Train Watching

Before we moved into our house we did extensive research on what it would be like to live with a train running through our backyard. We even went to a similar neighborhood in North Salt Lake and knocked on people's doors to ask them what it was like to live there (when we bought our house the FrontRunner wasn't actually running yet). We got some great advice "There are two kinds of people, those who can live by a train and those who can't." We decided that we are the kind of people who can (totally an upgrade from living right next to I-15 and having constant noise) and - except for a brief moment in time about two months after moving in when I was up at 2:00 a.m. nursing Lydia and I thought "We've made a terrible mistake!" - we've fully enjoyed living here. 

Hello, not having neighbors in our backyard? TOTALLY worth it. 

Also, this: 

Our kids love watching the train go by. Caleb can hear it coming before anyone else (those two year olds seem more attuned to the train, they haven't been as desensitised and are genuinely more excited about it). Whenever he (or anyone else) hears the train coming, they all yell "TRAIN" and run to the window and watch the train go past. They love it.

And I love this view. My kids, in their pajamas, hopping out of my bed (where they've been snuggling together on a weekday morning) to watch the train go past. Life doesn't get much better than this.

A Tale of Two (well.. four...) Phones

So, about three years ago - August 2011 - David and I were vaguely thinking about changing cell phones when one of my great blogging friends, Rebecca, blogged about how she and her husband had recently switched to Virgin Mobile and that they loved it. Within just a few days, David and I did a bunch of research, crunched a bunch of numbers, and were walking out of Best Buy with two new cell phones in hand. It was one of the fastest decisions that we've ever made - but it's also been one of the best! We seriously love VM and have been really really happy with our service and cell phones. I mean, come on, these phones have lasted us for three years! (Which in cell phone years is like a whole decade.)

Our phones weren't the newest/best phones on the market when we bought them - but they were both touch screen with data, so definitely nice (and an upgrade from what we were using before). However, over the past three years they've definitely started feeling a little... old. It hasn't bothered us, in fact, it's kind of a pride thing that we have these old phones instead of iPhones or something similar. (Like, it's a mark of our frugalness or sensiblesness or something.) I mentioned that the phones had data, but that's stretching it a little bit. We lovingly referred to them as "semi-intelligent" phones instead of "smart" phones. The phones had access to data, but only had enough storage space for approximately 1.5 apps (David had Twitter and I had LDS Tools), and were only fast enough to access our email and an occasional website. No web surfing for us, but an occasional consult with PricematchwithRachel.com while at the grocery store was possible. When we hit our two year mark we started a little competition to see whose phone would last the longest. We both thought that if we could get to the six month mark, we'd be pretty happy.

After we reached that goal we had lofty goals of hitting the three year mark. Our phone charger cords started not working as well, taking a fairly vigorous effort each night to twist the cord and set the phone at just. the. right. angle. to ensure that the phone would actually charge through the night. We'd tease each other every time one of us accidentally dropped our phone, or was having an especially difficult time getting the charger to connect. I don't have the best track record with phones, and David's record is like... spotless - so I was determined to win even though the odds were not in my favor.

Can you see where this is going? This is the story of how my phone had a sleepover at the bottom of a damp pool bag and never turned on again - and how we both ended up with super awesome new phones.

I have to justify myself a little bit... because those who have known me in the past are sure to shake their heads and say "That Shantel, she's always been so careless with her phones. Losing them. Breaking them. Of course it would be her to lose the bet." But in all honesty, I've taken very good care of this phone, and most of the time when I "lose" my phone it's because I set it down and would rather just hang out with David than keep my phone by me. I've taken great pride in this phone and making sure that it was taken care of. However, last Saturday was an incredibly busy day - jam packed from start to finish. My mom had come down to go to the Parade of Homes, so we had done that in the morning/afternoon, then I met up with some high school friends, Tausha and Bekah, and we went to the Farm, then as soon as we got home we headed to the pool with my mom, again. I had my phone in my pool bag, and when we loaded up to come home (rushing a little bit because David was supposed to be home around that same time) I shook off a couple of our pool toys and tossed them into the bag. We said goodbye to my mom and I started getting dinner ready, with the intent to clean off the kitchen counter (including the pool bag). Then we had an unexpected (but welcome) surprise and Wendy and Sam showed up to see if they could store their leftover food from their date night in our fridge while they went up to RC Willey (the opposite direction from their house). We sat down and chatted with them for a while and as they were getting ready to leave Cal and Sue stopped by, so we sat down to chat with them. It was getting close to Lydia's bedtime so I made her a quick dinner and got her ready for bed. After we got Lydia down and said goodnight to Cal and Sue, I headed back into the kitchen to make our dinner (Sanpete Chicken and Piccadillies). I was fairly focused on making our yummy food that all thoughts of cleaning off the counter (pool bag included) were pushed out of my mind. Right as our dinner was finishing, Wendy and Sam showed back up with cookie dough and ice cream to play games (we had invited them over when they were here earlier). We set out some plates for our dinner, popped the cookies into the oven, and played our new favorite game "Golf". We had a really nice time hanging out with them - but after they left I was pretty ready for bed! (Remember, I am six months pregnant and I'd had a long day.) As I headed up to bed I wondered, for the first time that evening, where my phone had gotten to - but I just decided to find it in the morning.

Fast forward to the next morning when I came down and finally started cleaning off my counter. I dumped out the pool bag and was surprised to see my phone at the bottom. Nothing was really wet in the bag (more just moist...), but my surprise turned to dismay when I realized my phone wasn't turning on. I hoped that maybe the battery was just dead - but after a couple of days in a tupperware of rice I conceded my loss to David and we headed to Best Buy to get new phones for us.

*Note: we are leaving on our family vacation to Indiana on Friday - so we wanted to get our phones and make sure that they were working before we leave. Nothing like a little time crunch, right?*

We knew that we wanted to stay with Virgin Mobile, and we knew what kind of phone we thought we wanted after doing some research online. We just wanted to hold it and make sure that it was exactly what we wanted. It was kind of an adventure, because the AF store didn't have it in stock so we had to make the trek up to Sandy. But when we got there we realized that they only carried the phone we wanted in white. That was fine with me, because I was already planning to get white - but one of the reasons we liked the phone is because we thought that it would be so fun to have me have a white phone and David have a blue phone of the same phone (we've loved having the same phone for so many reasons, but thought it would be fun to have different colors). We figured that we'd just order David's online and hope it got here before we left for Indiana. So we got my phone and headed home to place an order for Davids. Unfortunately we realized that the reason Best Buy only carried these phones in white is because Virgin Mobile only carries them in white! David wasn't sure he wanted a white phone, so he decided to think about it and maybe just use his phone for a while longer. However, after a couple of days of seeing my pretty new phone, he was sold on the idea of getting a new phone. (It's a pretty loser reward for the winner of the bet to get stuck with the old phone, while the loser of the bet gets a brand new phone!) We checked in with all the Best Buy's locally and found that the closest store that had them in stock was Park City or Riverdale. (Apparently, it's a very popular phone.)  Poor David decided that he'd just order one in to the AF Best Buy and pick it up after we got home from our vacation.

I told David that I would take care of ordering it on the next morning. However, I knew that it would be so much more fun if he had his new phone to play with over our trip. So, I secretly planned to drive wherever I had to in order to buy one for him. Thursday morning was my glucose test (gag), so Lydia and I got up bright and early and headed to "mommy's doctor office". While I was waiting the hour between drinking my sugar syrup, I called Best Buy and determined that the closest store that had the phone in stock was Riverdale. I called up the store and was told that I couldn't actually buy it over the phone, I had to come in to purchase it. I explained my sob story, and that I would be driving from American Fork just to buy that phone and could they at least put my phone number on the box so if someone else bought it before I could get there that they could call and tell me to turn around????? After a brief pause and a couple of buttons being pushed in the background they asked me for my credit card number and information. Whoo hoo! Phone purchased, now all that was left was heading to pick it up. Riverdale is about an hour away from Lehi, but only about 25 minutes away from my parents house - so I called up my mom and asked her if she wanted to meet us for lunch. After my blood work was done, Lydia and I hopped in the car and headed out on our adventure. It was actually fairly painless. Lydia was content to be in the car, we made good time, and we were in and out of the best buy in 15 minutes (five of those minutes were me just following Lydia around the store in order to let her stretch her legs while I smiled my biggest smile at having David's phone in my hands). We met up with my mom for lunch, then headed back home to finish packing!

I'm a terrible secret keeper. I took a couple of pictures of Lydia with the phone, and her with my mom, and contemplated sending them to David while he was at work - to surprise him so he could be excited to come home. I thought that it would be fun to just send him one with Lydia and my mom and say "Had a great lunch date with my mom in Riverdale!" and let him make the connection that I had gone there to pick up his phone. But, I thought that it would be even more fun if he got home and the new phone was just sitting on the counter. I was so proud of myself, because on our way home he called me and I played it totally cool, saying that I had ordered the phone to the AF store and that we would just have to pick it up after we got home from Indiana. However, later in the day - he messaged again and said that he had looked again and that maybe there was a phone in the West Valley store and maybe we could cancel the AF order and go pick it up there so we'd have it. I broke and told him the good news (it's totally his fault - he spoiled his own surprise!). He was surprised and so excited and after he got home, we spent the evening playing with our new phones.

The moral of the story is that we both have awesome new phones to take on our trip, and already they are amazing. We are so excited, and it sort of makes up for the lameness of me losing the phone bet. We both ended up with the white LG Volt, and so far we love them!

(Yes, we have the same background picture, because we love it. 

**Update: We are home from our vacation now and can honestly say that we love, love, love these phones! They are so nice and exactly what we wanted. We knew that we didn't need anything incredibly fancy (like the Samsung Galaxy S3) - but we wanted something that would be really nice and functional. These phones have such a large screen, they are super fast, and we've been able to download some really neat Apps. David is pretty much in love with the "Google Keep" app that he has that is basically a note pad/to do list/organization app. I love how nice the camera is, and pretty much everything else about the phone. We feel pretty happy and are already hoping to go another 2-3 years on these phones! 

This just happened...

Every Friday I make pancakes for Lydia, Carson, and Elsie. Lydia has started enjoying her grasp of language and pancake is one of those words. She asks for pancakes fairly frequently. This morning, she said "pancake" then disappeared. I was busy doing some other things and a few minutes later I realized she was being very quiet, I called her name and turned to find this:

 

I can officially say that the pancake mix has found a new home on the third shelf - well out of the reach of inquisitive little hands. Watch the video, you won't regret it. She is so funny. 

Painting & Life

The other day, through a pretty roundabout way - I heard about someone who was talking about me and my blog. The way that they were speaking wasn't in a very positive way - and it was apparent that they had totally misinterpreted what I had written. I like to think that I am a positive person. I'm fairly flexible when obstacles crop up and always try to look for the good. I live a happy life and always try my best to share that happiness with others. 

I think that sometimes people interpret that happiness as being fake or unrealistic and so I try to temper things (like our blog) with "real life" as well as all of the happy things that are going on. But sometimes I forget that it's hard for people to read a blog and interpret correctly the attitude or voice behind the words. I hate the thought that people would read my blog and think that I was a negative person who complains about too many things. Not that I really care what people think of me, but I hate the thought that my children would someday read the things that I've written and not believe 100% that I loved my life and the joy that they brought to me. I want to be known as a good, kind, loving person who loved her life with all that she had - even through the tough times. I want to be known as the kind of person who may not have been perfect, but certainly tried her very hardest to love and serve those around her. I want my children to know that I loved them every minute of every day - even on the days when we were all tired and a little bit grumpy. I want them to know that I loved God and trusted in his timing, even when things weren't happening in the exact way that I wanted them to happen. I want to live my life so that if people were to say negative things about me - no one would believe them. Obviously, I'm not there yet... but I hope that someday I will be.

It's hard to balance the good and the not-so-good when trying to give an accurate picture of our life. I look back at our blog through the time when I was having an extremely emotional and painful miscarriage and I didn't say a word. It was too personal, and so I didn't share. Part of me wishes that I would have said something. Other times on our blog, I have shared some tough things that we are going through. Life can be hard - but I don't want to post all of the frustrating aspects of life for fear that they will overshadow all the good in my life. Frustrating things happen, but that doesn't mean that life isn't good. 

Because, our life is so good. 

I am grateful every day for the life that I have with my handsome husband and our sweet Lydia Elise. 

I'm grateful for our home, our jobs, our family, our religion. 

I'm grateful to know that the Lord has a plan, and even when the tempest is raging, I have the hope and faith that our Lord has the strength to help us overcome and calm the waves and comfort us in our sorrow.

I'm grateful for a blog where I can write out my thoughts, share our family memories, and keep in touch with family and friends. 

I have many things to be grateful for. And, with that being said - I hope that anyone who reads this blog (whether it be a friend now, or a child later) knows that the person who writes this blog is a happy and loving person, who is trying every day to be a happier and more loving person. I'm not going to try to hide away the un-polished aspects of our lives, but I'm also not going to be afraid to post about the beautiful and happy things that make up this thing called life. 

And, in the spirit of sharing what our life really looks like: 

This is Lydia's first experience with painting. She loved it. She tried to eat the paint a million times, and preferred to stick her fingers in the paint and play in the water with the paintbrush, but you could tell that she was having a good time. The event didn't last very long, maybe five or ten minutes, but it was fun and we both enjoyed it. 

About halfway through we switched our rinse cup from a glass one to a plastic one (she kept trying to knock it off her tray). She wouldn't stop eating the paint, and so I took the paint tray off her high chair and when I turned back around she was drinking the paint water. (After which I frantically found the paper that had come with the paint tray to make sure that it really was non-toxic.) 

And that is real life here. Some fun with paint - some drinking of the paint water.

That is just the way our happy life rolls. 

The Cloth Diaper Experiment

So, let me tell you a story. But first - just know that this is about diapers and baby poop and I'm going to be pretty detailed. So, for those of you who are faint-hearted or weak-stomached you should probably just click away now. For the rest of you, feel free to read on.

Before Lydia was even born (in fact, before I was even pregnant) I started doing a bunch of research into cloth diapering. My favorite blog personalities at Young House Love cloth diapered their little girl and love it. Plus, the more research I did - the more I found that cloth diapering is actually a fairly common practice and is completely different than it used to be. I figured that if I could do one more thing to help our budget to allow me to stay home with my babies - maybe I would try cloth diapering out. I talked with David about it and played around with it in my head for a while - but didn't act on anything because we didn't own a washer and dryer in our apartment. After Lydia was born we still went to David's parents house to do our laundry, and so there wasn't much action on my part to cloth diaper. I had enough poopy clothes that were sitting in a basket, I wasn't going to deal with poopy diapers.

I was still doing some research occasionally. You know... keeping the option open.  Reading an article here, or talking to a friend there. Turns out I have several friends that cloth diaper their little ones. One of my best friends, Ashley, was cloth diapering her Elsie-girl (same age as Lydia) and I talked to her about it frequently. One day she mentioned that her favorite diaper company, OhKaty, was having a closing-their-doors sale and all their diapers were 50% off. (FYI they ended up not going out of business.) I talked to David and we decided that even though we couldn't start immediately - it was something that we did want to try in the future and so we bought ourselves a stash of diapers. I was so excited and they were so pretty as they sat on the table in Lydia's nursery.

However, It wasn't until months later and we finally moved into our new house (with our beautiful brand new washer and drier) that we actually started using cloth diapers. I've had several people ask me why I started, what my routine is like, and what my thoughts are concerning cloth diapers. (Similar to this awesome post by my friend, Janette). Plus - I haven't really blogged about this aspect of our lives and it's been on my list of things to do.

And that is what this blog post is about.

Why?
Some people scoff at the idea of cloth diapers. But after doing my research and learning about the effect disposable diapers have on the environment, the way cloth diapers have changed, and especially the money that we could save using cloth diapers - I decided that it was definitely worth a shot. Besides... did you know that you are supposed to remove the solids from disposable diapers as well? So, seriously, cloth diapers are not that different. Honestly, our main motivation isn't environmental and it's not how cute the diapers are (many cloth-diapering parents will tout how darling the diapers are). Those are nice bonus features but for us it is strictly monetary. It will save us money - and so it's worth the effort.

I decided to go with the OhKaty diapers because A- Ashley is an amazing cloth diapering mom and she loved them, B-They are a pocket diaper and basically function exactly the same way as a regular diaper. All you have to do is put the inserts in place after they are washed and they are ready to go. I didn't want to have to deal with prefolds, plastic covers, or anything else that wasn't incredibly similar to a disposable diaper. C- They are pretty but don't have patterns. I like the plain colors. D- They were on sale. and E- They are one size diapers that snap down for babies and expand for toddlers. I didn't want to have to buy different diapers for different stages. We bought eleven diapers (enough for 2-3 days which is as long as you want to go before you wash them anyway) and paid $125. (Each diaper was $10.50 and shipping was $10.)

We knew going into this that it was just going to be an experiment. I thought that I might really love it, but I knew that it was possible that I wouldn't end up liking it. We calculated it out and figured that we just had to use them for 3-4 months to make up for the cost of purchasing them. And so after we moved into our new house: the experiment began.

Process
As I mentioned before, cloth diapers are very similar to disposable diapers. They are the same shape and it's the same idea. You lay it flat, lay your baby down with their bum in the center, bring the front up and snap the sides together. The only difference is that after you change the diaper you shake the solids off into the toilet and then put the diaper into a bin to be washed. Lydia goes through about 3-5 diapers a day. I found that I have to change her more often than I do with a disposable or else she leaks out, but knowing that each diaper change isn't costing me anything more than a wash cycle - it's no big deal. I think that parents (myself included) don't change diapers as much as they probably should so it's good to have the motivation to take two extra minutes to change her a couple of extra times to keep her fresh. Also, I should note - I don't put Lydia in cloth overnight. She sleeps for 11 hours and I hate the thought of her leaking out of her diaper during the night. I put her in a disposable at night time. (You can buy overnight cloth diapers, but I don't have any and am pretty happy just using a disposable at night.)

I don't use cloth diapers exclusively. I did for the first couple of months in order to make back our money. But now I feel like the diapers have paid for themselves and I mostly just use the diapers if I know that I'm going to be home for a couple of days in a row. It's very rare now for me to use them for a straight two weeks at a time. I use the cloth diapers to supplement my disposable diaper habits. Every time I do, I pat myself on the back and put a drop of awesome in my bucket for saving myself money and for doing something to help support my family.

Supplies
When we bought the diapers, we didn't buy any other supplies. I wasn't sure what we needed and so I decided to just wait and see exactly what we needed. For a while we just kept the soiled diapers in the sink of my laundry room - but that didn't last long before I told David that we needed a diaper pail. We bought the Diaper Champ and it's worked well for us. I like that you don't have to buy special bags for it and that it keeps all the odors inside. My old ward had a diaper champ in the mothers lounge and it must have been an older model because I couldn't find the exact same thing. I liked that one slightly better- but the one we bought works fine. You can buy wet bags for when you are out and about - but I just use plastic Walmart sacks. I stick the messy diaper in a bag, tie off the top, then when I get home I shake off the solids, put the diaper in the pail, and throw the bag away.  There are a bunch of different cloth diapering accessories that you can buy, but because our motivation for using cloth diapers is to save money - it doesn't make any sense to buy all of the extra accessories. $10 here and there add up and make the $$ difference between cloth and disposable smaller.  However, I recently discovered the ScrubADoozy and think that it's pretty nifty. I was able to snag one for free - and I just got it in the mail. I'm looking forward to trying it out and seeing if it helps with removing the solids. It seems super easy to install and I really think that it will help get the job done.

The one thing that I do wish we had was a diaper sprayer. It's like a little sink sprayer that you hook up to your toilet and you can spray the solids off so you don't have to touch them. When we first started CD - Lydia's solids weren't too bad. (Who knew that I wish I could go back to her baby poop?) They were fairly solid and didn't smell terrible and they shook off into the toilet easily - especially if I changed her diaper immediately after a bowel movement. However, we have reached a point where we solids are much messier. In fact, I've stopped using cloth diapers on a regular basis because if I'm going to continue - I really think that I need a diaper sprayer. We are to that point right now. I did read a comment from a fellow CD-er that mentioned using a peri-bottle instead and so I am going to try that this week - but otherwise I'm asking for a diaper sprayer for my birthday.

 Wash Routine
There are a hundred different specialty cloth diaper detergents out there that you can buy. However, we use tide. There are a lot of reasons - but again reason #1 is that we are doing cloth diapering because of the monetary savings.  I don't want to have to buy specialty soaps that may or may not be HE compatible and therefore even able to be used in our washer. This article (recommended to me by the wonderful Ashley Cooper) is my main justification: Cloth that Counts. It talks about how other detergents might not get the diapers clean enough (it's a common thought to just use less detergent to prevent buildup, or to use natural detergents that don't get the diapers as clean) and how Tide is recommended by lots of CDers.

I wash every 2-3 days. 3 days max - even if I haven't used all of my diapers. Usually I start her off in a cloth diaper on morning #1, use cloth all of day #2, start her out with cloth on morning #3 and wash sometime that day. It kind of depends on how many diapers I have left- because I try to wash them all at the same time. Sometimes I put her in her last clean cloth diaper during her first nap on morning #3, then wash the diapers while she is sleeping. Sometimes I have enough to last through day #3 and wash them that night. My wash cycle is as follows: pre-wash cold with detergent, wash hot with detergent, freshwater rinse, tumble dry low. My washer has a setting for a pre-wash so I can just start it and let it go. However, sometimes after the cold wash I decide to throw some other clothes into the washer so I'll just do a normal wash-cold-with detergent, then add whatever other items need washing, then do the wash hot-with detergent, followed by the freshwater rinse. Some people have a problem washing their clothes with poopy diapers, but honestly I don't worry about poop getting on clothes because it's a washer. It washes clothes. Besides, when Lydia was a baby there wasn't a single load of laundry that we did that didn't have some item of clothing with poop on it. It's no big deal. Plus, remember - we are talking about saving money here. If I can throw a couple of extra things in with my diapers so I don't have to do a separate laundry load - that saves money so I like it. The one thing to watch out for is to make sure that your clothes don't have anything on them (oils, finishes, or sheddy fabrics) that will damage your diapers. Once I washed a red curtain with my diapers and all the inserts came out with red fuzz on them. Not my brightest washing day. Oh well.

Another recommendation is to never wash your diapers with any fabric softener, bleach, or any other additive that might effect the absorbency of the diapers. Some people add in vinegar or other additives to assist in the washing process - but I never have. Cloth diapering needs to be simple for me or I'd just stop doing it.

Like I said above - I dry my diapers in the dryer. This kind of goes against my "save money at all costs" philosophy... but I don't have a great place to hang dry them. I might start laying them out on my counter to let them air dry, or maybe I'll finally follow through with the idea to string a drying line above my dryer to clip them to. But at this point I just don't.

Obstacles
I can say over and over how using cloth diapers isn't really any different than using disposables - but it's not completely true. We've had a few obstacles that have had me running to my disposables and begging them to take me back. I want to be clear - overall I'm definitely pro cloth diapering, but for the sake of being honest and upfront about all aspects... here are some of the cloth diapering obstacles we've faced:

Finding cheaper diapers: I've been very open about the fact that we use cloth to save money. Articles like this one at Awesome Beginnings, list out that the average cost of disposable diapers for ONE CHILD from birth to potty training is $2444.70. The average cost of cloth diapers for ONE FAMILY from birth to potty training is $566.00 and includes laundering. Those numbers seem staggering. Until you sit down and do the math for yourself and realize that most websites that calculate those numbers assuming that a 12-24 month old is still using 6-8 diapers a day. (Lydia uses about 4 disposable diapers on an average day including her night time diaper.) They also calculate those numbers using Huggies or Pampers - however, we've found that Target diapers are am.a.zing. They are super absorbent, much cuter than the disney branded diapers (why are we paying for mickey mouse to be on our diapers?), and SO much less expensive. A Pampesr size 3 diaper might cost you 40 cents per diaper, but a Target brand diaper (bought in bulk) will only run you about 15 cents each. That seriously cuts into the cost/savings of cloth diapers, especially when you consider how many other products the cloth diapering industry has that cost so much money. Liners, sprayers, bags, wipes, diaper creams, etc... Those amounts start to add up and the disposables start to look much more appealing. (Here's another article that mentions the giant list of things they bought with their cloth diapers and how after 4 months, disposables are winning the cost contest @$437 while cloth are $744. However, it points out that they won't have to spend any money again until she potty trains as opposed to disposables that you would have to continue to buy. We've only spent $125 on diapers, and have purchased no accessories so their $744 is a crazy number. It just goes to show how many accessories you can add on.) 

Awesome grandparents who give us diapers: I can't say that this an obstacle. Really it's a blessing from heaven above. But David's mom gets coupons for Huggies diapers (which we do love), and because she loves us so much (and she knows that we won't spend the money on Huggies diapers), she will occasionally drop us by a couple of packages of diapers. It's a huge blessing to us. But as far as cloth diapering goes, whenever we get a fresh supply of diapers my cloth diapering motivation goes out the window.

Leaking diapers: This is the biggest obstacle. I don't know if Lydia is a heavy wetter, or if the diapers just don't fit her as well as they could, or if I'm personally doing something wrong - but it's not uncommon for Lydia to leak out of her diaper. The solids stay safely contained, but her pee tends to soak through the diaper around the edges leaving her pants soggy as well. I started changing her cloth diaper much more frequently than before, and that certainly helped. But she still frequently leaks out a little before I can catch her to change her. It can get frustrating. I've read a lot of things and most of them point to the possibility that the diapers just aren't a good fit for her. They shouldn't leak like that. Most websites recommend trying a different brand of diaper to try and see if that fixes the problem. But I don't want to buy any more diapers. I just want the ones that I have to work. Recently I added a second insert (OhKaty diapers come with two inserts) and that seems to help - although it makes the diaper a little bit more bulky than I'd like. I keep hoping that maybe as Lydia gets a bit bigger they will fit her better and will stop the problem.

No diaper sprayer: I've already mentioned wanting a diaper sprayer. Shaking the solids into the toilet was no big deal for a while - but we are well into the toddler poop stage and it's much stickier (haha remember my warning at the top of the post? I'm sorry if that's TMI) and harder to shake. Most of the time a little bit of toilet paper is enough to scrape it off - but it's getting worse. If I don't get a diaper sprayer soon, I'll probably stop altogether. But the problem is that diaper sprayers cost money and I don't know if I want to invest any more money into something that I'm not 100% committed to. It's a catch-22.

Was the Experiment a success or a failure? 
Honestly, I don't know. We are still experimenting. Like I said above, I don't use cloth exclusively anymore. I like the idea that cloth diapering doesn't have to be all or nothing. I like that any time I use our cloth diapers, we save money. I also like that any time I want to use a disposable, I can. I still love the idea of using cloth diapers. In fact, I'm a little surprised at myself that I'm not 100% gung-ho about the whole idea. I really thought that I would be. But our little system works for us.

At one point we talked about being able to sell our cloth diapers if we decided that it wasn't going to work for us, but I think that no matter what we will keep them in our emergency supply. You never know when there will be a national diaper shortage, or won't be able to get to the store, or have some other emergency where cloth diapers would be nice to have.

I recently was asked by a friend if I liked cloth diapering and if I would recommend it. Even as I sit here now - I don't know if I have a straight answer. But if I had to say, I would say yes. I do like it and I would recommend it. There are hundreds of people out there who love cloth diapering and there are others who just don't like it. I think it's totally a personal thing. It's the same thing as living by a train (which we do). Some people can do it and some people can't. It doesn't bother us at all, but it wouldn't be manageable for someone else. I think that is very similar to cloth diapering. There are a ton of wonderful things about CD. It does save money. That is indisputable (especially if you are careful and don't get sucked into all of the accessories). It is better for the environment, better for the health of your baby, and better for your pocketbook. However, it does take an extra effort. Not a ton of extra effort, but it does take some effort.

I would recommend purchasing a diaper variety pack instead of jumping in both feet first like I did. I hate the idea of then owning some diapers that you don't use, but it's better than buying a whole bunch that you end up not liking - or missing out on a type/brand that you absolutely love.

In the end, I like where we are at. I like being able to use our CD occasionally but still using disposables when we are out and about and during the night. This post probably wasn't the most entertaining (and several times as I was writing I found myself hoping that if Lydia reads this when she grows up she doesn't hate me for posting the details of her bowel movements online - but rather she gets a glimpse of just how much I love her) but the post wasn't written to be entertaining - it was written so I will be able to remember and so that I can refer my friends to this post when they ask me about cloth diapering.

Here are a few of the resources that I've found useful on my cloth diapering experiment. If you are interested... check them out!

My friend Janette - she is so much more eloquent than I am: http://mikeandjanette.blogspot.com/2013/05/cloth-diapering-part-1.html

http://www.abbyslane.com/Cloth-101_ep_42-1.html
http://awesomebeginnings4children.com/cloth-vs-disposable-diapers-cost/
http://www.modernalternativemama.com/blog/2012/10/26/5-myths-about-cloth-diapers/#
http://www.mint.com/blog/saving/cloth-diapers-vs-disposables-the-4-month-mark-062012/
http://www.ohkaty.com/
http://www.whyclothdiaper.com/2011/05/23/cloth-vs-disposables-health-benefits/

My cousin just started cloth diapering and when I told her how I got my diapers for 50% off - I expected her to be enthusiastic about my "great deal" of diapers for $10 each. But then she told me that she got hers for around $5 each from a company in Roy. The website is http://www.getbacktobasics.net/Cloth-Diapers_c_7.html and they have lots of different diaper options. If I buy more diapers. It will be from here.

Happy Diapering!

My Browser.

Random fact of the day?

I like to use the tabs in my internet browser. I like to be able to access lots of websites quickly, and if I see anything that I think might be worth reading/looking at - I always Right Click > Open in New Tab. If I really like it, I'll leave the tab up for a couple of days so that I can show David, or remember to tell Ashley, or so I can come back and read it more thoroughly when I have time. 

David always teases me for having so many tabs up. He is a 3 tabs max kinda guy. In fact, here is a screen shot of his browser (which, by the way is Firefox - whereas, I almost always use Chrome). ESPN, Email, and Mint. Perfectly describes him.

But using tabs? It's just the way my brain works. (Sometimes I feel like that is how I categorize my real life as well, lots of thoughts all neatly stacked across my brain that I can flip through at a moments notice.) Right now, I have 15 tabs open. If I were to go through and do a "tab cleanup", I could probably get it down to six. My two e-mails, Facebook, a "blogging basics" Pinterest page that I'm methodically going through, an article about being a mother that I really love, and this blogger page. Not so many, right? (Let's not talk about the entirely separate browser with 9 tabs all about large dry erase calendar boards - It doesn't really count because it's research for a purchase we are going to make.) 

However, the other day - I was opening all sorts of tabs as I was looking for something and when I finally looked up, I laughed out loud. 

I couldn't even see partial titles on my tabs anymore because I had opened so many of them. I showed David and he laughed out loud as well. 

In reality, it's not just tabs. My computer at the same time looked like this: 

 12 different windows open. I'm a busy girl.

While we are on this random subject of tabs, I thought that it would be fun to mention that I almost always have four tabs open. And always in the same order. All other tabs come and go. Sometimes they squeeze in between, sometimes they are added on to the end. But my four main tabs are: Facebook, my personal gmail account, my Red Ladder Design account, our The Peaden Life blog. Sometimes Pinterest is added to the end, but it's not an "always" tab. Other tabs that could be open on any given day: our coupon email account, blogger draft page, Red Ladder Design website, The Peaden Kitchen, random Pinterest pages/original link pages, news articles to read or to show to David.

What about you? Are you a tab-pro like me or more tab-averse? What are your favorite tabs to keep up? Do you have a specific order that they are always in? 

Cassie's Bridal Shower

My sweet friend Cassie is getting married! I'm so happy for her. So, so, so happy for her. I posted about Cassie and Colin coming over for dinner and games a couple of months ago, and they got engaged pretty soon after that. 

When David and I got married, Cass did so much. She threw me a Bridal Shower, helped with wedding preparations, even put together our entire guest sign-in book. So I knew that I wanted to return the favor by throwing her a Bridal Shower. 

This is the only picture of just Cassie and I on our "Facebook: See Friendship", I know that it's not the only one of us, but even though this one is old... I just love it a lot! This is the facebook caption: "Cass and I at the Library at an extremely unreasonable time of night, just taking a quick break from studying!" Oh, the long, long hours of studying that we put in at the good ole Merrill-Cazier. (That is the library at Utah State, just in case you are wondering.) I'm pretty sure that this picture was taken one night when we were studying for our Chemistry class that we were lucky enough to have together. Our professor was Chinese and didn't speak awesome English, and so we spent a LOT of time working on the coursework for that class. 

I digress, I knew that I wanted to throw a bridal shower for Cassie. We chatted about a date and I put together some invitations. I sent them out, and pretty soon the big day arrived. 

After much deliberation (consisting of several chats with my friend Ashley, many discussions with David, and at least two phone calls to my mom), I decided that instead of doing a traditional "chicken salad sandwich/fruit/veggies" luncheon, I would simplify and do a Yogurt Bar. It ended up being really cute, really fun, and really easy. I would definitely do it again! Here are some pictures: 

The pictures above include the Yogurt Bar, thank-you treat station, "true love" banner (that I made using directions from this website after being referred there by a lady in my new ward), and a "he-said/she-said" game. The pictures below are of the little gift that I gave to Cassie, a picture of our cute family room in all of it's bridal-shower glory,  and the cute balloons on the front of our house.

Here I am, ready for the party to start. I wore this brown shirt as a tribute to Cassie. She let me borrow this shirt for my very first date with David. It was kind of a big deal, because I had two "first date" shirts that I always wore when I was going on a first date. However, when I was getting ready for our first date, neither of those shirts was working for me. Cassie was super kind and let me raid her closet and helped me come up with this shirt. Apparently the shirt worked! At the bridal shower that Cassie threw for me, she gave me that shirt as part of her gift. I love it and only wear it for very special occasions. 

The party was really fun. I had a few really cute games, and the girls were good about it. Prior to the shower, I was able to meet up with Colin and I video-taped him answering several questions about himself and Cassie. It all turned out really cute and I'm really happy with it all.

As we were eating, someone asked me about Red Ladder Design and how we came up with the name. I mentioned that we had wanted something really graphic (we take a red ladder along with us to our bridal fairs), that it worked with the "steps" of design, and that it was kind of a tribute to David's Ladder Theory. During his time at USU, David and his roommates came up with this whole theory of dating and called it the Ladder Theory. Pretty much anyone who went to Utah State around the same time as us has heard of it. It is complete with graphic illustration and lots and lots of details about relationships. It gives advice for what to do and what not to do. Anyway, I just kind of mentioned it but then several of the girls really wanted to hear the whole thing and so I was able to convince David to come and do an impromptu presentation of his Ladder Theory. The girls loved it! David did such a great job. I was so impressed that he was able to talk about it like it was yesterday that it was such a big part of his life. He was able to discuss the Men's Ladder and the Women's Ladder, The Jump, The Leap, The Pearl of Great Price, and the Pit of Despair without missing a beat. It was the condensed version, so he left out the glue, the elevator, and lots of other little details but the presentation was flawless! I helped out at the end by discussing the morals. I think that it was a really fun thing. In fact, if you are hosting a bridal shower anytime soon - let me know. I'll rent him out for an hourly price. He's a great guest speaker!  

After the impromptu dating lesson - It was time for Cassie to open her presents. She got a lot of nice things that will hopefully help her out as she starts her new life with Colin. 

I'm so glad that I was able to throw this shower, and even though it was a little stressful with just moving into a new house. It was really fun and I really am so happy for my Miss. Cassie and her soon-to-be husband Colin.