would've laughed my headoff (does anyone else have that problem - you laugh when someone gets hurt? It's TERRIBLE!), but all I knew that I was waist deep, left leg, in a sewer....BLECH! It took about five seconds to register that had happened before I felt some crazy pain in my left leg. "Great," I thought. "I'm stuck in a sewer with a broken leg. What the heck do I do now???"

Well, I pulled myself out. Leg not broken, but I have a nasty bruise that runs from foot to shin now. Four days later, it still hurts!!!

There's no real moral to this story. I just thought you might get a bit of humor knowing I fell in a sewer.

*Ten bonus points if you can name the title reference*

Home Sweet Home

Casa De Hunckler (at closing)

We're super busy over here at Casa De Hunckler. As we prepare to begin the adoption process, we want to make sure that our house is in tip-top shape for upcoming home studies and welcoming home a future little one.

Brad and I are what you like to call a little bit...hmmm...out our minds, perhaps? Impulsive? Crazy? All of the above? You see, in the summer of 2009, we thought it would be a brilliant idea to plan a wedding, buy a house, and, oh yea, have Brad quit his job to start a 100% commision financial practice. Genius? I think not!

We weren't really even in the market to buy a home. We had a sweet little rental in a great part of Garfield Park in Indianapolis. But, like he always does, Brad went along with my plan to "just take a look" at a reposessed home I found online. Picture two 20-somethings driving up to a vacant house at 10:00 at night, peering in windows with our headlights on and flashlights beaming. Yea, I can't believe the neighbors didn't call the cops either! This was a Thursday night. On Friday afternoon, we officially toured the house and by Monday morning, it was ours!!! We LOVE LOVE LOVE our home! We've been working SO hard since July 2009 to make it our own, despite the pepto bismal pink bathroom (yes, folks, from floor to ceiling pink! YUCK!).

This past weekend, my super (or glutten for punishment...hehehe) in-laws came to help us start building a privacy fence. Hilarity did ensue! Stay tuned to that post!!!

Blogging: Part 2 and a BIG update!!!

Alright, so let's be completely honest here: I totally FAILED this "blog" thing. That's completely amazing to me, because I read no less than 7 blogs on a daily basis!!! So, my super-duper wonderful loving husband has convinced me to give this blog another go-around.

This could be a terrible time to "commit" (notice I use that term very loosely - I think I have blog commitment issues!!) as I'm the great big beautiful state of Texas, Dallas to be exact for a week of work-related training. So, here we go!!!! Again!!!

I want to continue this post with some very BIG news, news which will probably be the core focus of this blog going forward. A lot of our friends, and our whole family, know that Brad and I have struggled with infertility over the past year and a half or so. Yup, we started trying for an itty bitty Hunckler pretty much from the day we said our "I Do's". This has been an uphill battle, as both Brad and I struggle from some moderate fertility related issues. I'll get into those in another post - that's a whole story of it's own! Last week, we came to a major life decision. You see, very few insurance companies, ours included, cover any part of infertility treatment. Infertility treatment in and of itself is very touch and go. After some soul searching and much thought and consideration, we have made this decision: WE ARE GOING TO ADOPT!

I say that with a TON of excitement. We are so excited to start on this new journey! Adoption is a subject we discussed prior to ever knowing we had fertility issues in the first place, so it's actually not a "last resort" or anything. Both of us have close friends and family members have gone through this same process, so we will continue to look to them for guidance through this. Now, we are at the VERY beginning of the adoption process, a process that could take upwards of a year or more. But that's ok - it gives us plenty of time to prepare our homes and our hearts for a new little bundle of joy that will make our family that much more complete!!!

Stay tuned for updates - I PROMISE that there will be more!