Top Ten Things I Hope 2013 Brings

1)  The prerequisite health, happiness, friendship yada yada yada that everyone wishes for.

2)  A visit with my good friend Michela who left to go back to Italy right after Thanksgiving.  You can read about all the fun we had here  and  here.  I really miss her and can't wait to get to (hopefully) see her in May.  We have big plans to celebrate Destructo's second birthday, go to the Renaissance festival, and in general have a great time. I am hoping we can also convince our other friend Sung to come into town for a visit and the awesome threesome can be back together again.

Kentucky Derby last year

3)  The creative spectacle of Kai's second birthday.  We are going with a Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood theme since he keeps requesting that and it is his baby addiction right now.  The problem is that the show has only been out since September and thus I can't just walk up in the party store and buy plates and balloons since no merchandise it out yet.  But not to worry between my Martha Stewart creative genius mother and my new work bestie who I found out today freaking sews Renaissance festival dresses (who does that?  I am so jealous,) I am sure I can pull it off.

4)  My sister Dayna hopefully having a baby.  She has had three miscarriages so far and I am really hoping she will get her sticky baby this year.  You can read more about her story here.

5)  To pay off all our medical bills and hopefully my vehicle.  It will be nice to be much more debt free than we are now.

6)  To run an entire 5K. I mentioned that I have started the couch to 5K program in October of last year.  I am hoping that effort pays off and I am able to run an entire 5K and my ultimate goal is to run one in under 10 minutes/mile.  We shall see if that happens.

7)  To have a much better organized house that actually utilizes all it's space instead of having rooms that no one can walk in.  This was another of my resolutions this year.

8)  A Triple Crown winner.  I mean come on we haven't had one since 1978 when Affirmed swept the Triple Crown.  I deserve to see one in my lifetime.  Here is a Wikipedia link in case you don't know anything about the Triple Crown.  Learn something new every day.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Triple_Crown_of_Thoroughbred_Racing

9)  Destructo to get to play in snow.  It doesn't snow much down in the South, but occasionally it does.  I really hope we get a few inch snow so Kai can play to his hearts content.

I will even take this amount of snow haha

10)  Horse back riding.  I lost my beautiful, Arabian mare Ellie nearly four years ago.  I miss her daily and I really miss horse back riding.  I hope between my two friends that have horses to find time to ride more regularly now that Destructo is older and semi weaned.  There is nothing like loping through a field on horse back to cure a bad day.

Linked up at:
Ten Things Tuesday
Wisdom Wednesday

Goals 3-5

I am going to group my last three goals since two of the three won't be interesting enough to warrant a full blog post.

3)  Read my Bible daily.  I started this in the last three months of 2012 and have done better, but not great.  I started a Bible study with a wonderfully awesome lady at work and I have learned so much from her.  What is funny is that while I was doing this a few nights back, I opened my Bible up randomly and happened upon this:

Hebrews 12:1  Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

What a perfect verse for me to stumble upon on a day that for whatever reason I had a particularly bad jogging session and was achy and sore.  I hope to discover more truths like this.  I want to raise Destructo to be a good and Godly man and learning more about the truths of the Bible will help me do just that.

4)  Get back into being a couponing queen.  Before Destructo was ever conceived, I was a couponing queen.  Okay I was never as good as the ladies on television but a part of that was that I refuse to become a hoarder and buy 82 rolls of paper towels when I only have room for 30.  But I had a well stocked pantry and occasionally even had to buy a dog toy because I had so many coupons that my groceries ended up being in the negative amounts after coupons.  I kept up with it just at Publix for one year and I had saved nearly 2500 dollars with coupons.

I know that I will probably never get that good again, at least not while I am working full time as a toddler.  But I hope to get back into it on a small scale so that once I am a stay at home mom, I can really save some money that way.

Here are my favorite blogs for couponing:
http://www.southernsavers.com/

http://www.iheartpublix.com/
http://moneysavingmom.com/

5)  Work on improving my blog.
As you guys have probably noticed, I have a new look.  It isn't finished yet either so stay tuned.  I will also "introduce" you guys to the lovely lady who is responsible for this awesomeness once she is finished.  But other than look wise, I hope to start a blog hop about mommy fails/ realistic parenting etc at some point in 2013 and also not focus solely on  Destructo.  But also start blogging about me and my goals etc.  I figure you guys "know" Destructo, now you can get to know the mommy behind Destructo a bit more as well.  It will also let me remember who I am since that can so often get lost in the craziness of raising children.

And who wouldn't want to get to know this person better?

 Linked up at:
Better Mom Monday
Women Helping Women 

Sprout Change Training Pants Review

Sprout Change trainer

Inside of the trainer

I was sent a pair of Sprout Change training pants from The Willow Store to review.  I have to say I really like these trainers.  They are made with organic cotton and hemp and are very soft on the inside.  The outer is PLU.  They are also adjustable to fit your child from 20-50 lbs which I didn't realize at first and was like geez the fit of these is horrible.  Yeah I can also attest to the awesome customer service when they explained just how to adjust them.  Now they fit very well even on my very tall and skinny little man.  You can even adjust these while the child is wearing them!

This is the little snap on the side that I missed.  You unsnap it and can get to the elastic to adjust the trainer.

Destructo has regressed and isn't showing any interest in potty training now.  But when he wore these and would pee in them he felt wet more so than in his normal diapers because he would run to the potty and want to sit on it every single time he wore these.  I also never had a single leak with these even though we are basically using them like a diaper so I know once he is actually potty training, I will feel comfortable using these while we are out and about.

I think he will easily be able to pull these up and down by himself, but could not get him to demonstrate this for me.  So you will just have to take my word for it.  Destructo is a stubborn one as you all know.  I do like that these have snaps in case of poop accidents.  I hated having to have kids step out of dirty underwear more than anything when I worked in daycare because it always  made such a mess everywhere.

These trainers come in a number of color choices and also have the organic option (which is what I reviewed) and the stay dry option.  I highly recommend you try them out if you are looking for a good reusable training pant option.

Yeah he was refusing to model the diaper and just wanted treats 

Disclosure:  I was given a pair of the Sprout Change training pants for free to review and keep.  I was not paid to review them and all opinions are honest and my own.    See my full disclosure policy tab for more information.